scratch built Roisin Dearg (a Scratch Built "Modular" Case)

[Lady Fitzgerald]

After supper last night, I started working on the two 8 pin CPU power cables that plug into the top of the MOBO. I cut the #14 wires to 30", much longer than I needed but I won't know the final length until I'm ready to put the MOBO tray in the case, stripped the ends, crimped the pins to one end of the wires, soldered the connection since the wire is a bit over sized for the pins, which were designed for #16 wires, then inserted the pins into the connectors.

 

This afternoon, I started arranging the rats' nest of wires coming out of the cables into manged cables. Since I had so much fun getting the six wire cables flat, I first taped the eight wire cables into two four wire cables, then taped the two four wire cables into one eight wire cable. That worked fairly well but it was still fairly fiddly.

 

 

 

After taping the cables together, I started bending them into shape. That was "fun". I made the cables offset so I could get to the latch on the connector, similar to what I did wth the 24 pin extension, to make removing the connectors easier (relatively speaking; they still are going to be stinkers to remove due to where the sockets are).

 

 

 

Once the cable reaches the other side of the MOBO back plate, it then narrows down to a more conventional round cable. I taped the wires together so they will remain more or less parallel, reducing, if not eliminating, lumpiness.

 

 

 

The ribbon cable portion was 3/4" wide and the round portion was 3/8". I found a 1/2" sleeve expanded nicely on the ribbon cable portion and could be stretched down to a snug fit on the rounded portion. I put heat shrink tubing on the finished end of the cable but I'll wait until I have the cable cut to its final length before shrink sleeving the other end. Here are the "finished for now" cables.

 

 

 

 

The blue tape on the left end (in the picture) is just temporary to keep the bend form slowly spring open until I can the cable permanently installed. The blue tape on the right end are tags identifying which wire is which. 

 

Here is the test fit on the MOBO. I didn't seat the connectors since I didn't want to have to wrestle them back out. The photos stink becasue it was a tough location to take photos but they get the point across (kinda sorta).

 

 

 

 

I'll start on the six pin cable that will connect into the extension cable I had so much fun with yesterday this evening but may not finish it until late tomorrow or on Saturday since I need to run errands tomorrow.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Well, I lied. I finished the cable tonight. I had to add a little bit of offset to clear the CPU power cable next to it but, otherwise, was a simple single bend down at the connector. Without any further fanfare, here 'tis.

 

 

 

 

 

The only power cables left are the two graphics card power cables and a couple of fan power cables (those will be interesting since they will have to be integrated with leads going to MOBO fan headers.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I am an idiot! After getting up at 3 O'Dark this morning to get ready to paint that little PCI cover bracket, doing my grocery shopping, and running a bunch of errands with only an hour long nap around noon, you would think I would have gone back to bed after supper. No, that would have made too much sense. Instead I went to work on the graphics card power cable(s). Again, I used #14 wire and soldered the pins after crimping them on. To reduce bulk, I combined the two six pin cables into one 12 wire cable, flared out to a ribbon cable for where it ducks under the MOBO tray, then separated the cables for the rest of the run. Making this one was a real stinker.

 

Here is the almost finished cable.

 

 

I pretty much had only one route for the cable. I couldn't go to the right side of the MOBO because the SATA ports, USB 3.1 Gen 1 headers, and the 24 pin header were all in the way. Going down to the bottom of the MOBO was not an option. That left going up to the top of the MOBO, running over but not touching a heatsink and parallel to the RAM.

 

Here are some shots of the cable temporarily installed.

 

 

 

 

I was so pooped by then, I never even noticed I had left the pieces of electrical tape I had used to temporarily hold the wires in place on the wires going into the connector bodies while building the cable until I could get the sleeves and heat shrinks in place. I'll take them off tomorrow (oopsie, make that later--much later--today) when I get my nap out.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

After too short of a night, I removed that unsightly tape (that was "fun"), then blackened the wires and the heat shrink with a felt pen. Definitely an improvement.

 

 

 

 

I also blackend the heat shrinks andd the exposed wires on the other cables.

 

After lunch, I'm heading back to bed. After I get my nap out, I just might change gears from cables and start working on the GPU back plate with the materials I picked up yesterday.

