Perhaps a stainless steel fascia + handle would look nice in the car

DROOL. If you can make this happen you are officially my hero. I would definitely pay a fair price for a stainless steel look.

-Tony
MkII #554

Does anyone have an AutoCad or similar representation of the MkII fascia and handle?

I would guess that Hugo does?

If I recall correctly: When asked the same question about the Mk1 sled in the past, he said that if somebody had access to the necessary machining equipment to build Mk1 sleds that he might give this file to them if they contacted him directly.

Perhaps he'd be willing to do the same thing with the Mk2 fascia files? Seeing as how the fascias are going to get scarce pretty soon, we might want an available alternative.

The only thing that I'm worried about is that the fascia might not have been made 100 percent from computer. I think there was some hand-editing of the molds before they went into production. Or something like that. Anyone have details on the production process?

___________
Tony Fabris

I've been working on the exact thing you guys have been talking about. I don't know how I missed this thread. I have a small machine shop in my house complete with a CNC Mill and Lathe and I have been working (slowly) at producing custom facias for the MKII. The facias will come in several different anodized aluminum colors and a few different wood grains. I hope to have final prototypes by the end of November and start taking orders in December. I wish I could get them done earlier but I have been really busy at work lately (anyone see the announment of Microsoft Office X for the Macintosh being released to manufacturer?). Prices have not been set yet but plan on around $100 each (they are very labor intensive). I'll be sure to post more information as I get deeper into production.

I also use Pro/E - maybe we should think about stereolithography from the 3d files, don't know how much this costs, but there are plenty of companies in UK that do this, maybe expensive but if the originals are no longer available could be the only option for an accurate facia

Are your fascia's of a different design? do you have any prototype sketches or pics? =]

me likey pron!


|| loren.cox ||

I've been meaning to get round to this for ages but haven't managed it yet. I've started to replicate the original fascia several times in Solid Edge but have never actually finished (it's not difficult, I just haven't had the time). I've also had a go at redesigning the shape of the buttons & opening and at the same time improving the view of the top left of the display for all you guys who drive on the wrong side of the road . I was imagining brushed Aluminium for the fascia & handle. One thing which has put a bit of a damper on my enthusiasm is that we can't read in 3d solid model files into our CAM package at work so even if I did manage to get around to drawing it up I couldn't make it anyway. The empeg guys do of course already have the solid model file in SolidWorks format. You can find reference to it here. I'm in the middle of a justification study for SolidEdge & a CAM package such as EdgeCAM for work so we should have the facility to do this kind of work in the future but it isn't going to be RSN.

Marcus (beaker)
32 gig (various colours)

Stereolithography is an excellent idea, but wouldn't that be prohibitively expensive and aren't the parts created a bit weak & rough for production of finished parts? I know the technology has come on in leaps & bounds recently so I could very well be wrong.

Marcus (beaker)
32 gig (various colours)

The first prototypes are copies of the original facias. I reverse engineered them by scanning in my facia using a 3D digitizer then I imported the cloud of points into an app that wrote all the nessesary CNC code. I have cut a couple test pieces but they still need a bunch of tweaks before they will fit the empeg as well as the original. Once I get a complete working prototype I will venture into new designs. Hopefully next week I should be able to get some pitcures posted that show the current progress.

Rob

lol, wouldn't break as easily as the plastic facia and aluminium handle either! An armour plated empeg

(list 6284, Mk1 S/N 00299 4GB blue [for sale]. Mk2 S/N 080000094 26GB blue)

So what kind of materials are you intending on using?

Mark I / #102 / 48g / Smoke / Custom Fascia
Best PC/Audio Investment Ever Made

I hope someone has a friend at a place that does stereolithography, because I think its really expensive(not sure though). I havent taken the measurements for the fascia yet because Darkstorm already has some done. The question is how to do it.

Sean

Prototypes are in machinable wax and wood. Once I get a working model I will move onto aluminum.

If anyone does have a working DXF, IGES or STL file of the facia, I'd love to give it a try to see if it could help speed up the process. You'll get a free finished facia of your choice if it works.

Rob

Like I said earlier in this thread: Empeg have the original SolidWorks file for the fascia. If they can't convert this to DXF, IGES or STL themselves I should be able to convert it for you if they don't mind sending it to me.

I asked Rob for a copy, I'll wait to see what the reply is. The version I made is OK but needs a lot of tweaks since I couldn't get all the detail near the bolt holes.

