Transparent Optical Drive Mod [Edited Title]

[JohnnyGrey]

Ever since I migrated to the Corsair Air 240 late last year, I haven't used my BluRay burner. The other night I decided to go out in the garage to my old case and grab it to start ripping some DVDs. This got me thinking, I'd like to use it a little more permanently as an external drive, but the only external enclosure I've found is this Vantec one, and is insanely overpriced. Has anyone come up with a cheap, yet effective solution? Right now I have it hooked up to the internal connectors of my Sabrent 3.5" enclosure temporarily. I was even thinking of having the bare drive on the desk but propped up on some feet attached to the eight mounting holes. I suppose I could always buy some cheap rubber feet at a local store, but I'd like it to look sort of elegant. Any ideas?

[manikyath]

the first solution i can think of is one of these:

 

and then just pick up some adhesive rubber feet (and maybe a can of paint) from the DIY store.

 

if you're feeling a bit adventurous, optical drives usually disassemble rather easy, at least to the point you have the ugly metal shell in your hands, with some very accurate painters tape "artwork" you can actually spraypaint around the labels, if you somehow feel like you want to keep those

[JohnnyGrey]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

the first solution i can think of is one of these:

 

and then just pick up some adhesive rubber feet (and maybe a can of paint) from the DIY store.

 

if you're feeling a bit adventurous, optical drives usually disassemble rather easy, at least to the point you have the ugly metal shell in your hands, with some very accurate painters tape "artwork" you can actually spraypaint around the labels, if you somehow feel like you want to keep those

 

Do you know if a USB 3.0 port can provide enough power for a full-sized internal BluRay Burner? And your point about the casing got me thinking... Assuming the workings of the internals don't require the top cover, I could always remove it and replace it with some plexi or something. From what I remember about older CD-ROM's, I do believe the magnetic piece is suspended by the top cover, and the whole motor/laser assembly gets lifted up into that suspended magnetic piece.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, JohnnyGrey said:

Do you know if a USB 3.0 port can provide enough power for a full-sized internal BluRay Burner? And your point about the casing got me thinking... Assuming the workings of the internals don't require the top cover, I could always remove it and replace it with some plexi or something. From what I remember about older CD-ROM's, I do believe the magnetic piece is suspended by the top cover, and the whole motor/laser assembly gets lifted up into that suspended magnetic piece.

considering power draw (it's 6AM, i didnt sleep ) you may probably be better getting one of those things that also have a 12V power brick

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, manikyath said:

the first solution i can think of is one of these:

 

 

and then just pick up some adhesive rubber feet (and maybe a can of paint) from the DIY store.

 

if you're feeling a bit adventurous, optical drives usually disassemble rather easy, at least to the point you have the ugly metal shell in your hands, with some very accurate painters tape "artwork" you can actually spraypaint around the labels, if you somehow feel like you want to keep those

Why not get some long SATA extensions cable and wire it around, I am sure the expansion slot at the back of the case can allow some cables to go through?

[manikyath]

4 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

Why not get some long SATA extensions cable and wire it around, I am sure the expansion slot at the back of the case can allow some cables to go through?

because that's not very pretty, as well as *officially* sata being limited to 1 meter.

[Syntaxvgm]

I have a sata to usb3 adapter that also has a 12v brick, would look ok like that. I suggest adding rubber feet as you said, you can get replacement ones for laptops and whatnot on ebay for pretty cheap. 

[JohnnyGrey]

13 minutes ago, manikyath said:

considering power draw (it's 6AM, i didnt sleep ) you may probably be better getting one of those things that also have a 12V power brick

 

25 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

Why not get some long SATA extensions cable and wire it around, I am sure the expansion slot at the back of the case can allow some cables to go through?

 

My ASUS motherboard has eSATA, so I can just pick up an eSATA to SATA cable off Amazon. Then I'll have to find someway to power it. 

 

That's probably what I'll have to do.

