# I finally finished my "failed" control panel



## sachsr1 (Mar 3, 2016)

Many months ago I set off on an adventure to design and build a control panel full of switches, leds, and other wizbang features. I wanted to enclose the mess of wires that controlled my Tortoise and Arduino based CMRI servo turnouts. I also wanted to use backlit led's to show which tracks were clear (green), and closed (red). I just got access to a laser cutter, so I also faced the learning curve of that equipment and the software. 
The real reason I took on the project was to have fun, and most importantly learn something new. I enjoyed many of the hours I spent on it, but in the end I had to modify the finished project. 
The box was initially going to be all laser cut black acrylic (later changed to MDF to match my fascia boardd) and translucent white acrylic sections showing the track in my yard and the outer loop of my layout. The box is 27" by 10" and about 4" deep. The box housed five and twelve volt power strips, my NCE button board, and two Arduino CMRI nodes that connect to 7 servo turnout motors. 
I had also planned on using strips of RGB lights to backlit the white sections of acrylic. Each turnout was wired to a DPDT switch. One side of the switch controlled the turnout, and the other controlled the LEDs. It was a LOT of soldering, but I got the LED's to work. It all worked great until it was time to put it all back together. It ultimately turned out to be a flawed design, so I chose to remove the red and green LED's. I really just wanted to be done with this project, and move onto another project. I did put a strip of white PED's in the box so it is backlit, and I'm happy to have my layout back up and running.

First pic is the finished box. The second one is the proposed LED lighting, and the third is what it would have looked like with the red and green LED's showing the turnout position.


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## ogaugenut (Dec 27, 2012)

I'm old school and love control panels. You have a lot of cool concepts. Seems like a shame things did not work out as planned. If you took the switch controllers out, how are you throwing the switches now?

Bill


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## sachsr1 (Mar 3, 2016)

The switches are still in there, I just removed the Red/Green LED's that indicate direction.


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## ogaugenut (Dec 27, 2012)

How did you embed the acrylic in the MDF?


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## sachsr1 (Mar 3, 2016)

I laser cut both the MDF and acrylic sections. I used Adobe Illustrator to create the overall design. I made one file for the whole layout to cut out of MDF, and then a copy and paste of just the track sections to cut out of acrylic. I had to scale the acrylic up about 2% to account for the width of the cut line and avoid light gaps. This lead to some fine grinding and filing to press fit everything. The pieces fit in really tight, so there were no gaps. 

The actual gluing in of the pieces was a lot of trial and error. I wanted to avoid getting glue on the surface of the MDF. I decided to hang the MDF piece off the edge of the table, and apply glue to the inside of the MDF with a Q-tip from the underside. I then slid the acrylic piece in from the top to push the glue down. After about 5 pieces or so I washed my hands and moved each piece to make sure it was flush with the top. The pieces took quite a bit of force to move so they stayed in place once set. The glue dries clear so I wasn't too concerned about the underside of the panel, but I wiped the excess away. After the glue dried I ran a bead of clear Elmers School Glue on the inside of the panel for added strength and light gap fills.


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## sachsr1 (Mar 3, 2016)

Few more pics One is the MDF without the acrylic, and the other one is of the box from the side. When I sprayed the top of the panel I put the other pieces of MDF underneath so I could line up the location of the LED lights to the acrylic in the top. You can see the brace that was going to hold the LED light shelf in place it's clamped to the box.


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## ogaugenut (Dec 27, 2012)

Very cool. The laser cutter certainly makes interesting possibilities.

Bill


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

My old IMSAI computer used a clear plastic front with a die cut opaque negative like mylar at the back that left circles for where the LED's would shine through. You could also paint the clear plastic then use a router to grind the paint off leaving a nice clear path. I like the idea of using the LED strip lights.


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## Don72 (Mar 7, 2015)

Very cool idea. Gives me more ideas for my control panel when I get ready. Nice work.


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## Aminnich (Nov 17, 2014)

That is super cool! Nice job


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