dude a bit of epoxy two part glue just round the edge of the mesh will hold it on nicely. loving the project btw.....looks good, and its so small!
Not a prob bAdI, I just figured it would be a total PITA to get each one of those fan slits perfectly spaced and lined up etc. Plus the mesh would give you better air flow. Like cobalt6700 said, some 2 part epoxy would be adequate to hold the mesh in. JB Weld would also probably work, but I do not have personal experience with it to know for certain.
could you just attach the mesh to the fans themselves? they have screw holes... and are inside the case.
It wouldn't look good because the fans are about 5mm back from the side (they're not touching the side) so it would leave an ugly gap. I've got some "Bond, Power Bond" which is good for; It says I have to mix it and apply it on both surfaces I want to bond (for life) and I have 3 minutes to get it to the right position. Then it takes 4 to 7 minutes to dry. I suppose it's like the epoxy two part glue cobalt6700 was talking about although it doesn't have the components written anywhere.
Optical cover I used an old piece of clear plexi to make the cdrom cover/holder. It's sanded down for a frosty look because it used to be a trendy mouse mat (I just love the way it lights up all red with an optical mouse). The wierd shape is due to the heatsink and one of the screws geting in the way. The red spots are where there'll be screws to hold it down to the motherboard cover. I'll also add a couple of strips of rubber from side to side and two more under it to keep it from vibrating. For now I'll only use the cdrom to install the OS, not sure if it'll be Mandriva or FreeBSD. After that it'll be controlled over ssh and anything else I have to install will just be downloaded. In place. If I end up using this heatsink I might give it more breathing space. If I use another one I'll have to cut the cdrom cover a bit more. Seeing the effect the plexi has with the mouse I'll take advantage of it and have some light in the case with leds, I have blue, red and white. I think that having a couple of leds for the cdrom cover and some more in the lower layer would look cool. I'm thinking two white leds on the left side of the cover (hidden in the aluminium U) would look nice.
if you had a clear divider in the middle it would light up on the outside sooo cool but thats me, plus plexi is fairly expensive will that dark stuff light up atall (you might need a CC tube in it ...)
Hey bAdI, did you ever think of running EL wire down the side of the plexi that is sandwiched between the aluminum? It would provide a consistant amount of light across everything. Just a thought, everything else is looking top notch.
where to fit the inverter is the only problem with that, im not sure how much room there is in the case, but it would be nice if done well.
Got dimensions on the inverter? Im sure there would be an area that it could stuck at. But the only downside would be the EMF that would be created by it. I've seen it keep a system from booting up cause it was too close to a CD-RW. Anyone know how to isolate the EM field created by an inverter?
you use a ferete i believe? small round magnet you place around a cable and it stops a EM field going past it? could be wrong tho.
or you can make a faraday cage, which is a metal mesh cage for the device, make it correctly and volia, no more EMF love the case BTW
that only stops EM fields around the wire a metal cage around the inverter should block all emf out of it ..
hehe, wrap it in tin foil, thats how to prevent certain waves, such as RFID tags... i think i saw it on mythbusters to prevent cell phone signal also, so i assume that it would ave an effect on the emf of the inverter.. worth a shot anyways, cost all of 2c My inverter measures around 1"x1"x4" just guessing, im not sure where its at, but its around those dimensions. I havent opened it, but i asusme its a bit smaller without the plastic case. The onl thing is, is that the inverters on it need to be kept cool, IE moving air, so that would just mess with this case more i think. Personally i think CCFLs would be to much, i mean this is but a file server, so it shouldnt be seen or heard... in my opinion... although a few LEDs spread around might add some subtle glow to it, which IMO would look nicer than a band of eye burning whiteness coming from the center... Im not sure how well the lexan/plexi/w/e will work with the light, but the only way to find out is to try... and if you polish up those edges, it will help a bundle Keep up the good work, and i hope you inish soon.
I was going to get some EL wire this morning but I don't think I could fit one of those "huge" inverters in the case. I've tested the led solution with just one white led. What I get is a glow effect from inside the case but none of the parts are really visible. I'd like the capacitors to really go bling bling but not too bright. After that I just stuck the led in the bottom layer pointing at the capacitors. I got a better effect (sorry, next time I'll use my tripod). I've seen some led sticks in a shop (6 or 7 leds) so I could do something like that to go on the sides of the case (inside). That way I'd get all the details. Kind of worried about power consumption. 1 cdrom drive 1 laptop hdd 3 fans 35mm (one to motherboard, 2 to molex) ? leds Now for some Q&A I could only afford one piece of 50x100cm plexi so I had to decide on clear or smoked. Whent for smoked because it has a more serious look, which is what I want. You got the idea. A little light but I don't want any helicopters landing in my house because they saw a landing light. You can see in the pics (sort off) that it doesn't exactly light up but it lets the light through. Not sure if I've explained myself. I'll take more pics when the rest is ready and I start the final details. Don't worry about the edges, they'll be sanded and polished. Don't want it to look ghetto because it will be in the living room Cheers to the rest of you for your support and information.
how big is the PSU (W wise) it should power all that stuff ok i mean, the HDD and cd drive are laptop versions - so they will be low power consumption and the motherboard isnt exactly a rocket ship i wouldnt have though you could be drawing more then 150W
I had a hard time searching for the data sheet for the e-pc. Hp says it's discontinued. I found it at dooyoo . As I understand it the external power supply gives out 60w and the system as is drains 40w. I used the Mini-box Power Calculator to see how much power I have/need with my setup; Intel Celeron M (closest match) 1 2.5" hdd 1 slim cd-rom 3 40mm fans (closest match) 1 USB device (pendrive from time to time) in Network Mode For a total of 45.6 watts so the dooyoo site is correct. I still have about 15w to spare. Some curiosities; [/list] [*]The hdd swap gives me an extra 10w [*]An EPIA 5000 with the same setup drains 25w (the same as my MB on it's own) [*]If I use it to play mp3 I'll be on the power limit (57w) [/list] Back to the light question; How big would the inverter be taken out of its casing? I have some room in the lower part of the case under the cdrom and hdd which is where I intend to hide all the cables. There's like 1.3 cm (1/2 inch) and it would have the outtake fan near by.
What is the total height of the case? If you were using an inverter like scifi3018 has that measures 1"x1"x4" would you even have the height to put it in? I'm just thinking that the EL wire would look better than LEDs placed throughout.
the nice thing about an EL wire is that it will be an even light source whereas LED's end up with light "patches"
