Project: Motorized Madness!

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!!!!!!!!!

Once again flawless mate, I really hope the iris works out for you.

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.

Nice work.

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.

That stealthed dvd drive technique looks familiar :) Nice job.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Killdrath

That stealthed dvd drive technique looks familiar :) Nice job.

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Thanks, but I'm not done yet. there is still another panel to be added later on.

NEWS FLASH!!!!

I'm set to meet my friend with the laser cutter today at 3:00pm. Hopefully with any amount of luck, I will have all the parts cut today!

Everyone keep your fingers crossed for me please!

....



{sound of fingers crossing ;)}
and good luck! btw, time-zone-difference-to-blame, how many hours left till 3? :)

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.

Looks crazy complicated. Keep going. + rep to ya!

I have some good news and some bad news.

First the good news. here is an update on the progress.

Here is what I got in the mail yesterday. 2 turbine fans to replace the thermaltake fans in the turbine mod. and the Water temperature monitor.

I replaced the fans in the Turbine Mod. I think the fins really make it look more like a turbine.

Next are the electronics that I'm going to mount in the side motorized panel.
It consits of a SD Media card reader, USB ports and reset switch and the Temperature Monitor.

So I started to layout the placement on the panel.

then I cut the holes.

I then glued the media card reader and added some gussets for support to the back side.

Then I cut the switch board that came with the case kit to seperate the usb ports.

and I mounted them in the panel.

here is the back side.

next I de-soldered one of the reset switches.

and mounted it in the panel.

Here it is will everything so far.

and I reinstalled it back in the case.

I stil lhave to install a HDD light and some more status monitors like maybe the dvd activity light and others. -Not sure about the design of those yet.

The last small thing I did was mount one of the nose caps that came with the turbine fans onto a thermaltake fan that will become the intake fan.

Now for the bad news. The IRIS is not going to happen. Yesterday my Friend and I worked on getting the parts laser cut. Basically the machine is only a Laser etcher, not a cutter. Although it will cut through material, the time it would take and the number of passes would basically talk way too long.

there were 4 sheets total that needed to be cut. 2 sheets were .030 thick and 2 were .100 thick. We started with the .030 sheet. and after 20 minutes, it was only 1/4 of the way through the entire sheet. but that was just about 1/4 through the thickness as well. So if you run the numbers thats 80 minutes per pass X 4 passes = over 5 hours for 1 sheet. Now the .100 sheet is over 3 times as thick and would take all day to cut. so I'd be looking at around 3 days total of cutting. -keep in mind you can't tell it to run multiple passes, you have to tell it to send each pass after its done. I can't tell it to keep running all night long, and this is located at a High school on the other side of town for me. -So basically due to time restraints. I can't get the pieces cut.

Also, the piece it did etch. I noticed that the edges wern't smooth either. they were somewhat "Melted" from the laser. so I would have to sand everything down and I'd be back to where I started.

So my here are my 2 options. I can try and rebuild it from scratch and hope it works again using some other method of aligning the holes, or I can come up with a different idea to have a motorized cover over a window in my case that will still be cool, but not an Iris.

What do you guys think I should do?

I really dont know what else to say,exept ZOMFG

this is surely one of the best modds i ever seen in my life,and i've seen a lot of them.
I've tried to give you +rep again,but i cant to do that atm.:D

Hmm. What about doors that would swing out of the way. Think Lady bug wings. 2 half circles, rotating out of the way. Or you could do 4. And you could make them overlap and shave as necessary.
I also would give rep, as the story goes.

hmm... you should try to have the iris made in a different way, manually.. the link few pages back about the iris principle and possible mechanisms was cool.... And maybe you could make the iris in 2 layers.. use a very thin window between and have the blades alternating.. when the iris is closed, it should overlap so no light comes in/out.. when it is opened, it is opened. The thin window would allow this. Could look interesting.. I didn't quite manage to make a working 3d model of an iris, so I can't really show what I mean.. Instead of having half an iris on each plane, you would have alternating blades.. it would have a unique look. And you could do an etch to match..

