Case Mod - In Progress Team Aquatuning (der_george + Semme) - 24h elegance - DCMM 24h Livemodding Challenge

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This is our little worklog of our entry in this year’s DCMM Livemodding Challenge. There still are quite a few pictures missing, as we were under quite a lot of time pressure and didn’t take pictures of every step. I will add all the pictures I can find of any of the missing steps. If anyone of you was at the gamescom in Cologne and has any pictures then please don’t hesitate!
Last year we all sabotaged the contest, well nearly all of us. 5 of the 6 Teams worked together on a big spaceship, as a big present to the organizers for the 10th anniversary of the DCMM.
This year all teams modded normally and this year my teammate Semme and I took part again as Team Aquatuning also supported by Patriot Memory and CoolerMaster.

This year we had following task:

Following Parts were handed out to be modded:

A Bitfenix Prodigy ITX Case
A 400W PSU Be Quiet
A RC-Car

Shortly after we had unpacked all our stuff it was time to start.



Semme recieved all the supplied parts and the clock was started.



Semme took the case apart and I did the same to the RC Car.



On the Case itself there were not too many parts that were usable. The handles and the feet are cheap and crappy – the front is rubberized, and so on… But we could work around all this as this is what we do – casemodding.



The RC Car was quite good, but in the end we are only going to use the electronics. As soon as we had all the important dimensions I hacked them into our CAD Model.

This is what framework came out in the end:



Then extracted the dimensions we needed and started working.
Semme started on the Case itself.



The whole front had to go…
I transferred the CAD dimensions onto the MDF and then cut up the whole framework with a circular saw.





All of a sudden an Indian turned up…


(To see what happened, see the start of Patrick and Olis White Ball Worklog)

Whilst Semme was perfecting the cut outs we needed it the case…



… I started rounding the edges we needed on some of the MDF parts.




(After Semme had finished it)

Some drilled holes followed.





More holes..





Holes…





That Semme finished off nicely again.
The case got some more cutouts…



As well as the front and back





Untill the first 8 hours had past.

We hadn’t got as far as we had wanted but we were not too far behind where we had wanted tob e after 8 hours. We had reached an even better quality standard than we plan – that made us very happy. We knew that the next day would be the all deciding…

Day 2


The second day started really well…



The cutouts and especially the holes fit all just perfectly.
The holes were completely in line – all of them. We then screwed the case together. Then I started cuuting out the acrylic (and the table) with the circularsaw, whilst Semme gave the Case a final finishing.





Then we built up our home made bending brake. I was very anxious if my idea would work. It was only quickly jumbled up in last minute before the championships and I only got the chance to test some small pieces because of the lack of time and especially because of the lack of helping handy to bend the big pieces. During our first tests at the championships we noticed that we had to change a few more things on the bending brake. We added a few more Endstops and Restingpieces to gain more stability and a higher unforming quality.





We were really really anxious if all would turn out. We knew that we had the materials for 2 tries. A second try would cost a huge amount of time so we took a lot of time doing tests on optimum working temperatures and timespans.

Our first tries with approx. 10cm wide pieces:



The results were not very good but gave us hope. So we carried on doing tests and optimizing our setup.



… and bent some new strips.

Worked out the maximum and minimum working temperatures…
Maximum:



For the unforming process you need to cool down the whole bending brake. Here I am pouring water down the pipes to speed it up.



And a new strip for minimum working temperatures:



Now that we had got all the parameters sorted we built up the courage to try the bending process on our bending brake with the proper piece. Every tine put in the right places



On the first day open to public we also had a few very interested visitors.



Sadly I don’t have any pictures of the actual bending process because we needed all our hands and full concentration on the bending itself.

Finished bending:





Semme checks the radii and takes the first pictures. Slowly but surely we got the feeling that it had turned out really well. The whole thing was let to cool and then unformed.
It turned out even better than we thought. It was perfect. Really perfect. We were both so happy – we had just managed to do one of the most difficult things – bending big and even radii into acrylic – and we did it live on the championship under pressure and time pressure.
We were really really happy.



Perfect. Just as if it was casted in one piece.



