Front panel method

Decided for the first time to make a nice front panel, well, at least was the first time I succeed doing so.
Interesting enough is I made the front panel and a box before actually the equipment beeing fully operational and tested, so, now I have to make it work!

 The way as I made this was: made all the holes to the components, LCD and buttons, then printed the front panel as an overlay (trust me, it's better to print first and cut last, so you don't have to print many tests).
Before applying the paper I spayed prime on the aluminum panel, after dried used paper glue to fix and set the paper on top. Finally some varnish was spayed to give a more glossy look.

Because the prime was grey and the paper very thin (normal print paper) it got a slightly grey tone.
Another issue was on turnng the nuts of the buttons, with a plier, some small scratches were made.




The project it self is an arduino to select the frequency of the airband receiver I bough in 2013 in the Cork Ham radio rally, this one:

This receiver frequency is set inside by means of dip switchs on a MC145151 PLL and the idea of the project is to have an external box controlling the PLL so it can rapidly change frequency without opening the box.
Right now the code to select the frequency is working, only missing the output part and cabling to the PLL circuit. When finish will be posted here.


Have a nice weekend!