the sketchup looks very nice and the work you did looks nice too but for the hinge isn't the one you are using one for a door that stay in its position if its open wide enough because i thought you were planning to open it with acurators.
The hinged section of the case actually works out well. I am able to fully swing open the rear of the case from 90 degrees to 0 (or is that 180? bah.. whatever ). And they have a nice mechanical look to them. When the actuators are attached it is only going to open the case about 8 inches (approx. 45 degrees).
actually drives run just fine in any position... except at angles. read the specs from any manufacturer, and you will see that they all list horizontal and vertical positioning within 5° of level as being safe. i wonder how many drives this case will kill. its a cool idea, but it needs to be seriously redesigned
Would you like to share where you read this? Even older drives (going back to early 90's) that were alot more sensitive to drive orientation could not be mounted beyond 30 degrees...and your saying a modern drive will not be safe past 5? Ok at random i picked a hard drive manufacturer, seagate. And i looked up one drive, installation manual here:http://seagate.com/support/disc/manuals/sata/cuda7200_sata_pm.pdf and it states you can mount in any position. Oh yeah sorry for the lack of updates guys just came back from a big business trip and lots of running around (ahh such is life). I will get in some updates alot quicker now
And here we gooooooo... THE PROBLEM: I had in mind to use 2 autoloc linear actuators to open up the case. You can see it in my original sketchup drawing(behind the red plexi): And here they are: *Yeah yeah yeah voiding warranty blah blah* Now that I have them, how do i mount them? Good question.. THE SOLUTION: Good ole' 3/8" thick aluminum to the rescue: I had these cut out to make a pivot for the actuators mounting holes. In turn it will bolt to the bottom of the case. I countersunk the mounting holes so the socket screws would sit flush: Used 5/16" thick round aluminum stock for the "axle" of the pivot(slides in perfectly in the mounting holes on the actuator). Carefully cut to size and drilled/tapped out the center: You can see one of the axles to the far right. Also had white plastic washers, used my trusty dremel to make the center hole bigger. Now to assemble it all together to see how it works out: Just need to drill out mounting holes on the bottom and I can do a test fit in the case. It pivots very smoothly and should work nicely. Tons more to do, stay tuned..
Got some work done this weekend, drilled and threaded the triangle posts: Also was able to mount them to the bottom of the case: After dutchcedar showed me the light on how strong these actuators are I redid the pivot and extended the shaft to sit on the triangle posts, which made it very strong: They pivot better now and are very solid: So i couldn't resist seeing it in place with the rest of the case: Excuse the mess Still working, more to come..
Wow! This is going to look incredible once its finished. Have you thought of having some cathodes that are covered by the case top when its closed but are uncovered when its open. This way light would spew out out of the top when the case was opened. Will the case top be opened electronically? You could also use gears along with teeth on the side panel to make other parts move. Damn the possibilities with those actuators are nearly endless. *Steals actuators*
Thanks guys Hey Deathrow thats not a bad idea, I'll look into it. The case will open up via remote control, I have the unit but I'm pretty far from trying it out. Its coming though
hard drives dont like angles of anything other than 90 degree angles but appart from thant, kick arse design
Video update - 56k beware Am I being followed? I'm scared to go outside. Are people watching me? I don't feel safe anymore. Do they know? But how...how would they know what I have*? I think they are on to me... *35 Meg DivX File
Looking great! Great idea with the video update - wonder if it'll catch on? Couldn't help notice you kept pronouncing Aluminium wrong Keep up the good work! Phil
Actually he didn't. There are many litereary sources on the history of the name (inc. Bill Bryson's "A Brief History of Everything"), but for convenience I just pulled this from Wikipedia: Also check here: http://www.world-aluminium.org/history/language.html "He who laughs first is likely to find he's the biggest fool," --Xerxes the Scenarist
