thoughts on enclosures

Projects General Guidance
1

Coming towards the end of my first Arduino project and thoughts are turning to enclosures.

The main issue I have is how to mount and protect the 1.3 in oled screen which I am using as a display

screen

I also have an RFID reader..... RFID

The device will be used outdoors so needs to provide a reasonable degree of protection but not necessarily completely waterproof.

For the screen the only thing I can think of is to screw it to the underside of a project enclosure box that has a plastic lid like this one ....enclosure

but is there a better way? for example is it possible to buy a clear cover for the oled from somewhere and mount that in the lid of a none clear enclosure?

I think the scanner will be ok mounted underneath the lid of any sort of box

I would also need some LEDs and switches on the outside of the box and preferably Id like to be able to connect USB without taking the box apart.

Do people use bulkhead USB connectors to connect to the Arduino inside a box?

Lastly what sort of connectors and cables should I use to go from the prototype board with my Arduino on it to the various peripheral boards - mostly running SPI

Lots of questions I know but any experience or guidance would be greatly appreciated before I start buying things that wont work well.

Thanks

2

Is your OLED display bright enough to be readable in direct sunlight? Now is the time to check if you don't already know. You may need to incorporate some kind of sun shade into the design, or possibly switch to a reflective LCD display.

For power and data inter-board connects I'm using 2mm banana plugs like these
Not cheap, not polarised, but way more reliable than any other miniature connector I've tried.
Being able to connect or disconnect one pin at a time is a big advantage when troubleshooting prototype systems.

3

Its not hugely visible in bright light but it will be good enough