Case Mod - In Progress ⭐ Disco Scorpion (Compaq'D)

I'm so glad i came back to modding after all these years i shoulda just stuck to modding car lights

 

As far as modding goes this is lotta fun! I'm really enjoying adding mechanical moving parts to a mod. Some thing i wanted to do years ago but just seemed to move onto other things.

Iv'e tried to keep the mechanical mechanism as simple as possible for the top vent system. Just like all the other moving parts it will be controlled by a single servo unit.


For now it's a bit slap dash and some proper track and a stronger servo is needed for sure. But it works!

The parts are salvaged from an old cdrom unit the pitch was a simple copy straight to the plex cam. The pics pretty much explain the rest.

 

Pretty cool. How would you get away with mounting a rad under them though? or are you sticking to air? On my 2008 A51 they open outwards.

 

every update is a delight...

 

Cheers VT i pretty much stole the idea from Alienware. There's room for a rad and fans! but i had planed to either mount a single 120 in the base of a dual 120 on the front panel.

Cheers Kim tyvm mate still coming up with new ideas daily

 

The top vent's action is still a bit "qik" jerky.. in an effort to try to slow and smooth the action out a bit more i'm going to try the 360 degree servo mod with a smaller pinion gear.

This will allow for a full revolution rather than trying to cram the full action into only 90 degree.

Also ive made a jig this time to cut the gear rack. It's still not "perfect" but it's alot cleaner and even than the original cuts.

360 servo mod allows the servo to spin freely much like a stepper motor but with alot more torque.




A new pinion is mad and added.











To cut the new rack i made a crude jig this time. This will give me a more even pitch.











The mesh is a lot better this time round.

 

Pretty much this^. I've hand cut gears before too. I wish I had seen your jig then. Where did you find the grinding wheel for a mandrel?

 

Cheers Cs, that's just a case of small grinding wheel on large grinding wheel till the shape is close

 

Now that the vents open and close it's time to add the all important RGB goodness!!!!!

I think a 6 LED strip might be a bit overkill but hey better brighter then duller....... hmmm.

All the strips will be custom wired then joined into one main input.



The top white panel is underlined with some white vinyl.




Then again with black ( this is done so the tops stay white but the underside stops light bleed.)




Next is to route a channel into the clear section for the LED strip.





An extra bit of smaller router work will be needed to feed the wires





Sitting the vent into position to mark the wire outlet





A hole will be drilled thru the side wall for the wires to pass thu.









Hole drilled








With the Vent back into place the wire showing is minimal







And a quick test to see all works as it should. The idea is that when closed the light will highlight the edges only.












Now 4 more to go!

 

I suspected you'd give them the glowworm treatment. No issues with wires messing up the gravity hinging?
Wheels: Broke down an goobled it. I figured you custom cut the wheel. I didn't know you could get wheels that weren't glued to a shaft.

 

Noice. I have a few of those servos kicking about. I bought a RC car and didn't realise it all used specialised Tamtech gear ffs. So I had to mod one to make it fit haha.

Like the way the vents light up. I was going to call them flaps then but that would have been inappropriate... Oh wait..

 

Defyant's flaps are glowing red...

 

It aint Disco till it's RGB!

i was just sitting on the lounge sayin to the missus..... why dont they make pinions that press straight onto servo's.....! The 360 mod is pretty popular

They wire work perfect, they are so close to the swing hinge just a tiny bit of slack lets them "free ball"

Cheers VT As long as everyone likes my flaps i'm happy . Always wanted an excuse to play with servo's ( old losi xx racer from way back) i remember thinking back when i started all this with HP-1 was how can i use servo's in this mod...... that was like 15 years ago .. and still no one has even come close to this stuff (maybe sxr)... it actually amazes me how modding gets stuck in these ruts. So many system builders /assemblers/ amateur photographers and so little modders.

Put those servo's to good use i say

Some one was always going to go there

 

Well it was always going to come...... The more i mod this chassis the less it becomes... So ive decided to just scrap it and start again.

This will allow me to move on from some parts of the original chassis that really erked me and let me add a few new ideas.

The new chassis will be pretty simple in the design and materials. Just some L and flat Alu bar pop riveted together with cross bars as needed with a centre mounted internal motherboard tray.

Nothing special but pretty square down to a couple of mm.



To make the frame a simple jig is cut as square as possible from mdf.



The L bar is placed on the edge of the jig and marked for the cuts.



Some clamping action



Next is to knock up the cross bar supports. To change the profile a bit i'm giving them a run thru on the router.



The back edges filed



The jig is now modified for the cross bars



And are drilled and pop riveted into place



The basic frame is finished.



The mother board panel can be mounted in the centre of the frame some Z extenders are bent up.

Ive made 2 sets this will allow for corrections in the bends while mocked up.



Next is to bang up the Rad supports.
Just to give them a bit of finished look i'll contour them on the router before drilling the mount holes.



The finished supports




The new mother board panel is cut from .9 sheet alu.




With the new MB tray supports and radiator brackets added you can kinda see where this is all going!



The MB will now sit well inside the case with a rear port for cable access.





A quick fit of the RAD to check clearance.





This dosn't change any of the exterior mods to disco but allows me now to change a few things up on the inside to make the mod
better balanced from inside to out.



Next is to work on the support rails for the PSU and the GPU!

 

omg, it takes a new direction with the new frame, finally there won't be any parts that you didn't mod yourself, some real genuine old school modding, I love it

 

Sweet scratch build my guy! What's the easiest way to bend metal?

 

Cheers mate can you believe after all my case mods i this is now my first scratch build......

Cheers mate For thicker alu i'll break out the torch but this thin alu stuff just clamp and cold bend. If it's metal and i'm cold bending i'll give it a smack with a flat hammer to release the stress.
I'm not much a metal worker tbh all my old glory day mods were bondo and plex

 

When the mod turns into an itch, and the itch turns into a scratch

 

I understand the silence now. I totally forgot there was a case involved. This is nicely done.
-HOWEVER, as massive as the panels are, is there any reason to not go full plastic?

 

Very Disco....