"Mission" Impossible: Mission-Style HTPC (Updated 3/17/06)

Mod is pretty interesting so far...can't wait to see how it comes out.

I gotta ask, what is the shark-mouthed thing near the bottom drivers side on your Miata? Is that an intake? Any more pictures?

 

OT:
Yeah it is a air intake... and 7th Grade Science Fair project... it used to be connected directly to the air filter (i.e. no air that went into the engine was from the engine bay). We got about 10hp off of it (results calculated from street dyno testing).

But after the supercharger was installed ( ) it had to be modified. Now it just has a tube that goes into the engine bay near the air intake... however it still keeps the intake temperature to within 5C of the outside temp...

The biggest problem of the air intake is that it sits very low to the ground, and thus likes getting broken off by steep sudden inclines, driveways, speedbumps, etc.. So it is actually in its second revision (or third IDR), though each time it breaks we get to try a new way to rebuild it. Last time we spindle wrapped it with carbon fibers
/OT

 

More OT scoop info...

Here are some pictures to show you more of the scoop. It's pretty ugly right now, because as Gulp mentioned, it has a bad habit of getting rammed into things. Three times it has been totaled by hitting steep driveways or speed bumps. The last rebuild was via a filiment would carbon fiber lay-up. Since the last major rebuild, I managed to breaK off the hanger twice. This last rebuild may be the best...now it is tight against the bottom of the front bumper..before it hung down a little. The last "hit" also scraped up the bottom., so I had to patch that as well...I fixed it but did not paint it yet, thus the white uglies. Okay, here are three views of the scoop









OK, here is a picture of where it goes under the car. It used to attach via the "fin" which was about 8 inches log, out of carbon fiber, to one of the bolts above. In the Mark III rebuild, this was eliminated and single point attachment to the bottom of the bumper was made.



After the carbon fiber part (painted black,so you will just have to trust me it is carbon fiber under there), it transitions to a three inch flexible duct. That then runs to a aluminum transition piece that squeezes by the steeering linkage and up. Then it connects to a 3" aluminum duct. In the orginal set up (pre-suppercharger), you could see this. Now it is buried under the supercharger. I took some pictures, but you could not make out the parts unless you knew what you were looking for.

Until 2 months ago, I had an aluminum box around the air cleaner for the supercharger and directed the cold air into that. But it made it very hard to access the air cleaner or the supercharger, so I took it off. It did not seem to change the air temps much ( I have a thermocouple in the air cleaner housing, but the display on my timing computer (a Bipes!) only displays in 20F units...so I know its about the same, but I can't swear no difference with out the box.

Anyway, here is what it looks like when you shoehorn a supercharger into a Miata. Miatas are pretty fast without the supercharger (although our mini-van could give it a run for the money...kind of sad), but with a supercharger, it's definately quick.



My wife's VW has a turbo and the lag drives me crazy. They say chipping it would make it better (at least thats what we tell her), but I am glad I did not get a turbo for the miata...the lag would definately spoil the experience.

-Junebug

 

Small update 2/7/06

OK, just a small update. The reservoir was assembled except one side and the inside corners were filled with epoxy. That was Sunday night. All day Monday I warmed the epoxied parts so that they could be machined that night. Monday night, after visiting some cat friends , I trimmed up the last piece so it would fit in place, started rounding the outside corners, and the epoxied the last panel in place. I clamped it tight, and went to bed.

Today, I "baked" the part again so it would be ready to work on tonight. When I got home, I rounded the remainding corners and got ready to start epoxying the outside. Here are some pictures of the "rounded" Reservoir just before I started fiberglassing:







I just finished fiberglassing one end. Its all covered with saran wrap (to get a semi-smooth finish) so it is not very photogenic. Tomorrow, I'll bake again, then trim the edges, and epoxy from the other side. It will probably take four separate layups to get it all fiberglass 9kind of slow I know)

 

nice zip ties. Good way to hold things

 

Thanks for all that Gulp, pretty cool! As for the turbo lag on a miata - let me post a picture of my friends set-up. Lag is almost non-existant and his Miata can suck the filling out of your teeth when he gets on it.

