Faceplate with LED's

[Ohsay]

Ok im working on a faceplate right now thats going to have leds on it, moulded in with a putty, its going to have a rings of led's around the power, and three lines vertically(horizontally) up (accross)the plate, one in the middle, one to the right (above) of the disc slot, and one to the left (under) the mem card slots.

and also a power button above the usb door.
now my problem is power, im planning on taking the wire from the button and feeding it through (under the putty) the usb door, to the back down to the bottom, and have a longer wire run UNDER the xbox to the back where a battery pack can be secured,

also with a vinyl sticker or something to stick and cover the wire at the bottom of the xbox so it doesnt get broken or whatnot.

I was also playing with the idea of making it powered by one battry and have that in the usb slot, but then the usb's would be unuseable. bummer.

any ideas or better soloutions on how to power it? :)

[Air Effex]

You lost me at "Ok im working"

[SpaceGhost2K]

First, your best bet (easiest, cheapest, most convenient, cleanest) would be to get an AC to DC adapter in the right voltage for your LEDs. Amperage is as important as voltage, so make sure you're getting something that puts out like 3 D batteries and not 3 AA batteries (which are both 1.5 volt)

You affix them to the plate, you wire them, some in series and some in parallel so you can control how much voltage you need, and then you test it with the adapter. Once they're all working, solder them, and run the cord from the adapter under your console and to a power outlet.

Now, you COULD use a USB plug and plug it into the back, which would give you five volts. The problem lies with plugging it into the front. I have not found a USB plug that didn't stick out too far so that it couldn't be used.

I DID find a marking pan that draws lines of electricity conducting ink so you don't need a bunch of wires, but I haven't tried it out because I was hung up on the USB thing. I REALLY want it to be self contained so I'm letting that stop me from moving forward.

[Ohsay]

yeh i've been looking for smal enough usb's to try and make it self contained but as you've found out its quite hard, ive picked up a few usb hubs etc, and taken them apart they are relitivley small BUT its the side you plug the usb into, not the usb itself, the only thing i could think of really is to take the door off, and get some moulding putty over the hole and try and work it into the design, but a bit ugly it may be.

Also, where did you find this pen?

[Ohsay]

You lost me at "Ok im working"

ha!!!

[SpaceGhost2K]

I either got the pen at Radio Shack or at Harbor Freight. I still need to send you some plates and I can toss the pen in there. It's still sealed. I think it cost me eight bucks. We haven't talked about what I get in trade for the plates, either. :D

[Eddie_the_Hated]

I actually have to head out at the moment, but tonight when I get back, I'll see if I have a solution to your guy's USB woes.

MY response would be to just open the doggone case, and affix a 5v/12v line, but there are non-warranty-voiding options too. See what I can find in my bits box, maybe we can work out an arrangement of some variety.

[SpaceGhost2K]

I actually have to head out at the moment, but tonight when I get back, I'll see if I have a solution to your guy's USB woes.

MY response would be to just open the doggone case, and affix a 5v/12v line, but there are non-warranty-voiding options too. See what I can find in my bits box, maybe we can work out an arrangement of some variety.

I think he wants something he can just hand to someone and have it work, not something that required getting inside the box.

[Eddie_the_Hated]

I think he wants something he can just hand to someone and have it work, not something that required getting inside the box.
Yup.

I figured as much. Which is why I did a little tinkering last night...

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n255/Eddie_the_Hated/usbphotos053.jpg

That should be about short enough for whatever you need to do. At least, that's as short as I managed to deconstruct it to. If you absolutely needed, I could probably shave another 5mm off of the end, but by that point you'd be better off customizing it via pins attached to the top of the port (which would be easy enough in and of itself).

You know that running anything from the front USB ports consistently is going to mean that you'll have to pop off the spring-door to the ports, right? It's not aesthetically distracting at all (I do it on a lot of my mods), but unless you have mean Dremel skills, running a wire through there is going to be interesting with the door attached, especially considering how close to the chassis the port-door runs.

If it was your box we were talking about, you could just take a small groove out of the righthand half of the case, and run it up that, through a hole to the front of your plate, but that's assuming that this was for you.

How many LEDs are you planning on running? Series or Parallel?

[Ohsay]

Space: i have 2 more Prince OP plates but think you have enough now, one virgin megastore one, like the rings of light but red and yellow, and thats really it :( my collection aint really worth mentioning.

but if you want when i finish this led plate ill give you that, if you like it.
and how many plates would you be talking about sending?
Don't wann have to end up pimpin maself out to you , ye know :hump:.
But if there is anything you would like me to do for you like get something available in the uk and send it over or whatnot id be happy to. you let me know :)

Eddie: im gonna going to be powering about, 28 led's, ill give that usb thing a try later, but i wanted something behind the door, but it just dawned on me there that you would be unable to get the faceplate back off again:bang:
But i have real thin wire that i was going to use to run through the top of the usb door, and should have no problem closing it,

[Ohsay]

i tried running power off the usb, and it didnt work ,
but ill get something done,

done one strip now, itll look pretty sweet when done hopefully.
get a pic up tommorow sometime

[Eddie_the_Hated]

Eddie: im gonna going to be powering about, 28 led's, ill give that usb thing a try later, but i wanted something behind the door, but it just dawned on me there that you would be unable to get the faceplate back off again
Holy crap dude! It's going to be visible from space!

Yeah, lemme know if you want it. I'm not worried either way, it was a fun little 1 hour project regardless.

[Ohsay]

its cool eddie im going to run if off batterys, (i think, still not to sure)
but that may come handy another time cheers bud.

And once i've finished this,
next led faceplate will be...
http://www.buttonmasher.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/ReviewBIOSHOCKPS3_F09F/bioshock9.jpg

[Ohsay]

ahh fixed my bluetooth device :)

here we are so far.


http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu120/OhsayDesigns/DSC00194.jpg

[SpaceGhost2K]

Cool. It's a faceplate AND a tanning bed.

For the Big Daddy (or Isaac from Dead Space) try some of that electroluminescent stuff. Just watch it. The capacitors build up a charge that can melt your fillings.

[Ohsay]

Cool. It's a faceplate AND a tanning bed.
Ha!

For the Big Daddy (or Isaac from Dead Space) try some of that electroluminescent stuff. Just watch it. The capacitors build up a charge that can melt your fillings.

:| i didnt think about isaac!

[SpaceGhost2K]

ha!


:| i didnt think about isaac!

that's why i'm the king, baby!

[Ohsay]

haha,

:rolleyes: eeggooo

[SpaceGhost2K]

That was supposed to be in all caps, but the XBA swearbot doesn't allow shouting, apparently. :)

[Ohsay]

swearbots?
What will the world come to next? forums where people can showcase there artistic doings on bland plastic items covering box's enabling users to communicate, play and slag each other?

Pah.