 

[mAs81]

All those neatly routed cables make me look at my own build in disgust , lol

 

Great job ! It's all starting to come together now ..

[Lady Fitzgerald]

4 minutes ago, mAs81 said:

All those neatly routed cables make me look at my own build in disgust , lol

 

Great job ! It's all starting to come together now ..

Thanks! And don't be so hard on yourself. Good cable management requires one to be significantly OCD, wich isn't always a good thing (at least, that's what I learned while working for my Psychology degree half a century ago; it wasn't even called OCD back then). Most people prefer to display their cables as works of art (when done well, they are works of arts and should be proudly displayed) but I'm old school (heck, I'm just old) and prefer to hide them as much as possible.

 

In fact, I feel it's a pity manufacturers don't make their MOBOs with an option to have the sockets on the back of the MOBOs. Talk about hiding cables! I've seen people move their sockets to the back of the MOBO or just solder the cables directly to the back of the MOBO but, besides being a wee bit more tedious than I'm willing to do, I'm defintely NOT willing to risk wrecking a $500+ piece of kit or voiding its warranty!

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I finally finished the graphics card back plate. Except for one part, it wasn't difficult, just tedious as all get out, especially the chevrons. I first cut a piece of lexan to size, sanded the edges smooth with 180, 220, 320, 400, and 600 grit sandpaper, then put down painters' tape on the Lexan to further protect it. I then used one of the Chromax CPU cooler fin covers for a template for tracing the outline of the chevrons onto the tape. The tedious part was cutting the outline of the chevrons with an Exacto knife, then peeling out the tape and the original protective film from inside the Chevrons. It didn't help I can't see all that great, even with a magnifying headset on, and my old hands aren't all that steady.

 

Painting was fairly simple. I sprayed a couple coats of blue Krylon Fusion onto the chevrons, removed the tape to see how they came out, retaped the edges and the top of the back plate, then sprayed the entire backside of the back plate, including the chevrons, with three coats of black Fusion (Krylon Fusion is designed for most plastics). The hardest part of painting was waiting for it to dry between coats, then waiting overnight for it to dry before installing it.

 

Hers, I'm doing a test fit on the card. I had to drill out the screw clearance holes oversized because I used my portable drill rather than risk blowing out my back digging out my drill press and setting it up (my back's been acting up a bit the last couple of days) and the drill bits drifted on me (how rude!). The CPU Cooler blocks the view of the holes anyway so I didn't lose any sleep over it.

 

 

Taking pictures of the backplate was hard because it's shiny and is reflective as a mirror.

 

To mount the back plate to the card, I used some 3M mounting tape. It's one of the VHB (Very High Bond) series and goes on pretty much permanently so I used very small tabs of it to hold the plate to the PCB of the card. I had to use three layers of the tape to get the necessary clearance between the plate and the card. Here, I've placed six, tiny, three layer tabs on the card's PCB.

 

 

Peeling the backing strip off the tape was one fiddly bear. That's why, before putting the tabs on the PCB, I prepeeled the backing strip on the topside of the tabs before sticking them to the PCB. i also had to be picky about where the tabs went because there are a bunch of teeny, tiny componets soldered to the back side PCB and I didn't think it would be a good idea to cover them with the tape.

 

 

Here is the difficult part I mention earlier. When I tried to reinstall the card, that pesky, stupid, miserable, misbegotten mid board power socket got in the way of the back plate. Since trying to remove the back plate at this point would have probably destroyed it (or, at the very least, the paint job), I had to cut a clearance notch in the back plate with my Dremel, something scary since my hands are unsteady. It's ugly as sin but it clears the stupid socket and plug now. At least, the CPU cooler does an excellent job of hiding it.

 

 

Here are shots of the graphics card and back plate combo installed back on the MOBO.

 

 

 

 

Although you can't see it in these pictures due to glare from the flash, the blue of the paint chevrons are an almost perfect match with the blue inserts on the Chromax CPU cooler covers.

 

The back plate just barely cleared the RAM sockets. in fact, the back plate is right against them.

