Yet another mini-Rack 3d Printed

[mmiller1br]

Homelab Mini-Rack 3D Printed

#homelab #minirack #3dprinter #network

Introduction:

This is a remix of one of the many 10" mini rack projects available. Actually this is my version 2 🚀️ , once the V1 was not robust enough to have handles, and I wasn't happy with that version. This is the 3rd or 4th generation, as it is a remix of a remis of another remix ...

My target was to create a rack to organize all my stuf, using real network rack nuts and rack studs. That is the reason to use square holes.

I printed all gray components used on the frame with PETG, and almost all the panels and the handle using black PLA. For the side panels, I decided to use acrylic sheets, leftover from my 3d printer enclosure.

To print all these parts, i used my tiny Bambu A1 mini. Using some imagination and super glue, I was able print everything. Because most of pieces are larger than my 3D printer heatbed, i had 2 options 2:

• easy: try to print in diagonal (rails, for example)

• not so easy: use the Bambu Studio feature “CUT”, with option “Dovetail”. With this option you can split your piece in 2 parts, print them, and then use superglue to assembly them.

Rack Construction:

Some differences from the original design i had to create:

• larger : this rack is 10inches considering the internal part, not the external of the rack. I had to extend the original design to accommodate my Aruba 8p Switch.

• new holes : as I said, I was planning to use real rack mount cage nuts and/or rackstuds (actually I'm using both), and I changed the original circular holes to square holes. But only the internal ones where the devices will be attached.

• new handle: to be easier to print using my A1 mini, without cuts.

• new front panels: 1 for 10p x RJ45 and a 2nd one to install 2 x Intel NUCs using only 1 RU

With the new STL files, I started printing the rails - 8 in total.

Then I printed the foot (2) and the top (also 2).

Next I printed 6 side panels.

This was enough to assembly the 2 sides of my rack: left and right. Check the picture with both sides before installing all devices.

Next I printed the 2 handles and mounted them.

Finally, I moved the front and back panels from my old rack to the new rack: ethernet cables, blank panel, Intel NUCs, etc.

And last but not least, I cut 4 pieces of acrylic (2 x RU each) and install them as side panels.

And for the cherry on the top, LED Strips ... why not, heh ?! 😄

Part List

What I have installed in this rack, so far, bottom to top:

patch panel with 10 ports
Aruba switch 8p
4 rack units where I have: Opengear, Raspberry Pi Server, Synalogy NAS
panel with 2 Intel NUC Servers
blanck panel (it's gonna have a environment monitor on this panel, soon)
patch panel with 10 ports
Behind the rack (not shown in the pictures), attached to the rail, there is a power monitor. This is a simple Wifi power monitor that is connected to the UPS where all devices are connected to. This power monitor is connected to my HomeAssistant where I can have data and graph about my Homelab power consumption. ❤️

And, if you want to have access to the 3D files (STL), here are the links:

Printables here
Makerworld here

Rack Inside:

what is running inside:

a proxmox cluster with 3 nodes
raspberry server with docker containers: PiHole, IOT Stack, Grafana, Netdata, etc
8p Giga switch
console terminal (opengear)
Synology NAS
Pfsense virtual with VPN to my Oracle OCI instance
etc

To-do ### Improvements:
Because it's a live project, it's always open to new add-ons. For example:

• router is still not here: it's physically in another room

• top of the rack: still missing something to close it (lid).

• FAN: not sure if a fan to push hot air from inside the rack to the top, or to the back of the rack

• temperature/humidity display

[mmiller1br]

Some ADD-ONs to my miniRack ...

details: https://github.com/mmiller1br/mm_projects/tree/main/proj11_environment_monitor

Network Rack Environment Monitor

This is a ESP32 board with Temperature and Humidity sensor, and a OLED display to show info from my miniRack.
As it also has SNMP support, I can have this information on dashboards using my Network Management tool (LibreNMS), as well as on my HomeAssistant, with information in real-time and historical graphs.

Here is a demo how it works:

Hot Air Exhaustion

I decided to use a 12V RGB fan on the top of my miniRack to push all the hot air from my rack from to top.
In my case, it's better than blowing the hot air to the back of the rack, or to one of the side panels.
This is the diagram to illustrate: