BreezePad by Jani 'Japala' Pönkkö

For visitors from Slashdot

As the article got posted and the fact that I forgot that it had been posted as a part of another submission already, I have to apologize. What comes to self-promoting it is quite funny that it is acceptable to promote some reviewing articles submitted by the reviewing sites and the reviewers themselves about the products that are based on our inventions. At the same time it is sad that the creators of the original content can't submit the story about the idea to for example Slashdot. I just hope that people would understand that this kind of "open source" modding should be promoted and not just commercialized. Is the Slashdot the best way to go? I'm not sure but as one of the best places to get interesting information shown on the internet I feel that it is a valid way to go.

BreezePad

As you may have noticed, not all my mods are too serious. But even when they are made with a joke in mind they still do what they should do. This mod started when some reader requested someone to come up with an idea to cool the mousing hand down during the summer. I had to give this a try. :)

You may remember my MouseFan Mod that was originally a joke about those fans that everyone were adding to their cases. The mouse worked quite nicely so I decided to use the similar approach on this new mod too. Lets move on and see what the BreezePad is all about.

Planning

What, plans? First time that I did some so I had to document them. The finished Pad didn't use the same shape, so as usual plans were not that usefull. :)

The idea

Layers separated

Idea behind the mod is to push air inside the pad with two 40 x 40 mm fans and then push the air out towards the mousing hand. This should keep the hand cool without using those larger tabletop fans etc.

There are three layers of acrylic and the middle one is the one that has the air tunnel. Top piece will have the angled holes to drive the cool air towards the hand. Pretty simple and straight forward method that doesn't need too much space.

Electronics

I wanted to make this pad independed from the computer. This is why the power is taken from the wall transformer. Transformer that I used is adjustable to give 1.5 to 18 volts with 800 mA. Rotated the dial for 12 volts and hot glued it so it doesn't move from that spot.

Fans and leds are all connected in parallel to this supply. Power is fed via on/off switch that is operated by the key. I salvaged this switch from an old PC about 10 years ago and now thought, maybe I should find something to do with it. :)

Gluing

To glue the pieces together I decided to try out spraygluing. I'm not sure what firms make this stuff in your country but I found this can from a local hardware store and the manufacturer is Maston.

Just sprayed the both sides of that center piece and stacked the layers on top of each others. The can says that for permanent fix you should spray the both pieces that you want to join but because the surface area is so large in this Pad it worked quite nicely with only one side sprayed.

Do they fit?

First test to see if the fans fit. They are mounted with a slight angle to enhance the airflow towards the air tunnel.

Sanding

To sand down the edges I used a kit ment for electric drills. Sanding paper is fixed to the rotary bit with velcro so it makes the whole procedure of using it really simple. Remember to tape those small airholes tight so the dust can't get inside the pad.

Carving

To do the job here I used Ferm's Dremel copy and Tungsten Carbide Cutter bit. Carved from the bottom towards the top, almost driving through the top most piece. This to give enough room for our electrics and to keep the top surface smooth.

Sunbeam's Lazer Leds

Because the Pad is made out of transparent acrylic I decided to include a GlowPad function to it. I happened to have a spare Lazer Led unit from Sunbeam so I popped it open and took the insides. Almost a perfect fit for the channels that I had carved. Great. :)

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