 

After that chore, I'm almost looking forward to going back to making cables but yesterday's rain that rolled through the Phoenix area has set off my allergies (ironic since my house didn't get any) and I need to take a break for a short while.

 

[mAs81]

I know that you won't be doing any gaming , but don't neglect to check out the card's thermals under load - It can put out a significant amount of heat (AMD cards FTW)   

[Lady Fitzgerald]

2 hours ago, mAs81 said:

I know that you won't be doing any gaming , but don't neglect to check out the card's thermals under load - It can put out a significant amount of heat (AMD cards FTW)   

Thanks for the Advice. I tend to keep an eye on my all my thermals already, usually the CPU but also the drive, Mobo, and graphics card temps.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Just a minor update. At sometime or another, I threatened to cover the Chromax labeling on the Chromax cooler covers with my own. Today, I did.

 

 

'Nuff said.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

My allergies are still driving me nucking futz so all I've gotten done today so far is to make a power splitter. Things like the two fan hubs and the LEDs need only a 12+ and a ground lead from the PSU and it would have been a waste to use a 6 or 8 pin socket for each pair. So, I connected four 2 pin sockets to a single 8 pin connector. This way, I can connect or disconnect each of the two fan hubs and the LEDs (not RGB, btw) without shutting down the others (and still have room for another). Any road, here 'tis.

 

 

 

 

Funny thing is, that was even more work than a longer cable.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I have an almost 70 year old nose for sale. it runs good.

 

Despite my miserable, misbegotten allergies, I made some more progress today. I started working on the cables for the LEDs. I found this cute little dimmer switch to control the brightness and turn the LEDs on and off. I made a short cable connecting the dimmer switch to a four pin connector so I can disconnect just one cable when removing the switch panel.  Because of the weird wiring, (for example, the dimmer works on the ground leg of the LED strip) and tiny wires, it was a little fiddly. I also had to solder some splices as well as crimp on pins.

 

 

This is a close up of the dimmer switch. It's surprisingly tiny for being rated for 60W @ 12v.  The LED strip is around seven feet long and draws approximately 31 watts so I'm far from overloading the dimmer.

 

 

Here, I've started the cable to connect the LED strip to the dimmer and the power source. At this point, I redneck rigged a connection to my PSU to test the dimmer switch and the LED strip to make sure I was connecting things together correctly. So far, so good.

 

 

Those two (blurry) pins in the foreground actually got plugged directly into a socket on the PSU and I taped the wires from the LED strip to the other wires on the cable.

 

This shot shows the dimmer ttemporarily installed on the switch panel along with the computer power switch. I had forgotten about a drive activity LED and the easiest and cleanest way I could think of to get one was to replace one of the non-illuminated reset switches with one that is illuminated and connect that. Those are in the mail. 

 

 

This is the completed cable assembly. The power will come from the power strip. I put another connector pair in the line going to the LEDs (I used three pin male and female fan connectors) so I could easily disconnect the LED cable should I ever need to.

 

 

I plugged one of the factory SATA power cables into the PSU, then plugged the dimmer and LED strip assembly into that cable for a final test. Everything worked great the first time. I was surprised by how bright those LEDs are. I'm glad I decided to put in the dimmer instead of just an on/off switch.

 

The next fun job is to stick the LED strip into their corner channels on the case running around the left side panel openiing and snap on the diffusers but that will keep until tomorrow or Wednesday (depending on when my allergies settle down a bit; I had a wee bit of trouble concentrating today while my nose was making like a faucet and I was sneezing my head off). Btw, the LEDs are white. Any other color would wash out the colors on the MOBO, RAM, etc.

[mycpuburnsme]

Excited for the next instalment.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

5 hours ago, mycpuburnsme said:

Excited for the next instalment.

Thanks! I'll try not to disappoint.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

This morning, I reassembled the USB 2.0 (Gen 1?, said Jeannie sarcastically) ports to their PCI cover and installed it. I had to file down the short sides of the connector to get it to fit into the header.  

 

 

I didn't think to post these last night...er...this morning before I crashed. This is the factory diagram for wiring the LED dimmer switch and the diagram I drew up to help me keep the wiring I was doing with a connector in the circuit straight (pardon the expression).

