DISCO Scorpion (old skool modding)

[8uhbbhu8]

19 hours ago, Defyant said:

Cheers mate TYVM   can you believe that this mod is maybe a 1/4 finished.....!

 

The door is simple as possible using a single servo unit off a controllable PWM unit. I't simply opens when powered on and returns to "0" close when powered off.

 

The safety is provided via a return spring... so if the pc is powered off with a USB drive in the door the spring takes the load. Saving the Servo.

lol not that suprised its only 1/4  

 

Huh that's neat. I like the safety feature. I would never have thought of it lol

[Defyant]

Cheers mate tyvm  i should post up some more pics showing it in more detail.

[Defyant]

A Disco Scorpion Tail.

It started with a pretty simple design. Some months back.... and had grown into what has ended up being almost a full mod by it's self.




Transfer the design to a piece of clear for a template.





Then transfer that Via router to a 10mm section of solid white






Again 2 more times in clear



Next up! some Exo Armour! (i like making up names)


 



Once all the Exo armour plates are cut and edge routed the back sides are first sprayed White and then sprayed black,
This stops light bleeding through them.....

 


White

 


Black


 


Next is to hollow out the solid white 10mm middle section.... this is to house the led strip and the ........




Next is to put some STING into this Disco Tail.

The Stinger will start out as a solid piece of 10mm white with a simple swing hinge added using 2 bits if frosted clear.





It's a very simple design but for it's purpose simple is best.



 

The Stinger has to be RGB! So some gutting and affixing of RGB happens

 

 


A hole is drilled for the wire's to pass thru into the main tail section



Quick test of that RGB goodness!



Find a donor hing pin!



 

Chuck in a micro server and an old girls bike front brake cable!



Work out the travel




Chuck in an RGB strip and route the wires through the side




 

Glue back the clear frosted side plate and Exo armour plates





Add some volts and a controller and BINGO it's Disco Time again!


 


 


Look's kinda boring now but once the top and sides are completed the theme will meld better!




 

And of course! the mandatory FULL DISCO RGB PIC FLOOD! 


 

 

 

 

 


 

[Defyant]

 

[Defyant]

The Mod that just wont Die!

 

Happy New Year all !

There's not a lot to love about Alienware gear but i fell in love years ago with one of their sexy top vented cases. I thought i'd rip it off and add it to Disco.

This is now the final build for this idea after 2 different prototypes.. and again in my usual style ive prolly waisted 2-3 weeks getting this to a decent working design.

It starts with adding a opening to the top panel.

Back to the router with some crude jig work.


 

 


To fill the new opening will be 5 even sized vents 

 


The middle is the template then the other 4 are profiled on the router to be exact copies

 


 


 



5 Perfect clones

 


I Love chunky plex!

 




Each of these 5 vents will open to a 45' angle.

 


And of course will be RGB !


 


 


Still a ALONG way to go with this mod should have another update soon.

[Defyant]

Next thing to do is give the clear vent panels some matching white tops.

 

Back over for some more Jig sawing.....

 

  

 

 

 

 

Some temp d'sided tape and time for some router profiling fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A quick fit check ,  gaps are ok at this stage.

 

 

 

 

Next is to ruff cut and router profile a frame to attach the vents to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Vents are each laid into position marked and drilled for the swing pins.

 

 

 

 

 

To keep the holes aligned and straight a simple jig is made for the drilling.

 

 

 

 

 

I envy the modders that just draw this all up in a program send it off and have some one else do all this shit for them......

 

Not!

 

one at a time bishop one at a time.

 

 

 

All the swing pins are counter sunk  to keep flush

 

 

 

 

Some time later ....   Ta da !  a real sense of " i can mod!"

 

 

 

 

To lift the vents a simple cam/servo method will be used.  For now just to see vents will work a qick cam was made.

 

The lift is too aggressive and will be rounded to a fuller profile in the next revision.....

