Project:Halcyon in Black-12/06/2007 Credits.

wow thanks alot, im honored. well same to be said for orange monster

 

Great job man. Verry well done. Good planning works verry well!! Good idea to make drawings of your ideas! works out verry fine I see. I will follow this one!!

 

Just a small update for you guys..been very busy soldering and creating some of the circuits required for this project.

LCD and rheobus were mounted on brass standoffs. These in turn were glued to the bay aluminium plate with araldite.Didnt wanna see too many screws on the external face so this was the way to go.

the rear of the panel.


araldite is strong stuff:





with power..no night shots at the moment though.


cool thing was that this rheobus was built with smt led lighting..

and il end off this update with a teaser video for whats to come..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVeK-buUTAE

 

That Aluminum is nice brushed dude

 

gr8 modding just an idea that come into my head when i looked at the last picture might work might not, but if you can find any chrome coloured blowhole trim for the rheobus holes u never know could give it that extra finish like i said just an idea lol

good luck with this very intresting project

 

thanks.. that why i got it from the side panel.good thing bout lian li is the brushed alu.

Evil-Inc-UK: I have chrome blowhole trim but I couldnt possibly squeeze it on those holes.The knobs need abit of clearance although it seems like theres alot of it,it actually fits just right at the moment..appreciate the advice though

 

Wow this one looks hot! Subscribed!

 

ok heres an update after a 3 day wait..have been working so it really disrupts modding time.This time I worked on the harddrive meter.The schematics will come from the wonderful guide by Dave Williams on this site...

If you have read the guide, i dint simply want a row of leds lighting up to show me hdd activity.It needed to be special.So after some thinking, I set about to the laser cutting place:

Basically a black strip of acrylic had 10 slots cut into it.Using this as a template of sorts, 10 pieces of clear 6mm thick acrylic were cut out.



And the pieces were slotted in to form :


The reason i chose to use such thick acrylic was so that it would protrude out like so :


This pics will show you what i intend to do with this bar graph like thing.

I know sanding it will allow the light to diffuse better but i kinda liked this effect.


So now I just have to wait for the components to arrive from Farnell..expect an update within the next 2 days..

 

that looks really cool, really has an old school game system look. i am excited about this one.

 

Dude, that's just pure pr0n!!

 

that looks awesome cant wait to see more

 

thanks for all the comments guys

well its about time for an update..i know it was due some time ago but cant predict these things sometimes so anyway heres the continuation of the hard drive meter :

The bar graph was mounted on the mobo tray, after cutting out a rectangular slot, so the acrylic bits would protrude out the back.








Behind is where most of the action is. Here 3mm LEds are slotted into a strip of acrylic with holes drilled into it.The strip was glued on such that the leds lined up with the protruding acrylic pieces.



Earlier in the planning the length of the bar graph was made to the dimensions of a plastic project box..That was so this could be done :



The circuit, excuse the lousy solder job but least it works






Nicely covered up, plus led wires sleeved.The ends will go to the hdd meter circuit, which will be housed in another plastic box just above it.This box houses a few other goodies which will follow in good time.






Finally till the mobo arrives, heres a shot of the meter with some random lit leds..

 

very cool very different with the hdd meter. really like the way this project is going. when its working you should make a video it, upload it and give us the link.

Im Impressed, Good Luck

 

A man after my own heart, down with Sketchup!

Good ol' pencil an paper.

I'm amazed at the mod so far, it's gorgeous! Can't wait to see more.

 

Love the way you did your HDD Activity Meter! Wouldn't it have been better placed on the front as a sort of feature other than hidden away on the backplate?

 

yea with pencil and paper you can draw just the way you like

I decided to mount the HDD meter there because mostly as I sit next to this cpu, i get a direct view through the window. Plus on the front it wouldnt match the look im trying to achieve.

Il definitely take a video when i get the mobo and all set up.Might be some time so Im working on other areas first. Nxt up..the touch switches.coming soon..

 

Sorry, but where is the guide for the hard drive activity meter? Thanks! Looks great!

 

NM I found it. OMG it may as well be written in sandscript, people who can do that simply amaze me. Can one of these be purchased already assembled anywhere?

 

Looks cool... Will follow this closely

 

Taedir : Just a little patience and you can work out a means to do the circuit without having to make a PCB.By using the PCB diagram and the pic of the real circuit I identified what went where, and just soldered accordingly.Its not hard really, which was what I though at first.And Im quite a noob at electronic circuits.Dont think you;ll be able to buy one off the shelf, perhaps someone can make one for you?


update time..this round i worked on the touch switches which will be used to activate the pc and the cdrom drive. Remember the blue n orange arcylic circles on the front panel? Originally these were to be the touch surfaces,

which would be backlit. Everything went well and I even managed to get a power on and eject logo in place.Strangely, once installed on the panel, the touch function failed to work.So after much experimentation I decided to scrap the idea (though damn it looked so good).and go with a new one.

Old buttons (made by placing laser cut acrylic circles onto the backlit acrylic)


Sighhh.Wish they couldve worked..But anyway

here is how i designed the new "button".Small metal squares were cut from a scrap alu panel, as well as 2 acrylic "rings".



The wires would be glued to the metal square which will in turn glue to the acrylic rings (sanded).The resulting button once mounted :



Now comes the interesting task of lighting the rings, and soldering the touch circuit.I decided to integrate the lighting LEDs and the touch circuit itself, so the whole thing could be mounted just behind the buttons.

Messy soldering aside again, heres the touch circuit.Because I didnt have the foresight to order more than one QT110 touch sensor the last time (earlier intending to only have one touch button) Farnell kinda ran out of the chips.Solution? Order the SMT type..This was a real pain to solder, and I was afraid id fry the chip.But it went well, and it works.

Here you can see the rather tiny smt chip in comparison to its DIP equivalent.(not yet put in socket)



Now for the other side of the board :Orange and blue LEDs mounted and bent.(burnt my 3 mm blue so a 5mm replaced it)


After more testing to see that everything was well (including touch function)
I used araldite and the same brass standoff method used for rheobus to mount the circuit board behind the buttons.It fit just so that the LEds would line up with the edges of the acrylic rings :





Now the eye candy :

Here are the buttons with the lighting turned on :







thats all for now, hope you guys liked it