Project Stealthlow

[Greavesy]

Now this is some project.

The case is looking great and i can't wait to see it finished with the 580 and stuff in. Mind making me one ?

 

[EniGmA1981]

Is this case quite heavy or is it light?

This...

These look good enough to lick. Or rub all over yourself.

But not this...

 

[waynio]

Have'nt looked in on this build in ages, Its looking amazing

Cheers Greavesy.

Man, I love scratch builds that really come together towards the end.

Thanks Roller .

those clamp bars are absolutley amazing, flawless!!!

Cheers VOoDOo other than the fact I forgot to add cable pass through holes/slots on the wire side but I got straight onto that & they are sorted now .

Loving this even more with the acrylics for the fans!

Is this case quite heavy or is it light?

Got to hand it to you for such an amazing build mate! Truly epic!

The case is ok to carry with 1 arm but when it's loaded with everything it sure is quite heavy so best to use both arms hdd's really boost the weight of a case I'll weigh it when it's complete though cheers mate .

These look good enough to lick. Or rub all over yourself. Think I said it before but the attention to detail you give to this stuff is just epic .

LOL cheers joxang.

Now this is some project.

The case is looking great and i can't wait to see it finished with the 580 and stuff in. Mind making me one ?

Thanks Greavesy yeah I'm not cutting any corners on this one & really I'm kinda making it harder for myself to do one as good or better for my next lol but I have a good idea of what tools to get so I can do things a little easier or better, I also want to master engraving & think I'll get onto practicing for that after this project, [WP@]WOLVERINE on bit-tech really shown how awesome diy engraving can be done if your skills get high enough after seeing his latest engraving project check it out, it is very amazing .

This...



But not this...

Getting the lighting done right on those stick bars in the fan holders is proving a bit of a challenge , the apolish fans give off awesome light but don't touch the stick bars so I had to come up with a way to light those parts well enough to have a similar effect to holding it up to broad daylight.

I tried an LED placed directly underneath the sticks & only lights up the orange bar & a tiny bit of the dual tint pieces but lights up excellent on the top end, I also tried sanding the edges of the LED's flat which didn't help neither, I also tried countersinking the LED hole so it would make the light brighter & wider but didn't make a difference, so had ideas of frosting just the stick bars internally or using light tape or el tape stuck to the frame of the fans to give a consistant glow but light tape is fragile & expensive, I even tried a laminating sheet which looks frosted when it hasnt been used this helped a bit but still not what I was aiming for, so my latest idea is to make a block of opal frosted acrylic & bung an LED inside it & have it replace a 5mm portion of the stick bars hoping it will create an awesome spread of light to act like it does when held up to daylight but even with that I think I'd be best to frost the insides of the stick bars so it works excellent I made the acrylic too clear by polishing it , this light block idea won't be seen because of the clamp bars so should work nicely.

At the moment I'm waiting for deliveries for molex pins & the opal frosted acrylic so could be Tuesday or later before I get to try it out.

 

[Tealc]

What you need mate is something like this?

The flat LEDs have a wide angle of light, far more than the 20 degrees of the standard round. They won't blind you like standard LEDs can because the light is more like 130 degrees and subtler.

Or this...

SMD LEDs are suprisingly bright. Basically it's like the light element of the normal LED package without all the crap.

Here's a single Orange SMD 1206 all lit up.

And a string of 5.

Depending on your need and colour you could use some the ultra cheap LED strips and attach them directly to the bottom of your acrylic to get an even distribution of light.

20 degree LEDs just don't light area very well as I discovered after replacing square blue LEDs in my keyboard with 3mm standard round. Light is bright directly in the path of the LED but pants elsewhere.

I recently purchased some PLCC SMD LED which are slightly larger than the typical SMD ones and therefore easier to solder. Some even have multiple elements.

 

[waynio]

What you need mate is something like this?


The flat LEDs have a wide angle of light, far more than the 20 degrees of the standard round. They won't blind you like standard LEDs can because the light is more like 130 degrees and subtler.

Or this...



SMD LEDs are suprisingly bright. Basically it's like the light element of the normal LED package without all the crap.

Here's a single Orange SMD 1206 all lit up.



And a string of 5.





