Case Mod Computersphere - moding a JVC Videosphere into a computer - September 2012

[Macros_the_Black]

This is going to be so cool! Mod on!

[RinSewand]

looks fantastic, will be keeping an eye on this!

are you keeping the origional colour scheme?

RwD

[thydzik]

A small update to keep things rolling.

I finished sanding the bezel to a state I was quite happy with. The hole was then trimmed as it was slightly too big and the sides were uneven.

Pictures below just before painting.



First a white undercoat, 2 layers.


Coat of matt black, 2 layers.


Final photos of the Videosphere shell with new bezel.



The LCD screen, after having the corners trimmed.



The LCD screen was glued in place, will be cleaned of glue smudges as the end.



Next, I am looking at connecting the LCD circuitry.

[zwiks]

niceeeeeeeee. i like it looking good so far

[jhanlon303]

This IS nice. The little LCD TVs are coming down in price. I have to follow this one!
John

[Cabe]

A suggestion for your knobs, what about using Griffin Powermates? they are rotating 'analog' knobs with customisable software.

http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate

I got mine from ebay for cheap, and you can easily pull the cap off and replace it with the originals from the Videosphere.

[Candle]

Like the looks of this very much. going to watch and see how this turns out.

[thydzik]

After a very long break, I've decided to complete this mod once and for all.

This update is mainly to make sure the LCD is still working after sitting around for a number of years, and confirm I still have all the parts.

Firstly, let’s make sure the LCD is still working.



Now we need to create something to mount the various parts, which include LCD circuit board and motherboard. I thought of an easy solution, use the existing CRT mounting holes to create threaded stands that all the components can be suspended from.

I picked up some 65mm threads and matching bolts from the local hardware store, these were threaded into the original plastic bezel holes.





A Dremel solves the problem of the original bolt heads in the way.



Mount all the LCD TV’s hardware on the first metal sheet.


I give it a test run and notice a strange vertical white line running down the centre of the LCD, I thought some connection must be loose, but all the wiggling and playing around I was not able to resolve it.



I will just have to leave it for now and come back to it later.

Next step is working on the buttons and knobs.

[Cheapskate]

It's alive!

[flame696]

holy project revival batman

[MADKiller7]

First time I see this device.It reminds me the flying drone from Fallout.

[Balder]

I must have missed this one before to, it looks awesome :O

[thydzik]

Before I can mount the motherboard, I needed to return the three knobs back to their original location as I wouldn’t be able to do this with the motherboard in the way.

Originally these knobs were used for volume control, and some form of picture fine tuning.

As we are all in a digital age, I didn’t have anything that I could control with pots, and the two things I do have (channel and volume, both up down buttons) will be controlled with the two main knobs (coming soon). So I came up with a very simple crude method to convert the knobs to more useful push-buttons.

Here is the assembly of the original potentiometers (one black knob missing).



Here are the standard red push-button switches that I had lying around.



And here is the idea, cut the original black knobs in half and mount the push-button switches underneath.



I create a basic bracket from some folded sheet metal and mount the push-button switches.



On first test the black knobs were slipping of the head of the push-buttons as there was too little surface area. To solve this I epoxyed some small sheet metal channels to the base, this stopped the knobs slipping off.

Here they are all sitting on the heads of the push-button switches.



What is looks like inside when mounted to the Videosphere.



And what it looks like from the exterior, looks pretty much the same as it originally did, except we have three useful buttons.



Now what’s going to be connecting to the buttons, well, the LCD TV has seven buttons already, two for volume up and down, two for channel up and down, one for ‘menu’, one for ‘power’ and one for ‘TV/AV’. The three buttons will be used for the later, with the power button of the LCD TV sharing the same button as the computer.

Here is a shot of the original LCD button PCB, I keep the whole thing and mount it inside as it allows me to trouble shoot things. The IR receiver for the remote I thought of keeping, but couldn’t think of anywhere good mount it, plus having already mounted the LCD made it very difficult to drill holes anywhere close to the LCD.



The following shows the button PCB mounted and buttons wired up, also added the VGA cable.

[thydzik]

A quick post on the progress made to mount the VIA Epia M motherboard inside the Videosphere.

Firstly, the VIA Epia M motherboard, chosen as I had it from a previous project and it was the perfect size, well, it was a little bit too big, but it still did fit nicely.



Fitted with a single stick of 512mb memory and currently in the process of purchasing a small (capacity wise) solid state disk. The power supply is a tiny module that connects directly to the ATX plug. Everything is on-board which is good.



I hack an old PC case motherboard try and get left with a square with four mounting screws for the motherboard spacers.



This is a photo of the LCD TV’s PCB before covering it with the motherboard mounting plate. I have connected the LCD cable and a power cable, I make a late decision to not use the LCD TV’s tuner, mainly because I left this project so long that we don’t have analogue free-to-air any more, what I will do instead is purchase a digital USB TV tuner dongle.



Now a photo with mounting plate and VIA Epia M motherboard mounted.





Now that I won’t be using the analogue TV tuner, I don’t know what to use the two large knobs for now, one can still be used for volume control with a pot but not sure about the other one.

Next post should see a test run of Windows on the ComputerSphere, but still heaps more to go before finished, including all the connections for the back.

[thydzik]

A quick update.

Before I went through the process of installing the operating system on the computer, I thought I should quickly check the VGA output and make sure everything was normal.

BIOS output of the Via Epia M on the LCD.



Secondly, I decided to shorten the VGA cable to a more manageable length.

First splicing the cable.



Then rejoining the individual cores with heatshrink.



Finally, a bit of aluminium foil as a crude shield before taping it all up with electrical tape.

[Nexxo]

Originally Posted by GrendelPrime

Actually I get a 'Kenny' vibe at first glance, heh.

Drat. What has been seen...

Anyway, nice project. I like the way you have tried to preserve the original look and controls. But why not just buy a shorter VGA cable?

[thydzik]

Originally Posted by Nexxo

Anyway, nice project. I like the way you have tried to preserve the original look and controls. But why not just buy a shorter VGA cable?

Thanks. It was easier for me to hack a long cable. Also I am finding with this project that it is difficult to plan things, mostly I find I need something last minute.

[Gaming_freak_10]

This is an amazing mod project. I wonder if there's some of these on ebay.. hmm *goes off to ebay*

[Cown]

I pooped a little...

[dunx]

Wow !

IR receiver could go into the base moulding ?

dunx