Week 5: In All it's Glory

So, this week has been monumental in the amount of things I've been busying myself with.  However, this has been a top-priority project for me, and I'm finding it quite relaxing to work on it!

As you may or may not remember, last week I wound up kind of jumping ahead and getting my entire server working.  Hooray!  Therefore; this week I was also a week ahead, which meant I was able to actually build the product!

Here's a still-image montage of what went down:

Here is the gathering of the tools and materials I assumed I'd be using.  Turned out, I didn't need a screwdriver or either of the resistors.  I'll explain in a bit.  Doesn't look like much yet, does it?

This is just a close-up of one of the RGB LED's I used.  They look a little funky, but they are really cool!!!

Then, I built the box!  The acrylic was already put together, I just had to cut some squares out of my plastic paper (to diffuse the light), then hot-glue them onto all the walls.  Now came the fun part.

Here is the completed circuit.  Yes, it looks messy.  That's because it is messy!  I never claimed to be an expert at this, but I got it all connected and condensed into a very small space.  I didn't have to use resistors, because both LED's use up almost the entire 5V that is coming from a pin at any given time.  No need to eat up any extra!

Here is the board glued in place in the bottom of my cube.  I used this to mark slots to be cut on the other panel!

Here, you can see the squares I cut out using a dremel tool.  No, they may not be factory-pretty, but they're functional.  This is moving along pretty quickly!

Here is the cube fully-assembled!  The two sides just slide right into place, and the board's connectors help to hold it all together.

Here is a close-up of the connectors.  As you can see, the box requires an Ethernet connection, along with either a USB cable or a 9V DC converter for power.  Since I'll have it in the corner of my room or office, I want it to feel as wireless as possible, so I've acquired a DC converter.

And there you have it!  Look a little silly?  Good!  It's already making my roommates jealous, and I haven't even turned it on yet.










In essence, this project is at a very high point in the completion cycle.  I have a lot of testing and tweaking to do, and I'll eventually upload a video of the product working to show for the final completion stage.  However, for now, I'll throw in a few images of it lighting up!

Of course, it's hard to capture this in a still image.  It slowly flows through the entire color spectrum, and it does this very smoothly!  Again, there should be a video available of this within the next week or two, as I get things finalized.