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Anyone mod a optical drive to have a flip top?

Hey bigD6997, could you take some pics as you go. I would really like to see how your drive works and what you come up with for the switching and hinges.
I got a lot done yesterday on the drive and my case's. I decided to keep it as simple as I can so it doesn't seem overwhelming to people. I still can't think of a easy way to automate the door though. The tape deck idea could work but I don't have one or even seen one in years. I was thinking a lever attached to the eject button my work to push the door open but may also fling the CD across the room if it doesn't have time to stop spinning.
I did have an idea of mounting the optic carriage in a 120mm fan hole[ the same size of a CD] so the spindle sticks out and have the hub mounted on a arm that tilts up with the eject motor, it's a lot like a record player I guess. You could see the CD spin out side of the case which would look cool. Just fixing an offset arm to the tray motor should be enough to tilt the hub arm. This would fit in nice with the HTPC I'm working on:)
Good luck BIGD, Hope to see the mod soon:rockout:
 
unsmart said:
Hey bigD6997, could you take some pics as you go. I would really like to see how your drive works and what you come up with for the switching and hinges.
I got a lot done yesterday on the drive and my case's. I decided to keep it as simple as I can so it doesn't seem overwhelming to people. I still can't think of a easy way to automate the door though. The tape deck idea could work but I don't have one or even seen one in years. I was thinking a lever attached to the eject button my work to push the door open but may also fling the CD across the room if it doesn't have time to stop spinning.
I did have an idea of mounting the optic carriage in a 120mm fan hole[ the same size of a CD] so the spindle sticks out and have the hub mounted on a arm that tilts up with the eject motor, it's a lot like a record player I guess. You could see the CD spin out side of the case which would look cool. Just fixing an offset arm to the tray motor should be enough to tilt the hub arm. This would fit in nice with the HTPC I'm working on:)
Good luck BIGD, Hope to see the mod soon:rockout:
Click to expand...

yup ill take pictures, my mechanizm for lifting a cd rom compleltly out of the case might come in handy:p

hinge.jpg


it worked alright, just didnt have the force to bring the cd drive all the way up... i kinda had to pull it... so it got scratched:shadedshu

im going to take the magnetic latch off of it and mount it to the front of the cd drive... then im going to attach a small piece of metal to the front of a piece of acrylic so it can come up :confused: hopefully it will work:laugh:
 
unsmart said:
Hey bigD6997, could you take some pics as you go. I would really like to see how your drive works and what you come up with for the switching and hinges.
I got a lot done yesterday on the drive and my case's. I decided to keep it as simple as I can so it doesn't seem overwhelming to people. I still can't think of a easy way to automate the door though. The tape deck idea could work but I don't have one or even seen one in years. I was thinking a lever attached to the eject button my work to push the door open but may also fling the CD across the room if it doesn't have time to stop spinning.
I did have an idea of mounting the optic carriage in a 120mm fan hole[ the same size of a CD] so the spindle sticks out and have the hub mounted on a arm that tilts up with the eject motor, it's a lot like a record player I guess. You could see the CD spin out side of the case which would look cool. Just fixing an offset arm to the tray motor should be enough to tilt the hub arm. This would fit in nice with the HTPC I'm working on:)
Good luck BIGD, Hope to see the mod soon:rockout:
Click to expand...
I think you should go back to the idea of using a locking hub. (Like a laptop drive)
 
How does a locking hub work, do you have a pic or link you could post? I've never seen a laptop drives insides but it sounds interesting.
 
unsmart said:
How does a locking hub work, do you have a pic or link you could post? I've never seen a laptop drives insides but it sounds interesting.
Click to expand...
Kinda like a portable cd player, where the disk snaps into place on the drive hub, and there is no top hub.
 
unsmart said:
How does a locking hub work, do you have a pic or link you could post? I've never seen a laptop drives insides but it sounds interesting.
Click to expand...

I have a few old Dells that use that type of cd-rom drive. I'll see if I can get a picture up. Yeah. They'd be deathly easy to mod. All they really need is a window.
 
I think I get what your talking about:) On the top of the spindle there like three latches that lock over the CD when it's pressed down and to remove it you press the spindle down an pull up the CD? It's like a CD case.
I have some rubber Orings, wonder if they would do the job of locking the CD into place. I could glue one on the spindle and force the CD over it so the CD would rest between the Oring and spindle. I'm not sure if that makes since:wtf: it's the best I can explain it.
If you can get a pic that would be cool. I'm always looking for new ideas no matter how off the wall.
I have a feeling one of you guys is going to come up with something far better then what I'm working on;)
 
unsmart said:
I think I get what your talking about:) On the top of the spindle there like three latches that lock over the CD when it's pressed down and to remove it you press the spindle down an pull up the CD? It's like a CD case.
I have some rubber Orings, wonder if they would do the job of locking the CD into place. I could glue one on the spindle and force the CD over it so the CD would rest between the Oring and spindle. I'm not sure if that makes since:wtf: it's the best I can explain it.
If you can get a pic that would be cool. I'm always looking for new ideas no matter how off the wall.
I have a feeling one of you guys is going to come up with something far better then what I'm working on;)
Click to expand...
That's exactly the type of hub I meant. I don't think the o-rings would work tho. I was thinking of trying to swap hubs, or if they don't detach from the shaft, maybe swapping the whole motor assembly out.
 
