PL2 - Hell's Illusion 4

The flat ribbon IDE cables I had intended using looked unsightly inside the case and covered up too much of the motherboard. There was no good way to fold them out of the way so I scrapped them in favor of the black rounded IDE cables shown below.

Here are the cables attached to the main board and positioned within the case, it looks much nicer without the fat black IDE cables covering up all the hardware.

Next up are the two 320GB hard drives that will replace the two 250GB drives that I had originally planned on using... 640 GB, beefy!

Below are the two drives hooked up to the main board and Windows Media Center being installed, it is now officially a computer. I still have some hardware to install - pinhole camera, LCD screen and Matrix Orbital - and the hard drives still need to be mounted but it is definitely working, so I am working on it again.

Yesterday I went and saw my friend with the laser, we worked together all afternoon cutting the pieces of Acrylic that will make up the case exterior, he also has a really cool, brand new, high end industrial printer... if I would have measured out the parts placement beforehand he could have back painted the panels too. I don't know how well it would have worked because I don't want the light to show and I am uncertain of the inks opacity, but like he said... it could also just print out a painting template directly onto the acrylic to make masking easier.

Check out the tasty laser-y goodness... Mmmmm, crunchy. The picture below shows the laser vented top panel and the front illusion section panel with the slot for the DVD burner cut out, it's starting to come together.

Below is the side panel that everything hooks into and ports out of, it came out really kick ass... especially when you factor in how it was done. The case was placed onto a flatbed scanner (connector side down) and the scanned image was then traced in Corel Draw and used as a cutting template.

The following picture shows just how well everything lines up, it only took two tries cutting scrap to get it all lined up perfectly... sweet.

Three-quarter overhead view of the mother board tray side, the port out side and top...

Motherboard side and top... the vent slots on the top panel turned out awesome and everything fits together really nicely.

Lastly, the LCD and Matrix Orbital side panel.... no real fancy laser cutting on this or the last panel other than being cut to size.

The acrylic panels have a few minor defects here and there, I am detail crazy (anal) and now currently working on polishing out all the tiny scratches, swirl marks and laser haze. Quality of work over quantity of work, with modding (or art) if there is anything that I can do to make it better I will likely end up doing it... so panel polishing, though tedious and in no way fun, was necessary and will make the finished mod that much better. The picture below shows the three different bottles of Novus and below them the sanding pads that came in the $14 sample kit I bought, I don't need to use the sanding pads as none of the scratches are deep (thankfully).

The scratches and such are minor enough that I skipped using Novus #3 altogether, here's how it went... clean the panel with Novus #1, then polish it with Novus #2 and then clean it again with Novus #1, check your work and then repeat the entire twenty minute process. I have somewhat mixed feelings about Novus, it works and all that but then again so does toothpaste and Brasso... oh well, the sanding pads are nice.

Today I worked on the wiring, I had to before I could do anything else because with everything hooked up to the little PSU... the remote control 40 LED lighting I made would not work, it does however work when connected to my test PSU. I think that I may have been splitting the power off too many times, the top cable in the picture below should fix the problem - I eliminated the power lead for the back case lighting so it now only has to power the remote lighting and pinhole camera. The old three LED array in the lower left of the picture below will not be used in the mod now (since it's power lead was eliminated) so I instead made a new three LED array that will not only light the back panel of the case but also serve a higher purpose by connecting to the main board as the power on, HDD activity and suspend LED's.

The rounded IDE cable that I intended to use for the HDD's is dead, I was using a pair of electricians scissors to remove the black tubing from the cable in between the drives and wound up slicing through two of the wires. I ordered two more 18" dual device black rounded IDE cables so I can try it again, hopefully they get here soon. I spent some time thinking out the rest of the back story and typing up another act, just a couple chapters to go...

ACT 4 - Ups and downs.

The Hell's Illusion display was sitting squarely in the center of the dining room table, if I'd been thinking I would have thrown the towel over it, "Did that guy bring it from the carnival?", Billy asked. Though I wanted to I could not lie to him, "Yes Billy, he went to get the power cord for it and then it is going right back.". He stood staring straight at the box, "Well, what is it mom?", looking down at him I couldn't help but remember that Ben had that same strange look in his eyes, "I don't rightly know what it is, but I do know that it's late little man. Give your mom a hug, it's way past time for bed.", I walked him to his room, tucked him in and closed his door. I switched off the hall and dining room lights and went into the living room to watch TV while waiting for Ben to return. The local news was on, the anchors were talking about all the destruction caused by the nights storms with sports highlights to follow and though I don't really remember it happening my long day must have caught up with me, I wound up falling asleep on the couch. I restlessly dreamt of Ben and the carnival box, of going to jail for helping him steal it and losing both the trial and my son because of it.

