Motorized Madness

[rendermandan]

Thanks again you guys for the support!

I got some odds and ends done this weekend. I started with the relay for servo controller. This will allow the controller to turn on and off with the computer. It has its own 6V power supply.

And here is the power connector and manual switch to turn it on and off.
You can also see where I mounted the Water pump.

Next I took the side panel off and filled some of the holes and gaps with filler.

And then sanded them down.

I also worked on the front switch panel. Here is the back side without much wiring. The wiring that is there is for the dvd eject tray.

After appling 5v to 1 switch and 12v to the other 3, here is the wireing mess. I tried to add some black wire sleeving to clean things up. But I don't think I can get any better than this.

After all the wireing was done. I added the led lights to light up the panel.
These got wired in directly to the power comming into the panel.
-I also replaced the styrene bars that make the hinges of the panel with some Carbon Fiber bars. The styrene bent way to much.

Here is what it looks like from the front. -Looks like there some light comming through some holes that will require filler.

I also started to cover the front of the case.

I added some trim around the top vent.

I also added the final dvd try cover and some additional trim pieces. -I have a lot more to go.

The last thing I worked on was the Part of the logo for the other side of the case. Here it is partially cut out on the scroll saw.

and here is the final piece.

Thats it for now. -Cheers!

[rendermandan]

Here's the next update.

-I decided to take a break from case a little bit and worked on the base unit.

I started with three 7"X12" pieces of thick styrene.

I glued them together to make one large sheet.

Then I cut some 1" high strips and glued them around the perimeter. I left openings on the front and both sides for some motorized trays. -YES more motorized stuff!

Then I cut some 1/8" diameter solid carbon fiber rods. I chose carbon fiber for its rigidity.

I cut some more 1" high strips and drilled some holes for the rods. -Basically these rods will act as rails for the trays to slide in and out on.

Here are the sleeves that go over the carbon fiber rods.

Here is one of the trays. On the bottom side it has the 2 sleeves.

Here it is on the front in the closed position.

And here it is in the open position.

Then I made 2 more for the sides.

Then to make things move. I drilled and installed a ball joint just like some of the previous motorized parts.

I drilled and cut holes in the supports so the threaded rod will converge on a central pivot point.

The servo horn that came with supplied was too small and would not give enough horizontal movement, so I made a larger one.

After making a mounting block and attaching the servo horn in place. Here are all 3 trays hooked up with the linkage to make them slide in and out. THis is the closed position.

Here they are in the open position.

To mount the servo, this is the approximate location. I ran out of ball joints so I have to go get some more before I can continue.

-I should be able to get the base finished this weekend.
-Later!

[rendermandan]

guess i missed something but whats gonna be in the motorized trays?

The tray areas is about 1.5" deep and the widths are around 6" and 10". -So whatever I put there has to be pretty small.

So, at first I'm going to have some led's that shine up and light up the sides of the case.
I also thought about putting an LCD disply in there like this one. http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=20599
But I'm not sure if I can make it fit. -Probably have to take it apart and solder wires to remotely mount the disply away from the electronics. has anyone done something like this?

-not sure what else to put there. -Any suggestions?

[rendermandan]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. After I looked at it some more, the trays really dont' extend all that far out, so I just decided to put some led's that light up the sides of the case. -See the final pics and I think you will agree, that it looks great!.

I picked up a few more ball ends and got the servo for the trays installed.

So then it was time to start on the top of the base. I cut and glued a frame -smaller than the size of the bottom.

then I cut some stand offs and glued them to the framwork of the base.

then i glued on the top.

next I started to fill in the gap with some more Sytrene.

Here it is all done.

This is what it looks like with the case on top.

Here you can see the led's I installed in each tray.

And here is what it looks like in the dark.

I'm going to be covering alot of the base in kit-bashing type work. But for now, What do you guys think?

[rendermandan]

Well, I'm a little pissed off today. -3 things happend.

1st. I went to install my Bulgin Iluminated power switch. I prewired it before putting it in the case for both power and led light. -The switch works great. but guess what. the led doesn't work correctly. It goes in and out because the connector on the back is loose or something. When I wiggle the connector on the back it flickers the light. -I'm going to give performance-pcs.com a call later today to see if they will RMA it.

2nd. Some of the led's that I installed in the base trays. -3 of them went out on me. I got them from Lsdiodes.com -I wondering if they are really cheap, and if these 3 went out, what will happen to the others? I don't have any more to replace them.

And 3rd. -The Rockies suck ass! -They could have at least shown up to the game.

-Very frustrated right now!

[rendermandan]

Sorry, but I already de-soldered it and put it back in its packaging to send back.

By the way you are describing your switch. It has the 2 terminals for the switch and one negative ground terminal for the led. your switch is probably not momentary.

-See the diagram below. -the swith must control the flow of positive power whatever your switching, like a light. then the positive feeds the led and that is why it needs its own ground.
Not sure what the exact layout of your wires on the switch is though. You can test this with a simple electrical ohm meter.

Hope that helps.

[rendermandan]

Yeah, I thought so too, but they were working for a while. -I was working on another part of the case while they were on and I looked up and they suddenly 3 of them were off. -not sure what happened. -you can see that they were working in this pic.

I got a RMA number to send the $20 switch back. hopefully the next will work!

[rendermandan]

Can't wait to see the videos! *hint

Working on it. -I have alot of wiring to get done first before I can power it up. -not to mention individual programming of each servo for start location, end location, speed and timing between other servos. -going to take some work there. -But I will get a video going soon.

[rendermandan]

Just ask, and ye shall receive.

-all I did last night was mount the base to the case. -sorry for the crappy picture. Not sure what happened. -I simply drilled and tapped a few holes in the base and secured it to the bottom with some cap head allen machine screws.

-This is probably premature, but, I hauled the whole thing upstairs and went to town on programming the servos. -I had to do each one individually and then write a script to send each command to the servo controller.

I made 2 versions. The first one has all the servos opening at the same time. and same speed. The reason they don't all finish at the same time is because each servo has to travel a different distance. So to make them start and end at the same time, would take some more programming to set the speed of each on to match.

Then for closing I just told all of them to close real fast. (Could go faster!)

Here is a video showing this setup.

Next I programmed it to open each item sequentially. So the speed does not matter. I didn't change how they closed yet.

So what do you think? Do you like them opening all together or seqentially? or how about the speed? Too Fast or slow?

Thanks!

[rendermandan]

LMAO. Thanks you guys.

I can slow down the closing a bit. The problem with having them go too slow is if they take too long, and the computer shuts off before they are done closing then the servo controller turns off. -But I haven't timed it yet to see how long I have.

As for the Led's. -I know what you mean about them shining through. After its painted and all the kit bashing stuff is on, I was hoping they would not show through. But I could wire in a switch to the servo to have them turn on and off with the motion. -Have to make a stop at radio shack!

As for opening with power on and off. -Already done. I just didn't show it in the video. They automatically open up while window is booting just after the login screen comes on. When I shut it off, they close when the screen says "Windows is shutting down".

I wish I could make them open sooner, but what happens is the servo controller runs off of a USB to Serial Adapter. so the drivers have to load for that to work and then the script file that runs doesn't load untill after a bunch of other stuff loads first. So it takes a little bit before all the action happens.

As for controlling each item individually. -yes. I have icons in a folder that run scripts to each servo to open and close, so if I wanted to close the front intake fan by itself, I can do just that.