Oh, and the panel looks awesome :)

EDIT: if all fails, don't lose the iris.. try having lots of patience ;) and do it the laser way. slowly.... . ..

or ask b417, he got many mills at his modding station, maybe he could mill you something..for money or reps :D :D

small update. I got some more parts in the mail today. -power switch, sleeving kit, some elbow fittings, some servo extensions and some more hardware (nuts and washers).

I also picked up some clear printer sheets for making the button and switch iluminated labels.

FUN-FUN!

How about another laser cutter?

http://www.bclaserworks.com/cutting.html

I've used these folks in the past to cut 1/8" & 1/4" plexi. He does good work but can be difficult to get a hold of sometimes.

The other direction that you may consider is an iris valve or a variant of a scissor valve with 2 scissor joints mounted at 180 degree to one another.

Ok, here is another update.

I worked on some of the labeling for the parts. I started with the fan controller. So I made a built a channel to enclose the leds.

Then I made the lables. Basically these are laser printed onto clear printer sheets with sticky backing. then I stuck them to a translucent piece of plastic.

here it is mounted in the panel.

and here it is lit up. I only connected 1 fan but you should get the idea.

and here it is back in the case.

Next I turned my attention to the Hard drive activity light.

This time I just cut an opening in the panel and installed the label behind it.

To illuminate it, I made a box with a hole in the back for an led.

Then I just glued it behind the panel.

While I was at it, I sleeved the led for the HDD.

Lastly, I worked on the front switch panel.

Using the same methods as before. here it is.

The center switch is the dvd eject button. I still have to install the other switches as soon as I take them out of my current case. :)

Later,

Jesus man, looks fantastic. Your attention to detail is remarkable. Keep up the good work.

wow... looking good.

Hope everyone had a good Productive weekend. I did.

I added a "Logo" to the monitor panel.

and I installed the switches in the front panel. I still have to wire everyting up.

Then I turned my attention to the side panel where the IRIS was going to go. I decided to go with a different idea. One that starts to show you guys what the overall theme of this case is about. Its called motorized madness, and when I think of Motors, I think of gears. So to continue that theme, I figured I might as well have some moving gears in the case. So I drew up some gears and made a "quarter" gear that will rotate out of the way to reveal the window behind. Here is the drawing.

I cut it out using the scroll saw.

Then I drilled a hole and mounted the servo to the side panel. This will be the only thing attached to the side panel that will have to be "unplugged" when I take of the panel.

I added a thin sheet to the back side of the gear so it will hide the window.
here it attached to the servo.

From the back side you can see where the window will be. -There are 2 fan holes that will have to be closed. So I cut a small piece to fill in the Gap where the fan openenign was. and Cut out the window opening.

Then I cut a template and a piece of plexi to use for the window.

Here you can see the plexi window glued into position, and then on the front, I glued the trim plate. so you don't see the joint. This view is from the back.

Then to make it look more like a half gear, I cut out another one on the scroll saw for the bottome "Channel".

I added some sides to the bottom piece and glued it to the side panel. -Basically from the side, it looks like 1/2 of a gear, but the top rotates down into the "channnel" that is created .

Here is the side panel with everything closed.

and now with everything open.

I know alot of you are dissapointed that I coudn't get the iris to work. Believe me, I'm the most dissapointed. I tried building it 3 times and wasted about $40 in materials. but It just wouldn't close right. Every time It would be perfect in the opened position, and then get all screwed up when closed, or it wouldn't close at all. I gave a valiant effort, but at some time I had to say enough was enough and move on to a different idea. I hope everyone likes it. Its obviously a much simpler design and not as cool as the iris, but I think it ties to the theme of the case nicely.

So stay tuned. The moving panels and parts are completed, now comes the fun part of covering all of it, so you don't see it!

-Dan

Wow this whole project is coming along great. Too bad you couldn't get the iris to work but I really like your new idea to replace it.

This is all looking very smooth and professional. I love all the fun moving parts you have incorporated so far and I am very impressed with your precise and clean workmanship. Keep up the good work!