 

 

 

After going back to bed this morning (and sleeping to 1:30 PM), I tackled installing the LED strip. That was a chore because I had to do a lot of bending, twisting, and turning to kindasorta see what the heck I was doing (believe me, my old back did not appreciate that!). I had to resort to a flashlight propped in various positions...

 

 

...and a hand mirror to see what the heck I was doing.

 

I started in the upper right hand corner since that was where the cable feeding the LED strip is closest to the dimmer switch. I temporarily installed one end of the diffuser to make sure the hole and half notch was in the right place (that was a chore since I still had prblems seeing what I was doing. The half notch on the end is where the LRD power cable will come out and the hole is to facilitate removing the diffuser once all the rest of the diffusers are in. 

 

 

This mock up verified the power cable will fit properly.

 

 

For those who didn't go to OCN to read the earlier parts of this epic length build tome log, this is a leftover scrap of the corner channel the LED showing better what it looks like.

 

 

And with the diffuser installed.

 

 

Here is the LED strip being installed.

 

 

Turning the corners resulted in the LED strip buckling at the corners due the 45 degree angle it's mounted on. Here, I'm checking to make sure the buckle would clear the diffuser.

 

 

The LED strip has to be cut at points marked every three LEDs. The LED strip ended at a point on the top right corner just a wee bit too long to fit in the channel so I had to cut it shorter than I like. The LEDs are so bright, I'm pretty sure a few missing LEDs at the corner will be problem not to mention the diffusers will help a lot. The tape is to keep the power cable from pulling the LED strip loose until I get the diffusers in.

 

I haven't installed the diffusers yet, partially because I want to make sure the strips stay stuck and partially because my back is killing me. The diffusers are a tight fit and a bear to install, especially when one can't see what one is doing. I'll finsh this post with a shot of the installed LED strip at the bottom.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I kept nodding off last night while laying in bed trying to watch some TV (no great loss) so I shut the thing off and was asleep before 8 PM. I woke up...correction...my "alarm bladder" woke me up at 1:30 AM (very unusual since it usually wakes me after only two hours), couldn't get back to sleep so, after taking care of business and while the Aleve I took at suppertime was still working, I tackled the diffusers. It took only 45 minutes to pop the puppies in although half that time was spent removing some Scotch tape, and the sticky residue it left behind, I had used a while back (maybe a year or so back?) to replace the protective film I had removed for some odd reason I no longer remember from one of the diffusers (of course, it was a long one). 

 

Anyway, to steal a line from B. A. Baracus, enough with the jibberjabber; here are some photos. This is the lower right corner, seen from inside the case.

 

 

The top right corner where the power cable comes out, seen from inside the case.

 

 

And the bottom, again seen from inside the case.

 

 

And, with that, methinks I will read for a short while, then try to go back to sleep.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I forgot that the power strip is powered from a single port pf the PSU which will have current protection for only 17-20A so running the LEDs off the power strip as well as up to 13 SSDs at a time (eventually, maybe) would be pushing the limits, if not exceeding them. That meant I needed to modify the LED power cable. This is what it looked like before.

 

 

I unpinned the cable with the SATA power connector on it and replaced it with a new one with a two pin connector that goes directly to the PSU.

 

 

Then I went to work on the two cables that will go to the intake and exhaust fans. This one is for the intake fans on the bottom of the case.

 

 

I won't be able to complete this one until I get the extension cables coming from the MOBO made and that won't happen until the parts coming on a slow boat from China arrive. The wire on the left is the one that will go to a fan header on the MOBO via an extension cable. For now, it's unterminated and deliberately too long just to make sure I had enough to finish the cable.

 

The right leg of the cable goes to the PSU and has a two pin connector on it.

 

 

I thought i had plenty of female four pin fan connector bodies but I was wrong; I didn't have any (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble). So I could keep working, I "borrowed" some from some fans I had knocking about that I'm not going to be using soon, if ever (I have replacements and extras on order). This is the connector for this cable that will plug into the fan hub for the intake fans.

 

 

This is the cable for the top exhaust fans. It's similar to the other fan cable except I was able to finish this one.