 

Also the timing has to be set better, as i want the lift to work 5>4>3>2>1 rather then all lifting @ the same time.\

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Billy_Mays]

Interesting concept on the top vent

 

[Defyant]

7 hours ago, Billy_Mays said:

Interesting concept on the top vent

 

Cheers BM 

As far as modding goes this is lotta fun!  I'm really enjoying adding mechanical moving parts to a case mod. Some thing i wanted to do years ago but just seemed to move onto other things.

Iv'e tried to keep the mechanical mechanism as simple as possible for the top vent system. Just like all the other moving parts it will be controlled by a single servo unit.

For now it's a bit slap dash and some proper track and a stronger servo is needed for sure.  But it works!

 

The parts are salvaged from an old cdrom unit and the pitch was a simple copy straight to the plex cam.  The pics and vids pretty much explain the rest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[8uhbbhu8]

1 minute ago, Defyant said:

Cheers BM 

As far as modding goes this is lotta fun!  I'm really enjoying adding mechanical moving parts to a case mod. Some thing i wanted to do years ago but just seemed to move onto other things.

Iv'e tried to keep the mechanical mechanism as simple as possible for the top vent system. Just like all the other moving parts it will be controlled by a single servo unit.

For now it's a bit slap dash and some proper track and a stronger servo is needed for sure.  But it works!

 

The parts are salvaged from an old cdrom unit and the pitch was a simple copy straight to the plex cam.  The pics and vids pretty much explain the rest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now thats cool Will it be temp controlled?

[Defyant]

4 minutes ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

Now thats cool Will it be temp controlled?

Cheers mate  ty

 

I'd imagine it's not that hard to do  with the arduino  unit... it will already be controlling the front panel and tail movements. 

[Defyant]

Now that the vents open and close it's time to add the all important RGB goodness!!!!!

 

I think a 6 LED strip might be a bit overkill but hey better brighter then duller....... hmmm.

 

All the strips will be custom wired then joined into one  main input.

 

 

 

The top white panel is underlined with some white vinyl.

 

 

 

 

Then again with black   ( this is done so the tops stay white but the underside stops light bleed.)

 

 

 

 

Next is to route a channel into the clear section for the LED strip.

 

 

 

 

 

An extra bit of smaller router work will be needed to feed the wires

 

 

 

 

 

Sitting the vent into position to mark the wire outlet

 

 

 

 

 

A hole will be drilled thru the side wall for the wires to pass thu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hole drilled

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the Vent back into place the wire showing is minimal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a quick test to see all works as it should.  The idea is that when closed the light will highlight the edges only.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now 4 more to go!

 

[r3loAded]

15 minutes ago, Defyant said:

The idea is that when closed the light will highlight the edges only.

The idea is great, but looking at the pictures with the red light, it doesn't seem to be uniform. The light seems concentrated more in the centre than the ends of the flaps.

 

But looking at the last picture, when all are lighted up...it should be more uniform.

 

Nonetheless I am amazed and enjoying each of your post with updates. Usually I like to get involved, but here I just want to sit and watch the progress. Thank you for sharing

[Defyant]

Cheers  mate tyvm   theres still soooo much to go on this mod. I'd like to think it's at the half way point.... then i come up with some thing new or a change.

 

I suppose i could could split the LED strips into 2 sections of 3 and run them in  "V" shape.... but then i'd prolly have a dull spot int he middle.

 

Theres plenty of light in the unit... that's 6 x 5050's...... so it's prolly just a matter of adding some white vinyl to the underside ontop of the black to help the light reflect.

 

Basically adding another layer of white to this black.

 

 

 

 

[Defyant]

Ive put finishing the top vents on hold for now while i get some thing out of the way.   It was always going to come......  The more i mod this chassis the less it becomes... So ive decided to just scrap it and start again.

This will allow me to move on from some parts of the original chassis that really erked me and let me add a few new ideas.

Including some new ideas for the top vents.

