User avatar
By GohstTarp
#4881730
barison82 wrote:But omg - thank you so much for your help with the measurements, I really didn't expect you to go to that kind of trouble (having to remove the speakers) so again I really appreciate your help, but just hope it's ok??
No problem at all... I wanted to remove the speakers to mount the cyclotron lights anyway. :cool:
User avatar
By barison82
#4881744
GohstTarp wrote:No problem at all... I wanted to remove the speakers to mount the cyclotron lights anyway. :cool:
Lol that's great - glad that it is not a major inconvenience then [emoji4][emoji106] Thanks again.
User avatar
By GohstTarp
#4882848
barison82 wrote:Lol that's great - glad that it is not a major inconvenience then [emoji4][emoji106] Thanks again.
Sorry this took so long, Baron. Since you were concerned with how high up the pack was mounted, I took my measurements from the very tip top on the motherboard.

Distance from top of motherboard to top/center frame mounting hole: 8 3/8"
Distance from top of motherboard to the bottom holes: 21 7/8"

Hope that helps :)
User avatar
By barison82
#4882876
Hi GohstTarp

Thank you so much for these measurements - and no worries at all! This is a big help - the motherboard on my shell is the same dimensions as the GBFans ones, so these measurements will be useful! Looking forward to seeing some more progress on your build - hope to add some updates on mine soon too [emoji4][emoji106]
By Hasford1978
#4885168
A quick question, what are the angles on the L brackets meant to be at? Is it 90 degrees?
If so i can order a piece of aluminium and get it bent at that angle, thanks
User avatar
By GohstTarp
#4885197
Hasford1978 wrote:A quick question, what are the angles on the L brackets meant to be at? Is it 90 degrees?
If so i can order a piece of aluminium and get it bent at that angle, thanks
Correct... 90 degrees. Making your own is an option, but if you can, I would recommend getting something like this...
http://www.gbfans.com/shop/pack-aluminu ... -brackets/
User avatar
By GohstTarp
#4885472
This post may contain an affiliate link that helps support GBFans.com when you make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

Been a bit distracted lately, working on my home office and an NES RGB setup, but I've managed to fashion and install an aluminum Power Cell light bracket.

This time, I took a page from Julz's thread on measuring the shell for a Power Cell bracket...
julz wrote:Pick up some 1.2- 1.5 mm aluminium plate. When you cut it down make sure the rectangle you cut has the same with as your powercell led circuit board. Then with your shell mounted to the motherboard, turn it on its side and measure the distance from the mobo to the end of the powercell. take off about 10 mm to compensate for the thickness of the fibreglass and the width of the powercell acrylic, then take off about an inch. That should give enough room for the powercell circuit board and any small spacers you stick between your bracket and the circuit board.
I ended up with the following measurements...
motherboard to top of power cell: 4in
power cell shell thickness: 0.125in (1/8")
blue lens thickness: 0.25in (1/4")
power cell led board + plastic raisers: 1.25in (1 1/4")
desired led distance from lens: 0.25in (1/4")

4 - 0.125 - 0.25 - 1.25 - 0.25 = 2.125in

So my bracket needs to be 2.125in high, 1in wide and 4in length. Length and width were determined by measuring the led board.

I was able to find a sheet of 4in x 10in aluminum with 0.064 (~1/16") thickness at a local hobby store. Perfect!
Image
If you aren't able to source this locally, you can find it on Amazon here...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014RXQO64

Using my measurements from above, along with a table saw, vice, rubber mallet, drill and a file, I ended up with this...
Image

Next, came the painstaking process of taping the bracket down to the motherboard, installing the shell, noting the bracket position, removing the shell, repositioning the bracket and repeating, until I was happy with the position. Then I marked the bracket location along with where I wanted to drill the holes for the 3/16" rivets...
Image

After some careful drilling, I ended up with this (using 10-32 bolts for dry fitting, will use 3/16" rivets for final assembly)...
Image

Image

The rivets will look better, but still looking good...
Image

Obligatory Power Cell lights demo video...


Now I need to get to work on those Cyclotron lights!
Last edited by GohstTarp on April 16th, 2018, 6:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.
canpara, barison82, Kingpin and 1 others liked this
User avatar
By Naptime
#4885654
Well done! The placement is perfect and I love the look of your aluminum bracket - very professional! I tried to make mine out of styrene. The result was usable, but I'm glad the shell covered it up!
User avatar
By GohstTarp
#4887963
canpara wrote:The powercell looks perfect! *High Five*
Thank you, Canpara. *High Five* back at ya!
barison82 wrote:Looks excellent! Another bit of clean, tidy work :)
Thanks, Barison. Looking forward to seeing more updates on your pack :)
Venkman's Swagger wrote:Perfection!!
Thank you, VS... You are the man!
Naptime wrote:Well done! The placement is perfect and I love the look of your aluminum bracket - very professional! I tried to make mine out of styrene. The result was usable, but I'm glad the shell covered it up!
Thank you, Naptime. I had considered using ABS for the bracket because the aluminum intimidated me a bit, but I'm glad I want for it... I ended up really liking the look as well.
User avatar
By GohstTarp
#4887979
Finally got around to replying to all the great comments here, so it must be time for another update!

This time around, I was able to get the Cyclotron lights and blue brick battery installed. As usual, this was all inspired by BishopDonMiguel's excellent ALL-FIRED PLAIN-VANILLA PACK BUILD and his use of Radio Shack 6"x8" Perfboard. I got started by extending the four center 1-1/2" 10-32 button head bolts that attach the speakers using couplers, 1/2" nylon spacers and 2" bolts with the heads cut off...