 

 

This is the end that will fasten to the fan hub on the top panel.

 

 

This is the PSU end (it and the other two two pin connectors will get plugged into the adapter I made that converts a single eight pin plug to four two pin sockets).

 

 

This is the four pin connector that will plug into a MOBO header. Yes, there are only two wires. Only the PWM and RPM leads are needed since the +12v and ground connections come directly from the PSU.

 

 

The other fan cable will also have a connector like this once I know how much to cut off the cable leg.

 

Depending how I feel tomorrow--my allergies are still driving me insane(er)--I'll be picking up the reset switch and cable management goodies I ordered from my mail service. Once I get them, I'll get started on the switch cable and managing the cables from the front I/O panel.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

My feet have been a bit swollen for a couple of weeks but, when I woke up this morning, they looked like overstuffed bratwursts with ten Vienna sausages sticking off the end of them. The only way I can get that swelling down is to stay in bed until they go down. So, that's where I have spent most of today. I should have "stood" in bed, though.

 

I got restless and decided to temporarily stick the PSU inside the case and check out the LEDs. It turned out, when I replaced the SATA power connector and cable with a cable that had a two pin power connector for connecting directly to the PSU, I got the polarity reversed (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble). The LEDs are fine--I checked them later by making a temporary jumper to connect them directly to 12v on the PSU--but the dimmer switch is barbecued (I just ordered a couple more; one will be a spare). I corrected the reversed connection and now it's hurry up and wait until I get the replacement.

 

That's probably it for today. I'm heading back to bed.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I spent yesterday driving errends, which took the starch out of me (I was still 100% starch free this morning) so I didn't get anything done. At least the swelling in my feet has gone down.

 

When I was checking the wiring for my cables, I often had to stick a male fan pin or a male ATX pin in a connector because the probes on my ADVOM (Antique Digital Volt Ohm Meter) were too fat to reach inside the connectors, espeacially the female fan connectors. I also had to do three handed operations using only two hands. It dawned on me this morning that a female 4 pin Molex connector pin may be a snug fit on the end of the probes. I checked it out and they were so I crimped a couple of the female 4 pin connector pin to a male fan pin.

 

This is my ADVOM. It's one of the first, if not the first Micronta DVOMs put out by Radioshack around 30-40 years ago. It still works and, although I wouldn't put any money on its accuracy, it's still plenty accurate for my needs.

 

 

These are the probes.

 

 

This is how the pins look before crimping...

 

 

...after crimping...

 

 

...and after being stuck onto the probe.

 

 

Crude as oil fresh from the ground but quite effective.

 

Then something dangerous and frightening happend; I started thinking. The probe extensions will also fit into a female fan connector but wouldn't be handy if I had some probe extensions that would plug into a PSU connector so I wouldn't have to hold the probe in place. So, I dug out a couple more 4 pin Molex connector pins and a couple of female ATX pins and crimped them together. Here is the result...

 

 

...and  compared to the first probe extensions.

 

 

Then I really went nuts and thought of all the times I struggled to hold a probe to a wire so I dug out five more 4 pin Molex connector pins and crimped them to the leads coming from a male SATA power connector.

 

 

 

I'm quitting there. These should do me but, if I need any other probe extensions, I'll make them then.

 

I got in the switches I ordered so I'm going to start working on the cables for the switch panel. I'm also tired of waiting on the shipments coming from China. I found I had some female Dupont pins so I'm also going to cannibalize some rinkydink front panel extension cables I have knocking about to make the front panel extensions I need to go from the MOBO headers to the back of the MOBO tray via the underside of the MOBO.

 

 

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

The first thing I did today, after making the probe extensions and taking a nap, was to remove the graphics card, then remove the MOBO from the MOBO tray. Some of the cables were just a bit too snug to fit between the MOBO tray and the MOBO and I also need to snip a bit off some of the wires on the underside of the MOBO that stuck out far enough to possibly pierce any cables running under the MOBO. I also had to use a heat gun and some pliers to flatten a couple of cables (I tested them afterwards with a 19V brick PSU for shorts and opens). Here, I've started routing the front panel audio and USB cables (the tape is just to temporarily hold the cables in position until I get the MOBO reinstalled on the MOBO tray.

