Looking REALLY good. I just finished watching the Pirates of the Caribbean for the umm...10th time. Your case rox.
Update: VFD has arrived! Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I was waiting for the Noritake VFD I ordered last week to arrive, and finally it has! I couldn't wait to get it hooked up so I rushed home as soon as I could, connected it, and when I tried it out in LCDC it froze after the first few screens. So I did that soldering fix to the COM port connector (thanks to TAG & Cheese ) which got it up and running right away. Here are some pics (it looks way better in person!! ). Time: Weather: Winamp: Now that I have it working, I need to figure out where (and how) to mount it! More updates coming soon!
damn thats a nice VFD, i say like most other cases put it on the front panel, i thought it would look cool
Update! Time for another update as promised! Well, I've decided to mount the VFD in the front of my case, but since I want it to always be visible I'm going to embed it into the front door of the case, in front of the optical drives. Remember that chrome skull belt buckle I show'd y'all before? No? Well here's a reminder: Finally, boys and girls, in this very post, you will be able to see how I will incorporate this fine piece of worksmanship into my case. But first, I needed some metal mesh!! So off to Home Depot I went, and picked up one of these: That my friends is a gutter guard. What's so good about it? It's flexible, it's light, but best of all, it only costs $4 CAD! First I sanded it down, then painted it shiny silver then added some clearcoat into the mix. Here it is marked and ready to be cut. And here it is after having the VFD outline cut into it: Next, a test fit and proof-of-concept: Now you all know my master plan mwaaaahahahha!! Pretty darn sweet if I do say so myself! Everything will be fit into a window in the front case door shortly. All that's left is to figure out how to rout the cables out of sight and how to solidly attach the VFD to the mesh (so far I'm thinkin paperclips, so if anyone has any better 's feel free to share them). Until next time, here is a video of the VFD in action! (Video removed to save bandwidth. If you want it PM me.)
Update - VFD and Skull mounted Update time! In my last update, I cut a hole in the steel mesh and showed you guys how I was planning on mounting my sexy new VFD in the front of the case door. The problem was figuring out how to attach the VFD to the mesh. The first thing that came to mind was using paperclips. But that presented a new problem: how was I going to fill the space between the 4 VFD mounting holes and the mesh? (I needed the mesh aligned with the front glass of the VFD) So off I went searching for things around the house that I may be able to use. Little did I realise the answer lay INSIDE my case!! Ooooh, rubber grommets!!! PERFECT! But were paperclips really the answer? I looked around a little more and found this: The frame hanging wire in this picture hanging set had the advantages that it was more flexible and a lot less brittle than paperclips (no chance of breaking!), so I decided to use it instead. So off I went, attaching each corner of the VFD to the mesh. A simple double knot on the frame wire did the trick. Nice and secure - there's no way the VFD can come loose from the mesh now. Sweet! Three down, one to go: Next, I attached the mesh to the back of the case door, and I attached the skull belt buckle to the mesh. The glue gun is your friend! The view from the other side: I lost the functionality of the lock on the door by doing this mod, but I've never had to use it anyway, so no big loss. And now, what you've all been waiting for, the money shots!! And finally, a special treat for everyone. (Right-click, Save Target As please!) Until next time, keep modding!
lol thanks... Thanks again. Yeah that side panel took forever to cut. But I'm very pleased with the outcome. Especially after I had the blue LED eyes installed! I'm still planning on adding some blue lighting behind the mesh. Perhaps I should go work on that now in fact....hmmm...
<obligatory praise> AWeSOME! </obligatory praise> thats cool but it looks more like the vfd is just below the mesh but still looks good, ied say cover the sides of it but keep it up!
I don't think the sides deter from its overall appearance, but nevertheless they will eventually be covered up if/when I decide to use a coloured filter in the future.
Update: LED's added behind mesh I went ahead and added 4 blue LED's behind the mesh. I'll let the pictures do the talking. Nice, eh?!
Looks very very good. Keep up the good work. The leds dont look that good, as it takes the attention of the belt buckle, mayb its just the pics as the buckle is to dark. But its your case, so u decide.
Thanks Those are night shots and the buckle doesn't have its own lighting. With the lights on the belt buckle is clearly visible. Anyway, my video camera pictures never do any kind of lighting any justice. It really looks amazing in person. Maybe someday I'll borrow a friends digital camera and take some high res pics for everyone to see...
