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Project Skade: Thin client PC - 13 May UPDATE: Mesh & braiding

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by parag0n, 11 May 2006.

  1. parag0n

    parag0n What's a Dremel?

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    Crossposted from my blog at http://www.thinkl33t.com/?p=46

    I diddnt post about these right away, as i´ve been playing with them getting the setup right. My summer project will be my arcade cabinet, but until then, i´m building a thinclient which will connect to my server. So:

    [​IMG]

    This is my workspace, with my nice new monitor, and ¨skade¨, the machine that is becoming the thin client.

    [​IMG]

    Currently, she´s attached to a micro-atx backplate, but i´m going to be building a custom enclosure for her as soon as the aluminium i´ve ordered from ebay arrives.

    The board is a via epia 800, it has an 800 mhz processor, 512mb of RAM, and a 1GB CF card acting as the HDD. She runs Debian GNU/Linux, using the blackbox window manager. Its a nice sleek, fast WM, perfect for a slower machine such as this.

    The plan is to connect via XDMCP. What i want to do is have 2 x servers running, one on tty8 on the local machine, which goes to XDM, to allow me to use the local machine, and the other connecting to Khouri (the server) and going to a GDM prompt (khouri runs gnome).

    I’ll be keeping a worklog of the new case, but i’m waiting until after my resits have finished before i go any further on it. The case will be mounted to the VESA wallmounting holes on the back of the monitor, and will be a self contained system. I will be leaving lots of room foir airflow, using some aluminium mesh i grabbed off ebay at the same time as the rest of the metal.

    The other idea for this i’ve had is to fix a slotload laptop dvdrom to the system, and share it via samba or another network file systemmy thing, and work out a way for it to show as a local cd drive in gnome on the server.
     
    Last edited: 13 May 2006
  2. parag0n

    parag0n What's a Dremel?

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    Well, tonight i was thinking about my thinclient and remebered i had a laptop cdrom drive somewhere. After a bit of digging through boxes, i found the drive, and the adapter i bought for it to fix it to the IDE bus :D

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    So thats that sorted, now i dont have to buy a small CDROM drive :D
     
  3. kplonk

    kplonk What's a Dremel?

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    would you not want a burner as well, or is it a burner?
     
  4. parag0n

    parag0n What's a Dremel?

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    I considered it, but decided as my laptop has a DVD burner i very rarely use anyway, as does the server, its not really worth it. Laptop optical drives are standard sizes anyway afaik, so i can always fit a burner at a later date if i decide its necessary.
     
  5. parag0n

    parag0n What's a Dremel?

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    Update: Aluminium is here

    Hurrah, got home tonight to find this waiting for me on top of my mailbox:

    [​IMG]

    Opened it up, to be confronted with the aluminium i´d ordered off ebay earlier this week :)

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Thats 50cm*25cm of 1mm aluminium, 33cm*25cm of 2mm, and 33cm*25cm of 3mm. The 3mm is the base plate, it will have everything mounted to it, and be the plate that fixes to the wallmount bolts on the back of the monitor.

    Today i bought a 120mm fan, thatll be mounted in the back panel, covered in mesh, and undervolted to make the machine as silent as possible. So once that and the mesh arrives, iĺl be able to start!

    I´ve found a verson of sketchup for osx, so i´ll soon have some sketches of the plans for the case. All i´m left wishing is that i´d got the CF - IDE adaptor with the male plug on it, instead of the socketed one, as it sits about 8cm tall when fixed to the motherboard. If anyone sees one of these for cheap, or knows where i can get a short IDE extension cable, please tell me!
     
  6. parag0n

    parag0n What's a Dremel?

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    Made it to the PO this morning, to pick up the mesh i´d ordered:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Its ´Flyscreen´ Mesh, nice and fine, perfect for covering the fans, and openings, while still allowing airflow around the rest of the box.
    Also, I found some nice silver braid in one of my boxes. I´ll be using this to braid all the cables within the main box.

    [​IMG]

    I´ve been playng around with the design, and should have something close to the final design for everyone to see tonight :)
     
  7. Warrior_Rocker

    Warrior_Rocker Holder of the sacred iron

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    Just wondering, how fast is that cf card in comparison to a normal hd. I know the seek times must be alot faster? but how about like boot times.

    I was considering using a cf card in a hd less machine, just because the 2gb ones are super cheap these days, and are low power and thin.
     
  8. parag0n

    parag0n What's a Dremel?

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    Well, the CF card i bought is a fast one, which seems faster than the 4200rpm laptop drive I had in there. This project is pretty much dead now, as the mobo / cf / ram / psu has been moved onto my robot.
     

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