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Project: Fladlish's HTPC - Update 11/7-06

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by Fladlish, 30 Jun 2006.

  1. Fladlish

    Fladlish What's a Dremel?

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    This should be my first projekt log, I've done some modding before, not much but some. Well I've just moved to a new flat and got a new tv aswell. In the new flat I'm going to place my computer in my bedroom, this since I've got a roomie and I would like to be able to do schoolwork in private etc. So I decided that I wanted to build a HTPC, I've been looking for a clean and simple case for a while now but with no luck. But then I found a case that looked alright except the front but it looked as if the front was quite easy to mod. A plus was that it was quite cheap, got it for about 870 sek ~120 us $ including a 380w PSU.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    So what I would do to this case it to replace the entire fron with some frosted plastic. What you can see on the fron is a hole for the slot-in dvd, a small LCD display, four USB and one Firewire. The power on, reset and eject buttons will be made with some QProx QT110 chips so that they won't be
    mechanical. On the image you can se a green dot beneth the dvd that will be the led for the dvd and also the button, I might engrave a normal eject sign there. The blue dot will be the power on led and also the power on button and the red dot will be the HD-led as well as the reset button.
    [​IMG]

    My goal is to make the LCD only visible when the computer is on, trying to make it be seen through the plasic.
    [​IMG] LCD

    There will also be an IR reciever somewhere on the front.

    The Mobo will be a ASUS M2NPV-VM
    [​IMG]
    The good thing with this Mobo is that is has component out and DVI out so it is easy to connect to the TV. I will get a AMD AM2 socket CPU the Energy Effecient (35 Watt) not sure if it's going to be a Sempron or a Athlon 64 yet.

    I've also got 1Gb of ram
    a 200gb samsung spinpoint HD
    and a HDA Digital - HDA Digital X-Mystique 7.1 Gold soundcard.

    What do you think?

    Peace.
     
    Last edited: 11 Jul 2006
  2. DougEdey

    DougEdey I pwn all your storage

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    Whats your input card going to be?
     
  3. Fladlish

    Fladlish What's a Dremel?

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    Input card? To the LCD? Well it's HD44780-compatible. And I'm buying everything in a kit but I have to solder together the whole thing. And it's using the Paralell port on the comp.
     
  4. Burnout21

    Burnout21 Mmmm biscuits

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    no your tv tuner card. you have listed everything except chip and tuner.
     
  5. Fladlish

    Fladlish What's a Dremel?

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    Havn't got that one yet. I'm not sure which one to get, as with the CPU. Got any ideas? It shouldn't be to expensive. One thing is that I might get digital tv in sep and I might wait untill then.
     
  6. Fladlish

    Fladlish What's a Dremel?

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    As for the input I'm thinking of getting a FireDTV-T but I'm going to wait untill the fall to get one and the reason is that I'm looking for a dual tuner card that also supports HDTV. The FireDTV-T does support HDTV and with the Nvidia 6150 graphics from the mobo that supports HDTV aswell there shouldn't be any problem. But as I said before I would like to have a dualtuner aswell.

    A small update aswell. I've solderd the cables to extra USB ports and got some of that things cleared up. I sadly don't have any pics due to that my camera broke and I won't get a new one untill next Sunday.

    Tomorrow will I get the acrylics that I need for the front. I hope that I will recie ve the LCD and some more stuff aswell.
     
    Last edited: 2 Jul 2006
  7. stevehp

    stevehp What's a Dremel?

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    The low wattage AM2 chips aren't available yet so you can scrub that idea.
     
  8. Fozzy

    Fozzy What's a Dremel?

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  9. stevehp

    stevehp What's a Dremel?

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  10. Tulatin

    Tulatin The Froggy Poster

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    The current crop of A-64s run pretty damn cool as is. Just slap a nice passive cooler on there.
     
  11. Fladlish

    Fladlish What's a Dremel?

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    Well actually I talked to a computerstore here in Sweden, http://www.shg.biz, and they said that they will probably have the 35w sempron 3400+ or the 35w athlon 3600+ in about two weeks, or they hope that they will have em. And I'm not in a that big hurry so I can wait about three weeks.

    Small Update
    So I've recieved the LCD yesterday and I soldered it up but it won't start.
    I've got the backlight to work but the display is blank, it might be som faulty soldering, I'll check that when tonight when I get home from work.
    I've also got some acrylics that's been frosted on both sides from a local company. My plan by having the LCD behind the acrylics failed due to the amount of frost. Sure I could have choosen one with less frost but then would the whole think be way to transparent. I've cut it yesterday aswell, havn't made any holes in it yet though.

    I also hope that I will recieve the dvd player today so that I will be able to replace the led and the eject button, one thing though is that I got a slim drive, one normally for laptops, and a converter so that it can use a normal ATA cable. I did this mainly cuz it was actually cheaper to get that then get a normal sized dvd burner. A little strange but it might be better for me cuz that means more space inside the computer so I will probably be able to add a fan, 80mm, in the front, just so that I can get some "fresh" air from the front in to the computer.
     
