Scratch Build – In Progress Project: J EDGAR

It started with a desktop wallpaper.

This desktop wallpaper.



12 Months Ago
I had just installed my first ever Linux distro and was looking at the different wallpapers available and for some reason this caught my eye.

A week later I was driving home past the mother-in-laws and she was having a yard sale. Right there at the front of her lawn was a bright red vacuum cleaner. It was fate.

It was crying out to be modded into something new, and because of the wallpaper it had to be something linuxy, and so it was.



I started by disassembling the vacuum and removing all the unnecessary components (motor, rollers etc) and setting them to one side. Next I had to work out where best to mount the components, always an interesting moment in any custom build.



I initially decided to mount a card reader in the lens cover and then, sadly after the hole had been cut, had a change of heart and decided to go with a slot fed DVD burner and some 6” white cold cathodes.



1 Week Ago
I finally found time after completing Project: HUMMER to go back to Project: J EDGAR. First job was to install the motherboard and get it up and running. To make installation of the board simpler I decided to cut out most of the unnecessary plastic moulding inside the vacuum cleaner as well. After sizing the mini-ITX motherboard under the engine cover it quickly became apparent that although there was room for the board, there wasn’t a lot of room for much else, mostly because of the sloping sides. Instead I chose to invert the board and mount it under the main chassis. I made a cardboard template and then cut a sheet metal plate to mount the motherboard on. This leaves all the room under the chrome dome for any drives I choose to install. Because of the thickness of the vacuum cleaners chassis it was necessary to make another template and another sheet metal plate for the drive layer, this would also make it easy to fasten the drives in place.





So far we have tested evrything and installed the OS, next step is to mount the drives. I'm hoping to get that done by the end of the week so should have an update next week.

Til then, happy modding folks

 

Number one for originality, I've never heard of vacuum cleaners being modded, though pretty much everything else.


H.B.

 

I'll say that is different.
i will have to keep an eye on this.