Home-build DNA40 with a bezel

[davetherayon]

Another couple of tools to have to hand, cheap as chips though! Masking tape, so your drills don't fly all over the place and draw random diagrams on the metal. Also a reliable tape measure, steel ruler and a reliable pen to draw your lines on. Nothing worse than drilling out your 510 to find it's halfway to Japan according to eye measures <---- Masking tape for definite. Cut out lots of guide slots before hacksawing or knocking bits of aluminium around with a hammer!

[davetherayon]

A response to my 'thank you' from the bezel maker :

"Thank you, I'm glad you like it. I tried to make it a simple as possible to both mount and (in light of DNA 40 problems) remove.
I also got another order in, and noticed the holes for the screw were a little small..... it's a fine line for Shapeways printing these, and it's better in my opinion to be a little on the small side than too big. I found a #54 drill bit cleaned them up perfectly :-)"

Shapeways are the bomb. Great bunch of 3d painters

[robby]

Good luck with it Dave, watching with interest

[jcol]

Dec 12, 2014 19:32:51 GMT davetherayon said:

Edit :
oh, might have to get into painting. The 1590B is bare metal, good enough but with a black bezel might look a bit naff. So I can foresee already somehow turning it a nice shade of black. Wonder if a can of boggo spray paint from Halfords will do...

Iirc you need to use an etching primer, then normal car paint, then some clear coat.
Oh and good luck, will be watching this thread with interest

[davetherayon]

Update time. Waiting for a few more bits to arrive - spray paint and primer for the box; a 4mm - 22 mm step drill bit from here for reaming out the 510 hole; and this, a hand nibbler for cutting out the slot in the case. The nibbler though may not be required, it wasn't! as I'm finding while cutting guide slots with a Stanley knife that with patience the knife alone would probably be able to do that job. We'll see. <--- It wasn't on its own, though with patience cutting good guide slots then wielding a hammer & wood chisel (wood chisel for the lid lip, hammer alone for the box slot) was more than enough.

In the meantime a couple of pics to show what's happened so far. First, the box was taped up and the positions for the 510 and bezel marked out, and a pilot hole drilled for the 510. I say drilled, actually the first hole was courtesy of a masonry nail, opened up to 4mm with a file. Easy enough. Agricultural modding, a shape of things to come lol



(The gaps in the paper are where the guide cuts have been made, as well as a long one along the bottom of where the paper is. It just makes 3mm from the base of the box which is dead on.)

Next the bezel was dismantled, to remove the little rack of buttons - with wire cutters or nail clippers (all part of one 3d painting) and the cover for the OLED enclosure. Then there was quite a bit of work with a flat file, first to get rid of the wee bit of burr on the cover, but the most work was on the 3 buttons as all three were oversized for the holes into what they was to go. Oh sigh. I'll tell the designer, hopefully the next batch printed (think he does them to order to be honest) have rather narrower ones. A bit of a shame having to file them down, it removes the colouring of to reveal the base, white plastic. It's not hugely noticeable when the buttons are in situ but is a faff and shouldn't be necessary.



Still got a bit of filing to do, as the buttons don't go all the way into the recesses yet, so when the board is popped onto its mounting rails the switches are held closed.

At least, progress is being made.

[davetherayon]

"What's that dad?" "Nessie ate an ecig, and 9 months later this popped out."



The DNA chipset board is pretty much all wired up. One solder to the board left, which is from the 510. Decided to leave that solder operation to last, as of course the 510 connector has to screw into the box, and rather than have the dna twirling around with it I've left it unconnected for now. The battery enclosure is next, had enough soldering for one night.

Note the OLED is held in place on the back of the board with double-sided sticky tape, stops it flopping around.

Edit : and here's my super-scientific test jig. Woohoo it lives!

[davetherayon]

Finishing line is in sight! I missed delivery of the nibbler, and with Amazon not doing Saturday deliveries (so said the card), decided to go mediaeval on the box in pursuit of cutting out the slot for the bezel. There were already decent guide cuts, so I grabbed a junior hacksaw and sawed down the sides, which was easy enough, with guide cuts to follow. Now how to cut along the base? There was no room to get a saw in, though folk have drilled a pilot hole and managed to file their way along, but that wasn't for me. Instead the hammer came out. Whack! It came off in one clean strike. Guide cuts for the win.



A quick test to see if the bezel fitted in and covered the slot, lovely it was dead on. No need to file down the raggedy bits, though might still do that for aesthetics... anyhow next up was the lid. The cutout in the body had been deliberately slightly undersized so that the lid would hold the bezel in place. Accordingly the inner lip of the lid needed to be cut away where it otherwise would touch the bezel. Again, in caveman mode tonight, I made a few guide cuts with the Stanley knife and then ... thumped at it with a hammer and chisel. Bit by bit the lip flew onto the floor.



It was finally time to do a trial assembly and test. The plan came together well, firstly putting the 510 in (not connected to the board remember), the Fatdaddy really is a dream to install. Undo the 22mm ring, put the 510 into its hole in the body, thread on the earth ring, then the locknut and tighten up with fingers. Putting the 22 mm ring back on not only enhances the look, it also helps line the connector up on the case pretty much square.

Also i can recommend a strategy for soldering the 510 positive. Poke cold solder into it, cut, repeat until the connector hole is full of solder, then get your tinned wire ready and melt the solder, and thrust the wire in while it's hot. Works a treat.

Next, the 510 lead was threaded through its hole on the board.



Yes, that is ALL the wiring in place. The board, OLED, and charge port are all held in place by screws. Fiddly as heck to start screwing in, but self tapped nicely once they were in place.

