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Scratch Build – In Progress GET A LIFE - COMPLETED

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by The_Gnu, 17 Nov 2010.

  1. jokkos

    jokkos too busy to mod *sigh*

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    agreed, very nice work...can't wait to see some new pics of this awesome case!
     
  2. The_Gnu

    The_Gnu 8-bit addict

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    Thanks a lot mate:thumb:

    No, those are snapmounts for speakers grills etc but they shure look like chess pieces.

    Thanks, yeah I don't blame you for not noticing, I wore a human mask when we met. Nice meeting you by the way:thumb: Now you have to excuse me.. I see you have two new projects that I have to read through.


    Sorry..the gnu population is pretty big as it is already so I think It'll just have to wait for a while. Thanks for the offer though :thumb:

    Thanks. Unfortunately I never went to lake Nakuru, I watched some pictures and looks amazing. We travelled south to tanzania and ngorongoro crater, amazing place that one aswell.

    Thanks man.

    Thanks jokkos, it's on its way :)
     
  3. Guest-23315

    Guest-23315 Guest

    Huzzah! He's back :lol:
     
  4. Furball Zen

    Furball Zen Shut up and Mod

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    No gnu's is good gnu's.
     
  5. The_Gnu

    The_Gnu 8-bit addict

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    Oh yeah.. you bet I am

    Really stupid animal actually..just standing around looking at nothing. The heads are so big but oh so empty.
     
  6. Waynio

    Waynio Relaxing

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    Glad you found your motivation Gnu, :D couldn't forget about this one it's 1 of my favorite projects ever. :rock:
     
  7. Angel OD

    Angel OD Pump Killer

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    Well, then we know why you chose the name! :worried: :D

    Glad to see you back in action! :thumb:
     
  8. The_Gnu

    The_Gnu 8-bit addict

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    Thanks mate, supportive as always :thumb:
    Im glad you like it :)

    Yeah stupidity was the maintheme when choosing a name, And in the end it all came down to gnu or "rødgrød med fløde". I ended up with Gnu only because of the otherwise obvious pronunciation problems.

    (insert smiley with sunglasses)

    Im glad Im back, I've missed your comments :D
     
  9. GuilleAcoustic

    GuilleAcoustic Ook ? Ook !

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    OOOhhhhh YEEEEEESSSSS .... you just bring some light to warm those cold november days. Thanks matey.

    It's as great as always. Keep up the good job and don't let your motivation go away. The mighty will of the gret GNU is surrounding you :)

    [​IMG]
     
    The_Gnu likes this.
  10. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    It's great to see you back!
    The soldering looks good, but I reserve my awe until I see it doesn't burst into flames.:D
     
  11. The_Gnu

    The_Gnu 8-bit addict

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    Haha.. that Mario gnu is awsome. Very photorealistic :p
    Thanks for the support Guille, much apreciated.


    Thanks..cheap
    But that would be awsome.. worlds first 8bit flamethrower.
     
  12. The_Gnu

    The_Gnu 8-bit addict

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    Okay
    It's time for my biggest update ever. And with this one I would like to call this project complete and thank you all for being such a great community. I've really apreciated the constant encouraging support and feedback that you guys give. Im pretty shure I speak for all other modders here when I say that, as a builder, you learn a lot from each project and this is no exception. There is a lot of things I would have done differently If I were to do it again, but the learning and experience is the fun part.

    At first this project was intended as a small fun to do thing that I could work with on the side to my other projects, and a project that wouldn't take too much time. But I pretty soon realised that wasn't going to be the case. It turned out to be my biggest and most time consuming project so far. It really tested my motivation from time to time and, sometimes a break is needed to get things back on track. One thing I've learnt along the way is that I'm simply not the kind of person that can rush through a project. That can be both a good and a bad thing but I hope you can se the result of that in this project.

    Anyway, time for the finale.


