Project Convergence :: VFD model construction :: 8/3/05

Project Convergence :: Part 2

Return of Project Convergence...

If you remember this is the case I am starting with, a PC Club Plexiglass case...



A pain and simple "blue" plexi case. Soon it will not be all that plain for sure. Here is an illustration of the first part of the case. Being a bicycle racer I wanted to protray speed with the design. I have outlayed a clear peice of rounded plexi with blue and a dark tinted gray racing stripe, bound together these peices form the outside skin of plexi. Inside the case a custom rack will house a dvd-rom (slot load) and a dvd-burner.

As with divergence I will ultilize 2 VFD's, one in the front panel and one possibly in the power supply. The internal workings will be a P3 system, being this is a server system, 4 internal HDDs, raid system. We will leave this at that for now. I have began construction and photos will be avalable in the morning...



Hope you enjoy CONVERGENCE... one or a few plexi mods in the works!

 

I was wondering what happened to Convergence. Looks very promising.

 

The case I have choosen is very hard to mod the way I want. I utilizes a front plexi that is 1 cm thick, whereas normal plexi is 2.5 - 3 mm thick. It has taken a long time to develop the internal structure to make it work. Not only will it be a strong case but it should come out very nicly.

My only wish is that I had more time, but we always wish that...

 

Quick update for the evening...

Finished protyping the VFD display mount for the case. I have not quite decided on the rear mount shape but it wiill probably remain square, possibly in dark plexi...

Here you go... more to come soon...




BTW these peices are all mocked up in plexi sheet, ready for cutting, sanding and polishing in the morning!

 

I have to ask (although I'm sure it came up in Divergence), where do you get your VFDs, how much are they and is setup easy?

because, of course, vfd's are the ultimate in drool-making technology.

 

From your past, and coping with deadlines this is going to be good.

Can't wait to see the new pics

 

Here we go... part 1... VFD panel and front panel work.

Here are a few teaser pics of the work that is being done... of course I have to start with the front panel.



Mapping out the clear plexi sides for the front panel. Pacience is required to make these lines straight... and even then, they never are perfect out of the dremel cut. I cut all my small plexi parts with a dremel then shape with a sanding block, dremel sanding drum. After all the cuts the parts will be polished with 2000 grit then acrylic polish.



Inital fit of the panel sides, notice that the sides are still a little rough, that will be fixed.



Final basic panel...

After polishing, I will cut out the outline portion for the VFD, (Like ORAC3, but a different shape). The clear plexi adds a different demension to the case. This little peice took about 1 hour to fabricate...

The camera does interesting things with clear on clear. The peice is very very pretty in person and the sides line up perfectly with the blue peice... The 3 peices are goined together with weld on 4, and are very strong. I will be using hex socket bolts to hold the panel the the front and at the same time hold the brackets for the sides, etc.

I am hoping to finish the inital panel work tonight... we will see.

More soon...



And to answer the VFD question, these are Matrix Orbital displays. I bought these about 1 month after finishing divergence. Honestly I can not remmeber where I bought them.

 

looks like this could turn out to be a very promising project

keep up the work, i like your acrylic work so far

take care

 

like frodo said, this can be a very promising casemod. subscribed .. just coz I love the color of that blue plexi!

 

Front Panel Part 2

Here is the top of the front panel.



My goal is to seperate the top and bottom of the front by using a plexi front grill (probably just a hole) between the switch panel in the front panel). I am not going to cut the middle panel for the drives until I get my new DVD-RW in a few weeks. At the same time I will drill the rack for the drives also. I am still debating how I will makes the drives look nice. That will come to be in the coming weeks.

As for cooling I will not decide that for now either. I will probably go air cooling, but water is not out of the picture either, we will see.

More to come soon!

 

yummy blue colour

 

Go for watercooling! Since its a clear case, you can add some stuff to the water to give it a dark blue look. Use some clearflex (or other) tubes and you get one hell of case.

 

More Planning...

It is time to think about power... so lets discuss what is coming up by the end of the week.

First the switch panel.



I love the panel from ORAC3, but I can not copy, that is agaist my modding ethics, and since I have a 1 cm thick front panel I can not copy. I am using 6 vandal resistant switches, 6 white leds and a blue (and clear plexi) bent back panel. This is a scale prototype of the actual panel, except it is missing a few little features. I will be sending the wires up the sides of the drive cage in a special holder into the "circuit holder" box that also holds the VFD. It will also hold a windowed HDD to add action up the top.

The "junction box" will hold the two circuit boards with a flip flop circuit, which will be used to turn on 4 regions of LEDs in the case, the general lighting, the ps lighting, the HDD, junction box lighting and a override switch for the case fans (for night time downloading). I will be using a jack system into the sides of the junction box for ease of use.

The junction box will also be the power center for the fans and HDDs / CDROMs. I have also chosen to use 2 80 mm fans vs the 120 mm fan, mainly due to size constrants.

One problem I am predicting is the power supply mounting out back. because of the location it will be tricky making it all work, but it will all come together...

Tonight I am picking up temporary screws for the front panel, and a DVD-RW. More fabrication to come.

 

Watercooling...

Well tonight I came to a realization...

I want to watercool this case, the parts are taking way to long to do. The prizes this year are not worth the cost to me right now. I am not all that happy with the front peices either. I have 8 sketchup files prepared and none of them have any parts that are going to be quick to fabricate.

I love where the case is going, it is just not going to happen that quick. I am going to drop the contest this year, and focus on quality, not speed. The project is going forward but with only 14 or so working days left it is just not feasable to finish in the time frame.

More will come soon...

 

Good choice imo. Modding competitions are fun I'd think (I'm in middle of nowhere so I wouldn't know) but when you have two weeks to do massive modding, it just can't come out well, and something would pop up.

 

do u have a link for that contest?

 

Looks cool. What do you use to cut the plexi?

 

Dremel and lots of sandpaper...

 

Can you make a picture of the nozzle thath you use to cut plexi?

 

When I cut my next peice I will show you how I do it...