I love the little labels that you have made to be backlit by LED's. Are they easy to do? Perhaps you could show us how you made those little labels.

Ouch!

+ Rep

Actually the labels were quite easy. I went to my local hobby lobby and picked up some clear printer label sheets with adhesive backing. -6 sheets for $10. then using photoshop I typed out the text and made a reverse image of it so the background would print black and not print the actuall lettering. Then I just printed them out and stuck them to a sheet of semi-translucent plastic. I think it was supposed to used to cut your own stencils. I got that at hobby lobby too. Then I just cut the shape to size and glued it on.

The black from the laser print looks pretty good. although i wish it were a little darker. you can kind of see through it a tada. but I can live with that. I also tried printing it twice to darken it up. but I had a hard time getting it to print in the exact spot each time. -Not sure how well it would do on an inject, or in color.

Very nice Dan! I think the gears are a perfect match for your theme. I would even go so far as to suggest adding a few more smaller ones here and there, or maybe do some gear fan grills to compliment the main gear/window.

I can't wait to see this all painted up with the details!

LOL, way ahead of you, here is one of my designs. The shaded areas would be windows or frosted windows as well!!! -Maybe now you understand why I started with an acrylic case?

Nice design, if your frosting the plexi mask off the area and use wet sand sand paper, works great, especially on clear plexi.

looking awsome dan!
a shame that the iris wouldnt work, bit its a nice alternative

+rep!

Thanks to all of you!

I've been working on the gears.
Here is the first one.

I mounted it above the window opening and added a frosted sheet behind to give it that "translucent" feel. I also started to cover the panel where I dont' want light comming through. -Particularly around the radiator.

I orderd some mesh from MNPCTECH.com for the Radiator cover. -That should get here tomorrow.
Then I worked on cutting out some more of the gears. All that detail takes some time to cut out.

Thats it for now.

Looks nice mate, that frosted plexi suits your mod really well.

Wow! That looks amazing.
I can recommend sandblasting on clear plexi if you want only some details to become frosted.
Do you have servos left to make some of the gears rotate? You can easily mod the servos so they can rotate unlimited.

Awesome idea Squelsh, that would look insane.

I love this mod!

Man that is some sick styrene cutting skills you have there!
What are you using to cut the holes with?
Oh and by the way great job on the mod!

And for the styrene cutting skills +rep

Charles

Thanks you guys!

-Wannabe, I'm using a scroll saw to cut all the gears. The holes are cut with drill bits and A stepped drill bit set.

Here is my progress over the weekend.

I covered the entire side in Thin sheets of styrene. I used tape to hold the piece there temporarily.

Then I laid out where the gears would go.

This process is the same for all the translucent gear parts.
-1st. I cut a circle slighly smaller than the gear.

Then I frost the plexi in that area.

Then I glue the gear over the top.

Here you can see that there are 4 gears, (holes) that will be frosted and the rest will be just decoration.

Here it is with all the gears applied.

and opened.

Next I worked on the cover for the Radiator.
I made some 1/2" tall sides to make a frame around the radiator.

Then I cut a top trim piece.

and I glued some Modders Mesh to the underside.

then I glued the entire thing to the side panel.

Remember, this panel is removable!
I still have to cut 2 more gears to go over the modders mesh as show in the sketch in a previous post.

Thats it for now. -Cheers!

Holy crap Batman!!!! This looks fantastic. If I may make a suggestion, wouldn't it be better to use slightly thicker styrene for the gears to make them stand out just a little bit more. After all gears are usually chunky but either way looks fantastic mate.

EDIT: are you going to back light the frosted plexi?

Yeah, some of the gears are thicker than others. There are actually 3 different thickness there. Just hard do see due to the flash of the camera and that everything is the same white color. -I plan on painting everyting and the gears will stand out alot more once its painted. -It will follow my Turbine mod with the weathered and rusted look of an old machine. But thanks for your suggestion!

This is an awesome mod!

I'd rep you, but I have to spread it around a bit first.

EDIT: finally repped you... took long enough...

Love it! You've got serious talent dude!