Case Mod - In Progress NZXT Lexa -Experimental Modyssey - June 5 - new CCFL, lighting question

Cool! Thanks for the pic, that's much clearer! Ingenuous! I need to get myself a vise (along with a drill press!... and bunch of other tools!) I have a question about the flat piece that's along the alum angle. It looks like it's screwed in, but I don't think that's right, maybe there's just holes? Isn't that where you run the work you want to flatten against the sand paper?

Yeah, my log is moving kinda quickly. It's about to slow down a good bit. As I mentioned in the first post, I really should be studying! Instead, i've been devoting most of my free time to this, both working on the mod, updating, and reading other logs, and doing research into tools and materials... Time to focus on taking that cert test. Still, I'll probably not be able to leave it completely alone, and will put up a few ideas and progress reports as time goes on. It's the problem with being me... I get insanely into things to the detriment of the rest of my life!

PS- I just noticed this is post #101 in the log! Woohoo! (and 6 pages, but I write a lot!)

 

Situation update... expect delays!

So the test I hinted at in the first post, and the studying I've been neglecting have finally become a bigger pressure. I won't be able to do much more work on this for the next couple weeks, as I've scheduled the test for the day before thanksgiving. However, it's gonna be hard to stay disciplined and away from bit-tech and my project, so you might see my name up there responding to posts, and asking modding questions (like I did with the above circuit question.) On the good side, I just finished a practice test and only missed one out of 45, so I'm treating myself to a bit of modding, and updating! However, I'll be trying to cram as many facts as possible into my ill-used brain, so won't be able to spend a lot of time/energy modding.

Sorry to disappoint all my loyal and supportive readers (OK, just the boy from OZ! ) BTW, what's up with the sparse comments? 5000+ views, 6 pages, and only a small double handful of reader responses? What gives? Please, let me benefit from your experience and imagination! (or just say hi!, keep it up, good luck, etc.) I 'd like to know what you guys think of all this effort I've been putting in. I know it's not a groundbreaking tech revolution, or perfect craftmanship, but you're reading it, so there must be something you can let me know about it!

No pics at this moment, but I'll leave you with a bit of an update:

I'm still working out the wiring/electronics. There's definitely a lot more to do with this, beyond just wiring things up. I still want to get a nice circuit made to control the lights flashing.
I've made some changes to the plexi plans, and done some cutting. The drive bay bottom sheet has been chopped into 2 pieces, one for the Optical drives, and the other for the HDD cage. I've cut the top sheet of the drive bay/psu cover. These are just rough cuts for fit. There are still some notches and other holes to cut out to make space for rivets, wires, and the front fascia clips (not to mention that I'm toying with the idea of cutting more off the drive cage to allow the plexi to get put in easily, as well as run some wires....

I'm thinking of frosting the plexi on both sides to make it hard/impossible to see the psu and the rats nest of wiring up there. Plus I think that would give it a good glow. Not having a sandblaster, I'm just going to try to sand it. The frost spraypaint I've heard about doesn't sound that exciting to me. I recall reading a suggestion somewhere that good frosting can be done by sanding both sides, to give a more irregular sanded look.

I still need to figure out how I'm going to mount all these pieces in an attractive manner. Friction fit was fine when there were big pieces, but I'm gonna have to glue and screw at least at a few points. Plus I'm trying to think of upgradeability & repair down the line, so these should be removable without a huge pain.

I've also made some cool LED mounts out of layered plexi. I really like the spot light effect of the UV LEDs I have, so I plan on mounting these at various places around the case to point at different UV areas. In my fantasies, I've got these LEDS hooked up to a variable circuit so I can cycle through the LEDs at different speeds, or turn them all on or off. That second CCFL is definitely crapped out, and I haven't gone further with testing it desleeved, but for now I'm figuring on staying with the one working tube, and using the leds I have.

I still have to figure out where I'm gonna put the rotary switches from the diodebuses I've made, as well as the 6 indicator leds that go with each of them.

I've also thought about replacing the stock window and fan grill on the side panel with my own creation.

Oh yeah, and I've been toying with the idea of repainting..... ouch...

So lots of stuff to do, lots of ideas rattling around in my brain, and only this thing called willpower preventing me from doing it!

*edit* - I forgot to mention, Cheapskate, I started making a sanding jig with some wood and bolts. Thanks for the idea and the pic. Right now I'm just waiting for the glue on my nuts to dry (insert dirty joke here). It'd be easier if I had a vice, but I'll make do.
Also, making this a little harder, I ordered some essential modding supplies from performance pcs... which should be coming soon... I'm gonna have to try to not open that box when it gets here, a week before the test!

