Project: XPS Ground Effects

[Acey]

When's winter (month)? There's only 2 types of weather here so I don't know; rain or sun, thats it.

I'd avoid working on any projects so I can have time to see what you'll do then hahaha.

[SgtM]

Dan.. you were in my backyard man. I'm about 3 hours east of Cedar Point (although I haven't been there since '96). As a matter of fact, if you took 80 or 76, you went right by me. I'm really digging this mod. Great work!

Acey - Winter officially begins in December for us.

[rendermandan]

Yep, I did take 80. I was on my way back from Phillidelpia to Omaha Nebraska.

I waved, but you must not have seen me. LOL

[rendermandan]

well guys, I finally had some time tonight to get some real work done on this project.

I made the small plastic box that will fit under the laptop. It's 5/8" thick at the thickest point. that doesn't leave much room inside for electronics.

Here is a shot before I painted it black.

You can see the holes where I will mount the 10 rgb led's.

and this is where it will go on the laptop.

Here it is painted. I might try and find some of that "Rubberized" black paint somewhere, (anyone know where to get it?) for now, this will have to do.

The light box control and power will be supplied via a USB port on the side of the case. I want to be able to leave this connected all the time, even when I put the laptop in my bag, and I don't want to take the chance of breaking the usb port when I do. So I need an extremely shallow usb connector. I could not find a shallow one, let alone one that did a 180 turn back towards itself. So I made one.

Here is what I started with. Its a standard black usb cord that I had laying around. You will notice that it sticks out way to far out the side of the laptop. This just will not do at all!!!

So the first thing I did was carefully strip off the black rubber surround around the end.

Then I cut some of the metal outer part of the usb connector off.

and I matched the inside part leaving the metal connectors intact.

I reasembled it together and bent the pins down.

and it now looks like this on the side of the laptop.

then I resoldered the wires on to the bent pins.

Then I made a small rectangular form to fit around the usb plug.

Then I simply filled the back side with some hot glue. -I really wish I could have found some Black hot glue but all I could find was clear.

Then I simply painted it black.

Now it takes up very little space to the side and directs the wire under the laptop to the light box.

I noticed after I took the pics that there are some slight imperfections in the hot glue surface. They really don't show up to the naked eye. I think the camera flash accentuates them and makes them show more easily.
So what do you guys think so far?

[The boy 4rm oz]

Very nice idea with the USB connector, can't wait to see you laptop all lit up.

I do have a question about the laptop though, how do you find it? I am torn between an XPS or a MacBook for Uni next year.

[DonT-FeaR]

lol thats really well done nice workj

[dfigravity]

Hey guys, I got back from my trip to Philly yesterday. We worked our butts off so we could get done early and head up to New York for a day. that was a lot of fun! -then on the way back, we stopped in Sandusky OH, at Cedar Point. The roller coaster capital of the US.

Did you guys hit the Top Thrill Dragster? That thing is AWESOME!

[rendermandan]

Did you guys hit the Top Thrill Dragster? That thing is AWESOME!

That was the main reason for going there! 0 to 120 mph in 3.8 seconds. then straight up in the air 420 ft and then back down. The entire ride lasted all of 17 seconds. It launches you with 10,000 hp.

It was the most intense 17 seconds of my life.

[custom_electronics_man]

Wow nice job Dan. I will hit the electronics hard on Sunday and I should have the overall hardware built and the microcontroller for the LEDs programmed. The next step will be to fit everything on the board. I might draw up a layout for PCB to get it manufactured tomorrow too. We will see....

[Acey]

Great job stealthing the USB

I thought the plastic box looks big in the first picture lol. Did you mold it or stock drilled?