Parts arrive:

    Once the power supply was installed, I bought a few other parts that I could afford and keep the mod moving while I waited for sponsors to reply. Here is a picture with the first parts of the mod organized.

(30) Parts spread out

DVD Drive:

     Top of the list was the DVD Player Mod had to be able to play DVDs. Unfortunately, a full-sized DVD drive did not fit into the case; all drives that I tried were too long. When desktop parts don't fit, the first move is to laptop parts, but laptop DVD drives aren't cheap. I watched eBay auctions for laptop DVD drives hang around $40 or so, and I was disappointed. As luck would have it, I found someone on eBay that was selling TWO laptop DVD drives, and there were no bids at $10, with less than a day remaining. It ended up being one of those auctions that just slips through the cracks. As laptop DVD drives sold for $45 a piece around it, my bid for 2 drives won, and I found both on my doorstep the next week. I took the IBM drive rails off the drives, and I also removed the face plates of both drives. If I screwed up with one drive, I had a backup.

     I removed the drive faceplate from the original DVD player's drive, and after some Dremel grinding and adhesive, I had my laptop DVD drive with Memorex DVD faceplate. I purchased a laptop CD drive to desktop IDE adapter, and the DVD drive was on its way.

(31) Faceplate attached	(32) Adapter attached

Remote control:

    If this was going to be part of the entertainment system, it had to be controlled by remote, not a wimpy computer keyboard and mouse. I found an X10 remote and receiver kit on eBay for $20. The remote is also a universal remote that can control a TV, VCR, and a few other components besides the PC. That means that the same remote can turn the TV on and also control the music or video coming from the DVD Player Mod.

(33) Receiver outside of its case

Display screen:

    Below is a picture of the original screen I had planned on using for the DVD Player Mod. It is a 1x16 VFD that I purchased from BG Micro. Little did I know that NOBODY had written code to control the 1x16 VFD. I tried to find a program that would work for days and days, until I ended my search prematurely after blowing the COM controller chip on the VFD (oops). Luckily I found a replacement display.

(34) VFD, postmortem

Planning:

     At this point, I sat down and drew a quick sketch to get an idea of what was going to fit where. There would not be much room to spare inside the DVD Player Mod, so I had to plan accordingly.

(35) Sketch

Game pad insides:

     The game pad from eBay would be used for the front panel buttons. The concept is simple but complicated at the same time. Using my soldering iron and the buttons that came with the DVD player, I was going to connect the buttons to the game pad in a way that they could communicate with the computer. I will explain it more in detail later in the mod, but a shout-out goes to Warren Liick and HTPCnews for giving me the idea (I had no clue how I was going to interface it before I read Warren's write-up).

(36) Inside the game pad	(37) Front panel	(38) Button PCB

Good ideas that won't work:

     I had plenty of high expectations and complicated ideas for this mod, and to my surprise, many of them worked out. One that did not, however, was my lighted DVD logo. The background:

     The bottom of the DVD player case had all kinds of bumps, rises, and dips in it (you can see in some of the earlier pictures). After trying to mount the power supply PCB, I tried a few different methods before deciding that the bottom of the case was unworkable. I carefully cut out the base with my Dremel, leaving a 1/4" or so edge around the sides. I replaced the protrusion-filled bottom with 1/8" thick acrylic that I bought at Home Depot. I lost the pictures that I took of this process unfortunately. I mated the acrylic to the case with special plastic/acrylic epoxy, and I used my drill press to drill holes for the motherboard and power supply standoffs.

      So now I had a base that was clear. I got the idea to use a cutout of the DVD logo on the bottom, and use cathodes to project the image underneath the DVD player. I bought a sheet of aluminum at Home Depot, printed out a template I made, and hit the Dremel. The curves of the DVD logo were some of the toughest I have had to Dremel in my short modding history, but in the end it turned out nicely.

(39) Template	(40) Cut logo looks right	(41) On acrylic

(42) Looking sweet!

     It worked as I had planned, but what I hadn't planned was the height clearance underneath the DVD player case. When I placed the logo cutout inside the case and turned the light on, you couldn't see the logo because the case was pretty much flush to the ground. I didn't let this discourage me, although I have this cutout sitting on my desk right now.


     Head on to the next page for the next level of fabrication, including the front button panel and display.





 

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