The Back Panel

I've been thinking a lot about the back panel of the jukebox and I was able to make some progress on it last night. The cold weather is almost here which will limit my time out in the garage with the tools. It is not nearly as complicated as the front panel, which is good.

I am incorporating the the following:

• Power button (Vandal)
• Ventilation
• 4 USB ports
  
• Power cord for power supply
• Ethernet port (for going online)
• Headphone jack
• Audio out ports (for connecting to home theater)

The trickiest part about this panel is that it has to be removable... or at least I need to be able to access the inside for maintenance. I do not want there to be any visible screws on the back panel so I am thinking about using magnets but we will see about that.

The panel will be made out of 1/8" hardboard and covered with Formica laminate. The back panel cannot be any thicker than this or else I will not be able to add t-molding around the top edge while still allowing for the panel to be removed. The layout will mirror the front panel with the power button going where the volume knob is and the vent being where the marquee is. This should give you an idea of how it will look (not even close to scale):

The holes for the ports on the bottom are going to be cut out of a 1mm thick metal panel in a rectangular shape mirroring the speaker cutout on the front panel. The ports on the motherboard are going to be extended to these holes using some cables from frontx.com.

This is a more detailed layout of the I/O panel:

I will start explaining the construction in the next post.