Last photo, I promise.
I didn't have a banana for scale, so a tomato, onion, and knob of ginger will have to do.
Pretty plain, all told. I had grand plans for carving the RuneAudio symbol into the faceplate, casting resin into it, and then backlighting it with blue LEDs. With the EMI filter, I really didn't have enough space to cram anything else in. (Well, I might glue a lego man in there somewhere.) Maybe I'll go back and try again in the future. Everything is mounted to the back plate, and the end plates are bought separately, so I could have a few do-overs and not have to replace the whole box. In the meantime I'll probably just paint it on the front. I promise photos if I ever get around to that.
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I played with casting clear resin into a shape in aluminum, painting it, and then backlighting it. It makes for a *very* sweet look, if you ever want to try it. The front plate looks flat, normal, nothing, but when you turn it on, the backlighting casts a sharp, lit image through the paint. I had a hard time with A) getting the paint to lay flat along the seams between aluminum and resin B) getting the resin casting flat enough that scratch marks didn't show through and C) finding a flat black paint that light could show through. Lighter color paints work fine, but even thin coats of flat black obliterated any light. If anyone has ideas for workarounds, please let me know.
The plug on this thing is non-polar, because that's what I had around, and that's the only thing that will plug into my preamp. While some electronics are not particular, a switched power supply seems like it could be, if the signal isn't rectified before the electrolytics. This power supply has line and neutral (and ground) so I am going to assume for the time being that it should be hooked up as such. I spent some time with the DMM double and triple checking the hot/neutral lines on the pre-amp to make sure this neat little rig doesn't end in smoke. (It's *REALLY* hard to get the smoke back in.
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I've forgotten; I didn't include a switch, because this will be powered from the 'switched' power on my pre-amp anyways. So no need there. I was thinking, it would be pretty cool to build a 'touch' switch (like the kind commonly used for turning on lamps) for one of these, especially along with the above bit about casted resin. I never got around to it, but there is plenty of space in this chassis to put in both a touch switch, either a DIY one, or an off the shelf lamp retrofit switch, so long as there is space. I don't know if you would need a relay to handle the amount of current passed but I think an off the shelf kind would be okay; filament lightbulbs take up way more current than the Pi boards. If you were building a tube amp, it probably *would* require a relay. Also, I don't know if the hash created by the power supply would wreak havoc on the capacitive sensing portion of the switch. If so, maybe the sensitivity could be decreased? I haven't found much info on this yet; another project for another day.
The box didn't come with screws, which is weird, but had some spare cap bolts (tiny) sitting around that worked and look pretty decent. The QR code is courtesy of Stwert, who foresaw a way to make this easier for visitors. I have lots of guests through my home, and I hope the simple tented paper with code and static IP will make it easier for them to navigate into and enjoy the sound system.
Well, that's been my project for the last few days. Rune 0.3 Beta drops in a few hours and I am excited to plug the thing in. I will, of course, post.
Thank you all! The good folks at RuneAudio, and all of you with great, *inspiring* ideas that make me want to get out the soldering iron.
-Fishstix