Love the shark-mouth painting though!

 

2/13/06 update

OK, I have been fiberglassing away. I did one major layup that covered about half of the reservoir. I let this cure, and filed down the edges so the next layup would have a smooth joint to cure to. Then the next layup covered the rest of the major surfaces. Then let it cure, file down the edges. Then the last layup covered the joints that had not been fiberglassed before. Another cure cycle. Today I sanded down the rough edges. The fiberglassing is done!

If this were going to show, I would sand down the surface very carefully, and then apply a thick slurry of epoxy to fill the imperfections, then sand, repeat , until the surface is perfect. Then prime, then paint.

But since this really will never show, I think I will buy some copper paint and paint it just for grins...the surface will show all the imperfections but what the hey.

Anyway, I dug out my fittings, cleaned them up, and put some fittings in it temporally. Then I filled it with water. It's nice and tight. It holds about 1250 mls. I did not calculate what it theoretically should hold (I may do that just to see how close I've come).

Tomorrow if it is still holding water well, I may connect it up to the pump, and maybe mount the pump. then I can figure out where exactly the discharge will come up through the bottom shelf.

Then I can disassemble everything and do a final staining, and then varnish it.

No pictures tonight...forgot the camera at work. I will try to get some tomorrow.

 

small update

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?p=1150195

pics should be up soon...

 

The problem with cats...

Cats are basically pretty lazy. They sleep all day, and don’t get up till dinner time. Here are some pictures of everybody crashed out...








Well, 6PM, and its starting to get dark, so June got up. But with the Olympics on now, he just sits and vegs. He has watched curling two nights in a row! (from 6-8 before the primetime Olympic start). I think he thinks the curling stone is a mouse.

OK, I owe all some pictures. Here is a picture of the reservoir. The fitting on the side is just temporary so I can test it. It is full to the brim (sorry, no pictures part full).



I also calibrated the sight glass




Anyways, he finally started working around 8 (he never has been a real fan of figure skating) and started installing the reservoir and the pump. First to back up, two nights ago after posting here, June tried placing the reservoir in the case. Two minor issues. The reservoir was slightly larger than speced out and interfered with both the shelf on top, and it did not slide as far forward as designed because it did not slide under the front rail like it should. These were pretty easy fixed...just file some wood of the offending parts...I did not want to file on the reservoir much and create a leak!

And one not so minor problem. I fished out the elbow I bought to go on the barb on the discharge side and scoped out how it would fit. And any way I put it, it was going to run into the TV capture card. So plan B needed t be found.

I found by turning the pump head 60 degrees counterclockwise, the discharge would just go over the top of the fans, and out the back. From there the elbow could be fitted. The piping would then continue along the back rail to the side, turn up, and then pass through the motherboard tray, and connect to the water block. Here is a picture sighting along the pump from the back...



Ok, onward. I sited the pump, and marked where it would sit. Then I drilled 4 holes, countersunk them on the bottom, and ran up 4 1.5”10-32 brass bolts. Then I cut some rubber sheeting (left over from building my Koi pond). This sheeting is there to keep the pump quiet. During testing, the pump was silent, but put it on a table and it hummed. I hope this will keep the humming to a minimum.

Four layers came out to 3/16 thick...which is what I needed to bring the pump into alignment with the reservoir. Here is a picture of the pump and the reservoir from the side before the rubber spacer



Here is a picture of the rubber space ready for the pump



OK, before I put the pump in, I attached the reservoir to the pump. Here is the whole mess prior to putting it in the case...



I put another layer of rubber over the top, and then bolted down the pump.

Here are four pictures of the pump, showing the alignment of the coupling (2), an overhead shot, and how the discharge will sneak through to the back (I may need to notch it out in the back a little)













And here is a shot to give you an idea how the elbow will fit in all this...




OK, next I made up the line that will connect the radiator to the reservoir. This has a 5 inch dip line into the reservoir. This allows air head space in the reservoir without getting air into the system. It also keeps the water return from splashing around and making bubbles.