Now we could do a few more little pieces until the end of the day like the sliding mechanism for the acrylic on the main frame and sooner than we knew the time was up and we had spent another 8 hours building.



Again, we took longer than we had planned, but the quality of our work was just brilliant. We were so proud of what we had achieved but we knew that the last day would be really really hard because we still had sooo much to do.

Day 3

The last day begun.. there was so much to do, that’s why there are so few pictures of these last 8 hours.



We started with the final assembly of the framework.



Semme sanded and polished the edges of the acrylic.



I made the PCBs. I had enough material for up to 9 tries.



Cut out and patched up.



Then put it into our improved etch bath.



This is how the PCB looked like before before tin plating.



Sadly I haven’t got any pictures of the next steps.

After all the sanding and polishing, Semme then masked off the windows on the acrylic. I then painted the rest black.



That was after the first coat of black paint

And from now on I don’t have any more pictures till the end.

Semme carried on installing the hardware and watercooling loop. I started scraping bondo over the screws. After that I painted the framework white just like the usable parts of the case that were left. Looking back I don’t know why I wanted to pait it white, as you can see every little mistake, that meant that the paint work had to be perfect, which ends up very time consuming… which was not good for the little time we had left. Andi t till had to dry.
After that I cut out the mesh for the front and painted it white. Mounted the feet and the selfmade SSD-Adapter. Glued the protective strips to the framework. Mounted the flexlights and soldered the cables to them. And finished off the PCB. Crimped all the cables and added all the motors and servos, as well as the electronics.

Ect… ect… ect….

20 minutes before the end we started the final assembly. This is where everything went wrong. The big problem was that the paint hadn’t dried properly. But we had to carry on we managed to put it all together but still 4 cables needed to be soldered together. After the countdown had finished we quickly soldered them that is where we noticed the problems. Something wasn’t quite right with the dimensions – I got the size of the protective strip wrong in CAD and because of that we could only push the acrylic back and forth with a lot of force. Because the paint hadn’t dried properly the protective strip pressed right into it. So we decided to undo the casing after the clock had stopped and then scratch all the glue and paint off the framework, to not ruin the acrylic.

By doing this we had probably disqualified ourselves, because we had touched our case after the time was up – but it was the right decision. In the end the case hadn’t lived up to our expectations. We had mucked up all the work in the matter of a minute and would have made it worse and probably irreparable if we had left it that way. Now we can save it and finish it off properly at home.

It was the correct decision, even if we were really sad and it robbed us of our last theoretical chances.

Now I will show you some pictures of the case after the countdown.











And the final picture… A view through the top“window“ at the SSD.




Specs:
CPU: Intel Core i3 2120 - Sponsored by CoolerMaster
Mainboard: ASUS P8H61 ITX
RAM: 8 GB Patriot Memory Viper Extreme Devision II 1600 MHz
SSD: 120 GB Patroit Memory Pyro SE
PSU: CoolerMaster Silent Pro Gold 600W
Cooling: Phobya G-Silent 14 Blue LED - CoolerMaster Sickleflow 120mm Blue LED - Phobya G-Changer 140 - Phobya Balencer 250 black nickel - Phobya DC12-400 - Watercool Heatkiller 3.0 LC

Now I will finish the pc at home and make sure that it turns out the way it should have done. I will need to put a lot of time into it, as we messed up quite a bit.

I will use this thread as a worklog for the rest of the work.
Last but not least I would like to thank you Sponsors, Aquatuning, CoolerMaster and Patriot Memory for their support, my teammate Semme and all the other casemodders and the judges for the great time during the whole competition.

So long :0)

 

Very cool, probably as stressful as it is fun to compete in a 24 hour mod off. Glad you plan on polishing the design and construction so it comes out like you have envisioned.

Mod on

 

Yes. The most fun thing in the world! (Apart from Bedtime activities :[)

Thanks a lot!

:0)

 

That live modding challenge is awesome & the great creative & quality creations you guys manage to do in front of sooooo many people in such a short time is pure awesomeness.

Looks like the best modding event in the world mixed with a big gaming event, how could it not be fun.

Very nice speed project mate.