Case Mod - In Progress Battlestar Galactica Mod: Complete!

That wasn't so hard, was it?

/Frido

 

Ok, finally another update! I know it's not as frequent as I promised before, but at least it hasn't been
2 months like last time! Anyways, I'm slowly making progress on this blast door, creeping ever closer to
a fully functional system.

I wanted to show you how I made the pivot point for the smaller spool. Here is a shot of the piece I added
above the spool that has a screw in the center. It's just a small piece of 1/8" aluminum riveted in place and tapped.


Here's a shot from below looking up.


A shot from below, with the spool disconnected from the pivot screw. I removed the threads off end of the
screw so it wouldn't screw into the top of the spool. You can also see that huge factory-made hole to the left
which was why I had to add that extra piece of aluminum over it.


And here's the top view of the spool showing the center hole where the screw sits. To remove the spool,
I simply unscrew the set screw and lift it out.


Ok, so with the smaller spool in place I added the clear film. Got this sheet from my local drafting
supply store. It's 5mils thick.


Taped one end to the blast door, and the other I wrapped around the small spool. Sorry for the pics,
but it is quite difficult to photograph things that are completely transparent!


This shows the blast door open with the acetate stretching across the window opening.


I opened the door a bit wider so you could see the extra pieces I added on the left for the door to glide on.


Next, I got the limit switches mounted. They "limit" the movement of the door by cutting power to the servos
once the door reaches a set position. This one will stop the door after it has closed fully.


And this one will stop the door once it has opened fully. I extended the leading edge of the door with some
styrene, which will serve to trip the limit switches.


Now all that's left is mounting the controller board, and a bit of wiring and it will be ready to rock. Video is definitely
forthcoming, hopefully by this weekend if all goes well.

8)

 

Can't wait to see a vid of this all working. Fantastic work mate, keep it up.

 

awesome, as always

 

Another superb update (even if small).

Where's my movie dammit! [/rant]

 

You see told you i'll have to wait...Damn...
well at least it's worth the wait
realy cant wait to the video you mantioned...
keep up the remarkble work!!!

 

Slight delay on getting that video of the blast door. Ran into some issues and couldn't get the two servos to play nice together no matter how I wired them.
So I am looking into a USB controller that I can program via a windows interface. Hopefully then I will be able to program the sequence and adjust the speeds more accurately.

So while I am waiting on that, I decided to focus my attention on another part of the case, more specifically, the other side panel behind the motherboard tray.
This is a welcome change of pace, as I was getting totally bogged down and frustrated. Now I get to actually make some progress!

I thought I had more pics than this, but I dont. So it will have to suffice for now. Call it a teaser shot lol!

I made up a cardboard template for the other side panel's opening, so I could place the 10" LCD screen along with
the larger BSG lettering I had cut way back when I did the small lettering for the front. (thanks again to Moddersmart.com)


I got something special planned for the lettering, but you'll have to wait to see what that is.

 

I'm not sure why you aren't going for steel cable such as guitar cable re-inforced doors, with single servo per door operation, which eliminates buckling & all syncronization issues & no clear film required. So that when the door is open, the case is actually open, no flexible window there. Is it because maybe you'd have to make the doors again? It's not possible to attach the cable to the top & bottom of the existing doors? You know, since you have four spools & servos hooked up, you could make twin opening single servo driven doors per side Sorry for being a total pita about it btw, just trying to help That's what happens when you make a mod this good, you get people like me bugging you over it

I can't imagine what you have planned for the lettering, you always amaze us with your ideas!

 

Well, if this doesn't work with the new controller, I'll be trying out your cable idea! Its just that I don't have much room for cables on the inside that would be required with the use of pulleys.

And please, by all means keep posting other ideas! Just because I say I'm doing it one way, doesn't mean it will actually work! lol Then I will have a multitude of options to try if/when my original plan falls completely to pieces. That's the beauty of these forums.

 

You mention having to use pulleys for the cable but what i'm thinking of doesn't need any pulleys. The doors are driven by the one spool only, and the cable is simply lining the top & bottom edges of the doors. The only purpose the cable serves is to make the doors a little less flexible - still flexible enough to easily wrap around the spools, but not flexible enough to kink.

Fitting this isn't simple i guess, you'd probably end up having to make new doors to get this cable fitted along the centre of the door edges, and if you were going to remake the doors, then you could probably just make them using slightly thicker plastic so it won't buckle, eliminating the need for cables!

Another reason to re-make the doors is so that you have twin-doors on each side, so the current 4 servo & spools, are each opening and closing one door each, and all four of these doors would be about half the length. Maybe this isn't what you want, but i think having 4 doors instead of 2 would look very cool! and you've already made 4 spool & servo mechanisms.... it's a sign!

And maybe the ends of the doors could have a full length "finger joint" style of mating area, say 1 or 2mm, so that when the doors are closed there is a bit of overlap. This is as good as clearance, making it easier to align the posistion of the switches that tell the servos to stop. I'm probably talking too much now, so i think i'll just get back to work now

 

I like mvagusta's ideas, they are completely different to everyone elses lol

It's good work bod, I'd almost forgotten about the 10" on the side, that should be looking great when it's done As for that lettering, I feel some sort of back lighting coming on I really do.

 

Might the letters be background-lighted up? Or just floating in mid-air? (Sorry, can't let that idea go unnoticed, right?)

/Frido

 

hmm, you guys are very close, as it does have something to do with lighting......

 

Holographic It wouldn't surprise me that much you know...

 

Ooohh, holograms! Now THERE'S an idea!

 

lolol i'm not gonna shutup until he makes it float

you know, there's another idea.... i'm imagining 4 high torque servos in each corner, each driving a black steel pin down through the base of the case, lifting it say 1 inch, and say 4 or more nice amounts of lighting projected down & outwards, which sort of look like rocket launchers and also contribute to hiding the black pins. Don't blame me for this idea, a few people have asked for it to be able to float or fly, so it's thier fault

 

Whilst you're at it bod, can you fashion some kinda of working ftl drive for it too? Usefull for when it blue screens, it'll move around the room so you can't hit it and destroy all that work.

 

So while I'm waiting for things, I thought I would delve back into my windowed slot loading dvd drive,
and see if I could fix it. If you remember, the disc wouldn't fully load into the drive. It would go in and try to
mount, but would just spit back out. I pretty much knew what I had done wrong, that I hadn't gotten the
center ring positioned correctly. So after taking the drive cover off again, I carefully unstuck it off the acrylic window.
Then I removed the cover off my spare drive and proceeded to take more precise measurements.

Here is a shot of both covers side by side:


Once I got the measurements, I transferred them to the window and re-glued the center ring back down.
After ample drying time, I powered the drive up and loaded a disc in. This time it took the disc all the way, but
didn't quite seat it onto the hub. As a consequence, it spit the disc back out. After a few more tries, I figured
out that with just a slight bit of downward pressure on the window, it will seat. The center ring is merely there
for the drive's actuating arm to press against momentarily in order to seat the disc onto the spinning hub.


Here it is spinning away!


And here's a shot with the disc ejected.


So all I have to do is apply a little bit of pressure on the window for it to work. I will accomplish this by adding
a small acrylic washer in between the medallion and the window, so when i secure the medallion down, it will apply
that pressure and should solve the problem.

 

Awesome So what did you think of the hover illusion idea?

 

Can't wait to see how this CD drive turns out.