To accomplish this, I had to drill out the fitting, and feed the copper line though it. Then I Swagelok the fitting, and then bent the rest. Then cane the fun part, connecting the compression fitting elbow to the radiator. The elbow was already on the radiator. I loosened it up, and then threaded it on. Tightening this fitting was tricky in the limited space and I am a little concerned it could leak. If it does, I will likely need to pull the pump/reservoir/radiator combo out and tighten it out of the case and then reassemble it.

It does not show it real well, but here is a picture of this line




Now I had thought about painting the reservoir, but I started playing with putting stuff together, and before I knew it, it was in and not coming out again with out effort, so for now it stays au natural.

After all this, it was time for a cake break...my sweetie made us a cake for Valentines day...




OK, next on the plan, copper fill drain line, install elbow. Run copper lines to approximate location on front. I will probably do this, put a temporary jumper between the two tubes, fill it with water and make sure it des not leak (fingers crossed!).

Also to be done are: Notch motherboard tray to let the tubing through, locate and install on/off switch. Locate and install USB ports. Install decorative copper in front, and copper louvers in rear. Wire up power to PSU, fans and pump. Install fan control. Install HDD fan, and locate and install motherboard ancillary fan.

Then disassemble the computer, stain everything, varnish it all. Reassemble in case. Hook up water block.

Then I can start it up and see it if works.

Then build a front door with a leaded glass insert.

Finally, I might build some sort of small Psone display (we scored 4 back in November) as a small display to show what you are watching. We are still thinking about how /where to put this. I finally scored a cable I can test this. Maybe Gulp will chime in and tell his tale of woe about wiring this thing up.

Anyways, a good bit of work still to do. I am tied up on a bunch of other things until Tuesday evening, so no updates before then, but I’d love to hear any comments or ideas...

Junebug (the fat cat)

 

OK, I have been slacking off lately. But I got back to work tonight. I fabricated the fill line, connected up the valve assembly, and mounted it. Then I fabricated the lines that connect the system to the water block. I left the lines long and will trim them to fit later. But the lines are in (Sorry no pictures tonight). I jumpered the ends together with a piece of tygon tubing, and tommorrow, I test the system!

If it holds tight, then I will do the last additions to the motherboard tray (two slots for the water lines, and mounting points for the HDD fan, and a Chipset fan. Then it will be time to take apart the computer system, and stain and seal the motherboard tray, and any other wood parts.

I also still need to make a transition block to hold the front corner together, And I need to fabricate the front copper facade, and make the rear copper louvers...but those can wait.

My goal is to have the system in the table and running water cooled before Gulp gets home for Spring break in 9 days. Of course I will be out of pocket for 5 of those days, so I need to get cracking!

That's all for now...more cat pictures probably tomorrow!

 

Another small update...more , (including pictures) tomorrow. I have had so many PMs for the recipe for the Vegan Chocolate Death Cake, I will try and post the recipe later.

 

Well, time for another update. I had some leak issues, and it kind of frustrated me. Part of the problem was I was lazy. I tried to attach the connections while the parts were all in the box,



and in doing so, I twisted the two fittings on the radiator.

I took it all out, cut off the offending joint, and gave the other joint a tightening for good measure. Then I put it all back in and refilled. Then of course it leaked at the joint where I had given it the extra tightening. You may not be able to see the drip here…



So pull it all back out. Then I had a lot of other stuff going on like building a house,





Visiting Athens (Georgia) with a side trip to one of my favorite restaurant, “The Grit”, and its previously mention Vegan Chocolate death cake!



Then a trip to Nashville to a commune named “The farm”,




And Vanderbilt Univ.



And finally home for another day of house building.

And then Gulp came home yesterday on Spring Break. Here he is for those of you who wondered what he really looked like…



OK, so I have gotten back on track. Gulp helped get it back together. We tested it out in the open to make sure…a few leaks that I was able to tighten in place. So here it is running:



The pump got quite toasty with no fans and the water was tepid, but when I turned on the fans, it cooled the water down to ambient (cool to the touch) and the pump cooled from what I would estimate at 140 F to around 100 F.