 

I'm at my laziest when it comes to the painting stage, so I know how you're feeling when the thoughts of repaint starts floating haha. Piktars please... xD

 

Wow that was quick acey! I just finished editting it!

lol, yeah, I'm only thinking about painting it when I have nothing else to do... and thinking about it makes me feel lazy and unmotivated as I recall the past experience! However, I think I've learned from that, and would do a better job (when it's warmer and sunnier!) I noticed yesterday when I was test fitting the HD and CD back in that the paint has made the quick release rails not function so well. and other sections of the painted area that will be visible... well, lets just say I'm not happy with them. (There's still time and material for me to make cover plates out of the remaining green plex! woohoo! )

No exciting pics up for now. You don't really want to see pics of rough cut plex in their plain brown wrapper, do you? I'll use that as a break plan and take some, and upload them. I know it can be hard to imagine what I'm talking about without the pics... but I think it'll look pretty cool.

Anyone have any links to cool projects that used (and described) their plexi frosting? I saw the ice pearl mod, which was hand sanded, but I know I've read at least one other on here that did a sweet job of it.

 

piktars!

Since Acey asked, and I was feeling good after the practice test, here's a couple pics for you to get the idea. (oops, just realized they're all a little smaller than I like to post... 600x480)
Word of warning, these are all rough cuts, and need to have more work done on them to fit for real

Pieces cut, on the workbench:


Bottom layer of drive bay cage cover:

Note that the central area will also have plexi covering up the metal. Here's where I'm planning on putting the terminal strip. The bottom layer of the HDD cage is way too big, but I'm not cutting it to size until I can square off at least 2 edges with my new sanding jig. Once I know where the edges will be, I can cut out the notches for the rivets, mounting screws, etc.

Close up with top layer over the HDD cover:

This is sized a bit more accurately. I plan on getting the edges flush. I really like the edge strip view, so I've been thinking of replacing the white opaque bottom layer with some of the UV green, then covering that with some thicker 'smoke' so as to have the stripe of uv light, plus a subdued glow through the smoke. But if I do that, then it won't match the top, and I'm not buying a big sheet of smoke for the top!


With the shroud cover on:


I like the top shroud cover. The bottom 1 inch of the HDD side will be bent 90 degrees to serve as a cover for the terminal strip area. There's a lot of lip on that piece right now, which I will be trimming back to conform to the curves of the mobo area separator. I was planning on hiding the top CCFL behind that lip, but since it died, I'm thinking I'll just make it even.

One big problem, which is hard to see in these pics, is that the top piece of the CD drive area has an important metal lip that sticks out to the case side level almost, and is where the top cover gets riveted on. (just noticed it's in the second pic up from the bottom!) I'm toying with chopping it off. Without that connection (since I removed the support bar) the cd drive area is really floppy (not an intended really nerdy joke), and I wouldn't have a solid connection to the top. However, I would be able to slide the cover down the various lips and into the proper area.
Still another problem comes from the wanna be curve over the term strip... I wouldn't be able to slide it down once bent... So my imagination is taking a bit of a beating from reality.
Alternate ideas for supporting the drive cage sides include an interior rod cut to drive bay size and mounted internally (to the cage sides, above the CD, if that makes sense.)
I may not connect the top piece at this point, and just rivet the front and back. Alternately, I might cut and tap some plexi to that dimension, and just screw the top into that.
I'm also thinking that along the back, between the rear case fan, and the bottom of the psu, I'd put a strip of plexi to serve 2 purposes: 1) as a support for the 2 pieces of plexi, and 2) to embed a couple LED spotlights.

That's all I got for ya for today... pics to come of the plexi spotlights.

 

LEDs holders

Short update, with lots of pics... just as you like it! Note that these are unfinished, and as all the mods are here... experimental!

This is the most recent (and my current favorite):



And some others:









And some nightshots:






Sorry for the glare in the pics, it's hard to photograph.

 

You have done a lot in the week I have been on (a well deserved) holiday. Light modules looking great, keep it up.

 

hi!, keep it up, good luck, etc

See, I'm reading too! This is nice and I'm really watching what you do with the LEDs.

John

 

Thanks guys!
Lol @ john... thanks for letting me know you're watching!

The LED trials are going well. I'm just not sure what the final effect I want will be. I like seeing the layers, but that uv green sandwiched by the opaque white gives a nice side glow. I still like the smoke-green-clear-green-smoke the best, but I'm not using smoke else in the mod, so it sticks out too much, imho. I think small pieces are better than the larger one, and I like the effect given by drilling through the top part to allow the LED to shine straight through, with just enough glow coming off the sides.

