Project - BioPhreak **Day 7 Posted - Front Panel Revised**

End of Day 7

My camera batteries died on me, so I didn't take pix of some things. After I ran out to grab something to drink, I picked up some more AAs.

Here's some shots of the finished front panel:







These cut out notches in the panel...




Are cut out because of this:



Now for the case with the panel on......




And the best part of it all is......no ugly brackets!





I think it came out pretty professional looking, and it's far better than I thought I could do! The panel hugs the case pretty tightly, and it does take SOME finger effort to remove it, but how often am I going to be removing the hard drive?

I didn't have time to drill the hole for the power switch or do anything with the optical drive, but I think I'm going to go to Home Depot tomorrow and see if I can find a better bit to use to cut the hole for the power switch. Last time I did it, I REALLY hacked the mesh.

 

With the work my dad is in, he could easilly get me an insulated power connector rated up to 320V and 25A, but htat much power most definately won't be put through here. I didn't think about it until tonight for some reason, but I'll see what he can bring home. Might be some time until he can though, he's in Seattle until Saturday and goes back to work on Sunday evening.

 

The connectors aren't rated on voltage in that way. The pin seperation is high enough that the power can't jump between pins and it's insulated anyways. The dialectric withstand voltage will be in the 1000's of volts (Molex 3191 series 5000Vac). It is the current passed through it that is limiting factor. A quick look in my RS catalogue shows:
Molex 1625 Series: 600Vac at 12A
Generic 'Disk Drive Connectors': 250Vac/dc at 15A

I would think you PSU would draw around 8A at 120Vac so you should be fine. I can't be bothered to look up standard heat shrink but this should be similar.
The thing to remember is to have strong good solder joints and to double insulate. (Not because 1 isn't good enough but to provide the fail safe incase you damage it somewhere). I would suggest you use some 10A double insulated cable (power cord stuff) from the IEC inlet through to inside the PSU as you use the space between. However, I would suggest you re-think the way you have used the Molex as it don't look too good... and but the earth between the live and neutral.

Anyways good mod, and nice ideas!

 

Nice Work on the bending - Looks a lot better

What I have been trying to say….But the proximity of the Pins on the Molex is Extremely close and NO it is not safe. But in that configuration you have a tazer.

Is it a Real MOLEX that she has, or a "power connector" ??? Is it even approved ???

…Not to mention on an aside of course that the operation of a MODIFIED Piece of AC electrical hard ware before having it approved by the proper Authorities is Illegal.
Im not going to do any thing about it!!!…..I have changed things in my PSU and not consulted the proper authorities ( and i work for them) . This is however still dangerous.

But this is where you should Re-mount a Second plug to and so that you can plug the Wall in to your Case and from your case plug it into the PSU

 

One thing I'd like to note on how close these dangerous lines are together and what connectors are used, is that the original connector is the same as a molex, it's just shaped differently and uses different pins. Otherwise it's all the same material. If you look at where I asked about what the yellow component was which connects the neutral to live, I hadn't changed that thing at all. It was removed and then photographed. Those wires are already pretty dangerously close, and all I really did was extend them. I will be changing the wire to a "cord" which I've got lying around, and I'm going to look at the PSU to see where I might be able to mount the plug internally.

 

yes but it is how they are arranged.

Can you take a picture of the whole assembly (case plug cord molexes and psu) and ill try to draw another one of my crappy pictures to explan what i try to say

 

I understand what you're trying to say. Here are so pictures of placements for the plug inside the PSU.

It can't be placed where you thought, there's just no room for it there:



But it can be placed here:





Or here:

 

...yes.... but what about the rest of the A/C wires...

ok mount the PSU cord perminatly on the PSU but plug it into the case. So you PSU will have a cord comming out if but instead of mkaing the connection At the PSU make Both connections At the PC case at the back.

wall - cord Plug(case)Plug Cord - PSU

Do you have a small box you could put the two plugs on the case in the box
and plug the Wall in to the case and then plug you PSU in the case.

or you could make it a dongle

( im at work so ill will draw a few pic when i get home)

 

I spoke to my dad on the phone today (he's in Seattle for the week), and asked him about the shrink tubing stuff. It's the same stuff we used out on our well pump on the connections above ground, and it's the same stuff he uses on the 240V stuff at work, so I don't see any reason why one layer wouldn't be fine.

