Shooting blanks

I never gave much thought to blank panels for modulars.  It always seemed silly to me to buy a functionless panel just to cover up open space.  I understood the fact that there was the possibility of shock by touching power pins when the system is on, but I felt pretty safe in my ability to not do something like that.  So, I never gave blank panels a second thought.

Until a little over a month ago when I sold some modules to Stephen @ pro-modular.com and he told me about these laser engraved acrylic blanks that he had started to make and asked if I'd like one.  I ended up getting two sizes and in terms of color and what was engraved, I said, "surprise me".  And I was surprised.

I ended up with a 16HP clear one and the pictured 28HP black and gold one.  I'm still trying to get a really cool shot of the clear acrylic with some LED backlighting, but the black+gold really just jumps out.  The acrylic is a little less than 2x the thickness of a standard aluminum faceplate, so it's very sturdy, with very little flex even at 28HP.  I could easily see module panels being made the same way.

I've been super stoked on these blanks, especially the 28HP black+gold.  I was sad when I had to remove it while testing the Z-DSP as I didn't have room for both.  However, now that I've sold off a few more modules and made some room, it's back in the case!

Anyone looking for blanks (or even not looking for blanks), jump on over to pro-modular.com and check them out.  Full 19" rack blanks are now possible too!