 

 

I still need to blacken the wires on the USB cable in the foreground.

 

 

At this point, I decided to see which switch I was going to use for the Direct Key switch (Asus' fancy name for a reset switch that works like a regular reset switch but, instead of rebooting the computer, it goes directly into the BIOS). The power switch is on the left and, naturally, has a power on LED. The next switch is the conventional reset switch. It has an annular LED that I'm going to use for the HDD activity indicator.

 

The third switch is for the Direct Key function. In the first photo, that switch is just a plain switch.

 

 

In the next photo, I replaced the Direct Key switch with another switch like the second one.

 

 

I like that arrangement much better; I just won't use the LED on the switch although I'll run a cable from it to where the other cables will connect to the front panel MOBO header extensions and just not connect it to anything. That way, if I ever find a need for that LED, most of the wiring will already be done.

 

With that out of the way, I dug out all the assorted extension cables I already had and started cannibalizing them for the the male Dupont pins and their attached wires. I was able to find enough for all the cables without having to do any solder splicing although I did have to relabel three of the connector bodies for the Direct Key cable. Depinning the female connectors so I could use them for the new cables was quite fiddly and time consuming. Once I had the male pinned wires and the needed connector bodies sorted out, I cut the wires to the needed length, slipped aleeving and heat shrinks over the wires, crimped on the female Dupont pins I discovered I already had, then put on the female connector bodies and shrunk the heat shrinks in place. I spent a total of 12 hours overall on all this today (not including the probe extensions). Here they are.

 

 

This is a closeup of the male ends of a few.

 

 

I still need to install them on the MOBO headers and temporarily tape them to the underside of the MOBO before I can reinstall the MOBO on the MOBO tray. That will keep for tomorrow later today, after I get my nap out. Once that is done, I can temporarily install the MOBO tray in the case and start working on the switch panel switch cables. As part of the process, I'm also going to install some of the cable management clips to keep the front panel cables corralled together and out of the way.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

On a scale of 1-10, my mood is -7. Installing the front panel header extension cables was, to put it mildly, a miserable, misbegotten, INFURIATING nightmare that took several hours of fighting with them to get them in where the MOBO could be refastened to the MOBO tray without bending it. I'll spare you the sordid details and get right into the pictures.

 

How is this for a nightmare to deal with?

 

 

The clear plastic tubing is to prevent the wires sticking through the solder on the bottom oif the MOBO from poking through the insulation of the extension wires. Here is a topside view.

 

 

I'm a little disappointed in how it looks from the topside.

 

This is what it looks like after finally getting the MOBO back onto the MOBO tray.

 

 

 

I'm disappointed with how it looks but it still looks better than the usual alternative, not to mention there is NO WAY I'm doing it over! Here is how it looks on the backside of the MOBO tray.

 

 

That stupid grommet kept getting pushed out when I was trying to maneuver the extensions through it until I lost my temper and pulled the stupid thing out until I had all the cables through the hole and MOBO screwed down. I wasted half an hour getting the grommet back in only to have it pop out again later. At that point I said the heck with the stupid thing and it became a miniature Frisbee.

 

When I tried to put the MOBO tray in the case so I could start working on the front panel cables, etc., I couldn't get the stupid thing to go in correctly. I finally figured out that two of the MOBO tray feet were a little too long. I swear they weren't when I checked the fit before (this fit before but not later bullcrap is getting OLD!). Since there was NO WAY I was going to remove the MOBO so I could remove the feet,  I cut some rubber off the end off the two offending feet. The ends of the screws holding the feet are exposed but I'm going to grind them down with a Dremel later and try sticking two other feet on with 3M VHB tape later on where they won't be in the way.

 

Here's how the MOBO and MOBO tray look setting inside the case (I was too furious to bother with putting in any screws by this point).

 

 

I'm thinking of rigging up some kind of shield to help hide those ugly cables at the bottom.

