Scratch Build - In Progress ⭐ Mini-Splash, less than a Gallon water cooled SFF gaming PC

Replicating the crimp? Nah. I could cut my own but I am lazy and prefer messing around building stuff, messing up and trying to figure out how to repair what I have done! Which is a nice way into;

Update 13: Unlucky for some.

As previously mentioned I decided to cut my vandal switch in half as it was marginally too long and I want to see how it works. It was going to be slightly difficult to undo.



As you can see its a fairly basic operation, pressing the button at the front pushes an isolated piece of metal that makes contact with the two connections, triggering the motherboard.

Here is my solution.



* Bottom left - Is the cut down (to about half size) vandal body

* Bottom middle - Is the original spring, I ended up cutting this down slightly given the reduction is overall length.
* Bottom right - Part of a water cooling compression fitting I found it my bits box. It has exactly the same thread and size as the outside diameter of the vandal thread.

* Top left - This is the smaller replacement isolated "trigger". Its made of a rubber HDD idolater, nylon standoff and a screw. The original button is reused.

* Top Right - A pair of terminals (metal standoff's) that have a small heat shrink sheath over the top. These are screwed into a piece of plastic the same diameter as the vandal body, they stick out slightly the other side giving to contact for the replacement trigger (screw) to to make.

Here is my highly technical diagram. Press the button and the screw makes the connection. Let go and the spring resets the switch breaking the connection.



And fitted:




In hindsight I could have used smaller stand-offs or even just some screws passing through the plastic. This kind arrangement could then achieve a sub 15mm total depth for a vandal switch, but because I have 25mm to play with I just grabbed the nearest stand-offs I had, rather than worrying about it. I have become lazy with a whole 10mm to play with. A complete luxury compared to the rest of the build.

 

That's a cleaner solution that a big blob of glue.
Wait..Is that duct tape?

 

It’s a special temperature probe retention tape, rated extra sticky and with a sturdy level of hold.

So yeah.

Duct tape to hold the temperature probes down and isolate them from the case to ensure a good temperature reading.

And because every good build needs a bit of tape also it’s not visible when assembled. Does this now count as an old school mod?

 

I am really pleased to have been nominated along with some other cracking builds for the Bit-Tech mod of the month modding update competition. Have a look here: Linky at all the builds and vote here: Linky if you fancy voting for me or any of the other builders.

Update 14

My updates have been slower recently, we have had a couple of issues with our heating in the house, some heavy snow and a bit of the illnesses that are always around this time of year.

I have finally got the back panel on the case


Its currently in place using the power of friction, but will eventually be screwed in like the other panels. Fits like a glove!

Some money shots of the front, the simple, industrial look with exposed screws fits really nicely with the power switch I think.




In case you cant tell, I like carter root beer! (other root beers are available)

As a reminder here is the nice tidy front cable work:


To do some stress testing (more to come on this in future posts) I stuck the undersized smoked panel in, again I really like the simple look.


To keep the industrial look going, I think I might just lightly sand the aluminium and not paint it. I'm weighing up options though, so if you have any clever ideas then shout!

 

Great job - I love it.

Gets my vote!

 

The undersize panel looks like a perfect fit.
I'd stay with bare metal too, and hit it with a sanding sponge until the edges were slightly rounded.

 

Perfect «Hand made».

 

Thanks Dave, super pleased to be currently highest voted update. I'm really surprised given the quality of other logs.

Good idea, i like the sound of that!

Its been cleverly cropped (even if I say so myself), its 6mm too short. Will look at rounding the corners.

Thank you!