Stealthing a card reader - anyone tried it?

Sankari · 31 Dec 2007 at 09:37

Just throwing around some ideas for my new build (see sig for details) and need some advice on stealthing drive bays. Has anyone tried stealthing a 3.5 bay before?

This is what I'll be working with:

It's the Mitsumi USB 2.0 floppy drive & card reader.

My Li Li case will come with a factory-fitted 3.5 "faceplate" bezel, and I'd like to use that for my stealth solution; in other words, a complete cover-up so the drive isn't visible until I want to use it. But how to achieve this without impairing functionality...?

All suggestions gratefully received!

Datamonkey · 31 Dec 2007 at 14:05

Thats going to be a tough one matey,

Cd/Dvd roms were easier because you could just mount the stealth panel to the drive tray, and when you hit eject it came out as one.

With this i havent a clue lol. You could make it so it clicks in place, but you would have to pull the cover off each time you wanted to use it.

Sankari · 31 Dec 2007 at 16:04

Datamonkey said:
Thats going to be a tough one matey,

Cd/Dvd roms were easier because you could just mount the stealth panel to the drive tray, and when you hit eject it came out as one.

With this i havent a clue lol. You could make it so it clicks in place, but you would have to pull the cover off each time you wanted to use it.

Yeah, I've been wracking my brains over this one.

I did have some sort of vague idea about making a drop-down flap from the original "placeholder" bezel, but I'm still not sure how this could be done.

My first thought is to stick the little bugger in a 5.25 bay (with the help of a bay adaptor) and cover it with one of these. That would be half the job done.

The tricky part is finding a way to open and close the bay with the exterior button on the CD/DVD bezel.

Which is where I'm stuck on at the moment.

Sankari · 31 Dec 2007 at 20:49

I'm going to work on this problem over the next couple of months. And if I find a way to solve it, I will post a worklog immediately.

leezer3 · 1 Jan 2008 at 00:39

I would've thought it should be possible to rig something up with a push to release catch or similar?
Remove all the spring mechanism thats in the bezel currently, this should let it simply drop downwards. Then you need to find a push to release catch and mount this on the back. With any luck the catch releasing should swing the drive bezel down & when its up the catch can hold it in place. You could also do the same sort of thing with a magnetic catch, although this would require a handle of some description to get the initial release.

May require a little modding to get things to fit right but that'd be the basic principle IMHO.

-Leezer-

oxygene · 1 Jan 2008 at 00:42

are you sure a magnetic catch is a good idea when hes using memory cards?

TheVoice · 1 Jan 2008 at 00:54

Memory cards aren't magnetic media, so it won't do any damage.

Sankari · 1 Jan 2008 at 03:03

leezer3 said:
I would've thought it should be possible to rig something up with a push to release catch or similar?
Remove all the spring mechanism thats in the bezel currently, this should let it simply drop downwards. Then you need to find a push to release catch and mount this on the back. With any luck the catch releasing should swing the drive bezel down & when its up the catch can hold it in place. You could also do the same sort of thing with a magnetic catch, although this would require a handle of some description to get the initial release.

May require a little modding to get things to fit right but that'd be the basic principle IMHO.

-Leezer-

I reckon you're onto something there, mate.

Thanks for the tip.

oxygene · 1 Jan 2008 at 13:53

crap I thought they were magnetic. *slaps self* Oh well magnetics anywhere near hds make me nervous anyway!

V4NT0M · 1 Jan 2008 at 14:48

Get an external USB card reader?

Sankari · 1 Jan 2008 at 15:49

Skyfall said:
Get an external USB card reader?

...

leezer3 · 1 Jan 2008 at 16:22

Magnets damaging media are a total myth

I've kept a box of floppies on top of a large sub for a several weeks at a time with absolutely no effects.

IIRC Snopes invesitgated this a while back too.

Will do nothing at all to anything

-Leezer-

benji182 · 1 Jan 2008 at 20:38

leezer3 said:
Magnets damaging media are a total myth
I've kept a box of floppies on top of a large sub for a several weeks at a time with absolutely no effects.

IIRC Snopes invesitgated this a while back too.

Will do nothing at all to anything

-Leezer-

i lost work when i was at skool on a floopy as i left it next to dads stereo might have been heat not sure but if something stores data on magnetic tape i'm sure a magnet would have some effect even if its not corupt.

helmutcheese · 1 Jan 2008 at 20:47

leezer3 said:
Magnets damaging media are a total myth
I've kept a box of floppies on top of a large sub for a several weeks at a time with absolutely no effects.

IIRC Snopes invesitgated this a while back too.

Will do nothing at all to anything

-Leezer-

Run a powerfull Electro Magnet across your Pr0n Full HDD then

WJA96 · 1 Jan 2008 at 22:17

leezer3 said:
Magnets damaging media are a total myth
I've kept a box of floppies on top of a large sub for a several weeks at a time with absolutely no effects.

That just means it's very well shielded. It definitely doesn't make it safe.

wilno · 1 Jan 2008 at 23:06

Run a powerfull Electro Magnet across your Pr0n Full HDD then

No magnet on earth is going to get near my j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q, and r drives.

m4cc45 · 2 Jan 2008 at 08:41

What about having a sliding mechanism.

(This is going to be hard to explain) as it's in a 3 1/2" bay you can't really have a push button mechanism which works effectively (i.e. because it would have nowhere to move to).

You could create some runners where you move the covering vertically up - of course this would obscure any other drives you have in place above it.

That's the only thing I can think of!

M.

Sankari · 2 Jan 2008 at 10:11

Hmm, it's a good idea; I'm just not sure how it would work in practice.

jungliemonkey · 3 Jan 2008 at 13:28

I haven't stealthed a drive quite like the one shown in your picture... but I have done something similar for separate 3.5" card-reader and floppy drives in the past.

What I did was this:
i) removed the plastic 'front plate' of the drive.
ii) using the removed front plate created a stencil of the slots for the cards / floppy disk.
iii) marked where these ought to be on the aluminium 3.5" 'cover plate' (removed to install the drive).
iv) used a dremel to cut slots for the cards / floppy disk, led and push button in the aluminium. Then filed these after testing to check cards / floppy fitted perfectly.
v) attached the finished aluminium cover to the the front of the drive in place of the plastic front plate.

The overall effect was rather good IMO. Unfortunately this was for my old computer and I have no photos to post for you

Advantages:
- aluminium drive cover fitted in perfectly with the case (after all it was supplied with it originally!)
- satisfaction at a job well done

Disadvantages:
- fiddly to do (requires time, dremel-use, filing and occassional cursing)
- not a complete 'cover up' stealth (had slots for inserting the cards / disks)
- no 'flap' covering the floppy slot (although this was much thinner than a 'stock' one, so not a prob IMO)

With these points in mind (and if my explanation above makes sense!), perhaps you could try the same?

misterPK · 3 Jan 2008 at 15:57

If you go for putting it in a 5 1/2 bay you could mount it so its against one side and then have a blank bezel pannel swing out by pushing on the opposite side. For this to work you'd need some kind of pivot about 3/4 of the way across the pannel.

PK!