Room to dremelsaw HDExtender to hold a DVD drive?

[IVB]

Wondering if anyone who's got an HDExtender and has it open from the IR-hole-drilling mod can do me a favor, take some measurements.

1) Height/width of front panel: Measure the space between the buttons on the right of the front panel, and the cables on the left.
2) Room inside the case to hold the drive.

Sure would be cool if I could dremel it out to hold a DVD drive. Although I don't want something fugly, aesthetics aren't really that important as I'd be putting it in a closet. I just need the room to physically hold it, and it would be much easier to keep a single unit logistically rather than an external closure on top of the unit.

[jdamore]

Hey IVB-
Assuming there physically is enough space to fit a drive, what would the process be like to get it working (Ie:firmware)? Would you use the I/O cables going to the USB ports?

Very interesting!

[bug1124]

Interestingly there are a number of unused PEM inserts for mounting boards, etc already in the case. Add in the fact that the decoder board has a standard USB header and it would appear that Sage has left themselves some options in this arena. They could easily use a different bezel to shift the buttons to the left and put some sort of optical drive on the right.

I am going to wait and see what they have up their sleeves.

[IVB]

Originally Posted by jdamore

Hey IVB-
Assuming there physically is enough space to fit a drive, what would the process be like to get it working (Ie:firmware)? Would you use the I/O cables going to the USB ports?

Very interesting!

Yeah, I'd basically see if I could stretch the USB cord & power cord from my external enclosure to the HDExtender. In my case, the base PC is only 9' away, but that 9' is 4' down to the crawlspace, 1' over to the next room, and 4' up to the PC. (~4' direct line, if the wife allowed me to drill holes all the hell over the house :-)