In my previous post about prototyping laser designs in cardboard, I mentioned that I’m staying in the guest bedroom that doubles as my office. I work in video, and part of my fancy video setup is an ATEM Mini Pro — basically a little video switcher. It’s a great device, but has two problems. The problems? It gets warm, and so the cats like to sit on it. It pushes a lot of light pollution into the room at night.
I solved the first problem a couple of years ago. I laser-cut a 1/4″ clear acrylic cover. The clear acrylic lets me see the state of the controls. There is a cutout in the back for cables and on either side for air flow. The cats love sitting on the warm glowy box when I’m not around. Feel free to download the ATEM Min Pro cover svg file and laser-cut your own.
The more recent problem, sleeping in the guest bedroom, is that the thing gives off a ton of light. I could unplug it nightly, but the power cord screws into the back and all of the settings get wiped when you unplug it.
What’s a guy to do? Well, you laser-cut a cover for the cover. I didn’t snap pictures of the cardboard prototype, since it was fairly uninteresting and spot-on. It’s really just a cube, but with only three faces, one of which has venting holes.
This one is made from standard 1/8″ black acrylic. Click the image to download the cover-cover.
And now I can sleep in darkness when I’m staying there.
