Scratch Build – In Progress Project: TinyTux (FINISHED - 10 Jul 07 @ 03:00)

This is looking nice

Have you considered painting the inside of the case instead? It's like having a whole lot of clear-coat for free

 

The VFD has a controller board with it that allows me to hook it to the USB port. But i do know that if you search google, or even these boards, you will surely find the hookup diagram for LPT.

 

Yes, but as I said, i don't like the way plexi scratches easily and, well you have seen how my desk looks

It looks that way more times that its clean

 

I have a question. How did you secure the plexi of those supports to the plexi of the base of the case? glue?

Very nice mod dude. I've been following it closely from the start. I even have it bookmarked

 

I am going to try and use screws if i can find some small enough. Otherwise I won't be able to ever remove the board if i need to.

And thank you

 

Quick text update. (And no, the project didn't die )

I took a bit of a break from this in hopes that I would have gotten to use a lazer cutting machine to recut my pieces. Also I have been working to some what redesign the holder for the drives seeing as how what I made before did not hold .

Any who, I will try to post an update this weekend to show a good deal of progress to this.

 

Where's the updates dude?

 

So sorry. I am in the process of trying to find some one with a mill for an idea I have for mounting the motherboard.

Failing that I am going to have to try to fabricate it manually which might be a bit dificullt.

 

HOLY FRIGGAN UPDATE BATMAN!!!

Ok, for the moment it is only a text update. Once I get home this evening from work I will upload the pics of my current progress.

Unfortunatly, work and every other fascet of real life has been on my shoulders these last few months so i have not been able to get any work done on the case.

But I'M BACK!

I will update this with a bit more info on what I did and what I still need to do later this evening.

(I promise this time)

 

PIC UPDATE!


OK so as promised, here are the pics of where I am at right now. (Not the greatest of pics, but you should get the idea)

After playing with quite a few different ideas for mounting the board, i came across some nylon standoffs at home depot. I then used the "threaded bits" from the original case and hammered them into the standoffs.

I then drilled a hole into the case floor about 1.5 mm into the plexi and just used super glue to hold them in.

Viola, motherboard standoff:



After carefully marking the hole in the board, i repeated the steps for the other stand offs:



And here she is, finally in: (The wires and all are just temporary )



I then desolered one of the 3 usb ports and replaced it with a connector: (the sires are soldered on temporarly to make sure every thing was working)



That is all i have for the moment. I will have to make a new front unfortunatly for two reasons; One being that I'm not to fond of how the edges of the cuts came out and the second being I have to raise the dvd-rom a bit to clear the board.

Stay tuned!

 

Nice work!

 

I really like that, it looks like it'll turn out nice.


H.B.

 

Not happy I missed this before. HAPPY that I just got to read the whole thing at once though.

This is amazing work!

 

still looking great.

more I say!lol

 

Ok, well to start off, Thanks for the great feedback so far, it helps!

Now a few things have changed unfortunatly. I have decided to leave out the DVD drive because I don't really need it and to be honest, I'm not sure its working properly (couldn't boot from it when I needed to recover my password ). This system is going to be a linux server that will have only two cables going to it, power and network. If there ever comes a time I will actually "need" the drive, it won't be hard to pop the top and hook it up.

In taking the drive out, it has caused a need for refrabricating the front, which is a good thing cause I wasn't to happy with the cuts any how. So enough blabering, on with the pics.


After brainstorming for HOURS on a way to mount the VFD screen to the front and not have it mess up the look at all, I finally gave in and am going to settle for some flush mount screwsThey won't be immediatly noticable since I will be painting the plexi black)



Here you can see the stand-offs I used and the clearance between the plexi and the screen (which is needed for VFD's if I remember correctly):



Here you can also see the cable for the screen sleeved and ready to go:




I am sorry that this update is a bit more long winded than before but I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page of what is going on.

I do need some help though, the VFD controller board is going to need +5v extra power. It was originally designed to run off a plug that went between the main power plug from the PSU and the motherboard. I really don't want to sacrifice one of the other USB ports. Do you guys thing it would be a problem to pull off the main coming in and drop the voltage or would that affect the power being drawn by the mainboard?

Any who stay tuned for more to come soon!

And a "Sneak Preview"

 

Can't wait to see the end result. Great job with the soldering. Makes me want to start attacking an old laptop I've got lying around. Keep up the good work.

 

A lot of time and effort and its looking like a top mod duder !!

 

Glad your still at it, as a founder member of the "Startaprojectneverfinish" club I applaud your efforts to push it though, not to mention your eye for detail and craftsmanship.

I await further pictures from the sneak preview (looks like coloured plexi)

 

Nice job and I have a question.

What speed and bit do you use to cut the plexi?

 

First I was using bit 194 High Speed Cutter at about speed 9 and then I found bit 650, 1/8" straight routing, at Walmart for $1 and found that worked much better at about speed 7.

@ Cabe, I have had every intention of finishing, I have just had a hell of a time as of late with work and every thing else.