Scratch Build – In Progress Raspberry and Banana Pie (Ice Cream Sold Separately)

Very interesting. I'm planning an heterogeneous cluster made from low power SBC, in a not too far future (hopefully lol). I'll keep a close eye on your thread.

Great job so far

 

Had to look up heterogeneous lol, hopefully you'll post a log up here when you do

 

Ok so now I have my wood I can really get started. While I was designing the unit in sketchup, I only briefly thought about the placement of the fixings as I like to have things physically in front of me. Have sat down with a brew this afternoon and came up with a plan of action. There won't be many updates till I have the unit together as it's only boring (more ways than one) holes into the wood, putting anchors in and then countersinking the bolt holes. So to show you how I'm going about it here's a few shots.

First part of any project is to make a tool to make your life easier. Mine is a drill guide.



Then it's just a case of drill for and set the wood anchors in.





One down, only about 40 more to do.

 

First completed joint cos I had to see my measurements for the drill guide were right

 

Good days work today, slow an steady and got it finished with only a couple of minor errors. Using the wood anchors has been invaluable throughout, so serious recommendation on those.

Am in work tomorrow and Wednesday on 12hrs so will get the holes marked up ready for cutting on Thursday, and possibly get started on mounting the atx motherboard.

Anyway off to bed for some sleep, so I'll leave a few pictures of the progress so far.

 

Coming along, sub'd

Been meaning to tidy up my Raspberry Pi's myself they seem to breed in my house as well haha.

 

Ok so I managed to get a nice little break in work, so what are you to do with some time off in the sun..... Get the power tools out in the garden.

I'm making good progress only have 3 holes to cut tomorrow before I can get cracking on the internals of it. I will probably get the motherboard measured and fitted tonight when I get home tonight. Then first thing in the morning cut the remaining holes then get cracking on mounting the raspberrys and power supplies.

I have tried press fitting some nuts into the wood to screw stand-offs into and this has worked well so will be doing this for all the mountings.

I have ordered all the connectors for the side i/o panel (hdmi, Virgin cable and surround sound sydtem) and have started planning the front i/o panel (usb, power buttons, ethernet & display).

Anyway onto some pictures.....

First test fitting the wood and nut

Then planning and cutting the hole in the TV support for the extraction fans for the main compartment. A little hard to see on the plans because the aluminium the raspberrys are mounted on hide them from view from the front.




A little rough around the edges but will get some finishing later on.

Then it was time to cut the hole in the top for the TV support to go in.





That's all for now apart from some planning in my head.
Back tomorrow with some more....

 

Now this is a proper mod! Nicely done so far man

 

Cheers bud

 

I have been working all day on the unit today and an just having a break for tea, and stripping the cluster down for the parts that I'm transferring into this.

I have mounted the ATX motherboard, the Virgin super hub and router to aluminum sheets. Stripped the unit down to press fit the nuts that will hold them in place. Cut the holes for cable routing, fit a piece of wood in for the raspberry Pi's to fix to and then put the unit back together.

Hopefully tonight I will get the power supplies and banana pi router fitted and maybe some cabling.

Some pictures of today's work so far....








Just a brief view of the back layout....

 

Ok a bit more done, not as much as I'd of liked but ah well........

Banana router mounted, all 3 PSU mounted, power distribution and control panel mounted, raspberrys mounted and the TV support fixed and vesa wall mount attached.

 

The last major piece of my very large puzzle arrived this morning......



500x500mm sheet of 1.5mm aluminium. This is going to be used for the hard drive rack. I really don't want to balls this up as it's going to be right in front of you when you look in. So my plan of action is to take my time (about a week), marking it up and quadruple check my measurements before cutting and making holes. In the mean time I'm gonna start on the wiring, but thinking about it it may take longer than a week to get this part done. On a brighter note I have found the paint I want to use to finish the unit, and will be painting a test piece on Monday. Then when the wiring is done, strip the unit down one last time and it's on to final construction.

 

Have ran into a little hiccup that I could do with some help with if anyone can....

Does anyone have any experience with these fans.


I ordered them not realising they had a temp probe attached to them, ooooops.
My original plan was to have the bank of fans controlled by the arduino, temp sensor and a potentiometer (no idea if that's what it's called).

So basically anyone have any ideas how I can continue. Can I just cut the temp sensor off and it work as normal or can I just leave them in place.....

Cheers.
Iain

 

Very very nice! Amazing what you can do with those small machines

 

Cheers bud, it is quite unreal what these boards can do for the price.

 

Afternoon everyone, got a bit of an update for you today.

Over the past couple of days I've been working on getting the power leads done for all the equipment I've mounted all over the place.

In my haste I've forgotten to take pics of the completed leads before installing them to test, so will do when I strip it down. The power for the raspberrys comes from the top two power converters, with 3 usb leads connected to each converter. The power for the routers comes from the second to bottom.







Needless to say the cables aren't going to stay looking a mess, just doing burn in test at the moment.

Going to start stringing some of the ethernet cables around tonight hopefully, and then work can start on the HDD rack and wiring for that.

 

Ok so that's a bit more like it.....

 

Hey guys, had a lack in modding time recently as work has been quite hectic, now it's calmed down its time to crack on.

Have got the wires for the raspberrys done.



Started on the side io panel.






Gonna get the hdmi ports cut tonight and hopefully get the rest of the wiring done once the other kettle lead sockets gets delivered

 

I still have no idea what this thing is, but it's coming along nicely.

 

Cheers bud, would it help to see my TV mounted on it for its test fit....