Then the battery was installed and the lid screwed on, and phew! It held the bezel in perfectly. Not a drop of hot glue in sight, folks. (Or any glue yet - the case is still virgin aluminium and has to be painted.) Popped on an atty, turned her on, and the Beast lives. (Spot the one score mark at the top of the bezel on the body, where I had a little whoops moment with the knife.)



So it's done bar the finishing touches - a coating of primer, then black paint; reassemble the electronics; solder the positive lead of the 510 into the board; and epoxy the battery box in place. Nothing compared with the finagling with the buttons... by the way I got in touch with Dave at Shapeways, who designed the 3d bezel, and he's confirmed it'll be re-specced to reduce the size of them. I can't complain, after all the web page advertising the bezel does say 'BETA'!

I can recommend this project, you don't need to spend nearly as much as I did on tools. As you saw, the nibbler wasn't required, nor the M10 x 1 tap tool. What does make life easier when working with Hammond aluminium boxes I found, was taking time to cut guide slots for the bezel (having measured, once twice three times!) and a set of needle files - mine were dirt cheap and did the job famously. The 4mm - 22mm drill bit (this) was a superstar, turned a 4mm hole into 10mm in under a minute.

If you decide to go ahead let me know, I still have 990 1.6 x 5mm self-tapping screws for thin plastic to share

So with that, I'm done! Till the last post, which will have the finished product painted up. Thanks for putting up with my verbiage.

[flavourtank]

davetherayon nice work looks like you found some good parts for making it easier

[davetherayon]

There's a really nice thing about doing this project. The Hammond 1590b box is silly oversized for a single battery box + bezel, it would be easy (with hammer, stanley knife, files and hacksaw) to resite it into a box half the width. And quite a bit less the height. Oh dear though it's all put together now! But, apart from the battery box, nothing is glued in so it's entirely portable. The only 'must have' in an enclosure is that the case + lid clamp down on the bezel to hold it in place, surely Hammond must make one like that

[Deleted]

It has been really interesting to follow this thread. Looks really impressive, looking forward to the final pictures

Nick

[davetherayon]

Dec 19, 2014 20:43:00 GMT @kopiert said:

It has been really interesting to follow this thread. Looks really impressive, looking forward to the final pictures

Nick

I'll try to do some decent pictures @kopiert of the final item after painting and during assembly. My pic taking is not the best as you can tell

Also if you're following the thread with a view to maybe making one, please go to the first post and see the annotations I've added in italics , learned a lot on the way what to do, not to do and what items I thought would be useful (like poor wee Dremel) that were unnecessary. Though if I'd started the thread with 'grab a hammer' I think a lot of people would have run a mile

[Deleted]

davetherayon I have to say I don't think I have the skills to attempt a project like this - I struggle to put up shelves, but I bookmarked the thread and read with huge interest at your progress.

Grab a hammer would have been good for me, agricultural DIY!

Nick

[davetherayon]

I was a bit surprised myself @kopiert at how easy the aluminium that Hammond cases are made out of was to work with. They're solid boxes. I had an idea of cutting out the sides of the slot, and then bending the metal off, but it's so solid that even when the hacksaw cuts were all done on the two sides it wasn't moving. I was astonished that a single whack with a hammer knocked it out. Aluminium physics yo.

What I would say, is if you can afford it, buy a couple of everything that is essential and mechanical. I have a spare Hammond box, in case it was messed up during my machinations. Two tips I'd pass on from my limited experience, this is the 2nd box mod I've made so I'm in no way an expert. First : measure measure measure. It's really good to figure where you want bits, like the bezel, to sit, and imagine it in place. "The lid clamps the bezel in so I don't have to glue it" think that way. Second : guide cuts. I can't love them enough. Get used to being bored with a Stanley knife cutting slots in the box. It really works. Third : tape. Really, tape. Once you have got your measurements for the guide cuts, TAPE ROUND THEM. Last thing you want is a stray cut making crazy patterns on the box. FOURTH : PATIENCE! If you are getting nowhere with an aluminium box, put it down, have a break. It's taken me a week to get to this. Your DNA40 board costs a lot. Take time and enjoy

Edit : two tips? that grew

[decoy]

top job there chap

not that im trying to teach you how to suck eggs but to give it the paint job it deserves you need to follow a set procedure
prep the box well any marks on the box will not be hidden by the paint you want to finish it off with 1200 plus wet and dry
next up is the primer you want 3 diff types acid etch ,plastic and normal the acid etch is used on the box 1st just a light coating and dont sand then a good few coats of the normal primer and sand/flat with wet and dry(you can do a light dusting of the paint to give you a guide coat ie flat it till all the paint is off)
the plastic primer is for the bezel if your painting that part make sure you give it a good key/ruffing up with some gray scotch bright from 3m then a degraseing
once your happy with the finish of the primer(rem if you paint sandpaper its gona look ruff lol)you need 2 types of paint normal and plastic if your painting the bezel you really want to use a paint ment for plastics as it stays soft nuff to flex but not chip (same stuff they use on car bumpers)
paint said stuffs if you need to lacquer them rem to use the 2 diff types again
if you do a good few coats of the lacquer 5 plus then you could use super fine wet and dry to sand flat it down and then g3 buffing paste to get it like a mirror
leave in a warm place to cure for a few days(lol like thats gona happen)and the paint will harden just rem paint is easy to scratch for the 1 week or so till it fully cures

a norm car parts shop will have all the things you need

again sorry if you already know all this but it would be a shame to botch the paint on such a sweet job
i used to work on cars so if you have any questions just ask

[davetherayon]

Thanks for the tips decoy, not teaching me to suck eggs at all - my only experience with painting involves a brush, emulsion and a wall