Case Mod - In Progress ⭐ (In Win 901) Asteria II: Rearmoured

Thanks, Jake!

 

Nerd level intensifies...

 

What a fantastic journey this project log has been, looking forward to seeing the rest of it!

 

You're very kind sir. Glad you enjoyed it.

 

Brief sharing of activity!

I've planned from the start that the brushed aluminium backplate on the graphics card would catch and reflect all lighting in the motherboard area, but given the size of the Titan in the case it does act like an internal wall. So to prevent the motherboard looking like a small area just floating in the top corner of the case, I thought maybe use LED fans to create a soft under glow to give the main chamber a bit of substance, but wasn't too sure how well it work work given the fans will be in pull config and therefore the hubs are pointing downwards. Amazon has discounted the white LED Corsair ML120 Pros, so I pulled the trigger:





It's not going to reflect quite that much once the aluminium bodywork is painted, but this has turned out a lot better than I expected it also means the beautiful custom DDC top actually gets some love too.



Stainless steel plates on the pump top and GPU block reflect the fans nicely, helping with filling that area with soft light.

Another step closer!

 

I've took an hour to read and watch Asteria II (once again) from the start, I can't avoid mentioning how remarkable is your work on this build, how various are your skills and how much your thread is pleasant and neat...that's great modding
I'm waiting for the next updates

 

Again, kim? I'm flattered, thank you!

My PCBs have been finalised and are en route, the components are delayed a little but hopefully I can get some soldering done soon. I've hit a bit of a snag with the fans but I'll document that properly as I always do a bit later on.

So hopefully I can finish tidying up the spare bedroom so I can actually carry on working I thought the metalwork was finished but I have a few minor bits left: PSU mounting brackets are done but I want to add in a backstop now, the PSU cover hinge is also done but needs folding and squaring up and then align all the passthrough holes and screw threads to get it all in place. Need to rejig the mounting points for the reservoir holder as well. Then it's onto the PCB mounts and wiring on the storage plate before doing 5th version of the acrylic lighting.

So much to do!

 

My very first ATX crimp





These are proper 18AWG Molex pins on thin-wall 17AWG wire but crimped using a cheap tool I bought purely for Dupont connectors. Annoyingly it looks like the crimp is perfect, but the tool makes a bit of a mess of my SATA pins and I was looking at doing a few double wire crimps with 16AWG pins which my tool won't do, so gotta buy one anyway

But still, my very first ATX crimp

 

great to see you back on this wonderful project

 

Stop, you'll bring a tear to my eye

I have been doing little bits here and there, just nothing worth posting about really. The 3D printer is running like a charm and I'm almost finished with the various printed parts, which means I can start soldering the PCBs (they look so pretty!). Hopefully getting a quote soon to cut and bend a new version of the lower case part (it's gotten scruffy now as I keep chopping it about) and then the metal work is finished.

I need to tidy my house up before I can carry on properly, and I hope my physical health holds up so I can get some solid work done over Christmas - the mind is willing but the flesh is weak!

 

Congrats on a successful first crimp. I know a guy that tried to do 22AWG first, and failed horribly.
After rotating the crimp heads 180 degrees, the tool works much better for lefty.
3 pics of a crimp, but no pretty pcb pic. -BOO

 

PCBs aren't soldered yet, Cheaps, but I'll take a snap of the bare ones just for you

 

Pictures are working again if anybody's had a look recently.

Hopefully progress will resume soon; health, time and finances have just put a major stop on this project for the longest time.

 

I get there in the end...

 

Well crikey, could it be there's an update to be had? There is indeed! Time for some soldering methinks...

So, rejigging the case layout to accommodate the 360 radiator means there's no space to use the stock front panel connectors. The original plan was to veroboard some switches and LEDs together, but about 18 months ago (I know, I know) I thought "let's just go all-in with this project and make up everything custom I can". So out with the veroboard, in with some custom PCB design

If you're looking at doing PCBs, I strongly recommend EasyEDA. The online editor is just incredible for creating your circuit schematics, hooking in real manufacturing parts and generating PCB layouts with proper footprints. EasyEDA is in the same group as LCSC for components and JLCPCB for PCB manufacturing, so you have a one-stop-shop to design, make and populate your custom bits.



4-pin fan headers and SATA power I sourced elsewhere, but the EasyEDA editor allows you to create your own component footprints too, so I grabbed the Molex specs and drew up the missing parts.

And here we are! (Excuse the potato phone pictures, the room is very gloomy. Tidied up as best I can)


No extra charge for black board, no extra charge for simmer board thickness, and 5 boards for very little money if you stay within a 100x100m footprint. Winner.

