Project WebPal Re-born - almost complete.

Hello everyone. I started a new project out of necessity rather than fun (yeah right.. What happened is that my print/file server needs a new home. My wife did not like the idea of two mid-towers at my desk cluttering things. To be honest I did not either. My file print server is based on an EPIA 800 mini-itx and the only reson I had it in the mid-tower was that I did not have anywhere else to put it.

Enter the NewCom Webpal.... I actually thought of this about a year ago but never really thought of it seriously or at least worked on it seriously, until now.

For those of you that do not know what a NewCom WebPal is/was: It is an internet appliance/set top box that used to sell for $400 US back in 1997/98. It came with a cirrus logic processor of some sort and had a whopping 4 megs of ram(upgradable to 8), 33.6Kbps modem composite video/s-video out, printer port, rca audio out, and standard PS2 mouse/keyboard support. I sourced mine with the optional IR Keyboard and remote for $20 US plus shipping. I think they are running $10 US now. This is what they look like:



Well, I gutted it and started on my quest for a smaller server case. I mounted the ITX motherboard first with stand offs and discovered that I would not have enough height to install the DVD drive:


So I removed the standoffs and just screwed the motherboard directly to the case being carefull not to apply to much pressure and this extra clearance gave the needed room for the DVD slimline drive:



The stock rear motherboard plate fit very nicely:



I removed the stock front of the case and will make a plexi front:



Here is my design for the front Plexi cover plate:



I'll have to pick up some acrylic after work today to start on it. I am also going to vinyl dye the whole thing black.

Here is a size comparison to my work rig: (an Thinkpad 600E) That clock says 5:39. That's AM Folks. I get to work at 5:00AM



And a wider shot:



The psu is going to external. I am going to mount it to the back of my desk and then use the extension cable to get power into the box. I am thinking of chucking the rear plate and making one out of acrylic instead. It should look a lot cleaner that way. The LED's will be ocean green. I'll post up more progress after I get home today.

 

there looks to be enough room for one of these in it:

http://www.ultim8pc.co.uk/index.asp?section=products&idd=17#PW004

one of them ^^. That's a UK site but u can pick em up from US sites.

 

Yeah, I thought about that but it is expensive. I was showing the project to some co-workers and they said I could probably make some sort of a dock-station for the PSU. I might try that.

 

That thing is cool. Pretty small, and functional I like it!

 

That case is great! Where did you say you got it? External mounting should be fine, just make sure you have some ATX extention cable. What about the optical and hard drive? You'll need to rig up some cool sleaving so it doesn't look shady. Cool find!

Edit: I was thinking about your no-stand-off issue. Think putting rubber washers on the backside would make it too high?

 

What about counter sinking that standoffs?

 

The standoffs just consume too much room. It is a very tight fit vertically. If I had some low profile RAM maybe it would work.

daniel_owen: Had not thought about counter sinking them. The plastic is only about 2mm thick so there would not be to much material to counter sin into.

Solarius: You can find them at www.surpluscomputers.com or by clicking here. Supposedly some people have been able to get linux to run on them. Check thissite for more info on that.

 

Okay I am home now, bought the acrylic and I am cutting the front panel now. Test fitting it. The acrylic is just a tad bit thicker than the stock groove for the original front panel so I am having to make the channel a bit wider with my rotary tool.

Here is a pic:

 

Thanks! That already looks great with that plexi. I think this might be too small for me though. I'm going to need to fit a mobo in that has an AGP and PCI slot ( I'll bridge the cards sidewise ). I'm going to want to make mine be a PVR as well. Nice find though!

 

Solarius: This case won't work for you then. There is no way you are going to even get a PCI card with a riser card in this case. Luckily I don't have a need for the PCI slot.

Okay here is the hard drive cooler (it will donate the fans I will use in the front) and the chrome power switch. It is actually that metalized plastic stuff. It was the stock power button on Ground Zero.

 

Started cutting out the DVD drive bay.



Got the first test fit of the DVD drive in the faceplate.

 

Looks like you might have overcut a little on the DVD slot. I hope I'm wrong.

Are you gonna leave the front clear for a window or are you gonna do something to the back (dye? tint?) to make it look solid? That would look very nice IMO. I always get excited about extremely slim SFF projects, and yours is no exception. Keep it up!

 

I actually was forced to overcut by 2 mm. If you note on that pic there is a small lip on the top overhang. It looks a little bit bigger than it is because the two halves of the plastic shell are not screwed down and the acrylic is still rough so it does not seat quite right in the groove. All will be fixed.

I am going to vinyl dye the back side of the acrylic black only leaving two spots clear for the LED's to shine through.

More progress, excuse the bad pics but it is getting dark and my camera's characteristics change drastically in low light.

 

Started working on the ocean green LED's. I sanded a couple down so that the tops are flat. It will make it easier to mount them flush with the acrylic face:



And here they are wired up and socketed:

 

What did you put those LEDs on? Thats a tweaky surface...

Anyway, this looks pretty cool.

 

I was thinking he photochoped the first pic, until I saw the second one...

Looks like a nice project, I'll be keeping an eye on this one

 

"Space, the final fronteir. This is the starship LED"

No I don't know exactly how thats suppose to go, get over it.

 

Pfft, n00b

Space, the final frontier.
These are the voyages of the starship LED and it's crew.
It's continuing mission:
to explore strange new worlds,
to seek out new life and civilizations,
to boldly go where no one has gone before.



I'm sure someone can do a better job than I, that was just a quick chop

KrazyIvan: are you going to use the existing wireless kb/mouse?

 

You are such a nerd

 

CASE the final frontier
There are the voyages of the lightship LED and its crew.
Its continuing mission
to load windows and remain stable,
to seek out new code and memory optimisations
to boldly go where to LED has gone before!