Silenti_etc
06-22-2005, 02:18 AM
OK. This is most likely not going to make any meaningful sense at all.
I am in the process of doing several functional mods to my old antec SOHO performance case. I just finished rack mount unit style handles on the top. I am planning on adding 4 black castors to the bottom.
My next planned mod, however, has me completely stumped.
I am trying to work out a stealthed stash. Ok, no idea what I am talking about?
Lets see if I can explain. I took an old dead cdrom and gutted it, saving the case (which is now empty) and has no front (where the drive plate is) nor back (where you plugged the molex and IDE cables, set master/slave/cable jumpers, etc). I mounted my drive rails on this box, slid it into place on my case, cut down one of the blank faceplates and smashed it onto the front of this box. The end result is a box I can keep stuff and its completly stealthed.
Cool as hell mod, I know. But, I need to step up my abilities to the next level.
What I want to do is hinge the whole drive cover on either the left or right side and install some sort of mechanism that will open and close the drive when it gets pressed on the non-hinged side. I would also like this motion to be rather smooth.
I saw a roughly functional design on the home entertainment centers we have at my house. All the glass doors use a magnetized "pop-latch" (my term) The door has a metal bracket that presses on the pop-latch, the magnets thereby holding it. When you press the pop-latch in, it clicks and holds the door at a closed position. When you press the latch again, it pops out about a cm and holds the door slightly ajar or makes the door swing freely again. depending on the way the magnets are situated.
This would work sorta for my idea, but it has several major drawbacks.
1) size. the ones I found here (which I looked at Home Depot, Lowes(Home Depot only blue not orange), and Walmart for but couldnt find) stick out about 3/4" and are about 2 inches long.
2) Strength. These things are ment to hold onto a 5lb glass door. Even using one that lets the door swing loose when popped open, on my 5 gram drive cover, I'd have to yank pretty hard to get it loose. Definately not 'refined.'
3) Magnets inside a Computer case. Now I have read all the papers that put huge holes in the 'magnets near a computer cause data corruption' theory, but I still hessitate to put strong magnets inside a case without some sort of shielding. Especially so close to a 300g HD.
4) 'Pop' motion. This isnt really the nice fluid motion I was envisioning. The motion I am after is like opening the cd bay of a boombox or diskman.
I have been kicking around the idea of using servos and doing it that way.
But... and this is a HUGE but... I have no previous electronics experiance. I took one semester of a ultra basic intro to electronics (i understand watts, voltage and amp, understand capacidence (sp?) and inductance. I know what a diode, transister and transformer. I used to be able to read the color code on a resistor and tell you the value) but other than doing 2-5 componant circuits and seeing how they affect the output on a oscilloscope, I dont know crap. Don't even know how to solder correctly (only ever used breadboards).
If anyone can shed some light on this problem, I will be most indebted.
I am in the process of doing several functional mods to my old antec SOHO performance case. I just finished rack mount unit style handles on the top. I am planning on adding 4 black castors to the bottom.
My next planned mod, however, has me completely stumped.
I am trying to work out a stealthed stash. Ok, no idea what I am talking about?
Lets see if I can explain. I took an old dead cdrom and gutted it, saving the case (which is now empty) and has no front (where the drive plate is) nor back (where you plugged the molex and IDE cables, set master/slave/cable jumpers, etc). I mounted my drive rails on this box, slid it into place on my case, cut down one of the blank faceplates and smashed it onto the front of this box. The end result is a box I can keep stuff and its completly stealthed.
Cool as hell mod, I know. But, I need to step up my abilities to the next level.
What I want to do is hinge the whole drive cover on either the left or right side and install some sort of mechanism that will open and close the drive when it gets pressed on the non-hinged side. I would also like this motion to be rather smooth.
I saw a roughly functional design on the home entertainment centers we have at my house. All the glass doors use a magnetized "pop-latch" (my term) The door has a metal bracket that presses on the pop-latch, the magnets thereby holding it. When you press the pop-latch in, it clicks and holds the door at a closed position. When you press the latch again, it pops out about a cm and holds the door slightly ajar or makes the door swing freely again. depending on the way the magnets are situated.
This would work sorta for my idea, but it has several major drawbacks.
1) size. the ones I found here (which I looked at Home Depot, Lowes(Home Depot only blue not orange), and Walmart for but couldnt find) stick out about 3/4" and are about 2 inches long.
2) Strength. These things are ment to hold onto a 5lb glass door. Even using one that lets the door swing loose when popped open, on my 5 gram drive cover, I'd have to yank pretty hard to get it loose. Definately not 'refined.'
3) Magnets inside a Computer case. Now I have read all the papers that put huge holes in the 'magnets near a computer cause data corruption' theory, but I still hessitate to put strong magnets inside a case without some sort of shielding. Especially so close to a 300g HD.
4) 'Pop' motion. This isnt really the nice fluid motion I was envisioning. The motion I am after is like opening the cd bay of a boombox or diskman.
I have been kicking around the idea of using servos and doing it that way.
But... and this is a HUGE but... I have no previous electronics experiance. I took one semester of a ultra basic intro to electronics (i understand watts, voltage and amp, understand capacidence (sp?) and inductance. I know what a diode, transister and transformer. I used to be able to read the color code on a resistor and tell you the value) but other than doing 2-5 componant circuits and seeing how they affect the output on a oscilloscope, I dont know crap. Don't even know how to solder correctly (only ever used breadboards).
If anyone can shed some light on this problem, I will be most indebted.