How to a car radio faceplate on a pc?

[meticoeus]

Hey guys, this may sound somewhat silly but I think the effect would be neat if pulled off. I want to use a car radio faceplate as a control panel of sorts for a pc, the type that flips out so that you can place a cd in the radio. The flipping mechanism is more important than the radio itself so building one from scratch is a possible option, depending on tools needed.

The main requirements are that it have an open/close button on the front with an lcd display, and have controls on the back for case lighting, power/reset, anything else needed. Behind the plate would be the front USB, firewire, and possibly headphone inputs.

If there is a way to use a normal faceplate for this, that would be ideal, but I could try making one as well, but I'm not sure how the motor mechamism works or how to build that part.

[gaz_the_chav]

I have no Idea how to achieve this but it sounds like a great idea!!

[Nagoshi]

Do like most CD players for our cars right now; the CD is hidden behind the flipping faceplate. Open/close button would be under the face plate, along with all the other stuff.

OR, what you could do, would be to use your favourite DVD burner, and screw it in the drive cage one or two holes further back, so the drive is now ''in the case'' and you could find a way to make a flipping bezel for the front and make it fit on your DVD drive by modding the DVD front bezel. I highly recommend the DVD open/close button to be behind the flipping bezel since if you happen to hit your open button you won't break your bezel.

And, for the LCD screen, this is going to be a bit complicated. You could make a tiny rectangular LCD screen fit on the flipping bezel, and link it with some kind of wiring to somewhere in your computer where you would have enough place for the LCD device.

[meticoeus]

I might not have explained this very well so I'll try again now that I'm more awake ;p. There will not be a cd/dvd rom behind to faceplate. The main function of the flipping out part is to hide the frontside usb and firewire ports. The only buttons will be to control the case lights, power button, and reset button, besides the open/close buttons on the outside/inside respectively. I may be using a multifuction panel behind this, such as one with a media card reader and temp displays and such, in addition to the usb ports. It may actually be easier to attempt to fab this with plastic or plexi but I don't want to have to build both parts from scratch.

EDIT: I have little experience in working with motors and such so where could I get information about this kind of mechanism? A search for how the flip-down things work was not fruitful. Would you guys recommend trying to salvage an existing radio system for its mechanism, or building one? Note that this will be mounted vertically, not horizontally as car radio things typically are.

[Nagoshi]

You should try to examine how the flip thing is made in car radios. They probably made flip the faceplate on 90degrees on some axis and used a small spring to force the faceplate down.

Unless you can find a 5V or a 12V motor and make your own mechanised faceplate. The thing is, you'll have to find a way to yse a 5V or a 12V line that will be powered permanently, which I dont believe there is in a normal PSU.

[jreffy]

A friend of mine and myself sat down with an idea similar to this when he was building his PC. The only difference is we were thinking of making a panel that would flip down and all his switches to his fans would slide forward.

We found that a CD/DVD drive motor would work best, and it's already somewhat in the right size that you need.

I would suggest the same thing one of the previous posters stated. Either do internet research, or go to a store, and closely examine how these car faceplates work.

Did you want a motorized one that would flip down, or just a push-and-pop down type mechanism? Obviously the latter would be much easier to make. Then it's simply a matter of building a recessed housing for some USB ports, with a custom-made panel (with an LCD display, maybe a button or two) on the front.

[Luke122]

If I'm not mistaken, some of the guys at Austin Modders (http://www.austinmodders.com)have built carpc's, and you might be able to get some info from them.

-Luke