Cosmos Dragon by Martin Blass

Front panel

Next, we started work on the front parts. These consisted of multiple Plexiglas pieces which we cut then glued together to build the covers. In the upper part of the front section we integrated a 6in TFT screen. To avoid any damage to the screen, particularly as the case was going to be taken to shows, we decided to build small servo-driven front doors, which can slide over the TFT to protect it.

The servos were placed in the highest drive bay and we built custom servo arms that could be placed behind the display without getting in the way while moving and opening the doors. Right under the TFT we installed a Soundgraph iMon to enable full HTPC features and give us the ability to start the system via remote control.

The mounting of the iMon receiver was really simple – because it fits in a standard 5.25in bay, we just had to make minor modifications inside our custom cover so that it would fit.


Under the iMon we placed our DVD drive, which we made stealthy using a spare drive bay cover – it isn’t visible until activated. We built two big Plexiglas covers with a custom hinge in the middle. The hinge is powered with a small spring. Now when the DVD drives opens, it pushes away the cover. As soon as the drive closes the small spring closes the cover.


In the lowest drive bay we added a custom control centre. We took apart an old CD-ROM drive so that we only had the opening mechanism and the control board left. Then we added a small Plexiglass sheet on the drive in the position where you’d normally insert the CD. Onto this Plexiglas sheet we built a small box with switches for the case’s LEDs and the doors.


We also made a second Plexiglass side panel for the other side of the case – it needed be a perfect clone of the first one, so a lot of time went into the building process. We then built second layers for both sides, this time using a 2-3mm thick sheet of styrene, which proved much easier and quicker to work with than Plexiglass. After finishing the second layer we secured it onto the Plexiglass with adhesive tape and screwed everything to the original side panels of the Cosmos.