evil red htpc

[xr4man]

since i "finished" the blue oyster, i can now turn my attention to something i actually need, an htpc. i have one connected to my main tv, but i feel the need to have one connected in my bedroom as well.

so my hardware plans are:

msi e350 mobo
4-8g ram
slot load slim dvd burner
used laptop hard drive

eventually i'll add in a nice fat harddrive for media storage and this will then serve a dual role of htpc and media server.

anyway, here's the case i started with

i don't have any of the internal hardware yet other than the slim drive and the laptop drive. both of which are in my carputer that was never finished right now.

obviously, the first thing i had to do was rip the whole thing apart.

i don't like front panels that have an extra flip down piece that covers the optical drive, so i took that off and carved out the front panel so i can flush mount the optical drive.
the front panel come apart in two pieces, so both had to be modified.

there is a lip around the edge of the front part of the panel and i thought it would be neat if there was a red glow coming around the edge. so i had to carve off the lip that runs on either side of it.

i will place two led boards between the front and rear portions of the front panel to provide the red glow from the sides.

here are the parts i got today. there are two 4 led boards and two 9 led boards. the 9 led boards will be mounted on either side of the frame inside the case to provide a red glow through the holes in the sides of the case.

the small wireless touchpad is an ipazzport. $25 from amazon. it has got to be the flimsiest, cheapest made piece of hardware i have ever touched. but it does work perfectly without a single issue. i didn't even have to install any drivers fro it. it just worked. oh and the battery was charged too.

[xr4man]

next up is the leds soldered to the 9 led boards. i still have to calculate what resistors to install on the boards.

once i decide how i want to mount the 4 led boards, i will solder them up and mount them in the front panel.

next piece to buy is a lian-li slim drive adapter to mount the slim dvd drive and the laptop hardrive in the 5.25" bay.

[d_stilgar]

Nice start. Looks good.

[xr4man]

thanks.

i'm thinking i might paint the frame black and put uv leds inside with red uv sleeving. i figure this time, unlike with the blue oyster, i probably will follow through with that idea since i don't have a mobo yet anyway so i have plenty of time to just mess with the case itself.

[The_Crippler]

the small wireless touchpad is an ipazzport. $25 from amazon.

Well.

Played.

Sir.


Never would have thought of that for an HTPC remote. Brilliant.

[xr4man]

thanks. i stumbled across it when i was actually looking for a small palm size wireless touchpad i had seen reviewed in maximumpc and this popped up. since it actually incorporated a keyboard too and was cheaper than what i was looking for, how could i go wrong?

[The_Crippler]

Given how expensive MCE remotes can be, and how many issues one can have setting them up (especially on non-windows systems) you made a good find. I might actually snag one of those for my main HTPC.

[AmEv]

My HTPC keyboard?


A bit older, but....

Yours probably could be used as a carputer keyboard.

[xr4man]

got some stuff done this weekend.

here's some supplies i got on saturday at my favorite electronics store.

heat shrink, wire strippers, resistors for the led boards, and a switch that i am probably not going to use.

here's what i got done.

the chassis is painted now.

the led board are completed. i decided to use only 2 leds on the small boards instead of 4.

the power supply is painted black.

and the power supply and front panel connectors are mounted.

looking at how long the cable runs are going to be, i decided that sleeving is pretty much pointless. the wires will only be 1 to 3 inches long and after the heat shrink for the sleeving would be put on, there would be at most an inch of sleeving on only some wires and others would be nothing but heat shrink. so no sleeving on this one after all. that means no internal uv leds either.

i have to sand and repaint the front panels since they got some gunk in the paint when i painted them today.

[xr4man]

finally got some stuff done.

i got the side leds mounted and wired up.

here's a shot in the dark.

here they are with the cover on.

and in the dark

i also just ordered the switch, sleeving, heat shrink, connectors, and the drive adapter.

once i get the switch mounted, then i can mount the front panel leds. then get crackin' on the sleeving.