Small Form Factor Help: Modding Shuttle 45G

Does anyone have any ideas on how to light up the perspex front on a 45g?

Shuttle make a kit to do this for some of their other XPC but not the 45g

Would laser LEDs have the desired effect?? if so how would I place em

I have sprayed the front surround black and cut in 2 extra 40mm HDD fans so the moddin has begun

( - Im a newbie to case modding and I need some ideas)

 

I'm about to buy one of these for my next mod so I'll be interested to see how this turns out but regarding the front lighting you could maybe cut a groove all the way round the edge of the perspex then put EL wire in it. Then all you'd need is a spare molex and a hole in the side to pass the wire through.

They might but I'm not sure they'd give an all round light; they might be too bright on one area but I'm not really an expert so you could have a go.


-Nathan

 

A routed groove round the edge and some EL wire is a sound plan

Do you know where to get some spare perspex fronts - my rouer is a bit fierce. Is a router the best tool to use?? Unshure on perspex

I read in g nomes article on his Orac3 project that if you file the domed end of an led flat and sand it a bit the light emitted is diffused and better for lighting up perspex rather than spotting through it - i guess the domed end concentrates the light into one spot or something.....

I'll get some leds and have a go tomorow.

Can anyone tell me how to post pictrues - If I get a result I'll post some.

 

plez do post some piccies when you're done, i just ordered my sn45g with the blue fascia today!!

as for piccies, you have to upload em to webspace and put image tags when posting them on a forum



heres where you can get some replacable fronts

i was thinking of stikin a top window in when i got mine, what you reckon??

 

nar, i recon a mesh window thingy on teh side, and dual blowholes at the back of the top!!!, luks sweet

 

There won't be much room for a top window because you've got the PSU at the back and the drive cage at the front and not much space in between unless you wanna see them through the top.

You reckon one of those replaceable fronts would fit an SN45G? It doesn't specifically say that so I'd be wary of buying one.

::edit:: just seen the last post, sounds like a good idea with the mesh and blowholes! ::edit::

 

I just looked at the replaceable fronts on Microdirect - sadly it looks like they will only fit an XPC with the SPIDF type connector array on the front. (optical spdif, 3*3.5mm stereo jacks, 1usb and 1 firewire) The 45g has 3 stereo jacks, 2 usb and one firewire connector on the front so the connector holes won't line up..... The same is true for the EL front.

I am going to have a go at a DIY EL front today. The hole for the light to shine through is still present on the 45g silver bezel (backplate for the perspex) so the idea is to mark through this hole and trim the paper insert (the hole will be covered by the silvered part of the perspex - dead handy ), glue a short el lamp tube to the back of the silver bezel and hope for a result.

Other mods will inculde a circuit to convert the input to optical SPDIF o/p (TTL logic) to a phono o/p that my amp will accept and a circuit to convert a signal on the back of my maxtor to a HDD activity led signal cos I'm using a PCI SATA raid card and the bloody light don't work from the mobo

 

I thought one of the pairs of pins on the maxtor were gnd and activity for an led anyway

 

As it turns out there is a pin that has some relationship to activity (not sure if that is its purpose tho ) but it is inverted - ie on when the drive is inactive and off when it is active.

I inverted and buffered the signal off this pin to run my activity LED. It works ok but seems to pick up all drive activity including self tests, park cycles etc (which the drive does a lot of) so not such a great indicator of data flow.....

As for the DIY light up front....... well my attempt sux so I have ordered the el front (not for 45G) in the hope it will fit anyway.