This is my first time posting here. I've been reading the website for about a month since I saw the vesperdeco HTPC on TechTv(god rest its blighted soul.) I have 2 projects I want to complete this summer. For one of the projects I would like to have a front loading slot CD or DVD player. However, I do not want to spend the excess amount of money needed to purchase such a creation for a mod that would cost less than the CD player new. I am wondering if there is a way to modify a regular CD or DVD player that has a tray to become a slot loading player instead. I have an old CD player that would be perfect for this mod if I can do it. Has anyone done this kind of thing before, or are there specific reasons why this cannot be done? I would think the motors that work to move the cd tray might be adapted to this purpose.
they would indeed but something good to know although i doubt its possible. If indeed its not possible (or is but very complicated) what you can do is scrap de default face plate and create a new more stealthy one from those 5 1/4 bay spacers(those used to close up the front of the case) Maybe you can do something cool with it but of course the cd will come up instead of eating the disk but i also would like to know if its possible to transform a regular cd into the slot one
could prolly work making it a slot one... cd's could be pushed in but getting them out would be impossible since there is no slot ejecting system on a normal tray drive...
Well, theoretically couldn't you modify the existing tray eject -- attach it to a small roller that presses against the DVD & pushes it out? The machinery is there, it just needs to be adapted to the purpose. Disclaimer: I'm talking out my @$$, purely conjectural. ^^
well maybe if you get yourself a non-working one for free you can take the mecanism from it and make it work in a regular dvd
I had an old cd drive sitting right next to me as i read this and was like i know you could do this. So i opened it all up and stupp and it turns out it's TOO old. it's a pop open drive. press butten and it pops like half open the you need to pull it the rest of the way. too bad and i was soo looking forward to trying it.
short of building the entire drive from scracth nope its not possible they are TOTALLY different mechanisms one is very simple, a tray slides out, slides in ( no calibration) and then the cd is spun in the slot drive cd players, you need to have a mechanism to suck in the cd without scracthing it, then you need to have a mechanism to stop sucking it in after a while. After all that you need to have a mechanism that does the exact opposite
Thanks for the positive feedback. Though I am inclined to think it won't work, I'm gonna try anyway! Fortunately I have a spare cd-player that will be my guinea. Also fortunately, my gf will be at work for several hours so I can experiment in peace. She sometimes frowns on my engineering attempts though I think they are quite grand. I'll followup with how it turns out.
You will probably be much more successful just stealthing the cd drive tray. You can un-clip the faceplate on the tray and put on whatever you want. If you use a drive bay, you can stealth the cd drive to appear that it is not there. I'm not sure of the theme of your planned case but I suspect that you could figure out a way to make a new faceplate that fits into the theme.
Cut off all excess from the tray. The actual tray is fairly thin, just don't remove any bracing or the indents for the open/close gears! Then, make a new faceplate OR cut a slit in a blank 5.25 bezel for the thin-tray to come out of. Sure, it's not exactly a slot-load, but it will look like one but be a normal tray load...
I have 2 old Mac Classics sitting on the floor of my room for the last 6 months. Both still work too, albeit at a slow 8mhz. My reason for purchasing them was originally to only get 1. However, fearing I would be outbid on eBay, I bid on 2 of them. Luckily(or not, depending on your point of view) I got both of them. On www.mini-itx.com last year I saw a horribly done mod of a Mac Classic. Ripped the poor thing apart and it looks like crap. http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/wraithse/ Being an old-time Macintosh fan, I want to give one of these cases new life. My goals are to gut the machine and put a motherboard inside with a large HDD, video card, and sufficient RAM to serve either as a home media server or a game server for an open-source game I founded about 1 1/2 years ago on Sourceforge, Dawn of Infinity. I have been looking here and there for an LCD screen that will fit the form factor of the case and blend as smoothly as possible into it, not like the WraithSE. This has been very hard to find, and the ones that *might* fit are more expensive than all the other parts put together. Additionally, I want to add a CD or DVD player but I don't want to cut a gaping whole in the front of the case. I plan on simply widening the existing floppy disk space large enough to fit a CD. This is why I need a slot loading cd player. Perhaps you experienced folks here can finally point me in the right direction. Know of a way to get a cheap LCD screen? heh.
thats a good idea. Would be a nice alternative if I can't get a slot loading drive. thanks for the advice.
i bought mine for £40.. so not too expensive off Ebay.. its a Pioneer slot-load DVD.. and quite honestly one of the best DVD drives i've had
I have a slim line slot loading drive, and the problem is, The center spindle has to physically attach to the cd. In my drive the spindle actually pops up. I suppose normal tray drives do that already, I think it would be hard fitting the slot loading mechanism in, and having it work fluidly. I say just invest in the pioneer dvd slot loading drive its like $60
I like the idea of working on an old Mac classic. You can probably get a small lcd screen for watching DVDs off eBay. You might also try getting a laptop screen and attempting the method that is written about in the electronics forum. You could also just mod an entire laptop in, screen and all. For the positioning of the cd drive, have you considered putting it outside the case entirely? Alternatively, you could put the cd drive under the lip at the bottom.
What appeals to me about putting the CD drive right where the floppy slot is for form factor. I want to take a minimalist approach to this mod and preserve the look and feel of the Mac Classic as much as possible. No holes in wierd places, no strange cables popping out. If possible, I may even modify the keyboard that came with it, the original keyboard for that model of computer, and set it to work in a normal ps2 slot. Apple has a great legacy forum on old equipment and I should be able to get the info I need to do that from that site.