Depending on your need and colour you could use some the ultra cheap LED strips and attach them directly to the bottom of your acrylic to get an even distribution of light.

20 degree LEDs just don't light area very well as I discovered after replacing square blue LEDs in my keyboard with 3mm standard round. Light is bright directly in the path of the LED but pants elsewhere.

I recently purchased some PLCC SMD LED which are slightly larger than the typical SMD ones and therefore easier to solder. Some even have multiple elements.

Cheers Tealc I tried sanding an LED flat & it made it dimmer, must be because the acrylic is polished so light doesn't spread well, I'm extremely close to giving up on getting the lighting perfect for these fan holders.

It's killing me at the moment, it's lying on it's side without it's base while I figure out what to do about lighting the stick bars.

But I had a close look at the led strips inside the enermax apollish fans & they are ultra thin & unlike any available led strips, I'd say including the led & pcb they are no more than 1mm thick (probably less) & can't seem to find led strips like them anywhere, my new idea is to try & get some of these & then I could wrap them around the outside rim of the fans & wire them to the fans which would do the lighting perfect & keep cables minimal, if anyone knows where to buy these strips it would really help this project move along .

 

[Tealc]

The LED strips I've purchased have all been covered in a layer of soft plastic that once removed reduces the height of the strip by a considerable margin.


These strips are from Hong Kong..

I replaced the existing LEDs of course with beefier Orange ones. This increases the thickness a touch as the original LEDs were tiny.

This is the nearest I have to a profile shot of the strip.

Whether or not it would fit around the circumference of a fan though, unless it has a good 2mm clearance.

..grabs camera and heads out to shed..

 

[Tealc]

Ok not sure if this helps but here goes..

Here's a profile-ish shot of the strips I have.

And to show you, sort of, the difference from the 1206 SMD I used compared with the stock.

I don't have a vernier caliper or a micrometer to accurately measure the naked strips but my guess would be about 1.5mm with the 1206 fitted and 1.2 with the stock 0603 or 0805 SMD fitted.

I tried stuffing the strip down inside the one fan I have available, a 2400rpm black boring fan which I whipped out of a PSU a while back and it almost fitted. I believe the Enermax have a larger gap than most fans to allow for these SMD.

I will trust you with details of where I get them from.

 

[waynio]

Thank you very much Tealc they look exactly the same strips used on the fans & if I have trouble making them fit I can file notches out in the centres of the holders so they fit perfectly.

Could you send me a link for them, it'll probably take a while for them to arrive so the sooner I order the better or even the name of the low profile ones so I can go on a google hunt to see if I can find a place more local to buy some .

Cheers for the link mate, appreciated .

 

[Tealc]

Already done it mate. I've picked out a couple of them of different colours so you can work out which type you need. They have a good sticky back as well.

 

[waynio]

Already done it mate. I've picked out a couple of them of different colours so you can work out which type you need. They have a good sticky back as well.

Thanks mate & holy sheet they are cheap compared to over here but since I'm in a bit of a hurry to get this completed asap I ordered elsewhere for faster delivery & after thinking about the fact I'll probably have to file a bit out of the holders I thought why the heck not go for the brighter ones , another thing I held the RGB strip underneath the holders & I'd say the orange acyrlic is highly UV reactive so I ordered UV ones so with all this figured out now I've got the bottom bolted back on as I won't need to mod the hdd platform, phew , so can work on other things now while waiting .

 

[Greavesy]

any closer to finishing it ?

I want to see those LED's

 

[-fedexer-]

Beauty like this takes it's precious time, and it seems the LEDs are becoming rather a technical problem for the build which is a shame now, considering you were getting so close to the finish line!

Can't wait to see the build finally finished, when you get it there

 

[waynio]

any closer to finishing it ?

I want to see those LED's

Just got the UV LED strips & they do what I wanted them to for the orange sticks perfectly but the alternating tint doesn't seem to catch much of it but very close to how I wanted them & that might change to even better, still not tried the laminating sheet to spread the light but it's looking hopeful .

Beauty like this takes it's precious time, and it seems the LEDs are becoming rather a technical problem for the build which is a shame now, considering you were getting so close to the finish line!