    I need to move the light from the LEDs on the PS3 board to where I want the new placement on the NES controller casing. And for that I used the fiber cable from a regular toslink cable.
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    Heated to create the bend I need
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    Using black not so pretty hot glue to attach the fibres to build the lightguide module and to prevent light bleeding between the LEDs.
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    Drilled holes for the lightguide and testfitted them. You might notice that there is 5 holes but only 4 LEDs. The fifth will be a pin hole for the reset button.
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    Cut a rubber gasket that will be mounted on the PCB to aid in preventing light bleeding from the LEDs.
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    This is the flexible pcb from the PS3 controller.
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    Since I will be using the buttons on the NES PCB instead of these, I can cut them away. But I do need this part. That's two small resistors that still needs to be connected to the PS3 PCB. Im not 100% shure of their purpose but most type of gamecontrollers. Even the old NES has them, so be shure to save them if you are doing a controller mod of some kind.
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    Rubber gasket mounted around LEDs and the remains of the flex pcb is back in place.
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    The buttons are connected and glued in place. Hot glue is never pretty but pretty darn effective sometimes. No one will ever be able to take a look in here anyway so.
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    Battery glued in place. This is not the original battery but the battery from a PS3 keyboard pad. It has the same spec but comes in a slightly smaller package.
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    As you can see I can't use the original screw holes to screw the casing together so I had to fix the two parts with glue. A very thin line of superglue on the inside of the plastic flanges did the trick without leaking. But the original screw holes need to be covered.
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    I cutt some small rubber circles and glued them in place.
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    It's ALIVE
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    Here you can see why I moved the original USB connector on the PS3 PCB. Instead of just cutting a hole in the casing where the USB connector was, I wanted to keep the original look of the controller and therefore I used the old cable hole.
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    Another thing I have been working on besides the controller is a way to show that the case is on without destroying the look of the front. I didn't want a bright LED shining you right in the face when watching movies and also I didn't want to breake up the pixel look with a LED sticking out. I came up with the idea of projecting the light for power onto the surface that the whole case will be standing on. I didn't want to light up the whole surface but just a very small part of it. Almost like a laser beam. The LED will be hidden inside the system and the light will pass out through one of the ventilation holes in the bottom. I experimented with this a lot and came up with several different solutions before I ended up with a design that worked. It wasn't easy to let the light pass only through one of the holes while still allowing air to enter the other holes. In the bottom of the bracket there is a very thin slit that guides the light to where I need it.
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    LED bracket mounted inside the case.
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    Last piece of the puzzle is getting mounted.
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    I use a 0.5mm thermal pad on the heatpipe connector that will transfer some of the heat to the back of the case.
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    The small magnets on the edges didn't feel safe enough to hold the whole back of the case so I glued on 2 bigger ones that snaps onto one of the I/O connector housings on the motherboards. Now I wont be afraid of it falling off that easy.
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    The moment of truth. Powerbutton ready to be pushed.
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    IT'S ALIVE. And the power diod works better than expected after a little bit of finetuning. This is what it looks like on a black surface. It works very well on white surfaces too wihtout being too bright.
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    Im really happy how the power LED works. Since the light is reflected on a horizontal surface, there is no blinding light straight in the face when watching movies etc.
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    Backside fiberoptic lightguides working, green=power, yellow=network, red=bluetooth. The green one turned out a bit brighter than the others but it's not as bright as the pcture. I had to make a long exposure shot to get them all lit at once since the other LEDs are flashing.
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    Thank you all for your support and feedback during this project. I have many more planned projects that Im thrilled to start working on. And I thougt it would be nice to finish of with a small sneakpeak of what is to come in the not so distant future. Next up is my PICO-itx board that I won her on bit-tech a while ago and for that project I went and bought 1000$ worth of Alu. The pico-itx will not require all of it though so there will be plenty left for a few more projects.

    I might post some more shots just for the fun of it, and maybe som tempresults aswell. But I hereby pronounce this project FINISHED... wohwohohoh

    I hope you liked it as much as I did and see you soon.
     
    Last edited: 7 Dec 2012
    Livio, Waynio and David like this.
  13. Dr.Joe

    Dr.Joe What's a Dremel?

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    :jawdrop:

    Looks like something you could buy in a store... :thumb:
     
    The_Gnu likes this.
  14. shomann

    shomann Minimodder

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    Better than that.

    Epic piece of art The Gnu. Congrats!
     
  15. MeddlE

    MeddlE Norwegian Blue

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    It looks like a very expensive something you'd buy in a very exclusive store!

    Absolutely stunning.
     
  16. Gtek

    Gtek Doesn't raise the bar; he IS the bar.

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    Stunning result Gnu :thumb:
     
  17. Pranja

    Pranja Blackwolf

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    That look fantastic-Nintendo should sponsor you for this awesome project. :)
     
  18. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    Ah, finished at last. You have my address, yes? No need for a 24 hr courier, 48 hrs will be sufficient. ;)

    On a more realistic note, this is one of my all time favourite (if not outright favourite) projects. Stunning job, Gnu, stunning.
     
  19. KidMod-Southpaw

    KidMod-Southpaw Super Spamming Saiyan

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    Stunning, beautiful! My god I can't describe it! :jawdrop:
     
    The_Gnu likes this.
  20. Attila

    Attila still thinking....

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    Brilliant! Awesome! Inspired design and flawless execution! :clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:
     

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