What do you guys think, any favorites?

I was just re-reading Josh's (xpsomethingsomethingsomething) Modularis Evolution log re plexi, and liked how he used the holesaw to cut some of his circles. I'm thinking I might do that with the one small hole saw I have, and then cut the circles into halves and quarters to use as LED mounts too. mmm curvy goodness.

I was realizing that the window on the side panel means that most of the plexi shroud work will not be visible....

 

kinda a double post


What's up with the specks between the layers here? Is this bad glue job, or dirt, or what?

 

Looks like air bubbles.

 

Yeah looks like bubbles from the gluing phase.

 

Somewhere, some time ago, I remember seeing LEDs actually used as little spotlights. I'm thinking it was The Doom III mod. I would love to have UV spotlights to highlight things inside a case.
Anybody else remember LED spotlights and how to make them work? The focus pointing part would seem to me to be difficult.

I like the work on these. Plexi and LEDs is like movie and popcorn!
John

 

You can actually buy those LED spotlights, Flexiglow make them.
Tripple Pack:
http://www.flexiglowhk.com/products/LazerLED.htm
Single Pack:
http://www.flexiglowhk.com/products/SingleLED.htm

Yes Paul made his own LED floodlights for the Doom3 mod.
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1&page=2

 

Thanks for the links! I almost NEVER go to thebestcasescenario. Thos people intimidate me. Way beyond my abilities. I like Bit-Tech because I can make mistakes and peeps help me out. I saw the Doom III mod in a MaximumPC special. I go look for it.

Sorry if this seems like a threadjack.

John

 

That's funny, I thought the same thing about Bit-Tech before I signed up lol.

 

Another passed practice test...

Wow, thanks for all the responses!

Thanks for the tip, I'll try and glue better next time. I forget at the moment if this was one of the edge glued or face glued ones. I'm not sure how deep the capillary glueing (edge) gluing will go, but that is definitely the easier method.

Ditto!

Thanks! I love LED and Plexi effects as well. Under glow, translucent strip lighting, etc. One of the first Mods I saw that got me interested in doing something like this was the Wolverine HTPC, all out of cool plexi. I don't think I've seen that doom3 mod before. These are just simple fixed focus, but I took a quick peek at TB40's links, and those look cool. Those are definitely focusable. I'd seen LED 'cannons' before online, which looked similar but not clear. I don't think they were focusable.
As to making my own however (I'm all about that!) I'm thinking that it would be cool to cut a series of alternating color disks (UV Green and smoke, or something dark) and form a cylinder of the pieces. It might be possible to set a lens from an old mini-maglite I have around somewhere, into one of the disks and configure some sort of rotational threading or pushpull type thing to allow for focus. For now I'll stick with fixed focus, that threading and rotational action seems too much for my current skill set or tool kit!

The small one above actually has a nice spotlight going for it due to the hole in the end. What I like about this one is it's almost unobtrusive size. I'm thinking I can glue this to the vertical face of the shroud (or the horizontal top) and drill through the shroud, and just have a little glow, and a nice circle of UV light opposite.

Future mods (yes, there will be more) will have plenty of plexi, but I may stray from the UV if this gets to be too much for my eyes.

No threadjack as far as I'm concerned! It's relevant, interesting, and I was just begging for comments! Can't tell you all to shut up now, can I?

hmm, somehow didn't get your previous link post in my multiquote... but thanks for that one too!

You know, that's exactly how I felt about bit-tech when thinking about starting a project log. "Who wants to see my fumbling and uneven edges, when you can see coolness personified?"(modified?) But the users I've seen/read are all cool, helpful, and not many of the 'dissing' kind of responses you might expect online. I haven't checked out the bestcasescenario site in depth, but it really is amazing to me to see so many modders worldwide and the various ideas and creations they have, here on bit-tech, and other modding sites.

 

Found the spotlights, I have!
They be here. Scary pro mod. Be warned.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1&page=2

John

 

Just checked out the Doom3 spotlights you linked to. Those are pretty dope! John, if you didn't care about having them be made out of plex, that seems ideal. You could easily get some threaded rod cut to size & maybe inside plexi disks like the washers cheapskate made along with the blocks, run an LED inside, and attach a lens to a bolt on the end, and screw it to desired focal point... (or something like that!) If I had a tap/die set of a suitable size, I'd try to thread the end part of my fantasy stacked disc cylinder, and tap the final disk, which would have the glued lens...

I like the 2pin connecter used as LED connector... slick, but I'd probably just solder to save my connectors for other use!

 

That's what TB40 was linking to earlier! Yes that's pretty pro looking... I didn't look at the rest of the log, just those lights from the link.