Take two on the text display bezel. This time, using the buggered 1st go as a template:
Scored layout onto rear surface + cut out LED holes with graded bit and Text display opening before cutting to size:
With LED bezels:
Original plan was secure with nuts and then dremmel down, as height of the LED containers hit the back of the display:
However, learned that the nuts also hit the display casing, so just superglue them (and the nuts proved handy to get them down to small height):
The superglued the bezel to the case (looks dead messy here - but not as bad irl):
The finished look:
Things are starting to get tight for space + clashing. I discovered that the display GPIO pins with the plug (at end of ribbon in pic) hit the buttons cross-piece. Thus had to cut out a recess. it was tricky to know where to cut, as you had to be 'inside' the case to see the clash points. Blu Tac to the rescue (I swear - blu-tac has to be in the top 5 for all things hack related - so versatile!). Closed the case and got an impression of the edges of the plug:
Pass me the dremmell again! Sadly, had to lose the Atari logo on the pcb
:
Had also lost some ground continuity, so another bridge wire required:
Gave it a test with everything stuffed in and... it closes!
Powered her up + ouch! My eyes - the LED's were blinding!
At this point got sidetracked. I needed to breadboard a solution, and always needed a bench power supply. So, I quickly knocked together one from an old PSU:
This allowed me to experiment with different resistors to get the brightness right. Here is the unit wired with one full power and the other dimmed:
So, I needed a little breakout board to house the resisters. I designed it for 3 in case I add another in the future (this pic when was designing it for 2):
Also made custom connectors from odds n sods:
The inside's getting busy now:
Modified the main case header to include Ground and 5v header pins for testing/expansion/ Also added the LED wires:
A nice fluke. When the ribbon cable is connected, it kinda acts as a hinge, letting you open the hood:
So, with lots of fixtures complete, I decided to release the ataroid into the wild to see how it looked. It headed stright for a television:
I might yet put a switch on the back of the unit to disable the LEDs - not sure yet.
Still quite a bit to do, including fitting more rear ports (USB3 + RJ45) + dreading hitting linux, wiring pi + GPIO to get the software keys working. :/