Any advice welcome!! (Please! Before I drill holes tomorrow
Fitting the MII, Opus, and 2.5" in the CD changer case will not be a problem. I need to cut the back of the case for the I/O panel and an exhaust fan. I also need to figure out how I'm going to secure the HDD to the case. I haven't booted it up yet, and I probably won't until I get everything mounted in. Anyways, these are just some little annoyances I need to clear up... I hope some of you can help.
Mounting the 2.5" hdd. Does anyone have any *FACTS* about mounting a hard drive? I'm not looking to start a 10 page war over whether I should use rubber bands or mount it vertically or whatever. I'm just looking for tips on how to mount it. Please only comment on this if you know what you are talking about.. (ie: Ph.D in hdd mounting from Harvard Univ)
Since I'm making a custom case I need to create a 3 pin connector for my Opus's 3 leads for quick disconnecting when I need to unseat the carputer. I looked around at radioshack but I couldn't find what I needed. I almost settled on buying a "disk drive power extension cable" (see
http://tinyurl.com/6dh5x) so I could mod it to my needs, but then I realized that it may not be rated to the amount of power I need from it (there were no specs). My 12v, GND, and ACC-ON cables will be routed through it. Does anyone have a better solution?
I'm going to need some additional USB ports. For that I will add a low profile 4 port PCI USB2.0 controller that I have lying around. All of these devices will probably send me over the limit on my Opus 90w's 5v rail, which is too bad.. I guess I'll be shopping for an Opus 150W soon.
The case
may have to be mounted using industrial strength velcro stuck to the bottom of the case. Would this be a bad thing? I'm not concerned with the case becoming unstuck, I am concerned with vibrations.
USB Device Layout...
MII Onboard PCI controller
.
USB1 radioSHARK AM/FM
.
USB2 GPS
.-
.
USB3 Soundcard
.
USB4 WiFi 802.11g
USB 2.0 PCI Card 4 Port
.
USB1 4pt Hub
(going to front of car)
..Lilliput TS
..Keyboard
(sometimes)
..Card reader
(sometimes)
..Etc ??
.
USB2 Griffin Powermate
Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics. I had no batteries for my digicam.
The MII and the 2.5"
Another angle
The Opus screwed into the top of the case
Looking inside the rear of the case (Opus up top, hdd on left, MII on right)
Front of the case. Sliding door is open. It will glow red with a cold cathode tube.
Closeup of above.
Dead space around the 2.5" hdd