Case Mod - In Progress Project: Bärsärkar-gång, 25th December, no update; Every Who down in Whoville says...

Can you program the Arduino? I have one that I want to start tinkering with but need a good book or two on how to get into the programming of those. Also, those Nixie tubes are so cool! Love the old look of it.

 

No rocks in Houston... just sand. The town's only interest in geology is oil.

 

Agreed, I will seriously get to work on finishing it . Nice article in CPU BTW.

Its a good idea but not sure anyone would want to cut uranium glass. Most of the warnings state that its safe; just don't grind it or otherwise create uranium glass dust.. Apparently, radioactive dust in the lungs does strange things

Supposed to be a read-out for the power supply. I've sourced the shunt monitors from TI and am just starting learning how to interface them to the Arduino. I've burnt up a couple of IN9s in my experimentation but not much else to show for my efforts.

I suppose this falls into the category of why just cross the line when you can pole vault across.

As with most things about this mod, I'm learning my way around the Arduino This was a reasonably decent book aptly named "Getting Started with Arduino"

 

Funnily enough, we're both learning that (or I'm learning a close enough version...)

No nixies for me, I have something else up my sleeve. Go check my log for a teaser. Just a hint of one.

YGPM incoming.

 

Arise worklog! Arise I command thee!


That's right, its not just a post that goes bump in the night but a real life, honest to goodness update.
I would like to tell you a harrowing tale of my escape from alien captvity but the truth is much less exciting. I've mostly been trading time for money or as its commonly known, working.
Any free time that I've had has gone to making a photobooth for a friend's wedding. Much like this mod, it was a project that took on a life of its own.

Here it is on site being tested by one of the wedding guests. It was designed based on an instructables that I found. As the wedding was half way across the country, it had to be disassembeld and re-assembled for the event. A great deal of PVC later, we had a mobile photo booth that could hold 10 people at a time.

And the happy couple. Yes, there were costumes and much fun was had by all. But enough about that! Back to the modding.

The meter? Remember the meter? No? Allow me to recap, this is the meter that is interfaced with the motherboard to display temperature, HD capacity, ram usage, cpu load….anything really that an arduino can be be coerced into outputting.
Finally got it finished.

After several attempts at painting the etched brass back, I finally got close to the look that I was chasing. Aged, weathered, and a little abused.

Looking back at the orginal cracked and peeling paint, it’s a little exagerated but I'm happy with it. This is what the meter looked like before.

Completed the wire sleeving using paracord. It's a pain in the butt to sleeve with but I like the contrasting look. I had to run two sleeves due to the number of wire. Still need to complete a final test and tighten up the threads under the supporting arm but that can wait for final assembly.

Changing topics, here's the original design for the motherboard tray.

And the laser cut brass piece. What's missing is the support brace on the back.

Revision 1 mocked up in polystyrene from the last decade

I've been dancing around what to do about this piece because the tolerances in the case are so tight. When I taped everything together, I could foresee some clearance trouble brewing.

As originally sketched up, The tolerance were already tight. Part of the challenge is getting everything to fit. I think it all will fit but I don't *know* it.

To counteract some of the unknown, the back mount is meant to slide. Yes, it’s a cheat but don’t judge me too harshly my sketchup-foo was/is weak. Literally, an 1/8" makes a difference, more on that below.,

My first attempts went pear shaped quickly with a propane torch. My skills at hard soldering were not up to task. As with most things in life though, I blamed my tools instead. With a newly acquired MAPP and oxygen torch in hand, I tried again. By sandwiching the brass between firebricks, I was able to raise the temp of the piece and get the silver solder to finally flow.

The discoloration is from heat and the borax flux.

Up close, not as pretty as it should be but I'm well pleased.

Into the pickle for clean-up. Anyone know what I'm making when I mix Sodium Bisulfate with Hydrogen Peroxide?