 

I've had it for now. I don't know if I'll be doing anymore work on this tonight. I definitely need to cool down a bit a lot before I tackle anything else.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

After I had cooled down for while, I tackled the "front panel" switch cables (actually, the switches are located on the left side of the case). Seems like everything I touched today...er...yesterday turned to...something that makes grass green.  I crimped on a connector to one end of a wire (there are a total of twelve), put a shrink over it, and tested the fit on a switch. The first two went fine but the wire pulled out of the connector on the third one, despite it passing the pull test when I first crimped it  so I got mad(er) and soldered the connectors on the remaining ten wires. After crimping, soldering, and heat shrinking the wires, I tried them out to make sure I hadn't gotten any solder where it would interfere with going onto a switch. Two wouldn't go onto a switch. I cut the connectors off, crimped and soldered on a new connector on one, then checked the fit. Again, it wouldn't go on. I had made darned certain that I hadn't gotten any solder anywhere other than where it belonged so the connector must have been. The next two connectors went on just like they were supposed to so I'm thinking I must have gotten a few bad connectors.

 

After all the connectors were installed on one end of the twelve wires, I made labels to go on each wire to make keeping track of which one went where easier using my label machine. Of course, I ran out of tape before I was quite finished but I probably have enough made as long as I use temporary masking tape labels for the unfinished ends. That's as far as I got before running out of steam and patience.

 

Enough with the carping. Here are some pictures. Here is what the connector that goes to the switch looks like (before soldering).

 

 

The switches came with short cables that had a piece of clear tubing over the end of the connector to prevent shorts.

 

 

They didn't stay put very well and just didn't look all that great so I just put plain old heat shrinks over them. The shrinks also provided some additional strain relief where the wire enters the connector. In this shot, you can see the connectors plugged onto a swich and the labels I made.

 

 

Next will be to plug the wires into all three switches, install the switches, temporarily route them to where they will plug into the extensions coming out the back of the MOBO tray, then cut the individual wires to match the ends of the extensions. Then, I'll pull it all out again so I can make up the wires into sleeved cables. At some point, I also need to start installing the power cables going to the MOBO.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I didn't get much done today. I've been burning the candle at both ends and ran out of candle so I slept most of the morning. Early this afternoon, it dawned on me I could make the remaining 1/4" labels I needed by printing on 1/2" labels and cutting them in half lengthwise so I finshed labeling the wires for the cables.

 

The connectors I had for the two smaller switches were a little large for the terminals on the switches and fit a little loose. That was cured with a gentle squeeze with a pair of pliers. Here are the switches with the wires plugged in and installed in the switch panel. The empty terminals are normally closed contacts and are not needed here (these are all momentary contact switches).

 

 

 

This the "fun" end of the wires.

 

 

Here is the switch panel temporarily installed in the computer case prior to cutting the wires to length (I'll probably do that tomorrow) viewed from the back of the 5.25" bay,...

 

 

...through the top of the case (the top panel has been removed)...

 

 

...and from the left side of the case (the empty hole is for the replacement for the dimmer switch I fricasseed).

 

 

That's probably all I'm going to get done today. I made the power cable for the LED dimmer switch a little on the short side so I'm also going to have to make a new one (at least that will be fairly easy).

[mAs81]

I also hide cables behind the m/b that way instead of using case grommets and such..

Up until now(thankfully) I did not have to take out the m/b for troubleshoothing 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

8 minutes ago, mAs81 said:

I also hide cables behind the m/b that way instead of using case grommets and such..

Up until now(thankfully) I did not have to take out the m/b for troubleshoothing 

I agree, removing the MOBO for troubleshooting would be a pain in the...ah...neck. That's why the MOBO tray on Roisin Dearg is removable.

 

Per your request on OCN, I reconnected the jumpers I made to test the LEDs to the PSU and took a couple of pictures. Here 'tis.

 

 

 

When the left side panel is on, the PSU bump out will not show through the window. Also, the panel will reduce glare from the LEDs and the dimmer switch will allow adjusting how bright they are (or aren't). Right now, with the full 12v shooting to them, the LEDs are too bright and the light is washing out some of the features. I prefer white lighting instead of a single color or RGB because it allows the blue, white, and black colors inside the case show up and because I don't want my home looking like Fremont Street or the Strip in Las Vegas.