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Project: Black Betty - Updated

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by Jeroenotje, 15 Sep 2006.

  1. Culito

    Culito What's a Dremel?

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    You show throw a couple of old analog guages on the front to complete the look! I have an old stereo reciever for my case and I have the signal guage hooked up to my HD light.
     
  2. Jeroenotje

    Jeroenotje What's a Dremel?

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    Now, that IS a good idea! Maybe I am going to use it. I looked around in my big closet full of electronic parts and stuff. I have a couple of these things laying around. I couldn't find one of the right size. Besides that, maybe it is to much for this front panel. It could be overkill. However, I am still thinking about a fancontroller or something like that. I couldn't find one that was cool enough. The new frontpanel looks cool, I made one half out of cardboard. One hole for the screen, two for the DVD players/burners and underneath every hole one hole for a button. Sounds boring, but it looks so cool. I don't kwow if these old gauges would match with that.
     
  3. mottl3y

    mottl3y What's a Dremel?

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    love the mod mate, great to see something ive never seen before! Modding with a CRT isn't for the faint of heart, good stuff! The aluminium work is cool too, love the matching PSU/HDD side-plates.

    i know thats not why you named the mod, but check out a more recent cover of black betty by Spiderbait, i reckon the clip would look pretty good in monochrome (Black and white, or green?). the first 30 seconds isnt super exciting, but it gets more interesting.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtqjmuUaYXA
     
  4. Jeroenotje

    Jeroenotje What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks dude. So, ehm. The CRT is a black and white one. Sure, green phosfor would have been more retro, but I simply couldn't get one. No big deal.

    Oh yeah, that new cover is great! Reminds me of the game "Need for Speed Underground 2", lovely game, lovely song :) . Someone at a dutch forum helped me find the one of Ram Jam. I'm a great googler, but searching at Youtube.. I guess that's one of my weakest points, haha. I only could find the one of Spiderbait. Still, lovely song. I wonder how it would look in monochrome :) . Have to get that CRT screen up and running first.
     
  5. Just Jon

    Just Jon User title provided by Skimtitles

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    Just and idea...If you're still thinking of old analogue gauges and stuff similar, have a look round for some old HAM or CB radio parts, you should be able to pick some 'different' looking dials and displays for the panel for next to nothing. Plus, mobile CB stuff was designed for small panels.
     
  6. floppyeardbunny

    floppyeardbunny What's a Dremel?

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    Love what you have done so far. One thing to look though is the EMI. BigSturl mentioned it and as an aviation electronics guy I know a bit about it. I would recommend using a copper mesh and build an enclosure to go around the TV and circuit board. You will still have some but it wont be as bad as if it was naked in the case. You can also use most any type of mesh but copper is most popular.
     
  7. Jeroenotje

    Jeroenotje What's a Dremel?

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    UPDATE!

    Finally, holidays! However, I've been so damn busy, so much to do, so little time :( . Oh well, first thing: the screen. I wanted to switch te mounting plates of the CRT. So, the little one before the big one.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    That wasn't what I wanted. The front of the screen is to much forward.
    The only solution was, to file down the big plate so that the front of the tube could pass more trough it. It fits perfect now!
    [​IMG]

    Great moment, here's the sketch of the frontpanel! TAADAA!
    [​IMG]
    This is what I had in my mind. I'm not 100% sure about the position of the buttons/small holes. It should be something like this.
    I cutted a frontpanel out of cardboard. I'm going to make one out of alluminium ;) .
    [​IMG]
    Well, that's for later! First I have to buy a new DVD player, DVD burner and some plexi. Then we'll see :) .
     
  8. Jeroenotje

    Jeroenotje What's a Dremel?

