Project: Swoosh!

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by a9on87, 20 Dec 2003.

  1. a9on87

    a9on87 ...

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    I have just started modding my case. Its an el cheapo crappy case that I've had for about a year and I decided I wanted it to look better.

    I don't have any pics of what the case looked like originally apart from this pic of the front:

    [​IMG]

    I found some silver spray and after I had cleaned up the plastic parts and removed the "green-blue" bits sprayed them silver

    [​IMG]

    After I had put the buttons, leds and plastic bit in it looked like this:

    [​IMG]

    This came out a lot better than I had expected and looks as if it has always been silver :clap:

    [​IMG]

    I was going ro use the spare panels to create a door to hide the optical drives but decided against it as it would be difficult to attach hinges to the thin plastic and I wasn't sure whether there would be enough space for the drives to come out. I have instead decided to stealth the drives. (I will change the switch as this is the only one I could find at the moment) I decded to have the switches in a different part of the case so came up with this:

    [​IMG]

    The wires will be soldered (I need to buy/borrow a soldering iron :lol: ) to the bottom of the optical drives to open the cd drives. I have tested this by holding the wires and it worked fine :thumb: . To stealth the floppy drive I simply turned it around as I only ever use it when things go wrong and stuck a boot disk in it so I don't have to open the case. I have currently ran out of silver spray paint so until I get some more I will not be able to paint any more of the covers. I plan on sanding the metal side and tops of the case down and painting them in a gloss black - any reccomendations??

    The sides of the case currently look like this:

    [​IMG]

    and I'm looking for ideas for what do with them - I was thinking cut out the circle and stick plexi in it or something but I dunno.

    At the moment the case looks like:

    [​IMG]

    Things I still need to do:
    Paint metal parts of case in black
    Stealth drives and finish new switches
    Finish spraying plastic silver
    Do something with one of the side panels ie. window?
    Lighting?
    Think of a name for the project!!!

    I aim to finish the majority of this case in the next two weeks and will post all updates that I do.

    Please post feedback on what you think and any suggestions.
     
    Last edited: 30 Dec 2003
  2. Malvolio

    Malvolio .

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    Since your moving the open/close switches for your optical drives, check out how Zapwizard did it www.zapwizard.com If you can do something like that, it'll make it just that much better. And btw, definately either put a window on the right side (when looking at the computer) or replace the pannel, the current design is just a violation of everything computers stand for. :hehe:
     
  3. a9on87

    a9on87 ...

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    I think I would hav to put a circular window in otherwise itd look stupid lol. Then I'll have to tidy up my cables :rolleyes: or just stick them higher than the window :naughty:. Its quite a small case and I'm not sure what would be seen through that circle, Ill check next time I have it open. If its not a good view I'll probably put dark plexi in it and put a ccfl in there to illuminate it.

    I had another idea earlier for the green-blue plastic thing at the front of the case - light it up! :rock:. Not sure how I would do this - maybe a row of leds?

    The Optical drive mod is just going to be the open/close switches at the moment but I may use LED's later on. I'll have a look at Zap's site and see how he did it.

    Let me know what you think
     
  4. Malvolio

    Malvolio .

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    Sounds good. If you want a good effect on the side with a semi clear window, then do the cut you want, paint the inside of the plexi black or silver, witchever (black would proably work best), then place LED's arround the outside of it (shield the LED's light so it goes directly into the plexi), then you'll have a nice illuminated plexi look, it'll throw off a bit of light, and look preatty cool. And yeah, definately light up the green-blue plastic thing on the front, 1 or 2 superbright LED's would work wonders with that (one on each end, faceing the other so the light evens out). Definately willbe following this thread though :thumb:
     
  5. a9on87

    a9on87 ...

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    Nice idea, I'll have a think about doing that. What sort of circuit would I have to build for all those led's?

    Anyway I have had another idea, I hate having to go round the back of the PC to get to my USB and audio sockets so I came up with this (Sorry about the crap drawing - I did it in powerpoint - the colours don't mean anything :blush: )...

    [​IMG]

    I will either get splitters for the audio in and out on my sound card or get the new audi jacks and solder them on to the existing ports. For the USB I will either just use headers that are on my mobo (if it has them - I dunno) or hack up a USB hub and mount it in the front panel. I was thinking about putting the optical out and in from my sound card on the panel but then I realised I don't use them anyway :lol:
     
  6. a9on87

    a9on87 ...

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    I just found this on maplin and wondered whether this would be suitable to use as push the switch to open my optical drives.

    Thanks
     
  7. Malvolio

    Malvolio .

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    Yep, that switch would work, but you'd have to use a resistor for the LED inside of it. For everything and anything on LED's, I've got a few links for ya:

    Electronics for the modder

    LED calculator


    Oh and the front access points look good, if you can't have the buttons flush with the surface, try and have them be "low profile". Good luck! :thumb: And happy modding :dremel:


    [EDIT] 100th post :D [/EDIT]
     
  8. Wicked Li'l Bender

    Wicked Li'l Bender What's a Dremel?

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    great painting of the front.. you might want to seal that silver with some clearcoat... silver has a way of flaking and rubbing off.
     
  9. a9on87

    a9on87 ...

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    Thanks, I was thinking of something like Clear Coat. I want to finish painting the rest of the drive covers first though.