 

I disassembled the drive, and the magnetic piece is indeed suspended from the top case. But now I really want to build a clear Plexi top for the drive, to show off the internals. I could always dremel out the metal piece, paint it black, then glue it to the underside of the plexi panel.

[mariushm]

It's unlikely the thing would run straight from sata to usb adapter, because you can see on the label in the first picture... 5v at up to 1.4a, 12v at up to around 2a ... usb 3 gives you 5v at 0.9a , but usually it's safe to pull up to 2A .. anyway, it's max 5v x 2a = 10w , nowhere near what the writer claims to require.

 

Wouldn't it be easier to just go ahead and buy an external slim dvd burner? Those have motors and electronics "tweaked" to work on 5v only and they're usually lower speed, so they'll work from usb directly without improvisations and all that mess.

 

[dalekphalm]

10 hours ago, JohnnyGrey said:

Ever since I migrated to the Corsair Air 240 late last year, I haven't used my BluRay burner. The other night I decided to go out in the garage to my old case and grab it to start ripping some DVDs. This got me thinking, I'd like to use it a little more permanently as an external drive, but the only external enclosure I've found is this Vantec one, and is insanely overpriced. Has anyone come up with a cheap, yet effective solution? Right now I have it hooked up to the internal connectors of my Sabrent 3.5" enclosure temporarily. I was even thinking of having the bare drive on the desk but propped up on some feet attached to the eight mounting holes. I suppose I could always buy some cheap rubber feet at a local store, but I'd like it to look sort of elegant. Any ideas?

-snip-

Just get something like this:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827993013&cm_re=5.25"_enclosure-_-27-993-013-_-Product

 

5.25" drive enclosure, USB 3.0, external AC power. Everything you need.

[JohnnyGrey]

On 1/27/2017 at 9:38 AM, dalekphalm said:

Just get something like this:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827993013&cm_re=5.25"_enclosure-_-27-993-013-_-Product

 

5.25" drive enclosure, USB 3.0, external AC power. Everything you need.

 

I'm not spending $41 on that. That's ridiculous, as I mentioned in my original post.

 

On 1/26/2017 at 10:59 PM, JohnnyGrey said:

...the only external enclosure I've found is this Vantec one, and is insanely overpriced...

1

 

 

Anyways, this is where I'm at. My solution for hanging the center metal spindle doesn't work. I'll be recutting a new piece of Lexan for the top, and I have a clear piece of plastic originally designed for customizing Xbox 360's on the way from Amazon.

 

 

[dalekphalm]

17 hours ago, JohnnyGrey said:

I'm not spending $41 on that. That's ridiculous, as I mentioned in my original post.

 

 

 

Anyways, this is where I'm at. My solution for hanging the center metal spindle doesn't work. I'll be recutting a new piece of Lexan for the top, and I have a clear piece of plastic originally designed for customizing Xbox 360's on the way from Amazon.

 

 

I can't blame you for not liking the price. You could find cheaper enclosures at USB 2.0 speeds, but I wouldn't recommend that in conjunction with a Blu-Ray drive.

 

So your current solution is to... put a piece of transparent plastic on top of the guts of the Blu-Ray drive? That's cool. But it seems to me that the goals of this project have changed since the creation of the thread.

 

If all you want to do is have the drive sit outside the case on the cheap, just go to the hardware store and pick up some rubber feet and glue them to the bottom of the drive. At that point, you can do whatever you want with your "transparent internals" build.

In terms of powering it, a simple AC to SATA Power Adapter is all you need. I'm sure you can find these on Amazon for quite cheap.

 

Though I wonder how much money you'll have spent at the end of your modifications (Buying an ESATA to SATA cable, buying an AC to SATA Power adapter, buying transparent plastic sheeting, etc). It'll probably come in under the $40 of that Vantec Case. But I question how much cheaper it'll be.