  12. Burnout21

    Burnout21 Mmmm biscuits

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    as far as i know dual turner cards are only supported the MC 05, if this isn't the case i would also be interested as i am using a shuttle as my HTPC and well as you all know it has 1 PCI slot!
     
  13. Fladlish

    Fladlish What's a Dremel?

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    Yep same here cuz I'm going to use an internal soundcard and that sets me back one pci port. And who knows if one day I'll get a pci-e vga card.

    Small update
    I've got my lcd to work, I re did some of the soldering and changed the contrast. Today will I cut the frosted acrylic that I've got but if it doesn't look good will I get a clear piece of acrylic and get some frost spray.
    Hopefully will I be able to borrow a friends digicam and get som pictures of the whole thing.
    Since the dvd din't arrive yesterday can I only hope that it will arrive today.
     
  14. CursedBlad3

    CursedBlad3 What's a Dremel?

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    godluck with it, seems you've had quite a feq set-backs so far, but i respect you for carrying on!!

    Love to see some pics though!!

    Good luck
     
  15. Fladlish

    Fladlish What's a Dremel?

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    So finally I've got my hands on a camera. I did some cutiing and sanding aswell.
    So my already frosted piece of acrylics got some holes in it.
    [​IMG]

    I've also got some "frosting" spray, and another piece of acrylic.
    [​IMG]

    And here is when both of em are compared, the area with the masking tape will be removed and under it is the acrylics clear. The one that is beeing sprayed isn't done yet, it's a work in progress.
    [​IMG]

    As I said before have I've already gotten two extra USB-ports and connected em to a flat-cable, I do know that it's not the most fancy soldering and such but it works.
    [​IMG]

    And here is my LCD display, and yes it does work even though my solderingskills arn't the best.
    [​IMG]

    And here is a photo of the IR-reciever, it's not done yet but will in a couple of days.
    [​IMG]
    And cuz I wanted to test the LCD I had to "hot-wire" my PSU, it's done by shorting the green wire to ground (black wire).
    [​IMG]

    And this is what the LCD looks like when it's hooked to the computer, it got backlightning aswell.
    [​IMG]

    Oh here is a picture of the component out from the mobo
    [img=http://img464.imageshack.us/img464/2171/imgp00530xf.jpg]

    And a final picture of some of the tools I've been using, no Dremel here ;)
    [​IMG]

    And how the already frosted acrylics on the "backplate" that goes to the case.
    [​IMG]

    I hope that I will recieve the dvdburner tomorrow, I can only hope though.
    Well That's if for now, enjoy.
     
  16. olly_lewis

    olly_lewis What's a Dremel?

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    Nice frosting finish on the fascia, good mod...
     
  17. Fladlish

    Fladlish What's a Dremel?

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    Small update

    So I'm kind of done with the front, yes I said kind of..
    I havn't recieved my QT110 chips yet so the buttons arn't done yet. But the DVD-burner is in place and I've managed to find out how to move the eject dvd button, all I have to do is to short one of the pins on the button to ground.

    So what I've got left to do is
    1. solder a cable to the DVD
    2. get the QT110 chips and fix the touch sensitive buttons, the electrode will be a washer. What the QT110 do is that it will make a button that isn't mechanical but sensitive to electrical fields, so when you place your hand close to the electrode you will put an electrical field on to it and the QT110 will switch. I'll post some images and some more info about this when I'm getting there. I've got one problem though, cuz I don't want to have an button that shows, but I need some kind of image or mark on the front so that people will know where to put their finger to e,g eject the dvd. I'm thinking of getting a silver pen and paint some marks onto the acryllics, I might get a black one, not sure, what do you think? :confused:
    3. paint the back of the acryllic black, since there are some holes in the black plastic thing behind the front and there will be some visible patterns on the frosted acryllic from this.
    4. Put a LED for the HD activity aswell as power on into the acryllic, I'm not sure if I wanna keep the yellow one that is from the dvd, I think it's to bright..
    5. Get a cpu
    6. Connect everything and test it.

    At the moment the front is taped onto the case and it looks something like this.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    Here you can see the bright yellow LED. I'm not sure If I wanna use it, but there is a bit of a hazzle to get rid of it though.
    [​IMG]


    On the images above are you able to see the patterns that are visible through the acryllic, I think I should be able to get rid of them by painting the back of the acryllic black.
     
  18. Fozzy

    Fozzy What's a Dremel?

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    what you could do is go with a black front faceplate and use a type of car window tint. They make a special kind that is only transparent when there is a light on behind it. Someone else used it on a Lian-Li V1000 recently but I dont know who. Just a thought. You would need to cut some clear acryllic tough.
     

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