Road Case Hardware

Darren Wright

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Springfield, Missouri
I'm in the middle of my first upholstery project. Also in the middle of building some equipment that will be used in a current business venture (Wright venture 1002...in Fusco terms). This piece will host a lcd screen and mini computer along with a few other pieces of media equipment. It's my first time using speaker carpet to cover a case. I'd have caught some pics of the hands, but they were covered in 3M 77 spray, fuzzy black fibers and wasn't touching my phone; luckily they peeled clean nicely. The cabinet is made of 1/2" plywood with 3/4" MDF top and bottom.
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Anyhow I found a great place for the road case hardware (speaker carpet, steel corners, latches, etc.), Reliable Hardware, nice folks to do business with. Here is how it turned out so far. I sprayed the 3M 77 on both the case and carpet, let them dry some to finish trimming out. Once the adhesive dried some, you could lay one piece of the carpet over the other and cut through both for a matching seam. Just peal back the top layer and put out the scrap from underneath. There's not really any grain in the carpet, so both sides of the seam butt together nicely without a noticeable seam.

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There's definitely a method to the madness, a little practice and this should be pretty easy if I need to do more of them, but it turned out pretty good overall.
 
Looking real good but i would add some bling in the form of leds around the edges somewhere. The kind the kids use in the cars today you get in a strip and are multi colored. You can hook em up to the processor and make em do things to catch attention. ;)

Make sure to mount display with some sort of vibration buffer given case size or you gonna have cracked lcds.
 
Thanks Rob. I've got some of the RGB strips on the list to order and had already figured out that I can run them off the pic controller that is being used for the other controls. I'm thinking that I'll probably use them on a detachable sign or hood to make it easy to add-on. I've got an idea for some portable screens that they could be used in as well. I can then alter the colors or set them to a color(s) that matches the customer's theme too. :wave:

Good note on the lcd mount. I think I've got something that will work well, to protect it.
 
I got most of the hardware mounted in the photo booth tonight. Here's the first test and sneak preview.



This was a test mock up of mounting the equipment. I'll be pulling it back apart to make some final adjustments to the case and fix some of the covering, but it's turning out pretty well (IMHO). I have one little fix to do. The power button for the monitor is on the front and I forgot to leave access to press the button...easy enough fix though. Still need some opaque white plastic and to mount the light and cooling fan too.
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Here's one of the guts and the mini computer.
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Too cool, Darren. :thumb: It looks very professionally done so far. What software are you using? Is it something you wrote or is it a commercially available product?
 
Thanks. It's a commercially available software, this one is called Spark Booth. It was the easier more user friendly version and easy to get up and running. It allows overlays of the prints to include custom graphics. Can also customized the main screen to match a clients event. The other affordable software is much more customizable, also has green screen, video, and touch screen support. I'd already bought the hardware for this booth before finding that software. Unfortunately the equipment is too underpowered (computing wise) to support it, so will spec the next booth for it.
 
Very cool. Turning out quite well!

What kind of computer hardward do you have in there? Is it running on Linux?
 
Finally got back to the next part of my project and built the road case for the base. I got the idea from a DJ's road case I saw on ebay, where the lid hooks to the side of the cabinet for use as a table. The lid has a single set of legs that fold down to support the top.

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Here's the cabinet, still have to build the slide out for the printer and make the lid/table.
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Planning to have storage inside for the screen's cabinet as well as supplies for the booth.
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Next will be carpet and adding the rest of the hardware.
 
Wow looking very very good Darren. Dont know how but i missed the updates you posted so just got caught up.

Glad to see the project moving ahead. After the New Year evening i was at i can see this being a big hit. Got some ideas for you to explore will email.

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Was a pretty busy night tonight, mostly because it hit about 60 degrees here today and was a nice night in the shop.

I got the carpet adhered to the base cabinet and all the hardware installed.
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Also built the pull-out shelf and installed it tonight.
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Still need to make the cover/table for it, then have some work to finish up on the upper cabinet installing the light and redoing the camera mount.
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Another step forward. Besides getting the curtain rods done on our canopy, I got some slots cut for nylon web straps to hold down the printer done and the table/lid built for the base cabinet today. Still need to finish up rounding the corners, paint, and adding hardware.

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The table/lid latched in place
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The legs of the table folded up.
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Well, got the rest of the hardware on to connect the table to the side of the bottom base. I used a couple of sets of these break-away hinges for attaching the box to the case as a lid as well as a set to connect one side to use it as a table.
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The action shot of the table setup...
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One of the straps holding the printer down (from the slots that were routed yesterday)...
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Nice job Darren.

BTW...as weird as it may seem I have actually built several kiosk over the last 5 years at my day job. Some windows XPE and linux embedded stuff using touch screens. Fun stuff!
 
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