I built the angle block to hold the front façade on, and as soon as I can get Gulp off the machine (he is installing Ubuntu and MythTV), I will stain the wood parts.

Update… Gulp helped me dismantle motherboard tray, and then I stained the parts. Here is the hall of stain…



Remember you can post your disscussion on the mod (or anything really) in the Discussion Thread

 

New update! No cats in this update!!!! (But the usual OT drivel is still included)

 

OT--Cake recipe

OK, here is the cake recipe I have been threatening to post. Gulp says he is afraid some of my weird postings scare people off from posting...I hope not...just trying to add a little color to the discussion...

OK, here is the recipe:

Chocolate Vegan Death Cake
Recipe from “The Grit Restaurant Cookbook”

Cake:
4 ½ cups all-purpose flour
3 cups sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
1 ½ cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups strong coffee
¼ cup cider vinegar

Icing:

1 (12 ounce) package firm silken tofu
3 cups vegan chocolate chips

To prepare cake: Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 3 9-inch round cake pans, dust with flour, and line bottom with parchment or waxed paper.

Stir together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add oil and vanilla extract. With electric mixer on low speed, blend until fully combined. With mixer on medium speed, gradually blend in coffee. When mixture is smooth, add vinegar and blend on low speed just until combined. Divide batter evenly into prepared pans.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or just until a knife or toothpick inserted in the center of layers come out clean. Remove from oven and cool 15 to 20 minutes on wire rack. Remove from pans and allow layers to cool completely before icing.

To prepare icing: Drain excess fluid from silken tofu, crush and place in a medium saucepan with chocolate chips. Stir together over a medium heat until chocolate is very soft. Transfer to food processor and puree until fully blended. Cool to spreadable consistency and frost between layer, and top and side of cake.

Junebug’s note: Even as a vegetarian, tofu frosting sounds a little scary, but this frosting is really great…better than most frostings… so try it out…this is really a fantastic cake. And if you are ever in Athens GA, check out the Grit...even if it is just for their fantastic desserts!

 

Awsome build. I love that your using hard lines in allot of your loop. That rad would have been way too restrictive if you didnt have that Iwaki pump. cant wait to see it finished.

Im doing the same thing with hard lines but a diferent take on it. Check it out its link is in my signature.

 

OK, now we are cooking! After staining three days ago, I urethane varnished the wood parts two days ago. The parts were not dry on the edges where they touched things last night, so I waited till tonight to start the assembly.

Gulp and I decided to put the whole cooling system in in one piece. We got it after some pushing and shoving. And in the process, I baptized the pump with my blood.



Next we started fitting in the wood parts. This was the first time they had all gone together at once. After some more pushing, shoving, grunting and a few expletives, we got all the pieces in. Only one piece needed a small amount of sanding to allow it to swing into place (the piece that will accept the side of the motherboard with all the I/O ports.

We decided to let the pump run overnight to be sure we did not jostle any joints. So far it looks tight. Here is a picture of all the wood parts from the front:




We did not put the copper panels in the front yet. That was part by design, part because we got in a rush to put it together. I think instead of solid copper pieces, I will put in copper louvers (like the back will have). This will allow the air to flow over the pump and through the radiator.

Here is a picture taken with out the flash so you can see the color and how far you can see into the box without the flash:



And here is a picture from the back (the rear louvers will cover all this eventually):



OK, I don’t want you all to think I dropped the cats off on the side of the road somewhere. Here is Moses (Gulp’s cat) posing on top of the box:



Gulp took Moses to the vet yesterday for his annual check up. The vet found a BB imbedded in his left front leg. Moses never has gone outside since we got him five years ago...so some idiot must have shot him years ago. Luckily it does not seem to bother him.

Tomorrow we will start the final assembly. First the power supply, hard drives, and cables. Then we will mount the water block on the motherboard, and then figure out how much tubing we need to cut. Then cut off the tubing, install Swagelok fitting on the tube ends, then mount the motherboard, connect the tubing, cross our fingers, and fire it up!