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    Time for something.. I HAD to make! Well, REMAKE! So, what is it?
    [​IMG]
    Cutted and drilled... What's laying next to it? Holder for the PSU.
    [​IMG]
    I made a second one.. And I deanodised the back shield of the PSU. So what are these things? AHA! New holders for the PSU shields!
    Ofcourse I need to bend them. So scratched some lines in the alluminium for that. Now I can see where I have to bend.
    [​IMG]
    Ofcourse, My vise was to small for this. So this is what I came up with.
    [​IMG]
    A piece of strong wood, the plate on it and a straight piece of strong steel clambed on it. So it can't move.
    [​IMG]
    A hamer, a piece of wood and a lot of noise. With a beautiful holder as result!
    [​IMG]
    Screwed the plate on it. I think I am going to use these screwes evereywhere in this project :) .
    [​IMG]
    Second one!
    [​IMG]
    In CASE!
    [​IMG]
    From side:
    [​IMG]
    Putted the PSU holders in there with some tape. This is the result I wanted to get! So much cooler then just two holders!
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    Progress shot, just for fun I guess :) .
    [​IMG]
    So, these holders need to be polished up (shields to ;) ) . To be honest, I want to rebuild these holders. It sounds stupid, but because I was busy with where to bend, the holes aren't drilled excactly. And they became less beautifull as I wanted them to be. However, the bending went perfect :) !
    It's just the fact that, I joined The Benelux Casemod League. It is pushing on me. I have to get the case finished in less then two months! I need to finish the case then!. And even when it is finished then.. I don't think I can call it finshed then! There's so much to build on this case. There are even other project I wan't to start with. After the TBCL I simply will go on modding with this case. TBCL seemed like a great target for me. Something to look forward to, something to work on! But when it's pushing me getting my case ugly or destroing my fun I'm having with this project, I simply have to cut with TBCL. I'll have to find something else then!
    So, that was frustration for now! Haha. Now I'll go on making fun! Then we'll see if we can get the deadline of TBCL :) . I love having something to work forward to, but not if I can't have fun with that.
     
  9. Jeroenotje

    Jeroenotje What's a Dremel?

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    @floppyeardbunny: What is copper mesh and (more important) where can I get it? Sound's like great stuff :) .
     
  10. Culito

    Culito What's a Dremel?

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    Hello?
     
  11. customh

    customh conflagration.

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    Nice, I love the idea!! but thread revival this is...
     
  12. Jeroenotje

    Jeroenotje What's a Dremel?

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    Hello, yeah! Well, it has been while. The problem is that I am very busy at the moment. I just have no time or I am just to tired to spend time on this project. However... I haven't put it away in a dark corner or something :p.
    I started polishing the shields from the hdd racks. It's a damn lot of work! I started to put every little minut (or hour ;) ) I have in polishing up these things. That started with wetsanding. This is how I am going to do it: Sanding, grid 80/120 or so to make sure all shields are flat. Then wetsanding: grid 280-400-600-800-1000, polishing with dark compound, polishing with light compound and cleaning it by hand with autosol or something.

    I am currently busy with grid 600, its going slow! But it's going to be really nice! To bad there were ... almost.. zero replies after the last update. Well, it wouldn't be intresting to give one update between the polishing stages (grid 400-600-800etc) but I'm going to put it in one BIG update! :) I wanted to that WEEKS ago, but polishing is going such slow.. So, keep an eye on this topic! There's a crazy update coming ;) !
     
  13. Guest-2867

    Guest-2867 Guest

    cool! i can't wait to see that thing fired up, looks like you've some really good ideas, I'm actually looking at a pile of 'green-screen' 10" BBC monitors now lol
     
  14. JAxen

    JAxen What's a Dremel?

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    Hey.. Nicelly doned getting on front page dude! :thumb:
     
  15. Jeroenotje

    Jeroenotje What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks man, I really like that frontpage article! That means respect. Now all the perfect ingredients to get modding are here, just wishing I had a little bit more time. We'll see :) .