The reason I'm not using a cord from the back of the case straight into the PSU, is because I want to be able to remove the PSU without a cord restricting it and making it harder to work on. I originally planned to just do the pigtail idea, but then I found out how much trouble it was to pull the PSU out with it always attached to the case by a pigtail.

 

I know that you want to disconnect your PSU and that is exactly what i was describing just i different way. (thats why i said ill draw some pics when i get home) ill be home in about 1 hour and ill put the pics right up. I can only describe so much in text.
A picture is worth 1000 words….these pics will only be about 375 words each

And with the shrink tube it $1.00 a meter - using another layer is safer - Most H/S is Hobby stuff not POWER which is why, when using the hobby stuff that i recommend using two layers. Especially when the contacts are close together.

As long as the Final Thickness of the H/S is the same as or THICKER then the original sheathing its ok.

 

Yeah. My dad doesn't buy from a hobby shop, he gets it through a supplier at work, which is the stuff I'm using for this project. After it's shrunk, it's as thick as any PSU wire insulation.

What follows is how I'm interpreting what you're trying to suggest I do.

Here is the plug in place of the two areas that it would fit, inside the PSU enclosure.




After that connector is mounted in the enclosure, the power cord would plug into that connector...


This end would be cut off.


and this connector would be mounted on the back of the case and the power cord soldered to it.



So the original power connector remains part of the power supply unit, and the cord that leads to the back of the case is just a stationary extension cord. Then the actual power cord is plugged into the back of the case.

 

Then there is absolutly nothing wrong with you H/S

YES!! EXACTLY




And you could use one of your EMI filters on the case insead of this one




- I hope i didnt piss you off too much!! i was only tring to help but yes this is waht i was trying to tell you, just with no pics and too many words.


And not only is it safe(er) its looks better too

 

You need a small R-clip on there, can be reused many times and no need for bending.

Great work though, its projects like these which inspire me. Not like the usual "blow 500£ on watercooling and install the most uber1337AMD64" projects.

 

Neo40k, you didn't piss me off. I felt you were only trying to help me make my project safer and were concerned about the life of someone else on these forums. Although I was a bit annoyed by it all when I first received it, I decided to deal with it in a more professional attitude and keep flame wars away from these forums. Thanks for your help. And if I have anything else to do with electricity, I now know to go to if I need help.

Fatboy, do you mean one of the hitch pins like what I used for the other side of the retention rod? The cotter pin you showed above actually is never moved, it's just the hitch pin on the other side that is.

So I walked into work today and the GM says he wants to see me in the office. So I'm like "WTF? What'd I do wrong?". Well he hands me two of the stainless steel meat tray holders, which he replaced today with some new ones. He had seen this case mod when he came to my b-day party and thought of me when he saw these metal tray holders in the trash. (pix up later tonight)

 

As promised, here's pix of the stainless tray holders from work:









I'm going to have to cut through those weld joints tomorrow with the dremel, which should be pretty easy. After those are cut, that one tray holder will seperate. The other tray holder is all one piece.

 

Cool

You sould put a rubber wqasher and a metal washer between your case and the cottor pin (the the clip) on the rod to protect future paint bend the cotter pin legs back and trim them off so that they wont cut you hand.
if you have room you dhould put on at the back too so that its ballanced.

If ther is no room to put a rod all the way through you could make fake rod stick out of you sae to put a clip on and make it look cool.

What are you going to use the trays? for??

 

ooo those trays are pretty

 

Well my older bro and I are known as AMD Phreak and Celeron Phreak, so we're working on this project together. He's going to buy a wireless G router and we're going to implement it into this case. He works for a communications company and he can make a pigtail that goes from the router's antenna out to another output connector that will be mounted on the back of the case. From that connector, we'll plug an 18db directional antenna for connecting to networks at LANs.

The trays that I got from work are going to be hacked up and used for the rack that the wireless router will sit on.

 

I've run into a slight problem.....I've surpassed the allowed bandwidth given to me by Photobucket (1500MB a month). I don't know if they'll be suspending hte account or not though. Is there a free service I can use out there that will give me enough bandwidth to share my photos here?

 

i don’t know of a free service....but try to make you pics small er and a little lower quality....smaller files lots bandwidth per image....

im currently using photo bucket too though.

....iv got an Angle fire account that im planning of linking my stuff too...
it doesn’t like pulling the pic right fomr the page but im shure there is a a way around that. in conjunction with another anglewi fire accout and corss linking the stuff to ...day 1 on lsite day 2 the other....waht ever....

open a new photobucket page use like 6 diffenret users with diff passwords.....