Hi Guy and Gals.

After last night fun and games. I've realised that it's time to start
thinking about my next project. This time, I want to sort out seme problems
that I've found with my laptop setup. The problem I had last night was
that dew started to form on my laptop screen, at about 1am, as Saturn was
just comming into view. Also my laptop, is the bit of my setup that
requires most plugging together, there's just too many bits really.

What's I'm thinking about it making a box, that will work a little like a
docking station for my laptop. There's will be a single power supply
ending in a car lighter plug (so that I can plug into my current setup, or
even a car if I want to).

The box itself will have my USB hub, USB to Serial converter. power supplys
permently wired in, for hub and laptop. I want to add a lighting system, so
that it casts red light over the laptop keyboard to make it easier to see.
A red filter that can be dropped into play to cover the laptop screen would
be nice too. Ideally, I'd like to be able to store my Autostar serial
cable, and Usb Active extension cable too. It would be quite nice to have
the USB to Serial wired securly to the Autostar cable with a switch to
serial port (so that I can plug in my GPS).

I'd like to be able to make this box so that it's not too big, however my
woodworking skills leave alot to be desired. Putting the electrics of this
project together isn't a problem, there's nothing difficult about that.

Has anyone done something similar to this before? What materials would you
use to do this? Are there any design tips that anyone can offer?

At the moment. I've not really thought to much about how to do this. I'm
just looking for ideas to help make this project work well first time.

Regards

Colin Dawson
www.cjdawson.com