New Housing and Mods

[Empty V]

So I've been working on these modifications for my new Equinox housing for some time now and I'm almost done. I figured I might as well post my progress so far and update once I finish. Basically I ordered a housing from B&H that came with a 2.5" LCD. With lots of advice from ChinaDan, another DVX100/Equinox user, I began the process of creating my own back port with a 5" LCD. I sent the original back port with the 2.5" LCD and the front port with the 4" Dome for a clean swap for a new front wide angle 6" dome port and started fabricating a new back port from scratch.

I was able to order an OEM 5" frameless LCD and created my own 12v 2900mAh and 2500mAh battery packs each out of 10 AA rechargeable batteries.

The Back port is made out of 1" thick clear acrylic. What I needed to do was a multi step process and having a C&C Router at my disposal was a huge plus, there's no way I could have done this without. I have to say it was somewhat nerve-racking working with this material because this was my first time so I bought a big enough piece to be able to make 2 ports just in case I screw up the first one.

What I wanted to do was make a cutout for the monitor, one for the input panel, and countersunk holes for a control knob so I could switch the monitor on and off, which was really me being cocky because this monitor will run for about 5 1/2 hours on the 2900mAh battery pack. The reason why that was a pain was because after the initial routing it had to be flipped over due to the hole for the control arm having to be countersunk on both sides. How do you flip over something round and have it land exactly where you want it? It's actually kind of hard to explain and I'd probably screw up the explanation if I tried.

Right now I'm in the middle of polishing and I've got to say it's no picnic. After polishing I'm going to mount the screen and input panel, then cut and bend the control arm and after that make a hood to block the sun and have it powdercoated. Once it's done it should be pretty sweet.

If anyone has any questions, comments and or suggestions on how to make this better, what I did wrong or what I did right, I would love to hear it. And a massive thank you tho ChinaDan for his advice.

Housing with Wide Angle Port

Acrylic

LCD Monitor

Board attached to monitor with Power, Video Input, Color/Contrast/Brightness Controls and on/off switch

Battery Packs

C&C Router with Alex changing tools

Tools are measured down to 1/1000" for precise accuracy

First cut is a rough cut, then a finishing which only takes off about 1/16" of material shot at 1/1000sec shutter speed

My Favorite pic!

 

[Empty V]

Finishing Cut

Cutout for Monitor

Countersink for Control Arm

Sorry for this grainy pics, first time with this camera and I had very little light and a high shutter speed on many of the shots plus I think I was shooting at an ISO of 800. The black dots are markers where I needed to drill holes to tap for the latches that hold the port on the housing and D-Ring for tether.

Thanks for taking the time to check out my new project.

Billy

 

[Empty V]

So I finally finished with my polishing, mounted the screen and control board(or whatever it's called)and cut and bent my control knob so here are those pics. The last thing I think I'm going to do is make a hood for the monitor to block the sun, most likely out of aluminum and have it powder-coated or anodized. I'll post those pics if anyone cares. I used mirror mounts to secure the monitor. With the depth that it was recessed at they worked out perfectly.

Thanks for taking the time to look at my new rig.

Billy

 

[Teamcasa]

Thats a really nice setup Billy! I hope it works really well for you.

 

[Empty V]

Thats a really nice setup Billy! I hope it works really well for you.

Thanks Dave, you and me both!

Billy

 

[HiDefPics]

Looks slick. Do you want to give any estimate of time/cost? ... curious.

 

[Empty V]

Looks slick. Do you want to give any estimate of time/cost? ... curious.

Thanks! The LCD Module was $99, Acrylic was about $30, Battery packs depend on what kind of batteries mine cost about $30 because they're ultra high capacity rechargeables, and the control knob was $45 but I'm sure if I looked around I could get a better deal. So without the cost of tools (router bits, drill bits, taps) manufacturing cost me about $200. I think Equinox charges an extra $250 if you add on the 2.5" LCD so I think I made out pretty okay. This was the first one so it took some time for R&D but I'm sure I could make it in a day if I was going to replicate it.

Billy

 

[DocWong]

awesome, thanks for sharing!

 

[DaFireMedic]

Wow, thats far too precision for me.....

Seriously though, very nice. Thats what determination, a machine shop, and some talent can help you do.

 

[diversteve]

Nice job Billy, but definitely build a hood for that big monitor. And blacken the inside of the hood also. You'll get a lot of reflections in Hawaii otherwise. I used a housing once in similar conditions with a poly back and recessed monitor and it was difficult to see at certain angles without a hood.