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Scratch Build – In Progress Project $0 scratch build *Finished!*

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by -equilerex-, 6 Nov 2006.

  1. Dreaming

    Dreaming What's a Dremel?

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    No paint!

    It's looking fantastic mate, really looking forward to seeing how this one pans out :)
     
  2. Sebbo

    Sebbo What's a Dremel?

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    my vote paintwise is to just give it enough to change the colour of the metal, the scratches and everything else should still show

    looking good, i'll keep an eye on this one for sure
     
  3. -equilerex-

    -equilerex- What's a Dremel?

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    damn im slow with the updates but what can you do, just had to spend those last weeks snowboarding... snow is gone now :waah: unfortunately, that hobby will be replaced with final exams... this mod is nowhere near the finish.

    so, today, i tried to fix the power button to the case

    so, my good old hammer and a block of wood
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    damn i suck at bending metal :wallbash:
    [​IMG]

    meh, this has to do and as its out of the sight, it wont be a problem.
    [​IMG]

    next, buttons for the right side [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    as i couldnt find a 4th switch, i used a botmeter instead. Starting to think about it, for fans its much more logical solution, would of used them for both of the fans but one of them started to make a weird sound when the voltage was reduced.
    [​IMG]

    going to make some kind of knob for it...
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  4. -equilerex-

    -equilerex- What's a Dremel?

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    ugh, howcome soldering always takes a whole day and you dont even notice until its midnight....

    so, couldnt find a knob so i made one:
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    next, the upper part of the top was kind of empty... added a model tag
    [​IMG]

    as i dont have a printer and i suck at encraving anyway, i did the text by hand
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    sprayed over with black aerosol and swiped it off.... text is now easyer to read
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    one led from that audi A8's taillight
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    voila! anyone knows where the last line is from? :naughty:
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    from the best damn game in the universe... fallout

    so, the soldering nightmare, still seems so messy although i f'cked with the damn sleeving for ages, probably have to add some additional sleeving
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    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    finally got rid of all the bugs
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  5. Jipa

    Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004

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    Luckyluckylucky with the A8-light! Damn that's a hell lot of pretty bright leds!

    Still good job all the way IMO, I think the theme is just the right for a zero budget scratch build. And also you've been lucky with the switches'n'stuff. Good job.
     
  6. -equilerex-

    -equilerex- What's a Dremel?

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    ahh, the A8's leds are awesome, they have much larger dome then the mercedes ones.... probably have better focus and are brighter
    [​IMG]

    mercedes leds were almost flat
    [​IMG]




    theres loads of switches... from cars, power tools, radios etc. now aluminum sheets, plexi, and hardwarewere real lucky.. sold most of the aluminium and stuff to the scrap yard... fortunately i had left the sheets just in case. and dad got some plexi from work... this stuff wasnt used much here in the past so its quite rare. as for the hardware hardware, well, my sis's finance brought some old pc's for me to repair... these are the excess parts :D
     
  7. Bas van der Werff

    Bas van der Werff What's a Dremel?

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    No paint will look great butt some of the "caustion" yellow/black stripes would also look cool.
     
  8. -equilerex-

    -equilerex- What's a Dremel?

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    heh, yes, there probably wont be any paint, definitely going to add those "caution stripes".... somewhere. Also some worn signs and stuff... still thinking.

    the next thing i do should be the hdd and power led... i have no idea how and where to put them :D
     
  9. pendragon

    pendragon I pickle they

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    This is a great mod, -equilerex-. Keep it up!
     
  10. JCG

    JCG What's a Dremel?

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    Left and right of the model tag. Especially if you have some old indicator light from a control paneel. Something like this

    I love this case mod. :thumb:
     
  11. -equilerex-

    -equilerex- What's a Dremel?

