Recently I had an oppurtunity to pick up some 17" ELO touchscreens for around $70CDN.
I didn't put much thought into it until someone mentioned the idea of a touchscreen jukebox. So even with my projects that I've started and not completed I decided to jump all over this. With that came the birth of "The Boss Boxx" my soon to be touchscreen jukebox.
When deciding to take on this project I spoke to a friend of a friend who is a carpenter. I asked him if he wouldn't mind helping with pay of course. He was very excited so I decided rather then make sure box this project could really be something special.
I started a blog to outline the various stages of this project.
During periods where nothing gets done I will feature custom art work I've created for some of my music collection. Other things I will showcase on the blog are my really poorly done album reviews. The meat and potatoes of the blog will be the jukebox.....but again.....in the down time !
Anyway I thought I would use this forum to seek advice and input with respects to my ideas as I'm always open to suggestions.
So here are the specs :
I purchased a Dell P4 computer with 40 GIG HDD.
I'll be using that in connection with a 160 GIG Comstar HDD.
As of now I have just short of 1000 albums backed up,purchased,and stored.
The display is a 17" ELO touchscreen pulled from Target kiosks when they switched to LCD displays.
I plan on getting an audio card that would allow me the option of hooking up the jukebox to my existing stereo.
I had wanted to purchase an old console stereo and use that, however I haven't been able to locate one I like as of yet. Secondly would be the transportation of such an item. With all things considered I figured more of a pedestal style jukebox with a means to hook up to the external stereo would be ideal.
For now exact specs and drawings are not available, I only have concepts and ideas.
Soooooooooo................
One thing I have decided is that the jukebox will feature frosted acrylic sides allowing for light to shine through from the inside. I purchased three laptop colling stations that contain a total of 9 fans and feature blue LED's.
I plan on removing the fans from the bases and installing three on either side of the jukebox. That would blow the air towards the PC. I don't have available the model of the DELL PC at this time, but it has a button on the top that allows the PC to open up. Almost like a book if you will, it folds apart. (MAKE SENSE ?)
I plan on keeping the PC open once contained in the jukebox housing.
I think that along with the fans will make for better cooling.
With the last three fans my idea was to mount then to the back panel of the jukebox.
To provide even better ventilation and optimize the blue LEDs I had also planned on making the back of t he jukebox out of pegboard.
One question I have is with respects to the fans.
Would it be better to turn the fans around so they are blowing outwards ?
Or as they would be on the cooling station blow the air into the case, simply moving the air around. Should I be very concerned about heat in the case ?
I've included the picture of the cooling stations and a link to my blog.
http://www.thebossbox.blogspot.com/