PC Case Becomes a Kinetic Art Masterpiece

Gamers and geeks put a lot of money and effort into building their PCs, and so they naturally like to find ways to set their computers apart from more plebeian consumer products. For many years, that came mostly in the form of a truly astonishing array of glowing RGB LEDs. But those multicolor lights look outdated and a bit tacky these days. So how can we show everyone that our computers are special? Robert found the ultimate solution: custom kinetic art front panels.

Robert developed this idea after following along with CyberPower's Kinetic Series Case announcements over the past couple of years and finding himself disappointed that nothing has come to market yet. Like that concept, Robert's PC case has motorized mechanical parts on the front. But Robert one-upped CyberPower by making the front panel interchangeable. Each panel is a piece of kinetic art and Robert can swap them out whenever he wants.

To accommodate that interchangeability, Robert modified his existing PC case with a decorative shroud made from laser-cut plywood. That has a hexagonal pattern and Robert painted it black. A stepper motor shaft pokes through the front face of the case and that actuates the mechanisms inside the kinetic front panels. An Arduino Uno board controls that stepper motor, turning it at a constant rate — though it would certainly be possible to program a script that runs on the PC and adjusts the rotation parameters for additional effects.

Robert designed and constructed two panels to demonstrate this idea. One has three circular windows, inside which are wheels rotating in opposite directions. The stepper motor drives those through a series of gears. LEDs in the PC case provide backlighting for the windows.

The second panel is truly impressive. The front face is a hexagonal grid of dozens of hexagonal wood pillars that slide in and out. They move in a rippling pattern, like a stone dropped into a pond. Robert experimented with several different mechanisms to generate that actuation and ultimately settled on a complex system of gears and linkages — all driven by that single stepper motor. That took hundreds of 3D-printed and laser-cut parts, along with a huge amount of labor to assemble.

Both of these kinetic panels look amazing and Robert can design more and swap them out whenever he wants. CyberPower may never release their Kinetic Series Case, but Robert's creation is even better.