By: Emmanuel Lepage Vallee

Dificulty: Easy

Tools:

-Drill

-Dremel

-Acid OR blacklight (UV light)

-Plier

Time estimation: 5-15 hours

Cost: around 40US$

Material:

-Drill bit

-copper sheet

-440ohs resistor

-Some switches

-Some LEDs

-Multimeter

-Some small wire

-Metal pin (or commercials connector)

-1 square feet of the material that you want to use for the panel (metal (see metal), Plexiglas, wood)

-2 small nails

-Sandpaper200 (for metal and wood only)

-Sandpaper 600 (for wood only)

-Paint (only if you use Plexiglas)

-Epoxy

-Some LED

-Some 750-810ohm resistors (between 750 and 810, same amount of the LED)

-Some ON/OFF switch (or on/on if you want to add led for of and on)

For person who still have AT computer:

-Relay 6vdc 250vac double output

Pre-requisites: None but you need to make an hole in the front] of the computer case. I took a Dremel.

1. Now you need to choose what kind of material you will use:

1.1: Iron/steel/copper mirror look (step 1-1.1.5 or brushed look (step 1-1.1.2)

1.1.1 Take a piece of metal (9cm per 11cm for the back , 8cm per 10cm for front)

1.1.2 Use the p200 sand paper and sand the piece of metal, always in the same direction, this will make a nice brushed metal look

1.1.3 If you want a chrome look,use p200 p600, p1000 and p1500 and after use polishing paste with a cotton cloth

1.1.4 with a cutting blade and the Dremel, cut in the corner of the part at 45° (1 centimeter (from border to middle, not 45° 1cm).

1.1.5 Take large grip, grip the border of the inside (1 centimeter for under the panel, 0.5 centimeter for the front) and old them at 90°.

1.2 Plexiglas/plastic.

1.2.1 Cut some pieces of plastic:

1-7cm x 9cm

2-2cm x 7 x2

3-2cm x 9 x2

4-7.5cm x 9.5

1.2.2 with epoxy, join piece 1, 2 and 3 at 90° to create a box with no top.

1.2.3 IF YOU WANT, you can paint the plastic.

1.3 Wood

1.3.1 cut some peace of wood:

1-7x9x0.5cm

2-2x7x0.5cm x2

3-2x9x0.5cm x2

4-7.5x9.5x0.5

1.3.2 With transparent glossy paint, paint the wood with the transparent paint varnish the part.

1.3.3 With glue, paste each part to make a small box with no top.

2. Now, its time to make the circuit, you have 2 choices:

-Home made circuit

-Wired circuit

Home made fiberglass/copper circuit are not hard to make or expensive, but here, there is not good and bad solution. Personally i made circuit and i got some problem, mainly, its hard to get the right position behind the front panel and you will have to add the same number of wire anyway (but shorter). The main problem of wire is when you made an error, its almost impossible to fix it in the big wire ball that you will have after connecting everything.

2.1.0 Circuit:

By following the getting started tutorial, make this circuit:

2.1.1 Now, calculate the right space to add LED, too many will not work, too few will be ugly.

2.1.2 Now, solder resistor and LED

* the long legs of the LED point to the resistor side, not the ground.

2.1.3 With a 12v source, test the LED by connecting the bottom side to negative and positive before the resistor with a battery (9vdc)

2.1.4 Now, connect switch, first pin to peripheral in / LED out (both), the bottom to ground.

2.2.1: wired :

2.2.2 follow this:

Congratulations, your done for this part!

Additional tips and features:

ON and OFF LED: simply connect the wire and the on LED to one side, the off one on the other side and the ground on the middle. Like this:

If you want to add the panel in a CD hole, take mesure and do it, it look like this:

-------------PNG-----------------

3.0 The front

3.1 This is easy, you just need to connect to power switch to the wire of the old one, then add LEDs directly on the old one, no transistor here.

*1: If you have an AT (6 years old + computer) and you have a big ON/OFF switch, connect the relay to the old wire (probably 4) and a 6vdc to the other part of the relay, using this you will be able to use small on/off switch, but sorry, no contact switch (i am looking for an issue to this).

*2: If LED of HDD/CPU don't work, use a relay for enter 12vdc from the molex in the circuit.