 

OK, final assembly has commenced...no more recipes...the cats have returned from vacation!

jaguarking11...I took a look at your log...very nice. I was lazy and just used soft tubing. You did a much nicer job with the soldered parts. I could have probably saved myself some grief (and leaks) if I had gone the solder route (I dislike plastic tubing, but truth be known, compression fitting are not a whole lot better). I really prefer Swaglock, but I was trying to keep the size down. The Swaglok elbows I could get would have been too long I thought..but now that I cut back the tubes they probably would have fit.

The little Iwaki has some pretty serious head...your right, most other pumps would not have the pressure to flow through my radiator.

 

nice cats shame mine wouldn't be as helpfull when modding

 

Looks realy good. What adiytives are you going to use? I noticed that you have trace alu in your loop with copper being primary.

Cant wait to see the end result.

 

It lives!

It was a difficult birth, but the Mission Table lives!

OK, last night I came home from work (~5:15) and started working on putting everything together. Gulp had spent most the afternoon (he does not arise before noon!) working on getting the bugs ironed out of the MCE he had installed on the system.

Side note, Gulp had MythTV working, but could not get it to record on demand (vs. record a specific program)...not a big deal to me, but a feature he wants. Anyone know how to do this?

OK, we I get home with my checklist of things to do. First is install HDD cooling fan. I had glued the block on with the correct holes to hold the fan, but had never run a thread through them. Mistake. Took probably 20 minutes to reach up and turn the bolt through the hole to “thread” the hole. Then 10 more minutes back out again.

Now its dinner time! Delicious mushroom burritos (sorry no pics!)

OK, back to work! Slowly thread the bolts in to hold the fan in place! Took a picture...time stamped at 6:40PM! Almost an hour and a half to get a lousy fan in...not doing so well tonight. Here is what it looked like:



OK, next is the install of the HDD’s. First, I had to kick Gulp off the machine. While I was waiting, I installed the blind screw for the motherboard, and fabricated a bracket to hold a fan in the front (ended up not using). Got him off, and disassembled the parts. He held the HDDs while I put the screws in. Was kind of tight...top screws required the use of a jewelers screwdriver. Took a few tries to get the screws to hit the holes in the bracket but eventually we got it in. Took a picture which time stamped it at 7:25PM. This thing is slow to assemble! Here it is:




OK, Power supply is next. I held it up while Gulp fed the screws in...Not very easy as the holes are small, and we are holding it up in the air (rather than flat as I put it together in mock up. Anyway, took anther picture, which shows we finished this step at 7:37...we are getting faster!



OK, now its time to put all the power cables and SATA cables in. The small HDD (80 gig) is a PATA, but we thought all SATA would be cooler, so I bout a little adapter card. It hung off the back, and always looked a little delicate. As we will find out...it was...but more later. We put the power cables back on the HDDs, ran cables through to the front, and declared success at 7:46 PM. Here is how it looked from the back...yeah I know its not real pretty...



And here it is from the front...these will get tidied up a bit after we get the motherboard in.



OK, next, time to get the water block ready. While Gulp demounted the Zalman knock-off, I installed the Swaglok elbows on the water block. In a flash (7:52) we were ready to mount it on the motherboard...



OK, we went to mount the block on the motherboard and found that the fitting coming out of the center port covered the bolt that holds the block to the motherboard. Time for plan B. I angled the fitting to point down at about a 30-degree angle to miss this. We install the block, using the plastic backing plate that came with the DFI board. Gulp then reads the instructions (we sometimes get this out of order). It says use metal backing plate. After he glares at me, I relent, remove the plastic backing plate, and install the metal one (that came with the Zalman knock-off). OK, even with the one-step forward, two steps back, we get this done by 8:09PM



OK, now we have to squeeze the motherboard behind the copper tubes and onto the one blind bolt, (the rest will feed from the front. After a little grunting, we have it in place. We mark the copper tubing, and remove the motherboard (but we just got it in!). Now drain the waterline back into the reservoir. Next, I cut the tubing off with a tubing cutter. The first one went OK despite the close quarters, but I manage to flatten the tube on the second. I trim another ¼ inch off, and it is still distorted...looks like the tube is slightly flattened. We manage to round out the tubes, and install Swaglok fitting on the end. Next, we hot melt glue the grommets onto the back of the motherboard. In case you do not remember, grommets act as spacers to keep the motherboard hovering above the tray. When outside the case, it is easy to put the grommets in place and then put the motherboard over. Not now. We install the grommets, but still manage to loose four out of ten on the way into the case...such s life!

