Monday, July 21, 2008

Front Panel: More of the Template

Wow was it hot this past weekend! I didn't get much done other than some measuring and planning because I couldn't work on this thing for more than 15 minutes due to the heat. I was at the Yankee game on Saturday and it was miserable (at least they won but I was home on my couch by the time the game was over!).

Anyway, now that I have the general shape of the front panel, it is time to lay out the three openings for the marquee, monitor and the speakers. This is going to be very difficult to cut out since the top opening has two curves which must be precise. The general layout will look something like what you see to the left. The semi-circle in the middle that is not getting cut out is where the volume knob will go.

The usable touchscreen area of the monitor is 11-15/16" wide by 8-15/16" tall. The 11-15/16" dimension will define the width of the side borders which will be 2-1/32" wide each (the width of the panel is 16"). Now I have to decide how thick I want the borders to be on top of the curve, between the marquee and monitor, between the monitor and speakers and between the speakers and the bottom edge to make the overall layout pleasing to the eye.

Once the Griffin Powermate arrives I can measure the knob and add about 3/4" or so around the outside and lay out that section as well. I am anxious to continue working on this thing and I'm really going to push to get the front panel complete this week.

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