Scratch Build – In Progress Just Finished - PROJECT: Hummer

The inspiration for PROJECT: Hummer came from seeing a couple of Home Theater PC’s created using 1:10 bodyshells, the type used in Radio Control cars. The maker of these fabricated an aluminum base to which the wheels were attached and then all the components fitted within the confines of the bodyshell. I wanted to do things a little differently. While they are undoubtedly nice PC’s and very easy on the eye they lacked a level of detail on the vehicle side that is unavoidable when using a vacuum formed bodyshell.

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I came across the Hummer on eBay, a Radio controlled, MP3 playing model with much more detail than either of HTPC’s. When it arrived it became obvious why the HTPCs used bodyshells and flat aluminum chassis. Fitting everything inside the fully detailed model was going to be a challenge that they had neatly sidestepped.

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A couple hours spent scratching my head and meditating on the possible solutions and I came to the conclusion that some of the interior details were going to have to be sacrificed. The important thing was to retain as much as possible. This was made more difficult by the MP3 player capability of the original as there was a small speaker deck in the trunk.

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The unit was completely stripped down to rather large selection of parts and the task of discarding the unnecessary components began. Engine, circuitry, battery compartments, power switches, all had to go, and go they did. Not far though, even the unnecessary parts were kept in case they were needed later.

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To mount the motherboard I removed the moulded seats from the interior casting leaving not much more than the speaker deck and a couple of running boards. The motherboard was installed bridging these runners with the connectors to the rear, I figured there would be more space for the various USB devices I had planned to use. I wanted as few cables as possible coming from the HUMMER so everything had to be wireless (keyboard, mouse, networking). One of the things I didn’t like about the original HTPC’s was the variety of cables that were coming out of the back of it. Thanks to small USB transmitters, the only cables coming from the Hummer would be the monitor cable and the power cable.

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The now obsolete steering control assembly was removed leaving the only other necessary change, removing the oversized sprung hinge from the drivers side door to prevent it getting hung up on the picoPSU.

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Due to uncertain space requirements for the Remote Starter circuitry I decided to leave the DVD Burner out of the model for the time being. I have a USB DVD/RW drive that I can easily attach and use anytime so it was less important to me than being able to start the PC with a wireless key fob.

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With everything assembled except the remote starter we re-assembled the PC and booted to a copy of DSL installed on a USB key. It worked like a dream everything checked out ok, no sparks flew and the system ran for 48 hours with no problems at all. After that we installed a 1Gb stick of RAM and installed Windows XP Home, again everything went smoothly, the wireless networking worked a treat, the keyboard and mouse are working great. All that we are waiting for is the remote start stuff to turn up and she will be finished. All in all its taken only about 20 hours to get to this point, although its taken me the best part of a year to find those 20 hours.

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I love the extra detail you get from using an RC model as the base and the extra challenges you face by not being able to gut everything and use a flat plate chassis. I love the fact that there will be only 2 wires coming from the whole system (did I mention the plan to install a transmitter for a wireless speaker set?), most of all I love that fact that it’s unique and to my knowledge the smallest Hummer PC to date. I can’t wait to get started on something smaller using a Nano-ITX or Pico-ITX board.

 

While this is a job very well done, I hate to say that the thread would be better placed in the "modding" section. Mainly because it is not a log of sorts on fortunatly.

 

Moving Threads

I must admit upon reflection I agree, is there any way to get it moved by a moderator or can someone tell me how to do move it myself or is it just a case of reposting it?

 

Bug one of the mods and they'll move it right quick for you. Nice mod btw.

 

Sweet!

 

pretty unique!! cool project dude!!

 

Awesome!

 

Nice Mod. Thanks for helpin me get in the **** with my missus coz i wanna go out n spend all me cash on P bits n peices now lol...

she is gonna kill me when she see's what im bringin home next....

 

Remote Starter installed

Just finished installing the remote starter. Its way too cool to describe being able to turn the PC on and off using a small keyfob. Uploading video to YouTube as I type so will add the link soon.

 

YouTube video available

The 1 min video of startup and shutdown using the remote starter is online (once they finish their processing bit) at http://www.rcsnb.com