Scratch Build – In Progress Dark Vortex - 11th May - Drive Rack, Lettering

Well, as I am at university at the moment, I am not able to make much stuff on my mod. However I can still design stuff, and do PIC dev.

For this project, I am making two controllers, one Light Controller and one Fan controller, using PICs.

So for this I am using my PICKit 2 programmer/debugger, with my own dev board:


I also bought an LCD from One~Zero (bit-tech forum member) which is a pled, and thus is black with green text which will fit nicely into my theme:


I have also designed a circuit to go with the program I am working on, and have made it up in Proteus - ISIS:

(Click for full size)

I then spent some (read a lot) of time designing the circuit board for this in Proteus - ARES:

^ The circuit fits on the same size board as the LCD, with the keypad being separate, allowing for use of a sub circuit if necessary (I might use a Qprox IC for touch buttons).

 

This looks very interesting keep it up.
One question have u decided on color of leds in the feets? Blue would look nice, it would give them an icey look, especially if u frost them like u said u would.

 

Thanks for the idea, but i think they will be dark green, which will go well with the rest of the case theme.

I also happen to have a 1000 pack of Green LEDs that i bought for this project, so i might as well use them up

 

nice liking the looks of this

 

Ofcorse, with a green display on front i agree with u that green leds would look better ,and if u got 1000 of them i guess u wont run out of leds in this project, lol .
By the way i realy like those brackets.

 

The Light Controller

I ordered a lot of stuff from Rapid Electronics:


And I spent some time redrawing my PCB layout onto a 0.1 inch grid.


My idea was to create a PCB style circuit using copper matrix board (as opposed to single direction tracks like on varoboard):


The first components are soldered onto the board:


Then I created tracks using lots of solder:


More tracks added:


And Completed Tracks:


This is the finished board complete with PIC16F917:

There is an ICSP socket on the right for the PICKit2 Programmer/Debugger that I own, to make development a lot easier.

This is the development setup I use:

You can see the PICKit2 plugged into the ICSP Socket, and the lovely LCD that I got from One~Zero.

Just testing:


Case Chassis
I have discovered a small shop near me that sells aluminium fairly cheaply, so I will at some point (next week probably) I will buy myself some, and 'upgrade' the chassis to aluminium.

Comments, Questions and Suggestions welcome as ever.

 

The solder tracks look like an early map of the London Underground.
The final picture looks really good.


H.B.

 

Nice soldering!

 

nice job

 

I'm a noob when it comes to building electronic circuits. Never saw a board built that way. Cool!

 

if you dont mind telling us, how much did you spend on that board? i might be interested in building something like that in the near future and your input would be helpful

 

Looks great

 

Thanks for all the positive comments guys

@elbarto: probably around £10ish, I had a lot of the parts already.

Chassis Rebuild

The reason for me rebuilding the case chassis is that I was not happy with the structural properties of the old one, which was easily miss shapen, and could bend easily. I am also replacing the steel panels with Aluminium to prevent rusting.

I went to a small 'shop' on the industrial estate near my house the other day, and bought some Aluminium:

^ 1m x 2m x 1mm Sheet


^ 3/8" x 3/8" x 4m Square Section x2

It was quite a challenge getting that back home in my Peugeot 306...I ended up with the Square section sticking out the front passenger’s window, and the sheet on the back seat/boot/out the boot & bungeed in. It was very windy that day too

Back in the garage, set up some music...now I use pc speakers (old set) and my MP3 Player (Sansa e280...iPod eat your heart out):



I also managed to find the Mitre Saw, and set that up on the workmate outside in the drive to cut the Square Section with:


And here is the result of my sawing:

^ 4.5m of Alu in a much shorter space! (Pre filing)

I then used some of the old case chassis to create the supports for past of the case:


Next I tapped the ends of the Alu (M3). To help with this, I used some good old 3-in-1 oil, which makes the tapping process so much easier.


This is a shot of a finished (mostly) joint using the L section to allow all three pieces of Alu in each corner to meet properly:


And a final shot of the new case chassis:


Let me know what you think

 

This project is coming along very well. I bow to your PIC circuit skillz.

PS w00 Breaking Benjamin!

 

this is looking very nice. its good to see the rebuild of the chasis. i think the overall design is very goodd and doesnt over do anything. but i do hope to see something covering the fan on the front though. i saw you said you were going to use hex mesh. are you going to use a.c. ryan mesh, or the "original modders mesh"?

 

@500mph:

Neither actually! This is what I will be using:

It cost me about £2 and has all the mesh i should need. I will also put some kind of dust filter behind it too.

 

Now THAT is TRUE modder's mesh. It'll look great.

 

I wonder how many Ikea trash cans have died in the name of casemodding... That's one hell of a nice mitre saw rig too. You people need to quit showing me cool tools! I'm already out of room!

 

not Ikea (i have never been) its from a shop near me called "Range" they sell all kinds of crap, a kind of anything they can get cheap...its an odd place, but its cheap

Edit:
found a link to their site: http://www.therange.co.uk/

 

LOL. I bought a can just like that. Still don't know how I am going to implement it into my mod (if at all) but for $2.50 US, I figure it'll go to use somewhere down the road. Dig the board, never seen anyone use solder like that. Keep up the good work.