I'm assuming some variant of sulfuric acid as its much more aggressive than sodum bisulfate alone but the upside is that it doesn't turn the brass pink like normal pickle.

Oh, yeah, I love it when a plan comes together. Still needs further grinding and polishing but it'll work.

The "stack" is still tight.

The original plan had the brass fan grill fush against the back of the case. The design changed when I gutted the heater case and discovered the need for a new frame to support the case skin.

The rails that you see that arc over the top are that frame. To gain back the 1/8" that I lost with the addition of the rails.

I notched them so the fan grill would fit in between and then soldered the fan grill in place using soft solder. After filing and sanding, I got my 1/8" back.

With the fan and radiator fixed in place, I was able to finally lock down where the motherboard tray fits. A little drill and tap action and voila…

It's starting to look more like a computer. By the way how do you like the brass/bronze washer combo on the screws? I'm thinking about carrying that look across the case.

Oh look, a wild Big Daddy appears. For reference, the figure is about 7 inches tall.

Thanks for looking and many thanks to my sponsors!
Bitspower

Galaxy

HardwareLabs

 

I'm truly lovin' it !! Very nice job

 

Necromancy indeed! Love the analogue dial - how are you planning on transitioning between the various data (CPU activity, temperature etc) you want to display on it? And how did you go about quantifying 0-100% on the thing?

 

It lives!

Great to see work continuing on such an awesome project

 

I only started reading through this morning and to find you came back to it almost the exact time, spooky. . . Great build though! working in a small scale like that is tricky but you have done a fantastic job

 

Welcome back!

I've really missed this mod, but feared the wrath of the subscribers, so I didn't dare going for an epic thread revival.

Great work (also the photobooth), and I look forward to the (soon to come?) update.

 

I like it & awesome to see this back on Mach that dial is something else .

 

(paraphrasing the Kool-Aid man Alright!
So you are giving up on stuffing everything into the heater body? That's no fun. Would it work if you had the fan body sticking out of the back? It might work, but would require you to remove the fan to pop the hood, extra wire, etc...

 

Thank you, glad that you like it!

The screw in the center is actually a button.






By pressing it, the system toggles through each measurement. You can tell the difference between each by a different color light in the meter.



Full scale for each measurement is hardcoded into the routine running on the Arduino. I could have made the gauge show 100% but I like the 0-5 design of the original.

Thanks Chairboy, I hope to have another update up soon.

Thanks Zanib! Hopefully, it won't take you reading the whole worklog again to get another update.

Thanks nutman, I'm going to try to stay on top of it. Just got another deadline dropped on me today tho. I suppose that's what nights are for.

Thanks Waynio, good to be back.

Nay, nay. It will fit. At least so far.







The tubing and the video card should elicit much profanity when trying to plumb the whole thing later on.

 

Can imagine . Looking soooo cool though .

 

Let's see who's paying attention. Stealth update.

I've had these squirreled away for awhile almost since the beginning of the mod. I was saving these for later but at the rate I'm going later could be awhile.

On the front of the original case was a painted, brass logo that spelled out Arvin (the manufacturer of the heater whose case I am having my way with right now). That logo gave me an idea for my own logo which spawned a few other ideas.

 

First!

Looks good, though. I prefer the "Bärsärkar gang" logo.
I do appreciate that you found time to do 3 different logos - you must be eager to get as much stuff done as fast as possible before tending to that new deadline you mentioned?

 

I have only three words that came into my mind : "Nom nom nom"

Tasty, yummy ... I think I just turn into a brass eater

 

Agreed, I like the "Bärsärkar gang" logo too

 

"Bärsärkar gang" logo for me too... maybe with tiny holes for "umlauts" & angstrom-like A in gang

 

+1 on the "Bärsärkar gang" logo. (Thank you, copy/paste!) The 2k logo is more dynamic, and works well with the mounting strips, but neither Bit or 2k are paying you anything, so... f* 'em! f* 'em right in the ear!