Good lord unsmart, have you never seen a Discman, or a PlayStation? Same concept. Just to be a little more helpful, here's some pictures for ya.

drivenodisccq6.jpg


Drive in an empty state.

drivewithdiscrb6.jpg


Drive with a disc inserted.

wholemachinedg9.jpg


And the machine of course, my old iBook SE G3 366, transparentized with 'custom' faded Graphite colouring :)

I'd almost consider goin for a notebook drive for such a mod to be honest - if you used a tape deck style slow-release that's springloaded, you could use the eject release setup from the notebook (notebook drives are just latched, hitting eject simply unlatches it rather than driving it out like a tray-load desktop drive) to open it AND stop the disc simultaneously.

But like Wile E says, discs aren't gonna be anywhere near so likely to fly out if you use a latched hub.
 
yeah, I've seen them :o before just couldn't pull the image out of my brain:banghead: I would blame the drugs I took but I've always been like this, a slight case of retardation I guess . The laptop drive look pretty easy and may work great in a HTPC and If I can find a cheap used lap top dvd burner I might give it a try.
I may have solved the door opening thing though. Just have to make some levers out of acrylic and do some test but should work.
Whats really hard with this mod is there so much that works. Starting this I figured it would only work one why and I would just have to work it out. Now everything I try works and the problem is finding out how I want to do it. Never imagined it would be this moddable.
 
Hahaha, yeah optical drives are far more moddable than likes of say a 3.5" floppy or a ZIP drive etc, where about the limit of what you can do to it is changing the faceplate.
 
Ok, now, mod a cd drive to look like a 5 1/4 floppy drive :D
 
You're reading my mind man... an upcoming mod I'll be doing involves an original IBM-PC shell, a BabyAT Slot1 board, a Pentium III 600E Coppermine and a slot-load DVDROM drive modified... ;)
 
Carcenomy said:
You're reading my mind man... an upcoming mod I'll be doing involves an original IBM-PC shell, a BabyAT Slot1 board, a Pentium III 600E Coppermine and a slot-load DVDROM drive modified... ;)
Click to expand...

I can send you my 5 1/4 drive :D
 
Carcenomy said:
You're reading my mind man... an upcoming mod I'll be doing involves an original IBM-PC shell, a BabyAT Slot1 board, a Pentium III 600E Coppermine and a slot-load DVDROM drive modified... ;)
Click to expand...

How about this:)

CIMG1004.jpg

Like my wife it was born it 1982 and is real slow :roll:
I found it on the side of the road two years ago and it still starts up. I've been wanting to mod it ever since. It's just nothing is standard on it so the mod would be hard as hell, Even the keyboard would need to be modded. The 5.25 drives are built in and the monitor is some odd shape too. I got a slot loaded CD rom for the mod but never even open the case, I'm just to scared to:cry:
My dream is to put a touch screen[ if I could find one to fit] in it with a ITX board and use it to surf the web and control my HTPC.
 
Ooooh, a TRS-80... now that's a pretty classy little rig, I'd leave it alone to be honest. It is up there with my Sinclair ZX81, my Sega SC3000H and my Amstrad CPC6128. I'll only be modding the IBM-PC because all of its original hardware is missing - it's just a massive cave of a case at the moment, and luckily I found an old Imagineering MotherAT desktop case that I can steal an old-style power supply from to suit the IBM.

But to really answer your question, YES! Yes you could mod up the TRS-80... and it would be a damn slick little unit. In fact, I can't remember the manufacturer but there's an outfit in Europe who do adapters to use old C64s and C128s as keyboards, perhaps they could build an adapter for the TRS-80's keyboard?

We'll save that topic for another thread though ;)
 
WOW! I haven't seen a TRS-80 in around 15 or so years.
 
I thought I would post and update, did a lot of work yesterday:) . My idea for the automating the door failed :ohwell: I'm going with a plan I had on the first drive but didn't like, should work though. My brother in law seen the mod and had the same idea for opening the door so must be a good one, just won't look good probably. There is also a pic of my unfinished HTPC case:)

CIMG1006.jpg

I haven't rigged up the switches or door automation yet.
case.jpg

thats where the table saw kicked back on me:eek: , wood blades suck for cutting acrylic.
 
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