IDE CD drive - eject pin?

[Hodgkinson]

I know that you don't want to *bucher* the drive as such, but a hardware modification should be dead easy. Just unscrew the lid, find the eject button, solder on some wires and add an external button.
Could I inquire as to why to wish to extend the button?

Hodgkinson.

[Hodgkinson]

I've never heard or seen a drive like that (Well, not 5.25" anyway). Im afraid the only way foward I can see is to either trace the wires back, or try to find a different drive and do a similar mod.

EDIT: :-? I assume that you still want to be able to load/unload CDs from the drive once it’s been moved? Assuming that, you've got the perfect drive - If the button is on the front of the tray, im baffled as to why it needs to be elsewhere...
Eg, If the eject button is hidden = Hidden tray = Hidden (And unusable) drive...

[Hodgkinson]

Ah. Now I follow your plan ;-)

Conversely, I've never seen a laptop drive with the button not on the edge of the tray.
In that the only way that I am aware of is to follow the tracks back. And disassembly/soldering is going to be a lot more tricky due to it being a laptop drive.

EDIT: Or maybe make a flexable section of the cover, perhaps?

[Hodgkinson]

I’m guessing acrylic/Plexiglas - It has a habit of breaking.

[Hodgkinson]

Doh. I'd forgot about most of the hardware being on the tray - Zac's right :crazy:
Well, there's plenty of eject programs on AmiNet, anyway.

Couldn't you cut a small square in the front material just larger than the button, then make glue the small square (Or make another smaller square) back onto the button?

Just thought on: If you do glue anything to the front of the drive, make sure to leave a recess for the button. Having the eject button pressed 24/7 could make life interesting :-D

[Hodgkinson]

Actually, a reed switch isn't a bad idea. They might be a bit large for a laptop drive (Even the miniature ones) but it might just work.
Perhaps you could use a phototransistor or photodiode (Should be much smaller, especially if you could find a SMD version) and just arrange a LED to shine at it from the inside of the case?
This means that you wouldn't have any problems with a stray magnetic field (Near drives/data cables, etc) or vibrations ejecting the tray, but it might take some tinkering, especially if you plan to have a see-through case, and it would need some testing to ensure that a photodiode/phototransistor would be suitable (Not sure how the button is monitored electronically).

Ah, something like this, perhaps (Heh, this one's even IR filtered):
http://www.rapidonline.com/Electronic-Components/Optoelectronics/Photodetectors/Silicon-pin-photodiode/29403/kw/photodiode

Whichever method you use, you’ll need to make some pretty big modifications to the drive enclosure to fit this extra hardware in and to enable the sensor to be actuated, unfortunately.

Just a thought,
Hodgkinson.