Can't wait to see the build finally finished, when you get it there

Cheers fedexer I figured out the lighting, I just need to wait til tomorrow before I get back at this now, when you've been chomping at the bit to do something for a solid week & the time comes when you can actually start for some reason I don't want to, I'm a bit depressed & angry about the hissy fit riots that happened, the 1 week when I couldn't keep busy so didn't do my mind much good with all the disapointment & anger but I'll get back onto it tomorrow . So got all the lighting & molex pins, just need a fresh day now .

 

[waynio]

Been ages or so it seems since I done anything & got the needed bits to continue now hopefully to the end of this project.

So continuing with working on the fan holder lighting this is with a UV LED strip inside the acrylic with about 8 sheets of laminating sheet in front of the strip, the strip needs it's waterproof cover removing so they take up less space & the holders will need some of the center of the bars filing down a little so here is a rough idea of what it will look like & the outer alternating tint pieces will be white LED from the fans .

I intend to get stuck back into this properly tomorrow & make up for that long wait on the order .

 

[joxang]

Mesmerising colours . Though I have to admit I got no idea what's going on there: "LED strip inside the acrylic with about 8 sheets of laminating sheet in front of the strip". Sounds awesome...looking forwards to seeing the effect .

 

[ReU_VOoDOo]

I must agree with Joxang here, I too have no idea what's going on. As would you with me trying to explain some hair brained idea to you. Either way I am really anxious to see the lighting effects that you concoct!!!

 

[EniGmA1981]

Maybe I'm getting the wrong end of the stick, but I'm reading it as:

"Thin strip with a lot of small LEDs (maybe SMDs) stuck around the inside of the circle inside the acrylic with the light shining directly into the acrylic. Then the laminating sheet over the top of this to either stick it to the acrylic or stop any light escaping from the back (or both)"

Close...?

 

[-=Vect0r=-]

Just spent the last hour and a half reading through this entire log!

It is simply a breathtaking work of art and cannot wait to see it finished!

Muchos stars added!

 

[waynio]

Mesmerising colours . Though I have to admit I got no idea what's going on there: "LED strip inside the acrylic with about 8 sheets of laminating sheet in front of the strip". Sounds awesome...looking forwards to seeing the effect .

Thanks joxang I included in pictures what I done to get the effect .

I must agree with Joxang here, I too have no idea what's going on. As would you with me trying to explain some hair brained idea to you. Either way I am really anxious to see the lighting effects that you concoct!!!

Lol shown with pics on this update .

Maybe I'm getting the wrong end of the stick, but I'm reading it as:

"Thin strip with a lot of small LEDs (maybe SMDs) stuck around the inside of the circle inside the acrylic with the light shining directly into the acrylic. Then the laminating sheet over the top of this to either stick it to the acrylic or stop any light escaping from the back (or both)"

Close...?

Maybe my mind was clouded at the time lol been a bit stressed the past week but think I'm back to normal now .

Just spent the last hour and a half reading through this entire log!

It is simply a breathtaking work of art and cannot wait to see it finished!

Muchos stars added!

Cheers Vect0r .

Finally an update .

I finally got the modding feeling back, better late than never & actually grabbed my nice camera & tripod so I could get this back to being a log rather than what it was turning into as a show & tell .

So the fan holders & this different way of lighting them simply required the stick bars to be thinner there was no other way & thought I might get away with just filing a little bit out of the bars but nope lol I need them to be 5mm thinner so the 24 sheets of laminating material which comes in at 2mm needed & the 3mm LED strips, I only placed 3 tiny dots of the acrylic adhesive on to hold them together this time but even that really welds them together but a nice razor & hammer can carefully separate them, was a bit of a gamble but it was worth it to get these spot on.

Cut & peeled all the water proof material off the 3 LED strips.

Filed the corners down on the top of the fans.

A clear demonstration of how these stick pieces will be lit up, sticks, diffusion, LED strip.

24 layers of laminating sheet.

Creates this .

Measuring & works out at a needed slimming of 5mm so now I need to make all the 12mm stick bars become 7mm.

Lapped the lot so they are perfectly flat & even & I'll continue getting these to precise size tomorrow .

 

[EniGmA1981]

That looks like a bloody time-consuming process!!!

So much attention to detail, it's incredible!!

I cannot wait to see this finished