Project: 4MM0-83457(AMMO BEAST) *¡*TONS OF PICS*!* 2-28-05

I totally agree with both statements here. Great mod! It's definately one of those interesting setups that you just wouldn't think to do, with the router and the LCD and whatnot

And I think it's "zazer" for pronounciation.

 

looks cool The meters with green text/numbers are very nice is the monitor going to be motorized? so it will slide out of the box and posission itself all alone? (that would be great! )
are you going to make some kind of cover for the lower section of the box?

Mod on my friend!

 

I really love your idea and implementation of an all-in-one ammo can rig. Good work with the monitor so far man, keep it up.

 

1. not yet maybe later...

2. yes and here is its beginnings...

alrightie people i have forgone another day of work to bering you yet again another update for the Ammo Beast.

today the fedex man brought me a new one of these. i think its kind of ironic how similar, if not exact, this drive resembles the one i fried both externally and internally. i guess i better be careful.


then i went to the shop and started scrounging for parts and stuff. here is what i managed to dig up:
a keylock switch:


some audio stuff:


potential monitor power cables:


network plugs:


pots:


relays:


some ribbon cable for misc stuff:


some schweet switches:


and my power jacks and WAN connectors:


NOW ON TO THE WORK!!

alright my goal today was to mount the front panel for all the goodies. well needless to say i did that and a bit more.

first off i want this ammo case to be rugged and durable to whatever i can throw at it. i contemplated attaching the mounting brackets for the front panel with JBWeld or an epoxy of somekind, i quickly changed my mind on this one. I WANT BOLTS!! so thats what i did.

i made 5 of these, threaded them and drilled the approperate holes and thats where things got fun...


first off i must say i suck when it comes to my drilling skills. so third time was the charm for this side:


then i looked where it went in side of the box and cursed really loud... it hit the front of the panel. im lucky it didn't hit that screw...


well time to get out the JBWEld after all:






well all in all i didn't do that bad. 5 mounting sites and i jscked up one of them. here is what the bottom of the case looks like (BTW like the stickers?)


and here is the panel mounted with its battle wound:




now i figured i had the time and all the parts so i might as well start planning for the next day and here is what i did. i got all of the connectors 3 gages two wireless antenna connectors and a space for a slotloading dvddrive in there. this is going to be a squeeze:

(planning)


(marked up ready to drill)

well thats about as far as i got.

i did however have an incident with my knife read about it here:
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=64507

 

after a short but much needed sleep break i went back to work.

i wanted to prep the case for touch up paint as i just went to The Home Depot and had some paint mixed.

close? ( had to take a friend to help me make sure it matched because i am slightly color blind)

well i took the leap of faith and started cutting the front panel. i started with the DVDROM slot as it was the easiest.


oops gonna have to change my sheets now. dang.


these bits ROCK, they do not bust at all however they are a little more expensive but WELL WORTH IT!


i got tired of blowing brown and black boogers so i got myself a cheap mask

(resemblance?)

well seeing as i need to cut out a bunch of circles i decided to wait till monday so i could use the drill press and cut out bits, after all i do want this to look nice.

now that i can't start cutting out the other stuff i started sanding down the JBWeld that i had set last night. i changed bits in the dremel to a ginder and went to work. man it cut like butter.








on a side note. i made these last night. you will see what they are for later...

SHORTEST NETWORK CABLE EVER!!!

more in a few..

 

Looking nice.

Can't say im too fond of the stickers but, meh still v nice.

Shame about the having to cut bits out of the case, but the monitor is genius!

 

looks great!

 

Update 7-24-04

1. thanks
2. they were just an idea is there something that i should do? maybe paint something on the side? i need ideas here. i would like to have some sort of label or sticker that matches the theme on the fan grills. any ideas?
3. yeah i filled the one hole with JBweld sanded it and painted it. now those holes look like they were there all along.

ok people on to the update!!

well late last night i caught a bus to my local Home Depot and picked up some much needed primer and some other parts.
i got a can of this which bonds to ANYTHING!! even galvanized steel which is freaking slick.


then i sanded the parts down, cleaned them with a high strength shower cleaner and painted on the primer:


then the next day i painted them with the green looking military paint.


well after that i have lots of drilling and solder work to do. seeing as it was late i forewent the drilling and stuck (no phun intended) to the soldering iron.

i went to work on the NW dongles. i figured that i might as well get to work on them because i have seven of them to wire up.


well i managed to crack off four of them so i think that i am doing pretty good.


i am doing them this way because i want to be able to go to LAN parties and have people plug in to me.


well then i decided to take a break from that and i moved to the power cables.


i couldn't wire them up to their devices because i do not have the holes in the front panel yet. when i get those cut out i will solder the other ends to them but ONLY after i have painted the front panel.


i plan to cut out the front panel on monday and have it eiter painted or ready to paint. until then MOD ON!!

