Another day...another update: I prepared the floppy blanking plate for the stealth mod. I am in the middle of cutting it right now. Here are some pics of the preparation: I basically pulled of the floppy face and then used the exacto knife to score the inner surface of the blanking plate. I am using the rotary tool and drill to cut out the major peices of the openings then I will file everything down.
Okay, I had to take a break from the floppy stealth mod and started on the mounting of the vandal switch. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Okay, I have been thinking about the front biohazard logo I want to gut into the front plate. I am starting to doubt my rotary tool skills. At least when it comes to a intricate design. Do you guys have any suggestions for modding the front panel? Should I leave it as is? intake hole? (Too common but good for cooling). I was thinking maybe doing the intake hole like Dad did on his Harley project. Only I would be using a biohazard grill. Since it is going to have a cc UV blue fan behind it I thought about putting the cc on a throbber circuit. Good idea? Bad idea?
Go for my idea It looks pretty good in person (better than the pic at least), was relatively simple and effective. The only suggestion that I would have is to use something bigger than the 80mm fan I used - it seems a bit small on my case.
The only other option I have is a 120mm. I think that it would look too big. There is not enough metal on the stock grill that I could mount a 92mm fan, at least I don't think so. What did you use to cutout the hole in the acrylic?
Not sure about the 92mm, but like you said, it is ready for either an 80 or 120. I used a holesaw to cut the bezel and aluminum. Was kind of tough to do because it is so thick, but what I did was to go about 1/2 way through the bezel, turn it over and go the rest of the way. When that was done, I used the sanding drum on my dremel to smooth it out.
So that front bezel is aluminum? I thought it was steel. I know you mentioned it before but it did not quite sink in. Aluminum should be a lot easier to work with. The reason I was doubting my rotary tool skills was because I did not want to cut steel with the intricacy(sp?) of the biohazard logo. I got through cutting the chassis to accept the vandal switch and it was a pain filing it all down.
Well, I don't know if your case is steel or aluminum. Mine was, I made sure if it before I bought it. However, it seems that they also make the exact same case in steel. Why not give it a go? You can always buy a new bezel if you screw it up. They sell them seperate on their website or if you don't see it on there, email Sue Ma (sue@american-media.com I think) explaining what you're looking for and she will let you know. They're pretty inexpensive, so again, go for it!
Well, I am definitly going to get the side window panel. I tried starting on the window and I killed my jig saw. It was sitting by my workspace while I was cutting with the rotary tool. I think metal dust fell inside and shorted the motor. That jig saw just went out of warranty too.
Today I started on the keyboard blue led mod. I started by taking the keyboard apart and this is what I saw: So I pulled out the trusty soldering iron and proceded to pull out the ugly green LED's and prepare the blue LED's I got from www.case-mod.com for 25 cents a peice: I was almost done. Here are two blue LED's installed: That is when disaster struck. While soldering the last point I did not notice that my iron touched the delicate plastic circuit membrane until it was to late: I was really bummed but determined to fix it. I have had experience repairing similar type of damage on my car's Indiglo gauges. They are EL sheets and one of the gauges stopped working after the EL sheet became damaged and the EL sheet became seperated from it's power supply. I repaired it by using a needle poked just under the protective plastic to join the two areas of the EL sheet that had been damaged and the current bypasses the damaged area and flows through the needle. I was not going to use a needle here but I searched my parts box for something I could use. I found this: The wires on this motor were just thin enough that I could use them to do this: which then led to this:
looks great! You just made me go mod my k/b, lol, that sucks about your little mishap gald you got it fixed
Well, I had to retire the keyboard. It just was not working right after a few hours. I think the lines for the ctrl, alt, and windows keys melted together and everytime I use keyboard shortcuts I activate some of the multimedia functions of the keyboard. I pulled out the old standby microsoft naturaul. I am going to have to salvage those blue led's from the dead keyboard and transplant them in this one. I am also going to have to vinyl dye the KB black. A minor setback considering how much I have dome so far. I got some more goodies too. I received the UV blue cold cathode fan. Here are the pics Here it is in the box: Freshly unpacked: ...and the first power on test. It is during the day so it does not look all that bright. It is better in the dark. It is not as bright as the LED fan's but it does have a nice glow to it.
I just wanted to let everyone know that this project is not dead! Here is a progress pic: and a tighter shot. and from the back, please excuse the mess. That hub doesn't belong there. Still have to wire the LCD properly, I think I crossed a couple of data lines.
Looking good man. I like the plexi bezel against the black of the case frame, I started doing this for my old case about a year ago, almost exactly the same thing as what you are doing now, but I never finished and just bought a new case good one
Okay, I thought I would do a small update since I did not want to see this thread dissapear into oblivian. I finally wired the 20x4 LCD and have it working with Crystal Control. I used LCDSmartie also and both worked fine. Sorry about the pic quality bit a red backlit LCD does not like being photographed. My cheap digicam also did not help me any... Here we go: Everything is going slowly but surely. I am not going to say when this project will be finished but I think it is safe to say it will not be within the next month. I am working on acrylic glowy feet next...
Speaker update for Ground Zero Another update. NOt on the system itself but part of the project as a whole. This time I have made progress in matching the speakers to the case. I have very old speakers. THey are Aspect Aura 10's, 2.1 system. I paid $40 for the speakers and $45 for the subwoofer back in 1998. That is $85 for a 2.1 system. I can honestly say that I have yet to hear computer speakers in this price range that beat the sound quality of these. You would probably have to spend about $200 before you get to the sound quality of these speakers. That is the main reason I have not replaced them, I just cannot find any in the same price range that sound better. Part of the reason is that they are very well constructed, all wood cabinets with plastic back and front plates. Anywhere where plastic touches wood there are rubber gaskets to insulate against any vibrations. Well enough of that and on with the pictures. Here is what I started with. I had actually painted the grill a while back: Here is the teeny little driver that is rated at 15 watts: Wood cabinets and sound deadening stuff inside: On the lip where the plastic bezel meets the cabinet you can barely make out one of the gaskets: The speaker magnet is huge for a speaker of this size: The insulation all pulled out along with the back panel/bass port. Note black rubber gasket It's is painted:
