Projects / PC Mods Original post date: 04/13/2018
This is an upgrade for the 3.5" drive bays in the Corsair Carbide 100R Mid Tower Case to work like a hotswap one. HDD can be inserted and removed without having to mess around with cables in the back side. The mod is simple, economical, reversible and not rely on a lot of special tools.
Note: Hotswapping while any of the HDD are spinning could easily cause a head crash.
This project is licensed under Creative Common Attribution 4.0 International
While my computer is in the dry dock, I have decided to do some case mods that I have wanted to do for a while. This project is more a hack than a design as there are a lot of variables and mechanical tolerances that I do not know and control. This is a thinking while it goes project as plans changed as I work with the pieces.
The case
The Corsair 100R Silent Edition case is an entry level no frill mid sized ATX case. It comes with a drive bay that can accommodate four 3.5" drives. Plastic trays for HDD can be inserted and removed without tools.
It looks nice on paper, but it requires a bit more effort when it comes to attaching/detaching the cables. They decided that hiding cables is more important than the ease of drive insertion/removal. If they had the connectors in the front side, one could easily access the cables without removing both front and back panels.
I could have pull the drive out from the front with the SATA cables still attached, but the power cable is very stiff and the power power connectors are daisy chained. It is a mess to fold them back properly.
I have once considered making a backplane PCB with SATA connectors, but there were a lot of issues arriving at the mechanical measurements and tolerances without having a CAD drawing of the case. All of that effort and the cost for the PCB and parts are a bit too much. That is until I saw SATA 90 degrees adapter on Amazon, but it was the wrong orientation with the male connector side facing down A quick search on Aliexpress, I found the right orientation at a much cheaper price.
Because of the 90 degrees orientation, IDC power connector cables are the other type that can fit the height requirement. They usually comes with a modular/semi-modular power supply.
There are other models in the series that all shared the same drive bay. The idea is probably also useful for similar case designs.
The mod
This mod picks up where the manufacturer left off and upgrades it so that the HDD can be inserted or removed from the front. While in theory the SATA connector allows for hot swapping, I would not want to do that while any of the HDDs are spinning as there are no shock isolation.
The details for the construction is in the project logs. Here is a quick sketch of how the parts fits together.
Top connector
It might not be the best way, but here is what I did.
There are two hold on either side of the adapter which can accomodate a M3 or 4-40 screw. The connectors have a built-in guide to help alignment. The overmolding is made out of a rubbery plastic and there is a bit of give.
Aliexpress carries mostly metric parts like the rest of the world, so I have decided to do that. I tried to buy the least amount of parts to do this job as this is a budget build. 20mm standoff happens to be the right length for the spacing from the top, so that's what I ordered. It finally arrived today.
I used double sided tape to attach a popsicle stick as a template. I hand turn a drill bit to mark the locations. It works okay for the hole on the right hand side, but there was some alignment issue with the left side.
I remove the drive bay from the case so that I can drill a couple of holes. I use a old HDD as it is going to be bumped a bit.
(This is upside down view, so left is on the right side of this picture) I drill my first hole for the right side with a 1/8" bit and it was perfect. The left is off. I used a pencil to mark the correct position before drilling.
This is how it turns out.
Now the tough part of fastening the standoffs. The top of the case has rolled edge for mechanical strength. The opening was too small for the nuts.
I looked at it and settled on hammering the nut in place. The sheet metal unrolled a bit and now I have a captured nut! Can't believe it is so simple. I have thought of half a dozen way of using my cutting wheel and/or bending the sheet metal before.
This is a job for my handy chisel and the dollar store hammer.
I bought some 25mm long screws as I need some threaded rods for this project. I have more use for the left -over screws than rods. I screw in the M3 screw to that part of it is rubbing against the sheet metal to provide some friction.
I cut the screw from the other side with a Dremel ceramic cutting wheel and left about 8mm worth of thread.
Now it is the time to reassemble the drive bay back to the case and test alignments.
Drive insertion is easy from the front. There is quite a bit of retention force from the connector, but I can slowly wiggle the drive out from the front. The adapter is only held from the top fro now and that seems to work.
I'll work on the rest when my washers arrives.
Connectors stacking
I found some metal washers about 0.030" (0.76mm) thick. I cut 6 pieces of threaded rod out of 25mm screws. I added a washer on top of the adapter and screwed in the rods leaving about 7mm of threads.
This is what it looks like for all the 4 connectors stacked together. For some reasons, the spacing of the last adapter is way off and it require an extra nut to make up for the spacing.
There isn't much height for the power connector, so they have to be assembled in place. The data cable can be attached afterwards.
The further down it goes, the more flexing. So I'll need to fasten the other end too. That side is a bit more work and I'll address in the next log.
Bottom connector
This is where it requires a bit of patience. There are a few interferences at bottom of the case so a simple spacer won't work here.
I use a punch to mark the location for holes. This help to reduce the amount of drill bit wondering with my electric drill.
These holes do not line up with the mounting hole for the adapter. So I am going to use a piece of FR4 as a mounting plate.
I have populated all my drive bays and make sure that the connectors are fully engaged as there are a bit of play with the adapters. I made a template out of popsicle to weight out my options.
I emptied out the drive bay before drilling the holes. I am using 9/64" drill bit for 6-32 screws (common case screws). After making sure that all the adapters are well aligned with the HDD's, I hand turn a drill bit in the new holes to mark them on the popsicle template.
It looks like I'll need to make up for the difference (~0.235" before FR4) between the 0.5" standoff and the adapter. I'll have to make do with what I have.
I looked up the usual places for standoffs, but only found nylon for the exact height I need as standard metal spaces only come in 1/8" increments.
I added a thick nut and a washer to the base of each standoffs to make up for the height difference.
I used the template for drilling holes onto the FR4 PCB blank. The adapter is flush mounted on the top of the mounting plate with two 25mm M3 screws. The plate is fasten to the standoffs with two 6-32 screws.
This is how it looks:
This is how it looks with the 90 degrees data cable attached.
Sadly the latches do not work on the adapters. Probably not a big deal as long as the cables do not move around. I cut up PVC jacket of a large cable and use it to fill the gap above the connector which will hold the connector in place. The material from a neoprene mouse pad would work well too.
The mounting plate can be used for strapping the SATA cables. The excess cables are tugged behind the drive bay. I try to keep the SATA data cable bents smooth.
It works! The alignment is fine and the drives can now be inserted or removed from the front. They could really use a pull tab or something.
A quick & dirty SSD mount
This is a "Bonus Featurette" for this project. This is a semi-related hack. I could have bought myself a 2.5" to 3.5" or 5.25" mounting kit.
Most sane person would have used a low profile pan head on the drive bay side. I decided that I want a couple of low profile nuts instead. I use a washer to account for the thickness of the sheet metal on the drive bay where this will be mounted.
I use the ceramic cutting wheel on my Dremel tool to trim off both the nut and M3 10mm standoff thread.
This is a side by side view of a regular nut vs a trimmed one.
Next up is a right angle bracket. I think it was from an old printer that I took apart. I marked out the length and cut it with what's left of my cutting wheel.
I drew a line on a popsicle stick and did the best I can to trace out the existing mounting hole on top of the drive bay.
I hand turned a drill bit for the pilot hole and use the popsicle template for drilling. The template has enough thickness to start the drill bit and help to reduce bit wandering. I deburred the sharp metal bits left on the holes with file and a knife.
I installed the two standoff onto the existing holes on the drive bay. The mounting bracket is a perfect fit.
I made a template of the mounting holes of a 2.5" HDD (from my blank FPGA PCB).and drilled the mounting holes. The two screws on the side allows for easy access. The drive is only mount on one edge. The drive is light, so that's more than enough.
The mounting holes are raised. So if I ever decided to flip the standoff, the nuts on the top side won't interfere with the drive.
The connectors clears the top of the drive bay.
The top of the bracket lined up with the bevel edge of the SSD. :) I'll need a Y splitter cable as an extension cable as I'll need to reach the daisy chain power connector in the 5.25" bay.
The drive looks like it belongs there.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.