Motorized Madness

Quote:

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Originally Posted by .Maleficus.

You're using styrene for most of the work now, right? Where'd you get it, locally, internet? Know of any hardware stores that carry it?

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Yes, I'm using Styrene, I've found that for anything that would require some type of structural integrity, I should use styrene. for the decorative stuff I'm going to use matt board, much cheaper and easier to cut!

I bought the sheets at a local place called Hobby town. They sell all kinds of modeling supplies as well as remote controlled stuff. planes, cars, trains etc.

FYI, I will be gone for at least 10 days. my work is sending me to Sunny SanFrancisco for a job. So untill I get back, sadly this will have to be put on hold.

Later!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by turis

I'm new to the forum bought saw your iris and had to post. I know in woodworking if we need identical peices we stick them all together and cut and sand it as one piece. I'm not sure if this is possible with styrene though having never used it

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That is a good point. In fact I have tried that method but what happens with Styrene is it the thicker the material gets, the hotter it makes the blade when you cut it, then at a certain point, it just starts to melt the styrene together, then you have a real mess!

Thanks though. and Welcome to TBCS!

Finally the long awaited update!!!


I picked right up where I left off.
Because the Radiator will stick out of the side of the case sligtly, I traced the perimeter of the radiator on the side panel. -Man working with clear material really makes this easy!!!

Then I cut it out.

And here it is on the case. You can see how much it sticks out.

The idea is to build a cover that goes over the radiator. but you can still remove the side panel without taking the radiator out. -That will make it much easier to work on.

Then I turned my attention to the hard drive mounts.
Here is the one that came with the sunbeam case.

I turned the case upside down. So your looking at the bottom of the case in this one. -I drilled some holes to mount the verticle drive sides to the bottom.

but I decided that I would never need 5 spaces. so to make some room, I cut them down shorter.

Then I simply screwed them to the bottom of the case.

here it is with a old defunct hard drive as a test fit. I have room for 2 drives.

Next up was the fan controller. Here is the one out of my current case:

I took off the bay cover I made earlier. and made a new on out of styrene.

The idea here is to have it motorize out of the side of the case in a tilting motion. The servo will be mounted to one side of the verticle arms.

here is the servo horn attached to the side piece.

And here it is on all together.

The last part I did for the night was to round off the bottoms of the verticle legs.

I still have to assemble it, mount it, cut the hole in the side of the case etc. etc.

Untill next time.... Happy modding :)

ok, here is another update.

I decided that I needed to remake the side bars for the fan controller. i shouldn't have rounded both ends. so i made these:

here they are installed on the fan controller. -I had to make them longer due to the sides, front and back because of the depth of the knobs and switches.

Then I made the mounting plate for the bottom:

I added some gussets for strength and to limit flexing of the mounts.

This is where it will go in the case.

Then I laid the side cover over it and drew an outline as to where the cut the panel:

here it is cut out. -the bottom of the panel is cut at an angle due to the motion of the panel. the top angles out, but the bottom angles inward.

here it is mounted with the side panel:

here it is angled out.

closed:

opened:

And here it is with the clear side panel mounted to it. -Its clear because I want light to be able to transmit through. but most will be covered.

That is one more motorized part done. Now its on to the IRIS and one other item. I have to include usb ports, a SD media card reader, and I'd like to include a water temperature gauge somewhere, but I'm not sure what to do to motorize it. anyone have any ideas? Ive got lots of room directly above the fan controller. I was thinking about a tube that motorizes out from the side of the case...
I was thinking about getting one of these: http://www.xoxide.com/thermaltake-t-...indicator.html anyone have any experience with it?

Later!

I placed my order for the Thermaltake temp monitor and a few 120mm turbine fans that I'm going to replace the fans in the turbine mod. They look alot more like a turbine than the ones I had. here are the ones I ordered. http://www.xoxide.com/aerocool-xtrem...000-black.html

Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to motorize the temperature monitor panel along with a sd media card reader and some usb ports. -Any ideas???? I'm open to any new ideas. I'm trying to do something different with each motorized item.