[JohnnyGrey]

5 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

So your current solution is to... put a piece of transparent plastic on top of the guts of the Blu-Ray drive? That's cool. But it seems to me that the goals of this project have changed since the creation of the thread.

 

There's no need to be snarky. It's not a solution to my original post, it's just a cool idea I had suggested in my second post. It serves no purpose, other than to see the internals, just as a window on the side of a case serves no purpose, other than to see inside. My goal may have changed from the original post, and for that, you are correct.

 

If I'm gonna have the bare drive sitting on the desk, why not do something different? And with the way I have the piece of Lexan mounted, I don't have to hack up the top.

 

I was able to pick up some translucent silicone feet, but I had to double stack them, as the two-inch screws going through to the bottom stick out too far. I can either grab my Dremel and shorten the screws, or get some bigger feet, as it looks bad doubled up.

 

5 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Though I wonder how much money you'll have spent at the end of your modifications (Buying an ESATA to SATA cable, buying an AC to SATA Power adapter, buying transparent plastic sheeting, etc). It'll probably come in under the $40 of that Vantec Case. But I question how much cheaper it'll be.

 

The sheets of Lexan were just under $4 each, and they are 8"x10" pieces. I believe they are .093" thick, but don't quote me on that. I bought two just in case. I may have spent about 8$ on some baggies of machine screws and washers. I might have an AC to Molex adapter in my storage unit in my pile of miscellaneous cables, and I might have a molex to SATA adapter in there as well from a retail drive many years ago. The only thing I might not have is a SATA to eSATA, but those can be had for cheap.

 

I may want to find some rubber edge trim or something, as dust getting in the drive may be a concern.

[dalekphalm]

6 hours ago, JohnnyGrey said:

There's no need to be snarky. It's not a solution to my original post, it's just a cool idea I had suggested in my second post. It serves no purpose, other than to see the internals, just as a window on the side of a case serves no purpose, other than to see inside. My goal may have changed from the original post, and for that, you are correct.

 

If I'm gonna have the bare drive sitting on the desk, why not do something different? And with the way I have the piece of Lexan mounted, I don't have to hack up the top.

 

I was able to pick up some translucent silicone feet, but I had to double stack them, as the two-inch screws going through to the bottom stick out too far. I can either grab my Dremel and shorten the screws, or get some bigger feet, as it looks bad doubled up.

 

The sheets of Lexan were just under $4 each, and they are 8"x10" pieces. I believe they are .093" thick, but don't quote me on that. I bought two just in case. I may have spent about 8$ on some baggies of machine screws and washers. I might have an AC to Molex adapter in my storage unit in my pile of miscellaneous cables, and I might have a molex to SATA adapter in there as well from a retail drive many years ago. The only thing I might not have is a SATA to eSATA, but those can be had for cheap.

 

I may want to find some rubber edge trim or something, as dust getting in the drive may be a concern.

Interesting ideas. Well it seems like you've turned this into a fairly interesting DIY build. Please post pictures as you get everything assembled.

[JohnnyGrey]

14 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Interesting ideas. Well it seems like you've turned this into a fairly interesting DIY build. Please post pictures as you get everything assembled.

Appreciate it. I didn't intend on sounding harsh with the post you quoted. You were right, the project changed completely. I have edited the thread title to reflect this.

 

The following picture is the reason I hold on to random crap! I decided to drive on over to my storage unit and check out stuff. Turns out I was able to find an AC to Molex power supply, a molex to SATA adapter, a thinner more flexible eSATA cable, as well as an eSATA to SATA adapter! (Thin eSATA not pictured)

 

 

Here's where I'm at. The additional plastic piece was hacked up from a mod part for an Xbox 360. It's a part of the ghost case kit for the 360. This is a work in progress still. I plan on getting some edge trim, or possibly some small silicone/rubber tubing, split, to cover the upper edges of plastic, under the Lexan. I also plan on recutting a piece of Lexan to proper size, as well as Dremeling off the ends of the machine screws on the bottom. I'm getting there!