OK, so get the motherboard in place. Put screws through (two we can’t reach up above the HDDs). Now connect the Swaglok fittings. Cross our fingers. Power up the pump and fan (which keeps the pump from overheating in its confined environment, besides also cooling the radiator). It holds! No leaks. Now we start connecting cables while waiting for it to leak. Still no leak. Time for a picture. This has taken about an hour...its 9:17PM.



I had planned to use an Aluminum bracket slide over the copper tubing to hold a fan that cools the motherboard components (power chips mainly).
However, two things messed that up. One, I had expected the lines to be running parallel 7/8 of an inch apart (remember I had to turn down one fitting). The other is I forgot to put the bracket on before the Swaglok fittings. So zip ties to the rescue. Zip ties a fan in place! At 9:26PM!



Here is a picture of the whole thing



And here is another one showing the whole table



OK, now more fun. It’s very tricky to get the keyboard plug in (it up high and tight). After some contortions, we get it in. We plug in a mouse Gulp likes (with a USB converter...this later falls out and we need to wrestle it in again). Then we install the cables to the cards...not easy either...but we get it done.

All right! Success is within sight! The moment of truth! We power it up. No sparks! I hit the start button. It starts up, but can’t find an operation system. We figure it’s just cranky because it does not have its CD ROM player any more. So we power down, jiggle the Hard drive wires, and try again. Now it goes as far as the LanParty Screen and locks up. After a little trail and error, we find if we disconnect the SATA cable to the 80 gig HDD (remember the conversion card), it boots, but of course, since the 80Gig is where the OSs are, it’s not happy. We try clearing the CMOS...no joy. We decide to boot up Knoppix to see if we can fix it, so we jury rig the CDROM back on...(not pretty, no picture!) We boot up plugging in the SATA cable after it gets to the cheat code prompt. We wait 15 minutes for Knoppix to load 75% (toram was very slow), until I get frustrated and just reboot to standard Knoppix. It finally comes up, slowly loads, and sees both HDDs, but when it finally comes up, it can’t access either of the HDDs. I worry that the screws we put the HDD bracket on could now be contacting the HDD.

I am cranky at this point and decide to call it a night. Gulp is just starting to wake up and shifts to another computer to try to see if he can internet search a solution. I am about ready to crawl into bed, when I think, why not just run the 80 gig on a parallel cable, and skip the conversion card (we had suspected it might be the issue). So back down I go. I take the parallel cable off the kludged CDROM. Take off the SATA conversion card, and then I force the cable around the motherboard tray and into the back. We struggle for a few minutes to get the cable in, but finally do. We power up...and...and...Success! We get back to our normal Grub page, and off we go! It boots up at 200 FSB (reset low after our CMOS clearing). After being stupid (jumping to 285fsb without a memory divider) we are back up, running a second time!

We get it up, running two folding jobs, at 2655 Mhz and the temperatures are 38-40C (vs. 53-57 with air cooling). Fan on high speed (read screaming) did not change the temp much, so it looks like the low speed fan setting and a single pass radiator might be a good combo.

Its midnight. I’m done...Here I am just before turning off the lights...



Gulp stayed up playing with the MCE programs (I can’t believe he didn’t put the hammer down and see if we could break 3GHz!), So I guess I will try tonight and see where the limits are.

I still have a bunch of tidying/ prettying up to do, so there will be more entries.

Input wanted! I am going to put a door on the front (probably stained glass) and want A) light to glow through, and B) light to show off the motherboard when the door is open. We tried EL on the last project, but were not very impressed with the results. I want some thing probably that outs out white light. I’d like to hear what people think is best for this (Cold cathode, small fluorescent unit, etc.)...So please give me some suggestion on this. It will likely mount up high in the case. Max width is about 15 inches.