    I may try a couple of those illuminated push switches.
    I am borrowing a soldering iron tomorrow so I'll be able to solder the wires to my drives but I won't be able to get any new push buttons for about a week because I'm going on holiday for xmas :lol:

    I will post more updates tomorrow, but there won't be any more till next week.
     
  10. Malvolio

    Malvolio .

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    :wallbash: Just thought of something for your usb mounts on the front bezel, do you have mobo USB headers? If so you can buy small USB "pci slot" connectors that just hook up to the header on your mobo, and they come off of their mounting plate by just two small screws. So it wouldn't be that hard to just screw or hot glue them into place behind your drive bay cover (I'm assuming thats what your using). The little USB "pci slot" connectors are like $15 (canadian), so they are preatty cheap.

    Linky to what I'm talking about
     
  11. a9on87

    a9on87 ...

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    Nice idea, I'll check to see whether I have the headers soon.

    /edit I have just checked the manual for my mobo and I do have the headers so one of those would be very useful, in fact I believe that a friend of mine has a spare one so maybe I'll be able to "borrow" it :clap:

    Anyway I have just realised my drive bay covers don't lie flat with my drives:
    [​IMG]
    I need a way of filling this hollow. Anyone got any ideas???
    If I/someone finds a way of filling these I should definitely have one of the stealths finished later on today (its 2 in the morning and I am brainstorming ideas for the case :yawn: :yawn: )
     
    Last edited: 21 Dec 2003
  12. Malvolio

    Malvolio .

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    Body filler, polymer, any kind of "putty" that drys really, so long as you don't need it to look super sweet once you remove the drive cover, you can use anything ya want really.
     
  13. Stickeh

    Stickeh Help me , Help you.

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    w000 another nottingham moder!!
    ( me too btw )

    nice work on ur case! check out my project log for what i did, any Q's just ask, or email ( its in my sig )

    good work on the case so far!

    for the window u may as well do a big cut and cut out the whole 'wavy' line thing so u can see everything!!
    maplins down in nottingham ( the shop not the BIG thing near pcworld ) sell spiral wrap in 10m for like £2-5 in varying sizes!
     
  14. a9on87

    a9on87 ...

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    Update Time!!

    I borrowed a soldering iron and have soldered the wires for my new open/close switch in my dvd drive. I used an audio cable as it will allow me to unplug the switches if I need to remove the drive (Got inspiration from Zap's relocation of drive buttons but just ran the wires out the back as I am not too brilliant with a soldering iron :worried: It works so I'm pleased with it :p )

    [​IMG]
    (Sorry for the blurry pic - my camera isn't very good at close ups)

    I cut a small hole in the back of the metal casing for the wire to come out through

    [​IMG]

    I have mounted a temporary switch into the spare drive bay at the top
    [​IMG]
    I have tested it and it works fine, I just need to stealth the drive now with the bay cover, I may add an led for the drive at a later stage but as I don't pay any notice to them anyway it seems a bit pointless.

    I might wire up the CDRW this afternoon and I'll post any updates

    I have thought about this and realised that I don't want to use anything that is too heavy as it will affect how the drive opens, I was thinking of using that expanding foam stuff used to fill big gaps.
     
    Last edited: 21 Dec 2003
  15. a9on87

    a9on87 ...

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    I was thinking about this but the inside of my case is quite compact and not much to look at so I only want a small dark window and possibly put a ccfl behind the grill thing at the top of the side so that it shines out of that and the tinted window.
    [​IMG]
     
  16. a9on87

    a9on87 ...

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    triple post!! :rolleyes:

    I have stealthed the DVD drive now, I found some small pieces of plastic to put between the inside of the bay cover and the drive draw. I tried using a filler but it was quite heavy and I was worried about it putting to much strain on the drive draw. At the moment I'm using industrial strength double-sided tape for the stealths and I'll see if it's strong enough, if not I'll use glue.

    Heres how the drive looks now:
    [​IMG]
    When the drive is open it looks like:
    [​IMG]

    I am going to stealth the CDRW once I have another push switch and I am about to solder the wires for the switch.

    No more updates for a week though! :duh:
     
  17. Wicked Li'l Bender

    Wicked Li'l Bender What's a Dremel?

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    Looks good ATM, but the clear blue Nike swoosh has to be lit up!
     
  18. Malvolio

    Malvolio .

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    Looing good :thumb: And nice idea with the whole stealthing, I was thinking more of a temp cover that you would manualy remove, but yours works a lot better :p And again, I agree with bender :lol:
     
  19. kidron

    kidron What's a Dremel?

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    looking good so far :rock: i wish i wasnt that lazy to rewire my buttons and leds

    just a note, in the first picure of your case, it seems that the plate (i dont know what is it called :sigh:) is aligned with the case, and in the picture where you got your cdrom stealthed it is a little bit outside, maybe if you put the cdrom a little bit more inside of the case it would look more stealthened :)

    did all this make sense? haha

    sorry for my english, if you didnt got me ill try to explain better.
     
  20. a9on87

    a9on87 ...

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    I think this is because of the plastic between the drive and the cover - I will try sanding it down more so it will be more flush with the front of the case.

    I'm expecting to be buying more parts (ie. switches, paint, maybe even plexi :naughty: etc..) for my case this week so look out for updates :dremel:
     

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