Panels are stripped - I figured if I was gonna gut the watercooling, it would be a good time to pull all the sheet metal off the case, including the bottom (2nd in from the left). You can see the feet dinged up the paint on the bottom... no big deal,but this paint job just wans't up to snuff. Neither was the flush-fitting of the window - something that's going away. I think you'll enjoy the solution I've come up with for a blind-mount... that's for another update, though.
Panels before
Panels after a trip into work to use the grit blasting machine - took about 1.5 hours to do all 4 panels. If you ever need to strip something quickly, these machines rock. I'm so glad I work where I do, all the IT toys you can dream of, great people to work with, and a full machine shop which I'm slowly taking advantage of.
Back-side panel - the finish is fairly rough, probably equivalent to 50 grit. Plenty of tooth for some etching primer to bite into, but that's the job of whoever paints these. I'm looking for volunteers, and I will pay.
Close up of the stripped panels.
And now another little gift, I demoed the installation of the VFD panel before, but I realized I've never shot video of it in action, so here you go... youtube style!
LCD Studio ROCKS!
Key for main screen - yes, that's 60 FPS solid while playing Counter Strike: Source at 1920x1200. And yes, sync is on.
Key for volume screen - I'm still working on this one to show current speaker configs. The windows API for reading speaker configurations ISN'T EASY. This screen only shows up when the volume changes, and it shows up for 10 seconds or so.
Key for the time/weather screen. this shows up every 10 minutes, shows the current time, the project logo, the current weather, and tommorow's highs and lows. Comes up twice in the video because this was shot in 1 minute pieces, as that's all my digicam can handle.
And now the youtube video, with music by Nine Inch Nails (well, aphex twin for nine inch nails) "At the Heart of it All". Seemed to fit.