 

The new chassis will be pretty simple in the design and materials.  Just some L and flat Alu bar pop riveted together with cross bars as needed with a centre mounted internal motherboard tray.

 

Nothing special for now but pretty square down to a couple of mm.

 

 

To make the frame a simple jig is cut as square as possible from mdf.

 

 

The L bar is placed on the edge of the jig and marked for the cuts.

 

 

Some clamping action 

 

 

Next is to knock up the cross bar supports.  To change the profile a bit i'm giving them a run thru on the router.

 

 

The back edges filed so they will fit snug.

 

 

The jig is now modified for the cross bars

 

 

And are drilled and pop riveted into place

 

 

The basic frame is finished.

 

 

The mother board panel can be mounted in the centre of the frame , some Z extender brackets are bent up 

 

Ive made 2 sets this will allow for corrections in the bends while mocked up.

 

 

Next is to bang up the new front Rad support rails.

Just to give them a  bit of finished look i'll contour them on the router before drilling the mount holes.

 

 

The finished supports get a quicky sand and edges rounded off by file.

 

 

 

The new mother board panel is cut from .9 sheet alu the extra "tab" shapes will be hole drilled and rubber edge lined for cables to feed thru.

 

 

 

With the new MB tray supports and radiator brackets temp added you can kinda see where this is all going!

 

Once every thing is complete i will either tig or rivet... not sure yet.

 

 

The MB will now sit well inside the case with a rear port for cable access.

 

 

 

A quick fit of the RAD to check clearance.

 

 

This dosn't change any of the exterior mods to disco but allows me now to change a few things up on the inside to make the mod

better balanced from inside to out.

 

 

Next is to work on will be the support rails for the PSU and the GPU!

 

 

This side window (orignally doe SSD)  will now be extended to show the GPU!

 

 

 

 

 

[8uhbbhu8]

OMG  Restart!!!. Still this just makes it more interesting.  

[Defyant]

On 21/01/2018 at 7:58 PM, 8uhbbhu8 said:

OMG  Restart!!!. Still this just makes it more interesting.  

Cheers  hope it's its worth it!

 

Spent the day working on a new idea, still not sure if i'll go with this style of panel or maybe change it to a clear one to work better with the Tail design.

 

Anyways this was just a test with some scrap 2mm white to see if the custom jig will work. Very happy with the first results and i'm sure i can clean it up better and straighter with a few more tries.

 

 

The Jig's up! I had thought of setting up for some vacuum forming... but for a one off idea that i may not use.... it wasn't worth the time.

 

 

 

 

The end result of the Jig is to make this!

 

A fully moulded internal panel.

 

 

 

 

The making of the jig was pretty simple and ive use threaded rod to allow me to adjust height and even angle if need be.

 

Ruff cut on the saw then edges routed clean and straight. Then bolted to a  base. With a centre threaded rod for alignment and tension.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A small press plate is made. Small as all i want to be seen inside the case is the CPU water block. The Heart of Disco Scorp.

 

As can be seen everything is set so the cpu will be dead centre of the case.

 

 

 

 

Threaded bar allows for more of less height adjustmeant

 

 

 

 

The make a panel some plex is centre hole drilled and laid onto the top of the jig. For the first test this is just a scrap piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next an outer ring is clamped to hold the plex and stop it distorting while worked.

 

Heat can be applied using a hot air gun.

 

 

 

 

Once softened the the centre press plate can be slid on and adjusted down using a nut on the threaded rod,

 

 

I found the best way was to heat tension heat tension you can feel when to stop and add heat again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

when at the desired height/depth allow to cool and remove the nut and press plate.

 

 

 

 \

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty perfect fit for a first go,

 

 

 

 

As you can see once fully sealed this will create a full rear chamber to duct air thru the working part of the case. 

 

Hopefully be sexy and functional..... and Disco!

 

 

 

Still playing with lighting ideas