new case styles for Floppy Emu

[bigmessowires]

Hi gang, I've been experimenting with some new laser-cut case styles for Floppy Emu (my Apple disk emulator), with the idea of eventually replacing today's clear acrylic case. I'd appreciate your feedback on these concepts. There's a longer post about this on my blog, if you're interested: http://www.bigmessowires.com/2016/12/16/laser-cut-case-experiments/

Left to right: "Snow White" matte, frosted clear matte, clear gloss, light gray tinted gloss



Clear gloss. This is the case I currently sell with the Floppy Emu boards. It showcases all the nerdy guts inside, if you like that sort of thing.



Light gray tinted, gloss. Slightly de-emphasizes the electronic components inside, though they're still very visible.



Clear vs tinted, side-by-side:



Frosted clear matte. Mostly hides the electronic components inside. Hides fingerprints too. Has a slight textured finish.



"Snow White" matte. Has top grooves like an Apple IIc or an Apple 3.5 inch external drive, as well as a fake LED and eject hole on the drive face. It's intended to look more like a miniature external drive.

 

[IlikeTech]

I like the white case.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Agree, the "Snow White" wins for me, hands down. Now, how soon can I get one for my Floppy Emu?!?

 

[bigmessowires]

Here's one more photo of the Snow White concept. The big issue I have with it is that the engraving is way too subtle. White on white is very hard to see.  Instead of engraving the grooves in the top, I was thinking about trying another iteration where the grooves are actually cut all the way through.

If the Snow White is a popular idea, I can probably have some available in the online store in a few weeks.

 

[Gorgonops]

As an alternative to Snow White, how about make it Disk II-beige other than the end plate, which would of course be black?

 

[IlikeTech]

Why don't you fill the letters?

 

[sstaylor]

I like either the grey or the white, with a preference for the white.

Making the end plate black would be cool

 

[Scott Baret]

That Snow White case looks awesome--would match a Mac SE very nicely!!

 

[bigmessowires]

Macintosh beige would be cool, but I couldn't find a matte acrylic that was anywhere near the right color. Pure white is as close as I could find.

Why don't you fill the letters?

I'm not sure what you mean - make them a different color? These are laser-cut from a single sheet of acrylic, so the detailing options are pretty limited. A low-power pass with the laser is used to engrave stuff, which shows up nicely on dark background colors, but is hard to see on light colors.

 

[Juror22]

I was out at your web site the other day and had seen that you were working on these.

The snow white is nice.  I'm guessing that after a few months of use, the grooves would fill in with dust, just like the original apple ones and there will be a bit more contrast to make them stand out.

I feel like I've spent years cleaning those out on my macs.

I like the light gray tinted best!

 

[Bunsen]

Snow White, all day every day. 

I like the idea of cutting the grooves all the way through, as that would give you some glimpses of the internals. Though maybe they just need to be a little deeper?  You might want to consider scaling down the spacing and width of the grooves too, to match the tinyness of the case more.

Second favourite is the frosted clear matte.

 

[Bunsen]

Disk II-beige other than the end plate, which would of course be black?

This would no doubt be popular with the Apple II crowd - but hey, model airplane paint is cheap.

 

[Bunsen]

There's something slightly off-putting about the asymmetry of the SD slot - you might want to make that more symmetrical about the top cut-out, and try to match the proportions to a real floppy slot a little more.

 

[Bunsen]

Compare the styling on the Global Village Teleport Modem.  Maybe bring your grooves a bit further back from the front end, and in from the sides.  Or ... and I realise this is going to be tricky .... centre the display cutout widthwise, and have it only show the actual LCD area, and not the steel bezel around it.
 

 

[Anonymous Freak]

I'd be tempted to make some decals in Apple Garamond in "dark gray" for the lettering - so it looks like the printed lettering from Apple "Snow White" devices.

 

[james_w]

Compare the styling on the Global Village Teleport Modem.  Maybe bring your grooves a bit further back from the front end, and in from the sides.  Or ... and I realise this is going to be tricky .... centre the display cutout widthwise, and have it only show the actual LCD area, and not the steel bezel around it.

GVT2.jpeg

GVT5.jpeg

GVT4.jpeg

GVT3.jpeg

GVT1.jpeg

Great ideas Bunsen!

My favourite is probably the frosted transparent, but if the snow white one could be more distinctive, deeper grooves, or all th way through, or trying some of Bunsen's suggestions that'd be awesome

 

[techknight]

I like the global village modem style for a couple things. 

1, it looks Mac of course. But.. 

2. The little slot at the top center. PERFECT for an SD card sticking up  

If it were me, I would re-design the floppy emu to fit that case a little differently by putting the LCD on the very front with buttons on the very front. Or, instead of an LCD, go with that blue/yellow 0.8" OLED display thats gotten popular. it would fit there. 

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Why don't you fill the letters?

I'm not sure what you mean - make them a different color?

TIPS & TRICKS COLOR FILLING - Engravers Solutions.PDF

 

[Byrd]

I dropped my floppy emu the other day, cracking the casing in half on one end. It's back together but not great. Any chance you could post the STL files for customers to print their own casings? Thank you!