Thanks Spawn,

Sorry its been taking so long for an update. My Chron's flared up and I haven't been feeling well. But after another Cat scan and $80 in meds, I'm starting to feel better.... That is untill the next flare up.

So as promised, here is an update.

I measured and drilled 4 holes and mounted some stud in the back side of the drive rack. They are kind of hard to pick out in the picture but if you look close, you can see them.

These studs are to mount the servo controller.

I came up with an idea for how to motorize the temperature monitor, USB ports, Reset switch, SD Media card reader etc. -Basically, I wanted a panel that would move and be replaced with an identical panel only with the stuff mounted to it. I thought about haveing doors open, then pull back and have the panel exposed, or move forward, or whatever. Then I just decided to have a triangular panel rotate around that had the same size. So I started with 2 Equilateral Triangular pieces.

Then I found the center and drilled some holes.

I mounted a servo horn, just like I did for the fan controller.

Then I had to remove a large section of the drive bay support to mount the servo. here it is in its location (un mounted).

I then made 2 panels and glued it together. This is one side.

This is the "Back" side. Its left open to mount the objects and for wireing.

Then I made some servo mounts.

And finally mounted it to the case.

Here it is with the panel attached.

I still have to make a mount for the other side to pivot on so it won't Flop around.

Here is an overall shot of everything in the case. FYI Its lying on the front of the case.

Thats all I got done last night. It was getting late so I decided to leave off there.

Later!

I"m really glad you guys like it!!!! and thank you to all who have +repped me.


Small update today.

I built a small verticle support for the end of the rotating panel.

Then I laid the clear side over to mark out where to cut the openeing.

5 minutes later with a dremel, and Voila. an opening cut in the panel.

Here you can see it in the closed position with the panel on.

here you can see it with it opened partially. -Fully opened looks the same as it is when closed.

Then for lateral stability, I cut a small section of the scrap from part of the case that had one of those brass threaded inserts in it and glued it to the side. then I drilled and counter sunk a hole in the side of the case. This will hold the end so it doesnt move front to back.

and here it is with the screw in it.

Ok, that part is done. -I'm still waiting on my Temperature monitor that UPS says will be deliverd on Monday. I then can mount it and the the other stuff in the panel. Untill then, the only thing I really have to work on is the IRIS. but I'm still waiting on my buddy witht he laser cutter. I'm at his mercy so I don't know when that will get done.

I suppose I could start to work cleaning things up, mounting the power switch, switches in the front, remote dvd eject button, lights, mounting the turbine, painting, fan wireing, programing the controller, blah blah blah. Crap, I have alot to do!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys,

Just another small update today. I'm still waiting on that delivery so I decided to work the remote eject button for the dvd burner, and stealth it. I removed the cover off the drive and located the 2 solder joints that I needed to solder wires to.

I will hook these wires up to a switch located in motorized panel.

Then I cut a face plate for the front.
Here are the 3 pieces. the top piece is a spacer for the drawer.

Glued it to the front of the drive.

and here it is with the drawer closed.

and ejected.

Then I simply mounted it back in the case.

Currently it is still a rectangular panel, but I will add onto that later.


Thats it for now.

Finally my package arrived. I ordered a thermaltake temperature monitor and 2 turbine fans to replace the ones in the turbine. Man do they look sweet. They will really add to the "look" of the turbine! not to mention 2 of them on the radiator is going to push some serious air. 89CFM each. -I'm going to take the 2 thermaltake fans I have on there now and move them to the 240mm radiator in the case. then take those case fans (the sunbeam ones) and put on in the rear of the case. I also have another thermaltake fan to use in the front intake of the case. I wont' be able to get to it tonight because of Bowling so I should get to work on it tuesday night.

Today I placed an order for some black sleeving, a vandal resistand bulgin power switch and some water cooling fittings. I also had to get some servo extension wires for a couple of the servos. :)

Later.

lol, sorry. right now its 1:46 pm. -in addition to the IRIS parts, I'm working on some final layouts of stuff I'm going to have laser cut. Might as well get as much cut as possible while I can.