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GM 5x5x5 19" Case Design Competition


technobreath
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Oh, u didn't get urs yet. Cool, let me know when u get it, and I will get some too then :)

Illy, I think it should be 19" case, but if that's just me, I will gladly see other designs too, what do u guys think?

sine: The price hasn't actually been officially introduced yet, since things has been added to the prize over time.

The way it looks now:

2x GM 5x5x5 PCBs

2x GM 5 Chip

All the onboard components - that will exclude the midi jacks and LEDs I guess. Rosch is the one donating those components, so he will have to decide what is in and what is out of the component kit I guess :)

So this is a pretty decent prize :). And yes :) hehe, if u need any more than the ones u got there (looks good btw) hehe just go for it :)

Edited by technobreath
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i say, if the parts are easy to get and not extremely expensive it will include the panel stuff too. i'll get ready for it with my next Reichelt order.

yeah the best would be something 19", maybe 2 inside? but i enjoy looking at others too.

will be interesting to see what people have in mind, without strict rules.

gtxdude's small design looks awesome too, it's a nice approach. what did it cost to have it made?

it looks in fact so good that i'm thinking of getting one like that.

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Hey,

Rosch, I don't suggest to use these for the prize stuff, coz they might be a bit spendy (if u decide to do so), but I just wanted to kinda point out that ebay is an easy-for-everyone-place to source these neaties:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=neutrik+usb&_sacat=0&_odkw=usb+gender+changer&_osacat=0

Personally I'm gonna use these, as they are very sturdy, nice looking panel mount usb connectors.

Did a quick search on usb hubs also and found this:

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/566981-can-usb-hub-add-latency-midi-keyboard.html

The thread suggests that it's talk about microseconds, not sure if that is gonna be an issue or not, but microseconds are tiny, no? :)

EDIT: Whoops... this post should be in the bulk order thread where the option of USB hub inside was discussed :).

Edited by technobreath
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gtxdude's small design looks awesome too, it's a nice approach. what did it cost to have it made?

it looks in fact so good that i'm thinking of getting one like that.

That's the problem with one-off projects like this, the metal is stupid expensive: $130 USD. But if you want something that looks good, you gotta spend the bucks.

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Just an idea I ran into when making the mb6582 CS... It acually came from my neighbour (a printing technician or something like that :P). It wasn't good enough for the mb6582 CS because of its size, but for 1U 19" panels it would work just nice I expect! It came to my mind when u talk about acryllic ilmenator, and it should be pretty "cheap" too if I am to believe my neighbour.

Idea was:

1. Cut the plexiglass to shape and drill the holes.

2. Design the graphical layout and save it in a format that the printshop can work with (my local shop can easily work with a PDF file and I suspect most of the other shops also do)

3. Deliver the drilled plexiglass and design file to the shop

4. They print the design, mirrored, on a selfadhesive foil in a range of background colors.

5. They glue the foil to the back of the plexiglass.

6. Whee u got a NICE LOOKING hi gloss CS.

If u want to, u could even get em to "etch" your logo in it and u can put LEDs on the sides of the glass and have a iluminated logo too. When doing this, it's practical to paint the sides of the LEDs (or the inside of the drilled holes) black or something, so that the light from the LEDs doesn't confuse u with glow all over the place.

The reason for this not working for the mb6582 CS is that I felt that the thin plexiglass would become too flexy when it is that large, but for a 19" front panel, it would be very possible to use a thicker plexiglass - say 3-4mm or so - that should be stable enough and more than that for a 1U 19" panel!

Cutting the plexiglass and drilling it can be done manually if u are equipped. It can be done with small hand tools like a handsaw and a drill. This is pretty timeconsuming but not impossible at all. There are a few things to remember when drilling plexiglass by hand though.

1. The material doesn't flex very much, like wood. It is easy to break off chips from the material. The nature of drill bits makes it wobble if u use a hand drill. That vibration can be a nightmare. This is usually not a problem if u are drilling straight through holes, but you see the effect when u are to countersink. Using a drillbit doing this with a hand-drill makes a sort of triangular-round holes.

If u have a drillpress that changes. The secret is to be able to hold both the material and drillpress steady. Same thing applies to metal, only the metal doesn't tend to shatter with vibrations.

If u do this to wood or other softer material it doesn't matter, coz you just drill the hole, do the countersinking and set the screw in there and the wood will flex enough to look perfect without a perfectly done job on the drilling.

2. Sawing the plexiglass; u have to use a good saw. Preferably a fine tooth saw. Not too fine, or it will take forever. Also, be sure to cut straight the first time coz it is very hard to adjust the saw-line when started - remember it is a hard material.

