Today's work - Chococat and Badtz-Maru

Chococat and Badtz-Maru

The hollowed eye sockets are for LEDs. Batz-Maru will be placed over the ON button. His white tummy will actually be the power button. I had to fabricate it since the actual button sits too deep inside the original casing. The eyes will become the power lights. Chococat is going to be connected to the hard drive LED plug on the motherboard. His eyes will light up amber (or green, haven't decided yet) when the drive is active. I also have fabricated Keroppi, the frog. His eyes will light up green when the DVD is in use. Keroppi is still being painted.

Keroppi almost completed. Just needs a clear-coat and LEDs.

Bezel Modifications

I used some simple designs that I found on the web. I then used a tracing paper to transfer outlines of the shapes onto the plastic bezel.

Traced outline of the flowers and hearts.

Since I did not have any air cooling, I turned the RPMs down in order to avoid getting the plastic melted around the burr.

Going shallow passes - one at a time...

Keeping the lines as close as possible to the original

Carefully progressing while avoiding overheating the plastic. You can ruin your entire design if a blob of melted plastic suddenly sticks to the burr and wipes a chunk out of the bezel.

Flower design

Rough cut-out. All of these were later smoothed out with a hand file

Another flower design

Closeup from the back. I had to take out some of the material, otherwise, the copper mesh would not follow the contours of a thicker material.

Bezel Modifications - Part 2

This is what the final design looks like. The copper mesh got munched a bit, but that's OK as all of these will come out for painting.

View from the inside of the bezel. The copper mesh is just hot-glued to the back.

Front view - with and without the mesh

Lights

This is where the extra pair of "hands" came in handy :) In this step, a resistor is being soldered to the LED in order to limit the voltage flow. Most common LEDs work with a max of 3V. The supplied 5V from the PC is way to much. Within few seconds the LED would smoke and melt. Done that too.

Attaching wires...

Heat-shrinking all bare wires in order to avoid short circuit once installed in the metal case. Not sure why I did not have the revelation at that time, but green heat-shrink just does not go with the Hello Kitty theme ;) If I have time, I may redo these...

Final assembly: spaced according to the holes in the case. I used solid core wire - that's why the whole thing stands vertically like this. Now, if it only was red/pink and white, with no black or green... ;)

Lights installation and testing

Drilling holes using the stepping drill bit.

LED fitted inside a plastic LED holder. This helps in keeping the LEDs firmly attached to the case.

View of the assembly from the back

Quick test to ensure all LEDs are working
Due to ambient lighting the LEDs seem a bit on the purple side.

Test with the bezel in place. Notice - the buttons module is now flipped upside down. The large power button is where Badtz-Maru will be placed. I have omitted one LED over the lower flower, the one between two hearts on the left. A defuser will be placed over the two LEDs, which will ensure even illumination.

White components