Blues Brothers Case

[Bopher]

Sheesh, I haven't even been able to really get going on my first mod and already I had a brain storm on another. My wife mentioned the other day how she thought a Blues Brothers theme would be cool to her. So I got thinking and drew something up quickly in Sketchup

Side 1. This I want to airbrush the concert poster you see them hanging in the movie. If you've seen the movie then you know what I mean.

Side 2. I want to put a screen shot etched into the plexi of Jake and Elwood with a tagline across the bottom, "It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it."

On the top I want to extend about 2 inches and plexi in a copy of the movie script. Also if you noticed on the front there is a big black hole. I was thinking about running off the idea of the laser setup that Spacehonkey shows in his ideas. I want to find a car lighter from a 1974 Monaco or Dart (I think they used the same lighter) and install it so when you push the lighter in it doesn't stay down but it breaks the Laser and starts the computer up, under that I want to put the, "Fix the cigarette lighter." Quote from Jake after he's told about the car replacing the original Bluesmobile.

I also wanted to get a custom case badge with just the words, "Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration, don't fail us now." Which for some reason I think would make a humorous case badge for any gaming machine. Just some thoughts and it will be a while before I do this, because 1. I need to finish NES x3, and 2. I need time to secretly do this I want it to be a surprise for her. I don't know if I will be upgrading for her. She doesn't play games and stuff. But I think she wants to play around a bit with video editing. Believe me I would go all out but she's happy with the Dell Dimension 2400 she has. I have the same computer hence the reason I'm trying to build a new system to play games on.

Paint on this won't be perfect because I want that Bluesmobile look to it.

[Bucko]

Sounds like a cool idea.
With the cigarette lighter, using the laser idea seems like a complicated way to do something very simple.
You could either put a momentary push button in the end of the socket, so when you push down on the lighter it hits the power button.
Or you could make the lighter the power button itself. Basically you wire up the socket like a switch with each wire joined to a wire running to the switching on the MoBo (just like a normal push button). Bend the little metal clamps in the socket out that hold the lighter in until it gets hot (so it can't stay in at all unless you're holding it), then clean up the end of the lighter and run some solder over the coil to short it out to ensure a good connection.
And there you have it. A simple, removable power switch. You take the lighter out and the PC can't power on. Otherwise while it's there it acts exactly the same as a normal power switch for a PC.

[Bopher]

Defintally an idea. i was thinking about that after I posted, maybe even just modding out the power switch to sit back in the bottom of the lighter. Still in the planning phase.