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    woo, 5 star rating again :rock:

    thats a good idea, il try to find something like that, i actually have one that i would use but i need to find another one.

    meantime, il do something more simple... the keyboard.
    [​IMG]

    as the hardware is total crap, i wont be using the pc anyway, so im going for more flashy design with lower functionality and comfort.

    took it open and heres my materials, some plexi and aluminium thingie thats used for the wire boxes/tunnels running on office walls.
    [​IMG]

    cut the plexi with that awesome saw
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    [​IMG]

    as for the aluminium, my dad the master of metal work helped me to do the first edge.... bend the edge so it would be nice and smooth
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    [​IMG]

    mine didnt come out so good... probably bend it too quick... the clean side has some white line
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    [​IMG]

    i never get the 45degree cuts right, this time they were ok, still 1-2mills off so im going to cover it with something.
    [​IMG]

    at first i was thinking of a rough, big and robust looking keyboard but i just couldnt find good metal for the sides, il try to make this smooth stuff look more like the case itself.....

    Also, i noticed a bit too late that the circuit board has to be on top of the button sheet :duh: , any idea if its possible to solder wires to that plastic????
     
  12. -equilerex-

    -equilerex- What's a Dremel?

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    hehe, 1st april... perfect for a little snowboarding with +25C!
    [​IMG]

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    last year the ski lifts worked until 27th tho. :rolleyes:

    Unfortunately, theres some bad news from the keyboard front

    first, added a layer of thin plastic and wrote the letters on it.... mirrored on the other side so it wouldnt rub off. in the end i decided that it would be like hell to do it again, especially when making a stencil first... so i went with the freehand.
    [​IMG]

    some rivets to but it together
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    [​IMG]

    unfortunately, it wouldnt work when i hooked it up to the pc, dont know, everything was fine on the test runs... exactly like now just without the rivets. Probably f*cked up some of the electronics or the schematic sheet.

    so, anyone got any idea what could be wrong? if i plug it in, the green lights turn on for some moments so it should be powered, buttons wont do anything tho....
     
  13. Jipa

    Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004

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    Haha nice snowlessboarding :) Here in Rovaniemi atleast one lift is still running, but this is like 1000 km away.. Very warm spring here as well.

    Cool keyboard! I've planned on doing such myself, but hadn't had excess keyboards... (I'm not gonna hack my Tarantula!)
     
  14. Bas van der Werff

    Bas van der Werff What's a Dremel?

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    That's a great keyboard hope you can get it to work :thumb:
     
  15. Temet Nosce

    Temet Nosce What's a Dremel?

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    Excellent mod, I made a keyboard like that once, but without any indication of where the characters were. It took me AGES to type on it cause you have to prod on it really hard. So i changed back to a normal one lol. Yours looks great though, good luck with it :thumb:
     
  16. FR34K

    FR34K What's a Dremel?

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    nice keyboard...the only problem that I can really see with that idea is, when you push a key, more keys end up activated in the process. still looks sweet though...lol
     
  17. -equilerex-

    -equilerex- What's a Dremel?

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    @FR34K- nope, dont think that would happen unless you press them with your elbow or full hand, the active area for one button is like 1cm in diameter and theres load of space between them.

    @Temet Nosce: well, when i tested it, it was quite easy, all you had to do was touch the button, almost no pressure was needed.

    well, this bug really suck, i hope i figure it out, not going to mod it further until i do... thats my last spare keyboard :waah:
     
  18. FR34K

    FR34K What's a Dremel?

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    nice...maybe I should find one of my old keyboards that are missing keys and see if I can try something similar. that would definately save on getting a new one all the time, not to mention you wouldn't have to clean it out. :thumb:
     
  19. Damouse

    Damouse Thats no moon!

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    ooo lol i remember one of the keyboards that i made like that...

    you didnt have to press hard at all, but the little surface area of the button was so small that you had to be right on top of it or it wouldnt type. i ended up making little 1x1cm plexi squares and put a really small dab of hot glue on the letter contact for the square, worked perfectly :).

    The case looks great!
     
  20. Major

    Major Guest

    Lookin good
     

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