Rob

OK, let's hope Rob's feeling generous.
The existing design of fascia is going to be at best very difficult to replicate exactly by machining so you're going to have to use a bit of artistic licence (but you don't need me to tell you that). In the small amount of time that I've managed to spend trying to come up with a good looking design I haven't managed to come up with anything that I though looked good enough and would still be reasonably easy & cheap to machine. I'm still playing though. I'll let you know if I come up with anything decent.

I think the empeg facia was made in solidworks. Since they aren't going to be made anymore it would be nice if SB would let us have a look.

Sean

In reply to:

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I think the empeg facia was made in solidworks...

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errm... yeah like i said a couple of posts back in this thread.

Sorry that was 4 days ago lol. I didn't pay much attention until I saw stereo lithography.

Sean

Yeah, stereolithography is a really exciting technology. Although I'm not close to it at all I do read the odd article in the engineering magazines about the latest big advance that's been made so I am aware that things have come a long way recently. I believe they've now got a process of fusing metallic powders using a laser, building up the part in layers (as is common to all the variants of rapid prototyping technology). The latest article said that they reckon that they're going to send one of these machines with a load of raw material(s) into space with each spacecraft so that they can make spare parts up there. Whether rapid prototyping will ever get to the stage where parts of sufficient integrity can be used for actual servicable use will remain to be seen. I'm sure we'll get there in the end . If you're interested in stereolithography then take a look at this, I think you'll find it interesting.

That looks really cool! Ok, does anyone have the fascia in STL format?

If Rob or anyone else in Empeg can let us have the SolidWorks file then we could convert it into STL format. Hey!! I've just had a thought. Z-Corporation say they'll 'Print out' a free part for you if you send them a solid model file. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? We could all send them the solid model file and we'll get our fascias for free! .

Nice thought but I don't think we'd get away with it somehow. I think they might just smell a Rat .

I don't have a model of the facia yet, but I've been using pro/e for ages now and coming up with a model of the facia that looks correct is at worst about 2 hours work, the problem is getting the accuracy required for it to fit on the empeg, especially around the 4 buttons, I'll be working away in South Africa for the next week and a half, but when I get back I'll start modeling a facia then we can export the file into any format we want stl, iges etc. We really need a cheap method of producing prototypes from the model to get the accuracy and profile correct around the buttons, don't know if anyone can help with this?

LOL Yes that was the same thought I was having. The material might not be good enough to use, but maybe you could make a mold from it to make a fascia out of another material.

Sean

I was thinking of trying that. Using the original fascia & plaster of paris for the mould but I don't think you'd get a very good finish. I'd still really like some machined Aluminium fascias anodised in different colours and a couple of plain ones, one polished & one with a brushed finish. We haven't heard anything from Rob or anyone else at Empeg about the SolidWorks model file yet so it doesn't look like it's going to be let out into the wild. Either that or Rob hasn't been on the BBS lately to see our desire to get our grubby mits on it. As I said in one of my other posts I'd really like to create another design or two which improve the view of the top left of the screen for all our fellow empegers who drive on the wrong side of the road and is also more suited to machining out of solid than the current design.

Can i stick in my thoughts and say why do you need to copy when you could make something else that would work as a facia as you could make your own buttons that could be round

Yeah, I've thought about different shaped buttons too. Round buttons would of course be the easiest. It would be nice to incorporate the illuminated buttons hack too. Some nice Electric Blue ones I think. I really must try to make the time to design something...

I've come to an arrangement with Rob (cruzthis) and have supplied some CAD which will hopefully help him with his project.

Rob

Once again, you guys rock! Thanks Rob.

Many thanks to the Empeg (riocar) guys. I ordered a bunch of aluminum stock today and should have some prototypes sometime next week (you can all guess were the first several working facias are going). Just running some 3D simulations of the CNC code I have produced is showing some very promising results. The hardest part is those little dimples around the bolt holes. They require using a 1/32" cutter which is really easy to break and not super cheap. Since my CNC machine is a small desktop model, cutting speeds are fairly slow so the projected cut times are around 7 hours per facia (and that doesn't include setup time and 3 tool changes while cutting). I'm hoping I can cut that by half. I'd be happy if I can produce at least 7 a week.

Once I get working models (that's a big IF) I will setup a little website for online ordering. It will be first come first serve (remember the good old days of getting in line to purchase an empeg).

Rob

Hi,

Is the fascia-file available for others to try out, or a special agreement allowing only you to use it?

I'd like to get a friend with some CNC equipment going at it too.