I’m working on a 3D-printed outdoor enclosure for an L23UGSR and would appreciate suggestions, especially regarding thermal design and weather sealing. Its incorporated with other stuff (reason for a custom print).
I’m assuming that the built-in heatsink is thermally bonded to the primary heat-generating components, so it should be exposed to the outside for proper heat dissipation. However, I’m struggling with how to maintain a weatherproof seal in that scenario. If the heatsink had a flange or lip, I could clamp a gasket around it, but its current shape makes sealing tricky.
I’ve considered:
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Mounting the board directly to the enclosure wall, so the heatsink protrudes. I could press a weather seal (rubber gasket or similar) against the heatsink perimeter, perhaps with some non-permanent sealant. Epoxy would work but makes future servicing difficult. Unfortunately, the shape of the heatsink makes a clean seal challenging and I doubt long term weather tightness (unless epoxied).
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Keeping the entire board internal and mounting a secondary heatsink to the enclosure wall along with an internal fan to improve heat transfer. But this setup would likely be less efficient thermally and add complexity and take more space I don’t have.
If anyone has experience with weatherproof DIY enclosures for MikroTik boards—or has worked around this sort of heatsink sealing issue—I’d love to hear your ideas. There may be some glaring obvious way to do this. Thanks.