Designing and 3D Printing a Custom Faceplate

[Baggashite]

I recently got into 3D printing, and went down the rabbit hole of designing my own stuff, which has been a massive learning curve.

So, a bit of back story... I recently came across four OG boxes in a cupboard. Two had been chipped with the X3, one is softmodded and one has never been opened. They hadn't seen the light of day for the guts of 15 years, so I dusted them off and powered up the two chipped boxes, and they're both working fine. I'd fitted 200GB drives into them (biggest drives available at the time) and used one of them for a couple of years before a house move dictated its retirement. The second chipped box was never used. I bought it for my nephew and niece to play on when they visited but they were more interested in fishing and playing with the dog.

Anyway, I digress... Fast forward to a few weeks ago, and I decided to have a mess with the chipped boxes. I've fitted 2TB drives, and I went looking for an X3CP faceplate, as these were a 'must have' thing, back in the day, but it seems they are no longer available, and if you can find one, they cost silly money. I also went looking for an LCD to complement the X3 chip, but I hit the same wall, although I did have a couple of HUGE 20x4 LCDs lying around, which were far too big to fit into the front panel of the xbox, but I wired them up with connectors to fit the X3, and they're working just fine, so I decided to have a go at designing a front panel to fit them into the Xbox.

These are the LCD displays.

 

 

I'm also adding a smaller LCD for an Arduino, which will monitor temperatures and control some LEDs I'm planning on fitting.

This is where I'm at with the front panel. It's still a work in progress, as I'm planning to add switches to replace the bank dip switches for the X3, but I'm still searching for something suitable. The power and (ex) eject buttons are being replaced with RGB ring buttons, which will be controlled by the Arduino.

 

Good lord... I'm 52 years old. You'd think I'd have grown out of this by now!

 

Edit: I've no idea what happened with that link in the post. It wasn't supposed to be there and I have no idea how to remove it.

[shawly]

Awesome! Only bummer would be that most printers wouldn't be able to print this in one piece.

[Baggashite]

13 minutes ago, shawly said:

Awesome! Only bummer would be that most printers wouldn't be able to print this in one piece.

I used it as an excuse to buy a bigger printer. Only a 300mm one but it'll work diagonally.

[ShinGoutetsu]

Very interested to see your progress! 

[Baggashite]

First prototype printed.

 

 

I'm going to change the design slightly to incorporate bank select switches but I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

The smaller LCD isn't doing much at the moment. It's just displaying the running pattern for the Neopixel LED ring I put in the jewel, but it'll eventually display some other info, when the sensors arrive.

[Kekule]

you willing to share that STL?   I'm sure you've been asked that a lot though

[Baggashite]

I certainly will once it's finished, but it'll be a while. This was only a prototype, and there are a few bits I'm not 100% happy with, so I have to make a few alterations, as I'm a bit OCD about things being right.

The buttons arrived for it today. I ordered them with RGB LEDs but they've sent green ones, so I have to play the waiting game until new ones arrive from China.

 

The jewel LEDs are working now. The patterns are selectable from the 'eject' button. I just need to create some decent patterns.

 

 

 

Edited March 17, 2021 by Baggashite

[dirtykash]

Great work, any chance of you sharing the .stl /3D model or the software you used to make this? I assume you used a scan of the original faceplate and edited from there?

Edited June 11, 2021 by dirtykash

[Baggashite]

18 hours ago, dirtykash said:

Great work, any chance of you sharing the .stl /3D model or the software you used to make this? I assume you used a scan of the original faceplate and edited from there?

I took measurements from the original and drew the faceplate from scratch. It isn't 100% right yet and I haven't had time to redraw it but I will release the .stl when I get round to finishing it.

[dirtykash]

Ok great, what software do you use?

I have a full scan of the faceplate I'd like to edit but not sure what the best software for editing .stl files...

[Baggashite]

Fusion 360 is my usual weapon of choice but I also use SketchUp.
How clean is the scan?

[dirtykash]

Pretty clean, I’m printing a test unedited version right now, looking to edit to fit lcd screens etc instead of cutting, I’ll take a look at fusion 360. Thanks

[khuna1337]

On 3/16/2021 at 6:09 PM, Baggashite said:

I certainly will once it's finished, but it'll be a while. This was only a prototype, and there are a few bits I'm not 100% happy with, so I have to make a few alterations, as I'm a bit OCD about things being right.

The buttons arrived for it today. I ordered them with RGB LEDs but they've sent green ones, so I have to play the waiting game until new ones arrive from China.

 

The jewel LEDs are working now. The patterns are selectable from the 'eject' button. I just need to create some decent patterns.

 

 

 

op please msg me!!!

[joerazzzz]

Any update on this? I'd be very interested to test this out on my giant resin printer, I can do almost perfectly clear with some resin types. Really interested in the progress.

 

[Baggashite]

I haven't had the time to get it finished yet as I'm in the process of moving house and everything I own is now in boxes. 

[Flizc]

Really cool project, love it.
any updates on it?

[big F]

This looks great. Since commercial LCD front panels are like rocking horse poop nowadays and anyone selling one knows they can charge good money, a printable one would be awesome. Added to that, an excellent base to further mod to individual specs.

[Lenox]

any input in how to solder the lcd wires like that? like is there a diagram or something?

[Puritan001]

On 8/11/2021 at 4:25 PM, joerazzzz said:

Any update on this? I'd be very interested to test this out on my giant resin printer, I can do almost perfectly clear with some resin types. Really interested in the progress.

 

What resin printer? I shared a stock faceplate as well as a x3cp faceplate that I scanned and attempted to prefect over last winter. (Is on cults and thingeverse) I printed mine in resin and it was great at first but it shrink over time which irritated me greatly so I gave it away.