Thread: Clear Acrilic Paneling

Nope.. not as long as your parts are securely fastened down. The only problem you might have would be with electrical interference. Metal computer cases are designed to shield against this stuff, but acrylic provides little, if any, shielding. This may not be a big problem depending on where you put your player and if you ground your power supply, etc., but you may want to talk to other people with "alternative" cases and see how their setup performs.

Hi everybody !

The only advice i could give you, is to take care of the electrostatic load of the acryl.
If you have some kind of carpet in you trunk (assuming that you plan to mount you player there...) it is possible that the acryl gets electrotatic(ly???) loaded and may cause severe damage to the electronics of the mobo.
Hope theis helps...

Do you have any other recommendations on what else I could use to make it. I think Ive seen someone use a fuse panel. It needs to be like 7" 13" x 6"

I have had great success using a 2-piece aluminum enclosure. A company called LMB makes a full line of these boxes. Right now I'm using an 8"x10"x2" for my Celeron 400 system, including MB, 3.5" HDD, and ATX PSU!

The material is strong yet thin enough to drill and cut fairly easily with a drill and dremel tool to make holes for cables and connectors. It's very easy to sand and paint for a great look, and it can even be powder coated since it's metal.

The top is a small piece that secures to the bottom part with 2 small screws.



--Jason
http://jump.to/m2pc

I'm using a aluminium enclosure too. Is made out of parts from old 19" racks. The handling is a bit difficult (most parts are 3mm strong) but therefore its very solid.


To help you a bit, I'll give you a few hints, which I found usefull on the (electric) design of my system....

HINT1: If you choose to use some kind of metal case, make sure that you do not connect the audio GND and the digital GND.
In other words: Don't connect the line calbles (or jacks) and the case of you player. If you follow this advice, you will get mutch less distorsion on your line signals. The simpliest way to accompish this, is to bring out the audio-signals (chinch jacks) with a pair seperate cables, and not fitting them into the front or back plate.

HINT2: If you use some kind of DC/DC power supply it may be nessessary to insolate the case from the car GND (chassis). This depends on the psu. If it uses a "common" GND for input and output signals it's ok to ground the encosure. If the psu uses different ground potentials you shoudn't ground it. This leads to a "cleaner" power supply and therefore less distorsions.

HINT3: Get a case which is big enough to mount you HD's in an upright way. It's definetly better for the lifetime of the harddisks (belive me and my HD graveyard...).
Most 2.5" HD's can be mounted in any position.

HINT4: Use at least 2 fans: One blowing the fresh air in and one suckin' it out...


Hope this helps...

Is it okay for 2.5's to be mounted the standard horizontal way, do I have to shock mount it or can it just be screwed in like non mobile computers

Thanks

If you want (or must) mount the hd in a horizontal way, you should build some kind of shock absorbing.
The simpliest solution i know is to take 2 rubber bands, put the HD in between and screw the bands to the case instead of the HD itself. So the HD is suspended in "free air" and very good protected against vibrations.
This works very well if you use a 3.5" HD-frame (or floppy-frame) for a 2.5" disk.
If you own a 3.5" or 5.25" HD just use more than 2 rubber bands...

In reply to Jics Msg: I found this in another MSGboard

"I work at nasa and have had training for this... Did you also know the spray is just about equal to fabric softener? it lowers the surface tension of water allowing a more conductive surface. After assembly I would attempt to use a towl and apply fabric softener to the inside of the case lightly and hope there were no ugly smears. as said earlier the power supply ground and MB ground will dissipate it as if it were a metal case if the charge can make it to the ground point."


Hope this helps
I am making mine out of Wood, much eiser to cut and screw together