 

looking BAD ASS. keep it up, i wont to see it at the end

 

I have a question regarding your LAN cabling...

In this picture here, you have what looks like two LAN cables coming from one 10-pin connector.

How do you manage this and still keep the cables working? All that I've read shows that the 100baseT standard uses all 8 cables. It *shouldn't* work with only 10 pins. Did I miss something?

Other than that, nice looking mod. I'm interested to see how this turns out in the end.

 

Actually 100baseT only uses 4 wires (std is white/green, green, white/orange, orange). 1000baseT on the other hand uses all 8 wires as far as i know...

 

im glad that you guys figured things out.

i will be drilling the front panel later this morning.

i am thinking about weathering the front panel or atlease making it look less-new. i love the way the ammo can looks its a little beatup. now understandably the sealed part (front panel) of the ammo can will look a little more new than the outside because of the moisture barrier. any ideas? im thinking paint on the shiny connectors a tiny bit of rust and a little simulated dirt on the inside of the meters. thats about as far as i got. i still need to mount the components on the panel which i haven't cut yet so we shall see how things go.

EDIT:: maybe this website could help to explain the NW stuff a little better than i could. http://www.ertyu.org/~steven_nikkel/ethernetcables.html

 

Love the stow away monitor. how sturdy is it in the up and out position (just curious)?

 

First off, great scrounging! I generally have buy my connectors retail and have spent more than I care to mention.

Second thanks for reminding me that I could use JB Weld to patch up unwanted holes, I have a case that needs a little work.

Third and by no means least, subscribing now, cool case.

 

its sturdy enough to stand up on its own and not fall over. i am working on a locking mechanism so i can lock it and not worry about it falling over at all.

sorry =C no updates for today. i woke up at 7p because i worked the night shift last night. i managed to sleep through class and everything.

ill be working on this tomorrow.

 

alright i persisted a little more with the store where i got the wrong angle bracket and they are going to fix the matter. the replacement part will be here in two days. i would have to say that it wasn't easy getting in touch with them but once i did they were very responsible. they even changed around their website to ensure that mixups like this do not happen again. props to them for stepping up and fixing this

 

You finally gonna reveal who the mystery store was then?

Or are we gonna be kept in the dark...

 

well im afraid of the appearance of slander. if they track it back to me it could incur large fines that would be almost impossible for me to pay; so in the intrest of my own financial stability i would opt to not reveal their name...sorry

 

Ok a small update for now.

I have cut all of the holes in the front panel that I need and am ready to start mounting stuff. There is only one problem I remembered to take my digital camera with me however I forgot the memory card for it so no pictures for now. I will insert them here when I get home from work.
HERE ARE THE PICTURES!!

The only holes that I had to actually cut out were the ones for the fans. The other holes I used punches and a bearing press. That made short work of the aluminum panel.
I then sanded the panel and sprayed on a couple coats of primer.


Alright here are some other things that I have finished:

I made the power connector for the NW switch.


and I made the 1st half of the cable to route all of the LEDS on the switch to the front panel.


I wanted to be able to unplug this without having to fumble around with junk.


I want to have some of the parts in this project remain as modular as possible, meaning I want to be able to upgrade this thing easily without having to break out the soldering iron. This is why I plan to leave the motherboard alone as well as the HDD and videocard. The NWswitch is obviously permanently a part of this project and well I don't mind. I was going to sell it off anyway.

 

Update 7-28-04

ok here is what i have been working on in the past 5 to 6 hours.

i drilled out all of the mounting holes for the panel and luckly i only ran in to one snag the USP ports were punched a little too close to one another. a little trip to the barder de dremel and that was fixed.


i then removed all of the parts and painted the panel in the approperate army green.

im a little color blind and those fan grills look red (my roomie says they are brown so im not worrying too much)

now that i have made some decent headway on that i proceeded to ponder my security circuit. im going to have it not allow the PC to be turned on without the key. when the PC is on if the key is removed the keyboard, mouse, and buttons will be disabled. here is the only picture i will ever take of the curcuit so peek while im feeling good enough to post this pic.