A loud crack of thunder, the sound of static... cold sweat and the out of place feeling that occurs when waking from a dream that feels so real. The low growling hiss and blindingly bright screen of the TV filled the room, I switched it off and sat up, how long had I slept? The VCR clock read 3:13, I could faintly hear the soft song of a music box playing. I looked over my shoulder toward the music's direction and through sleep fogged eyes noticed the moving red glow coming from the dining room, oh God... the house is on fire. I jumped up and sprint to Billy's room, in a single motion I threw open the door, switched on the light, stopped cold in my tracks and went limp as I looked down upon his empty bed. I was faint and now fighting the urge to let it all go dark, I stood up too fast and had to grab the dresser to steady myself, my heart was pounding a mile a minute and I was hyper ventilating. A cold voice was uttering 'You've lost it all, give up and die', panic attacks the doctor called them, the unfathomable severity of this one made me wish that I had health insurance and had actually filled the prescription. Breathe... slow down and breathe, over and over I told myself, but I couldn't, my hands were going numb and I couldn't think straight, my vision was reduced to peripheral flashes of light and my ears were ringing off the hook. The rational voice inside me kept repeating slow down and breathe, but there was that other voice inside louder than my own repeating 'You've lost it all, give up and die!', somehow above the ringing and everything else I could faintly hear Billy's voice calling, "Mom, come here! You've got to see this!".

I heard him, it was definitely Billy, my heart was in my throat and I still felt half paralyzed as I worked my way into the hallway toward the sound of his voice. My head still hazy and spinning I bounced a bit off the hallway walls before finally catching breath proper and getting my legs back under me. "Mom, come here!", he called out again as I stumbled toward the dining room, my breathing was finally starting to level out when I rounded the corner flipping on the dining room light. Billy stood staring at me with his mouth open, he appeared shaken by the sight of me and finally asked in a near whisper, "Are you okay mom?". I tore my gaze from him long enough to see my reflection in the mirror, I looked shades of pale with dark circles under my eyes and beads of sweat on my forehead, "I'm okay", then another deep breath, "I'm okay, now.". He ran over to me and I grabbed him, after holding him tightly and rocking back and forth I finally calmed myself enough to ask him what he was doing. Looking squarely into my eyes he exclaimed, "I used the power cord from my video game and it fit right in, I have been playing for a couple hours now and it says I only have two moves left.". I looked up from him to the illusion box on the table, it was glowing and the seemingly simple display box was now entirely ablaze with light and motion. "It's a game mom, and I'm winning."

I spent some time working on the graphic for the carbon fiber side panel, I think it came out pretty decent. The inner lettering that is white will be masked off from the inside of the panel and will not be vinyl dyed, when combined with the LED back lighting and carbon fiber it should look pretty cool.

Below shows the red mirror chrome vinyl stock, a roll of transparent contact paper, ball point pen, an X-Acto knife and the decal design printouts.

The following picture shows the pattern taped onto a cut piece of vinyl stock and the whole shebang taped to a magazine.

The outline of the pattern was traced with a ballpoint pen ( the magazine beneath provides a little give so that the impression is deeper) the pattern sheet was then removed - the picture below shows the impression lines.

Using an X-Acto knife with a fresh blade I began the task of cutting the vinyl, the trick here is to apply just enough knife pressure to cut through the vinyl but not go all the way through the paper backing. After cutting for a few minutes you will be able to tell by how the cut sounds if you are going too deep.

Be careful when removing the scrap vinyl, watch that you don't let the piece you are removing get stuck to the decal, this can happen when cut lines don't meet up since you have to hit it again with the knife, when you peel sections up always pay attention to what the scrap material is doing.

With all the scrap material removed a piece of clear contact paper is cut and than applied to the decal using a credit card.

Below shows the decal coated with contact paper, cut to size and ready for install.

I am planning on working some more on the mod soon, until then here is another shot of the back story...

ACT 5 - Fall to pieces.

The detective was standing over and angrily glaring at me while I stared intently at the Hell's Illusion display box, he wouldn't know that the sight of blood in the bag or the puzzle box being absent from the display was the cause, he would just see guilt in my gaze, but as hard as I try I could do nothing but continue looking at it. "Are you familiar with this item?", he asked again in a stern voice. Looking up at him I nodded, the look on his face, sound of his voice and the item in his hand told me that I had better come up with a feasible alibi fast, whatever was going down was a lot bigger than my stealing the display from the carnival. I let my eyes roll back into my head and pretend to go unconscious, I needed time to think, nothing was making sense. "Right," the detective said seeing me go out, "Enjoy your nap, if you're smart you won't bother waking up." He walked toward the door, I heard the handle turn but instead of just leaving he paused there a moment, "I know you are listening, your jacket and work ID were at the scene along with this black box, we have already established a motive so confession or not you are going down... trust me though, I'll be back and you'll confess." He was holding up a newspaper and through squinted eyes I caught the headline... 'Bloodiest homicide in state history', the picture from my ID badge was right below it.

