Well, if you don't, here is the Wiki link Anyhow, my plan to either mod or scratch build a case inspired by W.O.P.R (the evil computer, photos here). To do this, I'll need some help with a some of my ideas: 1. The massive light pannels. I was thinking of creating the same effect using LED's, then wire it into the HDD (i think thats what it is) activity circuit, so that the pattern of lit LEDs changes. Only problem is, I have no idea on how to do this, or how to stop the LEDs from just flickering on and off. 2. What is the practicality of water cooling the entire system, and then placing the rad(s), pumps and res(s) in the second layer? Do they need to be close to the tech they are cooling, or can there be a sizable distance from pump/res to heatsink? 3. The rig is going to be for Gaming D), so what sort of size should the case be? I am planning to upgrade my exsisting set-up (actual hardware info to be added later), but I really could do with a rough guide. 4. Got any advice for a total Noob? ta,
The LEDS could be hooked up to a binary counter (There are a few CMOS chips out there) Just hook up a LED to each output, and connect the input to the hard drive activity output. This will make the LEDs flash in patterns when the drive is working. The problem with this solution is that when there is massive HDD activity it won't flash, as the LED output would be constantly on. This could be solved by hooking up a 555timer before the counter circuits.
Some hooked up to HDD activity. If you have multiple drives you can have an array per drive. You can also have an array representing CPU Utilization. You should be able to build arrays for anything that can be monitored. unfortunately, I'm nor enough of a programmer to give you anymore specific info, but I know there are plenty of them lurking the boards. Don't forget to post a project log so we can see what you come up with. And maybe steal some ideas.
If you're going to be using it for gaming then it should be blinking with the network traffic. As for size, how big a guy are you?
I'm just over 6 foot, but I don't want to make a full size model. it would be damn cool, but a little impractical as I am about to start uni, so it needs to be REASONABLY mobile. The actual construction will probably wait till I move in and can take advantage of a 5 axis CNC As for the flasing lights, I have not idea how to wire anything to moniter something, so links would be welcome
If you want the blinkenlights wall to actually show something useful, you could use it as a hardware visualiser for HD-tach or similar (though you might be hard pressed to find enough useful data points). An easier way would be simply to hook the HDD LED lead up to a microcontroller, and have each pulse from the LED line set up a new random pattern in the Blinkenlights. The lights themselves would be meaningless in their pattern, but the frequency at which the pattern changes would at least correspond roughly to HDD activity.
Is this what you are looking for? http://hackaday.com/2008/10/28/cellular-automata-and-led-matrix-fun/
Sort of, but I was hoping for something a little more random. And simple to build. I might just wire up the LEDs in groups of ten, then use a decade counter (I've been doing some reseach, can you tell? ) to change the lit pattern Any pointers in his area would be welcome
Maybe this? http://www.instructables.com/id/Beginners-wiring-projects:-LED-banks/ This might be closer to what your looking for http://metku.net/index.html?path=mods/vilkkuvalot1/index_eng
yup. That second on looks perfect. Now I just need to try and work out the voltages needed to power about 100 LED's :S Although, I have had a thought. I could split the LED bank into both HDD and network activity. Of course, I'll need to do alot more reasearch before I actually put dremal to materials
I was thinking you could use something like this to controll the LEDs thru a USB port. You would have to create an application that montiors different system activities, and sets the LED states accordingly. I also found Phidgets, which look vastly more interesting. And it have a lot of device / interface options to really make something cool. Could be fun. Will be challenging.
however, my programming skills are even less then my electronics skills (which I Haven't used since nearly failing my electronics GCSE) A quick update. I'm going to attempt to upload my first EVER SU model at some point tonight (UK time).
Look up Vilkkuvalot II on Metku. In the forums they discuss adding LEDs and how to do it. It also updates that circuit with a circuit isolator and a way to add ultrabright LEDs. I should have the link somewhere in my 'toad log...
Sweet! Cheapskate is looking at my stuff What a start! I feel blessed by greatness Ok. On to business: My current rig is the following Packard Bell BV Cuba MS-7301 1x Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00Ghz (Duel Core) VIA Technologies Inc Standard Bridge Host NVIDIA GeForce SE/7200GS Two HDD (1 150Gb and 1 30Gb, both ATA) 2Gb ram Any upgrade advice? My plan is to add a MINIMUM of 2Tb memory (I like films and music ) SU model to follow
We Now Have Pic's This is my first EVER SU model, so play nice with comments please The Red area on the back will have all the cables and input sockets there (hopefully), whereas the white area will have the LED bank A photo without the texture, just to give a better idea and finally: This shows the slots cut for cables and (possibly) Water cooling tubes to go through, and access the base area Well, what do you think??
Now that would make a cool PC If I was you I'd go for pretty much an exact replica, but on a smaller scale. It looks pretty ideal to fit hardware in, and the shape of the thing isn't that complex (it is a prop after all). As long as you only use it to play Global Thermonuclear War and Tic-Tac-Toe
