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Opening Stealth Cd-Roms with an External Button

Page: 1/3
Opening Stealth Cd-Roms with an External Button
Author: Afturmath


Thanks to

For Providing Us With The LianLi PC-70 Chassis Used In This Guide




One problem I?ve noticed with stealth drives is finding something to use to get the button to work. I?ve tried stacking foam tape, taping small object to the button, and even gluing case screws to it. I finally decided I?d try something else. This guide will show you how to make an externally mounted button for your stealth drive. It will also show you a great mounting idea if you have a Lian Li case.

Materials/Requirements
-Stealth CD/DVD/Other optical drive
-Soldering equipment
-Speaker or some other dual channel wire (shielded)
-SPST Momentary Toggle Switch
-Hot glue
-Screwdriver

The Process
First you will want to remove your optical drive from your case. This should be fairly obvious, as we?ll be soldering something to the circuit board. Take it out and find a nice clean area where you will have some space to rest your hands to you can solder easily. I chose to work on top of my mouse pad (it?s an 18x13? supermat).


You will want to plug your drive into a tester power supply or something so as to open it. This will make it much easier to remove the top panel and solder on the button terminals.


Flip your drive over and find the 2-4 screws holding the back plate on. You will need to remove this unless you want to use pliers and pry back the plate to get to the terminals (I actually did that in beta testing). Just remove the screws, slide the panel toward the back, and lift it off.


Look toward the front of the drive for the open/close button. Mine had the 2 terminals towards the right (left because the drive is upside-down) side of the drive, and it had 2 solder points on the other side of the button to hold it down. We will only use the 2 that have a connection running to them. You can plainly see this by the traces on the PCB.


Now you will want to take your speaker wire (or whatever you used) and solder one wire to each terminal. I used solid 24 gauge speaker wire. You will want to make it so you can run the wire towards the outside of the casing and out the front, underneath the door. You could also drill a hole in the bottom or side of the casing. This really depends on how you will have it mounted. I also put a dab of hot glue to hold it tight and prevent my connections from coming undone.


To connect the wire to the switch, simply solder the other ends on the switch terminal. You will want to seal it with tape, heat shrink, or my new personal favorite- hot glue. Place the switch anywhere in the case. Post your pictures in the forums so I can see how everyone did it. If I really like your placing, I may post it in this guide ;).

If you have a Lian Li or similar case, stay tuned for a guide that will take your stealth 1 step further.

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