    Oh, I'm not a Belgium modder, like the article says. I'm from the Netherlands! Who cares :p
     
  16. radziecki

    radziecki What's a Dremel?

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    One thing I noticed in your project: did you thought about shielding the CRT? It might have influence on the other magnetic-reliable components... Notice that all CRT monitors have some kind of shielding built into the case/cover..
     
  17. AmmoCell

    AmmoCell What's a Dremel?

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    Just chiming in to say that I like the idea of a black & white CRT better than one with green phosphors. Why? Well, I don't know if you're painting the case something other than black/shades of gray, but b&w seems to fit the overall sense of monochrome this case throws off -- and I like it!

    Thank you for posting in English :D
     
  18. Jeroenotje

    Jeroenotje What's a Dremel?

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    You're welcome :) .

    And about shielding the CRT, I'm working on that ;) .
     
  19. Culito

    Culito What's a Dremel?

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    Don't put too much effort on the shielding. If you notice, there's a black coating on the back of the crt tube - it's conductive, and usually grounded. A tube that small ain't gonna throw out much.
     
  20. Jeroenotje

    Jeroenotje What's a Dremel?

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    UPDATE!

    Finally an update, I am really sorry! I've been so damn busy. I can't mod daily. I hope to have some more time soon. I have enough spirit to mod now, the article at the front page was great! Let's stop talking and go to tge update itself :) .

    Let's start with an intresting piece, selling new stuff! This time just a boring DVD player and a DVD burner, ghehe. They will be modded as soon as possible ;) .
    [​IMG]
    They look great, they are smaller than the last ones!
    [​IMG]

    Like I said, I was going to polish up the shields. Finishing this job is a dirty and timetaking job. I haven't done that part jet :( . However, I did the first part, the sanding part. It might be boring, but people who would like to polish parts up to could learn from this.
    So, I started to make the shields as flat as possible, getting al big ugly things off. After grid 80, 120 and 280 wet:
    [​IMG]
    After grid 400 wetsanding:
    [​IMG]
    After grid 600 wetsanding:
    [​IMG]
    I couldn't find grid 800 at any shop. So this is after grid 1000 wetsanding:
    [​IMG]
    Close-up:
    [​IMG]
    Grid 1200, almost done!:
    [​IMG]
    Details, details ;) :
    [​IMG]
    Some intresting things when you're planning to go wetsanding parts: When you're starting sanding with a higher grid, do that with an angle of 90 degrees from the last grid. So, another direction. You might see it on the pictures above. When doing this, You'll see what you've sanded and what not. And is simply does more :) .
    I guess that was the polishing job, maybe more next time!

    Time for a new part! Shields around the CRT! These are becoming small shields around the electron-cannon. It's difficult to explain how it's going to be, all the bending work still has to be done!
    A picture says more then a thousand words. You'll find out ;) .
    I took a 2mm piece of aluminium this time. 3mm would have been nice, but it's hard to bend and to big. So, less beautifull. Marked the edges:
    [​IMG]
    First drawing for the holes. The crosses will be mounting holes (m4). The small rounds are just for the looks :) .
    [​IMG]
    Holes drilled, I putted the small holes a bit closer to the big ones, seems nicer to me.
    [​IMG]
    After some jigsawing and filing work:
    [​IMG]
    Just a bad shot :) :
    [​IMG]
    Maybe I am going to redo this whole thing, the holes are just not beautifull enough.
    What you probably wanted to hear is how I am going to mount this thing!
    It wil be mounted around the backside of the CRT. With the fore point putting backwards. I'll only bend this thing at the four points, the pieces between will stay straight! That's difficult, so I'll do that later. At the inside there will be an inner ring, which holds this piece together. That ring will be mounted around the CRT. Maybe there will be a great shield underneath it. And some UV-plexi. You'll find out!

    So, that's it for now! After a long time of giving no updates reactions are again more then welcome!
    Like I said, I hope to have some more time, soon! To give some updates :) .
     

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