I know you're not going to see them once installed, but if Asus can put a ROG logo on their Thor PSU heatsinks then I can sure as hell brand my PCBs


Combination front panel interface and PWM fan splitter


The rightmost fan header connects up to the Maximus VIII Impact's fan extension control board with the other 3 for the ML120s. There is also a 2-pin header on the very right edge sharing the 12V input for the fans which I'll be using for a tiny LED strip. Fortunately the fan extension control board is actively powered so I don't have to worry that 3 LED fans and a 12V LED strip will burn a motherboard header

All laid out...


...with a pair of tiny holders for the 1.8mm LEDs, also designed and printed by moi.



4-way 12V splitter board, SATA powered


1mm thick PCB rather than 1.6mm as it's mounted to the back of the hard drive plate, so there's only 8mm gap until the motherboard. The odd shape is to wrap around some large surface components on the back of the motherboard.




Made me chuckle that JLCPCB threw in a magnifying glass as their token gift because that SATA power has 15 pins at 1.27mm pitch! My eyes don't work that small.



So let's do this!

 

Front panel and fan splitter

I'm usually really ham-fisted with small, delicate work, but I'm really quite proud of this solder job, especially as it's been almost a decade since I last picked up an iron. Too much solder here and there, but nothing that can't be cleaned up with some braid later on.




Gravity and through-hole soldering are an interesting combination, but complete nonetheless!


Those LED holders look ace I must say. In retrospect I should've allowed for the 45 degree overhang in the design, but they were enough of a pain to print correctly at a mere 6mm tall without doing rounded bases and whatnot. Now, do you remember this?


This is why I used a longer tactile switch at the end. The angle of the PCB and the recessed switch allow a few mm of movement for the aluminium tongue that forms the power switch. There will be a sliver of frosted or opal acrylic glued behind the power icon cutout which will just rest on the tactile switch. The 45 degree orientation of the LED then illuminates that acrylic sliver to give a nice glowy power icon when the system is running. Since nothing is assembled right now I don't have a picture, but a preliminary test works so very nicely.

Also, the black In Win logo strip is illuminated too on the stock case, so I'll be keeping that motif with a small LED strip wedged in somehow and powered by the 2-pin connector behind the power switch.

The other tactile switch and LED are reset and HDD activity, and it'll take a pin to activate that switch (by design though).

Anybody would think I actually planned all this out


LED power splitter

I'll be honest in saying I made so much of a pig's ear of the SATA power I'm not going to show you so cute from above though


4 connections for 4 light sources. The SSD covers and motherboard light ring will hook into the bottom 3 headers, with the 4th spare just in case. Likely to be a small light source above the motherboard to give a bit of flood fill, but we'll see closer to the time.


So all made up, but do they work?

 

Testing it all

First test is the easy one. Knowing I'll only need the 12V supply, and I was likely to make a mess of the SATA power soldering, there are no traces for the 5V and 3.3V pins in the PCB, essentially giving myself breathing space if solder crosses over the connections. Also I can use the ground wire furthest from the 12V wire to avoid any short-circuiting there.

Hooked up



Sacrificial PSU, sacrificial motherboard (because I've lost my jump starter, don't have paperclips and don't have male ATX crimps to make one), Noctua fan to load the 12V rail, hit the switch and...


Success! Bright, blinding, flaring success!

I shan't put up another 3 pictures of the same blinding light, but suffice it to say all 4 headers work like a charm.


The bigger test is the fan splitter. Initial load works perfectly.




Full power going to the LED strip, nice and bright LED to glow that power icon. Didn't let it run for long as all that's coming off a single fan header on the motherboard


The crunch comes tying everything together with the Asus fan extension card. I'm going to use the CPU fan header purely to monitor pump speed, so the 4 radiator fans will come off the extension card, and in turn one of those channels will drive the fan splitter so the 3 ML120s all work in unison.

So let's set up a rat's nest of cables and boards.


The chunky braided cable is female-female PWM fan cable coming off port 1 of the extension card and into the fan splitter for the trio of ML120s on the 360mm radiator. Port 2 will drive a Noctua NF-A12x15 sat on the single 120mm radiator. There will also be a Barrow temperature probe hooked into the extension card too.


Excellent!

And a quick test with the horrendous Asus Fan Xpert shows the ML120s reporting their RPM correctly and fully controlled through PWM.





So, that's the PCBs covered in this neverending build log. Next up is to measure wire lengths for the proper fan cable and the front panel connectors and get those cable looms made up.


Thanks for reading as always, stay safe and wash your damn hands

Back soon

 

Coooooooooool!

 

Thank you very much!