Planning The GuilleAcoustic design thread

I was thinkink of an arduino-nano + servo motor shield. The whole circuit powered via USB (one of the mobo internal header)

Edit : Here is what the controlboard would look like (and an example of arduino build http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/StepperUnipolar)

 

I just resolved the position detection problem. I found a linear magnetic potentiometer. Its value depends on the position of a magnet, which one will be attached to the mobile part.



I can then set the motor speed regarding to the pot value (the sensor mesures 21cm and has a 10Kohms resistance).

Here is the Arduino Nano :



and the DC motor shield (it can power/control 2 servo-motors up to 2A) :

 

That's a decent idea, working with those three parts and an attached servo-motor. Compact, small and very robust in terms of hardware.

 

Thanks . I was thinking of that kind of servo-motor : http://en.nanotec.com/linearactuatingdrive_41.html



Nanotec's linear motors have a threaded axis, thus transforming rotation into translation with not much effort .

I have to find one with the good length.

EDIT: I'll definitly consider Nanotec products. They do have stepper motors on which you attach a threaded spinddle and a threaded nut. Accurate linear positioning and easy to build.

 

Hi guys,

here are my tonights experiments. I finaly tested sketchyphysics (a physic simulation plugin for SU) to test wether or not my in-dash flip-up motorized LCD mechanism was good or not.

Good news, it works very well . Here is a quick animation made with SU + Sketchyphysic



The model is really basic and I have to refine everything now, but it works. The mechanism resides in a single linear actuator that push / pull a caddy. The LCD has a hinge which follow a path simply milled inside a acrylumimetalsheetofpaper-orwathevercoulditbe

The actuator will be controlled by a Arduino nano module (using only 4 pins), the speed will be controlled thanks to a magnetic linear potentiometer and a magnet attached to the LCD caddy.

Time to design the WHOLE mechanism (caddy + everything) and to order an arduino kit to start experimenting and coding.

Hope you like it

Stay tuned

 

Hi there,

I was thinking about something. I'll have an unused PCIe connector on this lovely Intel board. Since this build will be oriented for lab use (developpement, robotics, audiophile electronic, etc.) and I thought a low profile PCIe DAQ (DAta acQuisition) card would be better than a USB oscilloscope.

I'm used to work with National Instrument PXI chassis and their DAQ card, but they are far too expensive for me.

I took a look at this card : http://www.vecow.com/product-info.php?id=28



I requested a price from vecow but I'm waiting for them to reply. Does anyone of you work with DAQ card ? Could you advise me an affordable one ? I'm mostly looking at analog inputs. Analog outputs could be nice to generate signals, but isn't mandatory. Digital input can be routed on analog ones and then been software treated.

 

Just out of curiosity...

What the hell are you doing there at home that requires that kind of equipment?

 

Robotics and audio amp. I was working in real-time embedded computing before I switched for a new job. My job was to developp the software driving High speedway train, so massive use of DAQ card.

I used my free time to developp an oscilloscope software around National Instrument using OpenGL to display everything using the gpu.

I need an oscilloscope for my audio amp build, and it costs as much as an entry-level DAQ card (and tbh I only need 2 analog channels with edge triggering).

I'm also starting a project with a friend using arduino (a drone, but bigger than the parrot one, it can lift 5kg). It can already take off, land and lift 5Kg, have to work on the stabilization while in motion (hard to manage the 4 rotors).

Plus I'm sharing the "house" computer with my wife .... I'd really like to have my own one when she's doing girl stuff (facebook, Dr WHO forum, peoples, etc. )

Edit : and to be honest, I miss industrial computing, even of I really love my new job.

Edit2 : I'm looking for a DAQ card around 200/300 euros, do not need 32 analog inputs

 

GuilleAcoustic - That is some amazing rendering work, truly beautiful.

 

Thanks a lot, but they are just Sketchup 2D export (mostly screenshot with simple shadows and anti-aliasing). But I appreciate a lot your compliment

 

Since I can barely sleep due to an overactive brain ... here is another thing I had in mind. This could be a compromise between gaming rig and workstation.

It is based on a half-SSI form factor dual CPU board (like Asus or Tyan ones). It can house 2x Opteron 61xx series or 2x Xeon 56xx series. It has 6 SATA 3.0Gbps, 5 USB2.0 (including 1 onboard USB), 3 Gigabit LAN and 1 PCIe.