Image

Then, I rounded the corners of the perfboard and found the best location for the four mounting holes using a paper template and some trial and error. Next, I mounted the perfboard, installed the shell and eyeballed the cyclotron light mounting points. To mount the LEDs, I got some OD .261 x ID .219 x 32.5 epoxy tubing and cut off four 3/8" (just what I thought looked good with my setup) lengths to use as posts. I also cut each one length-wise using a hacksaw...

Image

That allows the LED's wires the slip through and when you compress the post together, it will fit nice and snug in a 1/4" hole...

Image

It has stayed in place well using just friction, but I will probably glue the mounting posts in on final assembly. I did use some hot glue to temporarily attach the LEDs wires to the bottom of posts...

Image

Here's how it looks with all four lights installed in the mounted perfboard and the battery behind it, attached to the speakers using industrial velcro...

Image

Perfboard removed showing the blue brick installed...
Image

Velcro arrangement...
Image

And a view from the side...
Image
The battery just happened to be able to fit nicely between the bottom two bolts and the top two led mounting posts. Phew!

Below is how the pack electronics look so far...
Image

Lastly, here is a light and sound demo with the shell attached. A pretty cool milestone :)


Now I can concentrate on getting the vent mech installed on the motherboard. Hoping to post some of my ideas soon.

Till next time :cool:
Last edited by GohstTarp on April 16th, 2018, 6:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
By bishopdonmiguel
#4887981
Good call with the epoxy tubing. Definitely better than using random wall anchors.

Also great work with the perf board. I know flashlight reflectors are the popular choice but using perf board adds a perf-ectly vintage look.
User avatar
By GohstTarp
#4888011
bishopdonmiguel wrote:Good call with the epoxy tubing. Definitely better than using random wall anchors.
Thanks, Bishop! I bought that tubing on a whim, but it ended up working perfectly.
bishopdonmiguel wrote:Also great work with the perf board. I know flashlight reflectors are the popular choice but using perf board adds a perf-ectly vintage look.
Ha ha ha! Thanks, again. I think builders go for the flashlight reflectors to avoid light bleed, but it's not an issue with the GBfans light kit LEDs. I would say over 90% of the light is directed upward, toward the lenses, so I would only recommend flashlight reflectors if you like the look.
User avatar
By barison82
#4888050
Awesome progress, really tidy work again as per usual! The perforated board really looks the part, and the electronics have turned out great :)
User avatar
By barison82
#4888194
You're welcome. Look forward to seeing your solution for a neat vent mech installion - I'm sure you'll do a good job on it :)
GohstTarp liked this
User avatar
By CPU64
#4889753
Funny thing, I made my bracket the same way and my entire pack lights electronics fit inside it. My pack is so basic! :D
Also, have you tried mounting the speaker's to the board without the spacers? Speakers are designed to have the phases separated from each other.
User avatar
By GohstTarp
#4889758
CPU64 wrote:Funny thing, I made my bracket the same way and my entire pack lights electronics fit inside it. My pack is so basic! :D
Nothing wrong with keeping things simple... which would be much easier if the GB community didn't offer so many great build options ;)
CPU64 wrote:Also, have you tried mounting the speaker's to the board without the spacers? Speakers are designed to have the phases separated from each other.
The spacers are required to keep the tweeter assembly from touching the motherboard. I figured it would be good to avoid that.
User avatar
By GohstTarp
#4889827
Well, I was really hoping that I could figure out a reasonable way to mount the Vent Mech to the motherboard, but after doing some research and testing, I came to the conclusion that, in my case, it made the most sense to mount it to the shell. It really came down to my use of the GBfans shell built-in fiberglass N-Filter and perf-board mounted Cyclotron lights. I think I could have pulled it off if I was using an aluminum N-Filter and reflectors for the lights. But, no worries... the Vent Mech installs quite nicely into my GBfans shell fiberglass N-Filter...
Image

The fan/light assembly fits pretty snuggly into the N-filter cavity, but was a little wobbly just by itself. I was able to make it rock solid by cutting up some pieces of this "craft" foam...
Image

And pushing it in around the edges using needle-nose pliers...
Image

I also had to secure the air-pump to the inside of the cyclotron. As you can see here, this was done using a 20mm zip-tie mount and a narrow piece of velcro ribbon...
Image

With the Vent Mech installed in the shell, I had to make room for it by modifying the perf-board. I was a little bummed the I had to cut up my nicely symmetric board, but I like its look even more now...
Image

Of course, with the shell mount, I needed a power connection cable. Luckily, the Vent Mech uses JST terminals for modular connections, so I was able to make a quick-connect JST terminal cable to supply power...
Image

But... avoiding an annoying cable like this was the main reason I wanted to mount all of this to the motherboard. So in an effort to still avoid that, I've been thinking about making a "pressure connection plate." Basically, it would work by completing the circuit when the motherboard and shell are pressed together. Here is a little sketch I made...
Image

The plates would be made out of ABS and some AAA battery connection terminals...
Image

The top plate would be attached to the shell and the bottom plate attached to the motherboard. As far as location goes, I was thinking about this area circled in red...
Image

I'm going to give it a shot, but if it doesn't work out, I still have my quick-connect cable.

Even though I wasn't able to mount the Vent Mech as I originally wanted, I still feel like I ended up with a clean and completely removable installation solution. That's it for now!

EDIT: Wow... my 500th post :)
Last edited by GohstTarp on April 16th, 2018, 6:16 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Kingpin, barison82 liked this
#4889909
GohstTarp wrote:
Venkman's Swagger wrote:Definitely clean work again GT. I just love this build
Thanks for the kind words and support, VS!
You're welcome man. It's well deserved
User avatar
By barison82
#4889941
More amazing work! Will be interesting to see how your connection plate idea works out.
User avatar
By bishopdonmiguel
#4889969
Great solution! This is why I've not yet installed a vent kit... but now you've got me thinking I need to get one in my pack.
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