The door opened and the nurse returned, she appeared less exuberant than before as she looked at me, not quite into my eyes. "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, but I'm sure you already know that your injuries are quite severe, your arms and legs were effectively destroyed and the blood now no longer flows there, amputation is necessary to prevent gangrene... the doctors will be prepping you for surgery within the hour, it is the only way to save you." Amputation, what the hell? She must have seen my confusion, "I'll get you a mirror.", she said and walked out of my line of sight, a few seconds later she returned holding the mirror directly above me, the person I saw in it was not me. "I didn't suspect you would recall exactly what happened to you and honestly I only know what I've read in the papers, but they found you there in a fetal position clutching an electrical cord, half of the side show tent had burned down onto you." My body was covered in bandages, I could see the yellowish brown stains on the gauze covering my arms and legs and knew that it meant infection. "Lightning started the fire, the burns you received would have been far more severe if your upper half weren't under that table, you are so very lucky to be alive." Hearing her talk of how lucky I was a second time made me want to kill her, I was the exact opposite of lucky, I was fucked.

I had an alibi, I wasn't there, sadly there was no way for me to explain anything in my current condition. I didn't kill anyone, I was being set up for a fall and needed to figure out how to prove I was innocent and fast. Think, think, think... better to concentrate on anything other than losing my arms and legs anyway, this whole ordeal felt unreal, like a nightmare that I prayed to wake from soon. The doctors were back and making marks onto my upper arms and thighs where they intended to cut, I ignored them as best I could while I worked at recalling the events leading up to my current situation, single mindedly trying to piece together what must have really happened. Think, think, think... since the display box inside the evidence bag was assembled but empty it likely meant that Jen was right about having to take it apart a certain way, she must have figured out how to get the puzzle box out... then she called the lady on the card to get the money for it. That had to be what happened, Jen tried to sell the box herself, things somehow went terribly wrong and for whatever reason the old woman killed her. I had a hard time being angry over Jen attempting to steal my payday, I would have done the same in her place, if I weren't so messed up myself I might have even thought 'better her than me'... but no way was I taking the fall over her deal gone bad. The doctors were wheeling me into the operating room and even as the anesthetic began to take effect I clearly remembered the name on the business card, 'Dr. Bethany Chanard'... it had to be her, no one else even knew.

After thinking over the past couple months about this mod I decided there was a need to simple things up and there are a few reasons why. I planned the internal part of this mod really well, but had no plan for attaching the outer acrylic panels... the method I have come up with does not allow for the side mounted hard drive since it attaches directly to the corner angle. The hard drive that was removed would have had questionable ventilation to it's underside anyway, with a single drive mounted to the openly vented case bottom the top fans become unnecessary... color them gone. I wanted to lighten the load to the power supply so that the 6" LCD could lose the external 12V power adapter and run PSU direct, so the HDD, both fans, the pinhole camera (a novelty that would have been lost in a sea of novelty) and the TV tuner card + IR receiver (piece of crunk) have all been removed.

With all the above parts removed I once again fired up the little computer, plugged in the 6" LCD monitor and set it up in the BIOS. Next, I installed Windows and all the drivers and the small LCD worked perfectly through it all powered by the tiny PSU... right as I was about to give myself a pat on the back I remembered that I had not tested the remote control lighting. I grabbed the remote and pressed the on switch... the PC powered off... not good. I tried it a couple more times before deciding that 40 LED's might have been a bit overkill to begin with, two Lazer LED's are not as bright or impressive as the LED array I built, but is more realistic.

In the top right of the above picture is the homebrewed LED lighting that was removed from the remote sensor and the bottom left shows the Lazer LED's that will replace it. I screwed together and notched the edges of the Lazer LED's so that the zip ties don't move around and two rubber grommets were used to spread them apart to space out the lighting. Below shows everything ready for soldering with the heat shrink ready after.

I plugged everything back in to test fire the lighting, the following picture shows the zip tie mounting method for the LED's and remote sensor...

And below is the case interior lit up by the Lazer LED's, not nearly as bright as the 40 high intensity LED's I had intended to use, but still bright enough to light things up.

It's alive, working properly and looking very sweet... next up, the money shot. I still have a few things left to do before I begin working on the outer panels, I may in fact wind up entirely re-doing the outer panels. ACRyan AcrylPanel scratches like mad, it's a fairly 'soft' acrylic and not really optimal as an external case surface... so it is at this point up in the air as to whether it will be used for anything other than a template.

The 6" LCD monitor is a bit clearer in real life than it looks in the following picture, but it does show the tiny monitor with open windows on it doing stuff and/or things. Pretty sweet so far, but I still have not come up with a finalized attachment method for the outer panels... that will be next.