OI set-ups/Drivers station!

[davepowers]

Hey guys,
I was given the task to create a new OI to be used in St.Louis and I just want to get a little help and some ideas from everyone. My current design I have in my head is a box 30"x5"x12"ish?, the side walls of the box are clear lexan(painted with gloss to frost), the bottom is sheet metal, and the top is a piece of Lexan painted Gus orange with our signature flames;]. All of the wires, drive stick bases, and netbook will be inside of the OI. The top will have holes cut in to allow drivers sticks to stick out of the top for the base driver, and the co-driver will have a little square cut out to put his Xbox style controller in when not in use. There will also be a dozen or so arcade buttons in the top of the, "box" for the co-driver to have control of preset heights on the elevator, minibot deployment, and minibot. And now for my favorite part, we have strips of RGB LED's that we are going to wire into the bottom of the, "box" so we can have it light up and look all cool and whatnot. . Any ideas and/or suggestions? This is the first time I'm doing anything like this and the more help I can get the better! Also if anyone has a neat OI please post a picture so I can get some ideas, remember imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

Thank you!
-Dave Powers

[Lledargo]

We quite like our new drive station. It is an Old Equipment case which we painted Black, then put 703 on one side, and a phoenix on the other. We also Dummeled a hole in the side, and put a face plate with RJ45, and power ports connecting to the Classmate PC via their own cables. we then filled the inside with rubber foam which had holes cut out for the PC and both of our controllers(we bought new hand held controllers).

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, but if I remember, I will try to get some pictures on Monday.

Other than that, the description of your case sounds pretty cool. Good luck with your case and at Nats

[andreboos]

We got a black plastic ammo case from military surplus and disassembled the Classmate netbook. A few machine operations later...

http://imgur.com/a/v1Snq

It can be easily carried with the straps on either end or the slots in either side, which were originally cut for ventilation and for inserting power and ethernet. Nothing is glued or bolted in; the devices are held by velcro alone, but are surprisingly secure. If we decide to include custom controls (switches, buttons, etc.) they can be panel-mounted in the space to the left and right of the screen. The next step is to create a detachable shoulder harness so our driver can walk around while driving in the off-season.

[davepowers]

Originally Posted by andreboos

Nothing is glued or bolted in; the devices are held by velcro alone, but are surprisingly secure.

I just found some velcro at the shop and was planning on using it, I was a bit tentative at first, but this cleared that up. Thanks!