Here is the innards layout (including a 480mm rad with 8 fans in push/pull configuration



And now my firsts attemps at dressing it :


(dark theme with horizontal blades)


(light theme with horizontal blades)


(light theme with vertical blades)

There's still a lot of work ahead to refine the design, but this is a conceptual case to build a reduced foot-print rig with dual 12-cores / 12-threads Opteron or dual 6-cores / 12-threads Xeon and a gaming GPU (here a HD5870, since this is what I own ).

Hope you like the concept . I had several idea around those monolithic designs and I'm feeling like creating the Monolith family (each with a dedicated purpose). Stay tuned to see them side by side

 

I love the monolith case designs and this one is fantastic with the perfect board!

 

ooh. I like that setup. Kinda reminds me of Slipperyskip's Unidyne.

 

OMG! Those motherboards exist?!? That is perfect for the designs I've been playing with!

 

Thanks a lot. I really like slik, thin, vertical designs. I have around 10 monolith designs cooking. I'll show them a little later. I just can say that it goes from the very compact desktop monolith up to the human sized one. They will all have a dedicated purpose (monolith@work, gaming monolith, render farm, entertainment center ... maybe the craziest one). I'm also thinking about having them manufactured ... but that's another episode

Thanks mate. I do not know that one, I'll take a look.

As far as I'm aware (and I spent quite a few hours searching the web), only Tyan and Asus make such boards.

Dual Xeon 5500 series boards :

Tyan S7018 : http://www.tyan.com/product_SKU_spec.aspx?ProductType=MB&pid=655&SKU=600000056

Asus Z8NH-D12 : http://www.asus.com/Server_Workstation/Server_Motherboards/Z8NHD12/

Dual Xeon 5600 series boards :

Asus Z8PH-D12/IFB : http://www.asus.com/Server_Workstation/Server_Motherboards/Z8PHD12IFB/#overview

Dual Opteron 6100 series boards :

Asus KGNH-D16 : http://www.asus.com/Server_Workstation/Server_Motherboards/KGNHD16/

I mention the basic boards only. Asus propose the same board with a InfiniBand connector which cost the same price than the boards.

InfiniBand (40Gb/s) boards :

Asus Z8PH-D12 SE/QDR : http://www.asus.com/Server_Workstation/Server_Motherboards/Z8PHD12_SEQDR/

Asus KGNH-D16 : http://www.asus.com/Server_Workstation/Server_Motherboards/KGNHD16/

I found them for around 350€ ... but are not very easy to find. Some of the Asus ones are discontinued, but can still be found. I really fell in love with those uncommon boards and I'd like to give them a try (if the budget is here of course ... at least design and dreams are free and safe ).

 

Tyan S7018 is available for €284 in France -> http://www.ldlc-pro.com/fiche/PB00097958.html

And I checked, that they sell to end-users aswell

EDIT: The same shop sells matching intel XEON E5504 (4 cores) for €190 a piece -> http://www.ldlc-pro.com/fiche/PB00118660.html or the intel Xeon E5645 (6 cores) for €440 -> http://www.ldlc-pro.com/fiche/PB00111291.html

EDIT2: The Asus-boards are really hard to track down and aswell they're more expensive, especially the AMD-boards.

 

I love this shop (ldlc), this is where I buy all my parts. sadly ldlc-pro is for professional (you should have a corporate serial). Their price then exclude vat. Ldlc is for end user and have the exect same products, just 19% more expensive. The tyan retails at 339€ for end user at ldlc.com ... this is a good price me think.

 

Don't forget Supermicro...

 

Didn't see this problem as I've got a corporate ID. But still it's the best price I could find within some 30 minutes.

They don't have the half-SSI formfactor available, which we're searching for tho.

 

It's ok, and very thanks for having search. Even at 339€ it isn't expensive compared to some more "mainstream" x58 boards like said extreme range, gigabyte ud7, etc

I thought they didn't, but I checked some of their proprietary size and they offer similar products

www.supermicro.co.uk/products/motherboard/QPI/5500/X8DTG-DF.cfm

WWW.supermicro.co.uk/products/motherboard/QPI/5500/X8DTT-IBQF.cfm

www.supermicro.co.uk/products/motherboard/QPI/5500/X8DTT-IBQ.cfm

www.supermicro.co.uk/products/motherboard/QPI/5500/X8DTT-IBXF.cfm