Cobra-matic : Retro Bakelite Phonograph

[Mach]

Good news: It's possible to make the DVD work.
http://www.austinmodders.com/modules...ewtopic&t=1467

Bad news: It'll take a hardware hack. The sound you hear is one step back

The killer is that I've been lurking at austinmodders but never saw that thread. I went looking over there tonight cause I had a bookmark to a mod done by Zapwizard on a slot loading DVD. Looks like it's time to find the tiny soldering iron tip.

[Mach]

So I had a go at the DVD Rom.

This has to be the toughest soldering that I've ever done. At 2.5x magnification, I could barely see the connections. How you guys do this I'll never know.

This is to move the dvd eject button to a limit switch on the lid. Those 2 black wires are 30 gauge.

For the tray sense switches, from this:

To this:

The switches are about the size of a pencil eraser.

If you ever have to de-solder something this small, Chip Quik works like magic.

Next up is the limit switch for the lid and computer code to sequence it all.

[Mach]

I've spent the better part of a day getting the drive back in working order. I've been posting progress pics over at Austinmodders.com but haven't really given you guys a full breakdown. So here goes...

If you review the worklog, you can see that I cut a window in the top of a hub locking, tray loading slim line drive. This makes the DVD visible while its spinning (which is cool) and makes it look more like a record player (which fits the mod theme). The problem is in changing out DVD discs. Windows doesn't know a new disc is in the drive because the drive hasn't reset (a Windows (f5) reset doesn't work).

What make it reset? Pushing the button on the front and opening the tray which clues the DVD rom into the fact that a new DVD is coming. When the tray closes, it resets the drive. Its pretty simple actually. Making it reset without opening the tray is a little more difficult. Add to that the drive needs to stop before you can pull out the DVD makes it an interesting problem.

With the help of electronics kung-fu master, 486hawk, I've learned that you have to simulate the eject button press and simulate the open tray event. By soldering wires to pins 3 and 4 of the drive control header, and using a relay, then I can simulate the button press by shorting the two pins momentarily.

The header is found here:

A close up shot:

I used an ohm meter to test all 10 pins of the header with the button pressed and open to find that pins 3 and 4 were the correct ones. YMMV.

With that done, then I de-soldered the switches and soldered wires to the contacts. My drive had 2 switches but after testing, I only need to trigger one to reset the drive. The two images in the previous post describe what it looks like after soldering.

Lastly I had to remove the mechanisms that physically move when opening the tray. Wouldn't want it to pop open.

Before

After

Then I soldered on connectors for the switches and added a small limit switch to the lid to sense when its open.

I then sealed the entire underside with foil tape to keep out any dust.

It works as expected when connected the phidgets controller but I'll need to test further when connected to the motherboard to be sure it works properly.

Finally, here's the link to the austinmodders.com discussion.

http://www.austinmodders.com/modules...ewtopic&t=1467. Thanks again to 486hawk for all the help! To anyone who wants to try it, I hope the pics and description help. The only hairy part was soldering to the header. I was fortunate to have access to a decent soldering iron (Hakko 936) and a great deal of luck.

That gets me pretty much back on track which is seeing how badly I can plug up an airbrush with glow in the dark paint.

[Mach]

When Cobra-matic was up & running, the video card and HD were running on the high temperature side. (Both of which were passively cooled) I didn't like the looks of an add-on fan on the video card, so why not a new one, video card that is...

And one of these:

Only problem is the ram heatsinks and the fan leds are blue which don't fit the theme of the mod. The heatsinks were easy.

The leds took a little bit of effort, dremeling, and chipquick.

Silenx 60mm fan mounted on the HD:

[Mach]

Today was a good day to mod!

I dug out my Paasche VL airbrush. I got it years ago as a christmas gift but never got around to using it. I then loaded up an ounce bottle of Floquil crystal clear with a quarter ounce of the orange glow powder. The powder only stayed in solution for 2-3 minutes before it settled in the bottom of the bottle. I had to keep shaking the airbrush to keep it in solution. I was blown away with how well it worked.

You can see the texture of the powder. Oh yeah, it went on great but more importantly how does it glow?

You be the judge,

Remember the bezel?

It got some paint also. It needs some glow too but the paint will need to harden up first. This is all brush work so no airbrush here.

In the meantime, I started sanding out scratches from the case. Ever hear of 12,000 grit sandpaper? The guys who know bakelite (what the case is made from) tell me I can use it to sand out scratches and polish the case.

After a few hours of sanding, the case is exceptionally smooth but still doesn't have the shine that I'm looking for so next step is the buffing wheel.

[Mach]

Spent the morning polishing and painting the knobs and bezel. I painted an indicator line on the on-off and volume knobs as well as a painted in the recesses on the fan pointer.

The fan pointer mounted:

A little glow:

Finished wiring the case by adding connectors so the motherboard can be easily lifted out if anything needs to be reworked. Still need to add another usb header cable for a goodie that has yet to be delivered.

In the upper left corner is the on off switch and the phidgets input/output and servo interface boards. In the middle, the black square is a Gigaware Ultra-compact usb hub that will be connected to the motherboard header. It's the smallest one that I could find that takes an external power supply. The retractable cables can be pulled out from the bottom of the case if needed. In the lower left corner is the phidgets usb encoder for the volume knob and the Top Shelf Labs LED Controller.

Shortened the psu cables and put heatshrink on the ones that are not being used. I debated whether to remove them entirely but decided to leave them.

[Mach]

Polishing is finished, labels are on, all that's left to do is…nothing

I could bore you with details but I think I'll let the pics do the talking.

[Mach]

As I was sanding down the case, I found these on the bottom side.

They were pretty far gone but this one in particular gave me an idea.

I made a new label; one a little more appropriate.

I think you'll agree, no?

FIN

Addendum:
Story summary - Badness happens, Modding occurs, Upgrades follow, Happiness ensues

That's the gist of the story. The details include a failing motherboard that wouldn't post, an RMA to Gigabyte (no fuss, no muss, Gigabyte rocks!), another tussle with the open faced DVD-Rom, conclusion that DVD Sata boards from Hong Kong suck, a discovery of an easily moddable slim line DVD-Rom, the addition and modding of a ram cooler, and an upgrade from an E6600 to a Q6600.

If you want to window a slim-line drive, find one of these:

See the red wire in the lower right?

That connects to a mini PCB that is simple to desolder the micro switch and solder in a set of wires. No need to solder to a tiny, tiny pins like before.

It wouldn't be a tear down without an upgrade.

Stock clock wasn't stable after several tries re-seating the CPU heatsink, upping the fan speeds, and finally, adding a ram cooler killed off the problem.

with a little modding of course.

Link To Original Worklog