The 2011 power jack is inside the case and the barrel is held in by the case. I’m concerned though about the power cord rubbing/wearing against the metal case as their is no grommet. Is this a fair concern?
I’ll be able to pull it where I use POE, but I’m cautious to use it elsewhere for now.
bad design!
recently I bought 100 for CPE, was an unpleasant surprise see this.
Rubbing power cord is nearly impossible unless router sits in very shaky environment. And even then it would take a LOT of time to rub through to reach bare wire.
Can the same logic be applied to a 120/240v power breaker panel? We use bushings/grommets on that. I realize 24vdc isn’t dangerous for electrocution, but if the RB were under papers or something flamable and the power cord were compromised at this point it could cause safety and reliability issues. I can forsee the power cord getting damaged by a tug on the power cord pulling the wire against the metal, or by opening/closing the case even once causing a weakening of the insulation. The insulation will get more brittle with time and temperature.
I’d prefer a normal and accessible board-mounted power barrel connector. If you want to make sure it doesn’t come unplugged put a spot for a ziptie to go on the back for strain relief fastening of the power cable.
The present design also locks MT into requiring a specific wall-wart; something with a slightly differently shaped molded connector is going to require a new RB design.
Sergejs took photos of my suggested solution at the AU MUM.
It uses a normal external barrel conector, with a slot in the mwtal casing on each side. A small plastic retainer then slides over the cord and locks in to the slots in the casing holding the power plug in securely.
Mikrotik could use this on all RouterBoards with external PSU’s…
This is my suggested solution
if the power supply is broken, we must disarm router to change it? the connection with the LCD display makes the work harder!
you should seriously consider a redesign.
No, open the case and unplug it.
That’s a nice little adapter that would be better than the present choice.
My idea for the ziptie thing based based on something like
http://www.juniper.net/techpubs/software/junos-es/junos-es92/junos-es-jseries-hardware-guide/connecting-power.html
http://jason.philbrook.us/~jp/mis/20121205_132731.jpg
shows the cable after removing it from the new rb2011. It’s shiny because I wiped any dust off with my greasy fingers. It’s slightly abraded brand new; you can see the paint has worn off the striped conductor where it goes through the case slot. I intend to only use these with POE (such as toughswitch or DLI) unless this is changed.
is easier said than done, you need a screwdriver, desire and time.
Change the power supply in this router consumes much more time than any other… and you need a tool also.
Now seriously: it is not practical at all!
Even greater fun when the customer rips open the lid with brute force and pulls off the tiny delicate LCD ribbon cable off the LCD. I think the PSU lead is not a good design. I know the business reasoning “make this as cheap as possible, it’s a CPE” and “stop the customer from accidentally pulling out the plug by accident” and that then leads to less support calls from idiots who need to plug it back in again.. but, this is not the solution to push the wire through a tight slot in the metal. (In my opinion of course!) There are better ways of doing this that would only push the price up a few cents. One of these would have been much better for a start. http://www.francescoceccarelli.eu/La_Pavoni/Foto/Ricambi/27%20passacavo/27%20passacavo.JPG
Routerboard RB450 and RB450G has two power sockets. One internal and one external. Why on all RB2011 we don’t have such? Is that 10cent additional cost is hard to solder into RB2011 board?
because is a good ideea 
Thank you all for suggestions. In future, we will have something along these lines:
Hi Normis
So, to clarify, the black circle on the right is the actual physical DC socket mounted on the outside chassis itself or a hole in the chassis through to the inside DC socket on the PCB inside?
Also, the metal clips stamped out of the casing are there to wrap the cable around to reduce the risk of the pulling forces, pulling out the DC cable jack from the DC Socket?
cool news. tnx.
Subj was my biggest concern about original enclosure[aside tickness/strenght of metall and absence(w/o WM kit) W/M holes and funny/weird red color in front]
maybe, before serious board/case re-design something palliative/temprally changed ? for example, making big rounded hole around power cord - allow customers plug-in/plug-out cable w/o opening case and/or replace faulty PSU with functional.
or even simpler - replace single-piece power-cord with [using similar cable]adapter with connector outside, similar to which 2011 had inside. so at least in case of [mecanicallybroken cable, because interaction w/case - customer just replace adapter. but that worser wariant, IMO.
Normis. That is an improvement but the metal fingers will still eventually wear through the cord.
The clip like I have suggested has no possibility of this happening and it holds the plug in securely.
It also simplifies your die design and can be used across multiple product lines easily. You could even easily add it to RB75x with only minor tooling changes.
I still cant understand the design of rb2011
why power jack should be inside the box?
Deleted because not related.
or simply make hole little bigger, rounded and put short rubber/plastic[elastic]tube over cable here and fix it with[non-permanent/solid]glue/compound.
