Sony CD Player Conversion

[sloppyc]

Hmm. Didn't see it on Home Depot's website, but there is a Pep Boys auto parts store nearby. Maybe I'll check them out.

I still haven't worked out how I'm going to manage these buttons yet. The circuit board is an irregular shape, so the buttons on it don't line up with the spaces on the player's facade.

[msmrx57]

Walmart has Bondo filler in the auto department.

[sloppyc]

Cool thanks. I'll check them out shortly.

[sloppyc]

It's been too hot to work outside lately, but today I had a chance to do something.

I think I've worked out how I'll manage the buttons:

Found an old keyboard at a yard sale. The top row of letter keys (QWERT...) wouldn't capitalize when Shift was held down, so it was pretty useless. The volume and mute buttons work perfect in Windows and Linux though, so I figured I'd take it apart:

The coloured dots are where I traced the wires in the membranes around to see where the buttons I wanted connected to the PCB.

Once done (it can be a little tedious and your eyes will cross more than once), mark what goes where on the PCB:

I'll probably use the three buttons highlighted below as they have a nice bevel around them:

So I figure all I need to do now is 1) find a way to make the buttons complete the appropriate cicuits when depressed (can't be too hard, right?) and 2) find a way to connect this PS/2 keyboard to a USB header on the motherboard without having a bunch of clunky adapters in the case.

Any suggestions for #2?

[gntlkilr]

Nice work so far. I love the idea of using the backplane of the CD player for everything. Alas I can't do that in my stereo stealth mod. The Back panel was littered with inputs. LOL. Not enough metal to support anything. So I'm ripping a desktop cage out and shoving it in there. heh. Good job so far man!

[sloppyc]

Thanks

Oh that's a great idea, especially if you've got the room. I definitely don't, so no add-in cards for me.

[FuzzyPlushroom]

This is looking great! Thank you for incapacitating and repurposing an example of the worst bundled keyboard I've ever used, by the way. Hopefully it shall never again harass an innocent typist.

(I reeeeeally want to see these buttons work, because if you can get it going, I have faith that I can, too, and I have a horrible media 'board somewhere...

[sloppyc]

Haha. It looked like it might be nice; I like the feel of laptop keys... but yeah. It was a dud. Hopefully I know what I'm doing here.

[sloppyc]

So... quick question. How important is the metal box that houses the PSU? Getting rid of it won't allow for electomagnetic interference in the case will it? Just asking as this thing's going to be pretty cramped, and if I can save space here, it'll help considerably.

[Snowman]

I had some friends that did a mod in a vcr and took the psu out but then were left with no ground leaving a potentially fatal situation. One of my friends also happened to brush up against the ground while the psu had a charge but was not powered up and got thrown against the wall 2 feet behind him, so yes you can do this but be careful. Or better yet get a slimline psu.