.....HOLE IN WALL......... Just screw a drywall screw in the centre and attach a padsaw on a bit of string, around you jolly well go............Perfect circle. Looks good m8. Needs a cordless mouse and keyboard later...lol
Thanks LocknLoad. The hole in the wall is not a circle though, or else that would work wonderfully. The one that I am actually building for this post will be all wireless indeed!
Some more pics of the very basic machine being sized up. I am thinking with a modular power supply and sata instead of these dreaded ide cables, there will be pleanty of room in here for wireless receivers. This one was installed on a wall with an open back so I could make sure the mounts were working as I expected. The mounts were not working as I expected. I used standard spring loaded wall clamps, but as this thing installs on an angle, these clamps require too much force to compress, and too much room as well. I have another method I am going to use with polycarbonite pivoting brackets. This thing is sized to fit in between 16" on center studs. As long as I was in my dungeon, I figured I'd turn around and take a pic.
Sweet! Thanks for the pics. Like the dungeon! Looks like you're well stocked on the parts for more! Here's an idea for the homeownership challenge... you could have these mounted on suitably sized "pedestals" which would be portable... I know... it's a step backward from your original motivation to get the HTPC off the TV stand!
Wow, I really like this design. I like how you're incorporating the computer into the house itself by making it fit between studs. There's something very James Bond about that. Nice video as well. I can't wait to see how it all turns out.
Well stocked is correct. I got 25 of these things made up. A pedistal huh? That does go against my original idea, but I can picture it. I think at that point, the customer would just go with a normal case though. For a quantity one, it was near 700 bucks. Thanks. I can't wait to see how it turns out either! I'll bring it up to marketing
I made my design in Solidworks, but they will take pretty much any drawings. Your right, for a 1 off/prototype, it wasn't bad. I did some shopping around. The most difficult part was that ring enclosure. In fact most shops refused to make this assembly because of the ring enclosure. My tolerance requirements were pretty tight too. If you want to find a place to do work like this, just do a search for metal fabricators is your fav search engine. The main cost here is shipping, so you want to find someone local. Besides that, most places quoted the same, and delivered equal quality. I specified .015" for tolerance, which set the bar as to who I was going to go with. If they can meet tolerances like that with bending, they are a good quality shop from what I have seen. I also had them send me samples of an aluminum piece, bent and welded per a mock drawing, just to see how accurate and clean they were. I found a place in my area, so I was able to pick them up, but the shop in Chicago was going to charge 80 bucks for shipping, and california was going to be 500. So your best bet is finding someone local.
Sorry for the lack of activity here. My first 2 month old is testing my dedication to projects. Also, the wall I am installing this on shares his room, so I can work on it for 5 minutes here and there. I promise a full update in a day or two.
Congrats on the baby! Have fun with the new person in your life! (start him early with a workbench, no pressure...!) I loled at the shared wall. Will keep my eyes open for the update.
I've tried, but he just keeps falling asleep with the dremel in his hand Alright, I haven't updated in a while because I hit the normal, "every step I take becomes a major project". To start with, the hard drive from my current media center didn't take well to the transfer, as I expected. Different northbridge and all. Sooooo, simple task that I figured I'd have to do is reinstall the OS. Go grab my closest IDE drive, get ready and........ No IDE port. (pic taken before assembly) It does have a floppy though, just encase I was going to install Win'95. IDE to USB adapter and I was off to the races. I outfitted this with the 7200 build of Win7. I didn't like the wire managment, or lack of that I encountered, especially when the wires block the flow of air from the hard drive enclosures. I left 1/2" room behind this box when installed in a wall, so I put in some cutouts to route the power cables. The holes are almost as lopsided as I drew them. I probably should have cleaned them up more. They won't be seen when all is said and done. I painted the main case black really just to attempt and cover up my poor drilling results. I cut out some quick grips out of some spare polycarbonite pieces. These will pull the case tight with the drywall. And now the fun begins. I designed this thing to fit behind a surface up to 5/8" thick. I forgot that many older houses have drywall doubled up for acoustics. I have one of those houses. It ended up not being that bad. The wall pieces were strongly adhered together, so I had to chip away at the backside top of the opening to get it to fit. Next steps will be running all the wires. I plan on mounting the surge protector on the ceiling in the basement, so I can just route my power cables down there. My cable and network are already coming from down there so no issue with that. I will also mount the small HD antenna on the ceiling down there, or possibly route it to the attic, haven't figured that one out yet.
Lol Nice one on having the USB adapter! Yeah that wire mgmt needed improvement. Why no holes on the top left, for sata and other cards (as well as other mobos)? I like the quick grips, never seen those before. It looks like some combination of a cam and an anchor in function. I loled my pants. Sorry to hear that! So murphy's lawlike. You might want to align you power and data runs apart from each other to cross at 90degs. Or get some good shielding. I've never been anal about it in my home wiremanagement, but for something built in like that, it seems like it should be to code. Nice progress.
I thought about putting holes along the top of the mobo, but there are already holes along the top of the case for the power and AV stuff. There are two 1.5" holes and one 2" hole. I am going to try getting away with those first. The left side would be a decent place for holes, but there is only 1/4" space available so I shot the idea down until the next build. I may still try it. The quick grips aren't as much of a cam as they are an anchor. They move with the screw when tightening just to the point where the anchor point hits the case, then the threads pull the plastic piece in, hugging the wall. Loosening works the opposite, and the piece lays flat for easy removal. I originally was using those spring loaded drywall grips, but they were an extreme pain to work with as they required a full inch to retract, and were impossible to remove. Good thinking, I almost forgot about that. Power is now run seperate. Thanks for the advise!
Maybe while your chipping away at your wall you can hide those wires? Kinda takes the look away from your whole setup.
