Case Mod - In Progress Project : Penguin v4.0 - Closed! ALL ITEMS NOW FOR SALE!!! - 21/06/09

Looking great!! Nice photography and good build quality! *subbed*

About that vibration dampening... vibrations could travel through the screws holding the PICO mounting board and the HDD tray together, but I guess it's not going to be as much as w/o the neoprene foam pieces (is that what that white stuff is??). Ideally, the screws and nuts should be isolated from touching the HDD tray with vibration dampening material as well. Another thing, if both the HDD tray and the black PICO mounting board is in contact with the 5.25" bay, then vibrations could transfer that way too.
Heh, I guess that what I'm trying to say is, I'm not sure the dampening is really doing much good, and it looks better without + smaller footprint.... imho. <=)

Keep up the good work!

 

Cheers for the advise, there should be something between the bolt and the cage ideally, but the material is just two damn thick! I will just tighten it as hard as possible and see how it goes, you never know the noise of that Pico fan may even drive me to watercool it!

 

Dynamic Display ( TFT case window)

On with a sort of update...

...Ever since craigbru teased us with shots of a "Dynamic Case Window" (here) its been playing on my mind. I knew I had a spare 15" TFT monitor lurking around somewhere and in a random urge I decided to rip it apart and see if it can be modded into the side panel of Penguin v4.0.

Here is the results, (bearing in mind as I post this there are a few major hurdles and flaws to be overcome!):

Hmmm is this not missing something?



Ahh there it is....



This is far too OEM!! Out with the guts of the beast!





I placed it on top of the side panel to get an idea of the size, hmm just fits, maybe...



Quick test to make sure its all working again!






Right, now originally this is how it was going to look, until i taped it up to the side panel and it clearly was not going to fit! I mean at all! So its time for a re think...





(here is the link to build log of the screen as it sits here.)



On with the testing of the display to see what it looks like...

With Flash...


Without...


Here it is plugged in, cant be arsed to hook it upto the computer at thiss point...







Anyway, as I have said before there is a bit of an issue to get the tft panel to fit on the side panel. Hopefully by the next update i should have fixed this problem...

... hopefully

 

epic win!

 

Cheers, I think I have figured out how to actually fit it onto the side panel now!

 

/\ i hope we are getting an update soon?

 

Haha, awesome! I'm glad to see someone take the plunge on the window, as I'm still a few months away. I'll be watching!

 

I'm working as fast as I can (but I am slightly lazy!), should have an update for you tomorrow.

Yea not quite as simple as I first thought, but I started it so I may as well finish. I blame you if it doesnt work and I have a large whole in my case!!



Should have some better pictures on the final layout for you guys tomorrow...

Cheers

 

I wish I had the cash for such a build. I should stop reading these posts.. My wallet is hurting already

But it is an awesome idea with the extra screen

 

Lol, I'll gladly take the blame. It'll be worth it! ;-)

 

I feel you on that one

 

You should take a look at my bank account then! I stopped counting at around £700 without any hardware!

Cant take any credit for the idea though.

It better be because there is now a large whole in my case and I have no idea if this is gonna work!

Lol is everyone here skint?

 

Display Mounting - Round 2

Right the display had to lose a lot of weight for it to fit into the case, and the only way for it to do that was to loose the CCFL lighting and the inverter board that comes with it. This meat I could lose the large (and very thick( frame that the LCD panel is mounted to, so now I just have the panel and the boards which should be arranged a little something like this if I have done my sums right ....





Had to make up a new surround / back mounting plate out of the 0.5mm alu I used for the previous version



Parts layed out using the same sort of pattern as before



Looking a lot thinner than before, previous version ~47mm, this version ~ 25mm.





Cut all the bolts down so I can use Acorn Nuts



I'm still using the nylon rod to space out the boards



Mounted





I lined up the screen and drilled the mounting holes for the backplate



Lines drawn out for cutting the side panel



Side panel cut, eventually...



it took me this many cutting discs to finish off the side panel...



This is how the side panel sits on my desk at the moment, waiting to be filed and sanded down to a square...



That's all I have until tomorrow that is...

Cheers

 

Good job. I am following this VERY closely

 

+1

very detailed logs, the pics are awesome quality. Very clean work, and your planning skills are impressive.

but im not understanding whats happening with the screen. You have removed the backlight, and have covered half of the back with aluminium? are you going to backlight this half, or am i missing something.

 

looks good mate!

love the new bracket

 

This is very interesting.

MOAR!!!

 

He's going to use an idea I mentioned here. The backing has been removed from the entire back of the LCD, and it will be used as case window. The aluminum you see, simply looks to support the controller board.

 

Cheers mate

Thanks, I think Craigbru explained it better than me, hopefully the next update can clear up what I'm aiming for.

Yea it's a bit flimsy, might re-make it out of 0.5mm steel though.

Its on its way!

That's exactly right, in a perfect world the controller board/s would have a long ribbon cable so that I could hide them somewhere and use it as a full window.

 

Mounting the Dynamic Display

Right I promised an update today so I better deliver right?

I managed to complete the window pretty much today, and the Screen is finally complete, although a lot is now needed to make it work!

Here is how we left it yesterday....





Two sides finished...



Quick detail shot...



Without the tape...









This is the last time I am mocking up the screen, I will keep the tape on until I finish the screen and mount it onto the side panel permanently.





I am using acorn nuts through out the build, which turns out to be a problem later on...



Here it is mounted on the side panel, using flash...



without...





I then tried to put the side panel onto the case, low and behold the side panel wouldn't fit, there was just one problem, my precious acorn nuts!



This one right here to be precise...





So after switching it to a standard bolt...



... and a quick go at the controller board with a dremel...



... you get a nice snug fit




Now the side panel fits perfectly, just as it did without the large whole in it... with flash ...



without...







I then connected it up to test out whether it was working or not...









I then ran into one small problem, the HDD cage doesnt quite fit into the case when the screen is in place.



Here's the problem area...



the mounting holes it should line up with....





Just gotta figure out what to do with HDD cage and the screen should fit in perfectly.

Probably not gonna be an update for a while, next up is extending the power, vga and controls to the back of the case.

Cheers