I usually use my bandsaw to cut this stuff. You can adjust direction while sawing a bit, and it also is much quicker. After sawing a (almost) perfect line, I use 120 grit or so paper to grind the edge and remove all the marks that the saw left. I believe if using "Perpex" glass, u can also use a blow torch to the edges afterwards to make it glossy again, but I have never tried this myself, but seen some vids on youtube only. (I don't have a torch)

OK. this was a little bit more tutorialish than I meant for it to be - just wanted to give you guys an idea on alternative diy panels :). Of course, the easiest way is to pay yourself from all of this and get someone to do it for you, like ponoko, or other local cnc shops :).

EDIT:

PS. How about we run this contest out 2012, and then do a month or something with voting? How does that sound?

Edited by technobreath
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  • 1 month later...

Here's what I want to do.

I'm building a dedicated DAW PC and I want to integrate the MIDI interfaces with the case.

Here's the basic idea. I know, my photoshop skills are below beginner. That being said, please ignore the MIDI socket in the lower right. It's not supposed to be there. :pinch:

The area above the motherboard I/O will be Dremeled out and a piece of aluminum will be pop riveted in place.

gallery_7042_171_23689.jpg

So I want to mount the MIDI boards inside at the front, then remote the sockets to the rear. Everything isn't exactly to scale, but it should fit per the image.

Also, the activity LEDs are going to be mounted to the front, through the front bezel and aptly labeled.

For the USB connection, I'm going to leave off the USB-B connector on the GM5 board and connect wire to attach both to one USB header directly on the motherboard.

As a side note, I plan on DIYing an audio interface and placing the sockets below the PSU. But for now, I'm just going to use my Delta 1010.

This case is 3U, so with the audio interface, it will only take up 4U of space.

Should fit perfectly in the rack with the JV-1080s! :D

Edited by Roark
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I have a suggestion here. I think the main reason why there is not so much response to the competition is that the layout of the GM5x5x5 board is somewhat counterproductive for a 19" enclosure design. Two of the boards side by side are too wide to fit the 19" limit, and having them overlap in an upside-down way has the drawbacks that we already discussed.

Maybe we should stall the competition until all the boards from the recent bulk order have been delivered, and then see if someone comes up with a more rack-friendly, maybe modular, PCB design that gives more options for a 19" case design?

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I have a suggestion here. I think the main reason why there is not so much response to the competition is that the layout of the GM5x5x5 board is somewhat counterproductive for a 19" enclosure design. Two of the boards side by side are too wide to fit the 19" limit, and having them overlap in an upside-down way has the drawbacks that we already discussed.

Maybe we should stall the competition until all the boards from the recent bulk order have been delivered, and then see if someone comes up with a more rack-friendly, maybe modular, PCB design that gives more options for a 19" case design?

You are right. The upside-down approach did not work for me as i don't even have enough room for that. There is too much overlap of the two boards.

So last weekend i have been designing a backpanel with normal din connectors instead of the pcb mounting ones.

backpanel.png

That way you can fit 2 x GM5x5x5. However the downside is the backpanel itself does cost almost 100 euro.

Another possibility would be to make a separate pcb with 10 pcb mounted din connectors (and maybe usb). But i think you would still want to screw those connectors to the backpanel for additional support.

Edited by Shuriken
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But i think you would still want to screw those connectors to the backpanel for additional support.

Interestingly, I just saw that most of my old PCB-mount MIDI connectors have two holes underneath, so if you had the respective holes in the PCB you could use two screws to secure the connector to the PCB. I checked with the newer ones that Reichelt sells, and these do not have the extra screw holes. What a pity.

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Why not mount the DIN sockets on a separate PCB and connect them to the existing GM5x5x5 board with ribbon cable 'tails' to PCB headers... then the rear panel can be arranged however the user wants e.g. the IN and OUT for each channel beside each other, or all the INs together and likewise all the OUTs?

This would make the configuration easy to arrange according to space on the rear panel - 9 channels on the rear & 1 on the front. Maybe even 8 rear channels, and 2 on the front.

Apologies Shuriken... just re-read your post !!:unsure:

Edited by artyman
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wouldn't it be easy to take the original usb jacks that are used in the gm5x5x5, put 2 on a perfboard and mount that to the front (and just connect the 4 cables (or 8 for that matter) with the pcb)

?

but maybe i just failed to understand the purpose of the usb cable.

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wouldn't it be easy to take the original usb jacks that are used in the gm5x5x5, put 2 on a perfboard and mount that to the front (and just connect the 4 cables (or 8 for that matter) with the pcb)

?

but maybe i just failed to understand the purpose of the usb cable.

Yes, that is possible ofcourse. But i already soldered one. And i think this is more rugged then putting it on a pcb.

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