Scratch Build – In Progress TRON Lightcycle - MotY 3rd Place!

THanks nanosec, John and Alex!

Thanks Tech, the vid cards are quite sturdy, having four screws apiece holding them in, as opposed to just one on the old pci bracket.

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Getting the watercooling system in, running hoses and such. This will be a single loop, running Primochill's new Myriad bay res with D5 pump, going into a custom curved radiator, then thru the components (cpu, chipsets, vid cards) and back to the res. (sorry some pics are a bit blurry)




Here's the custom curved radiator I had made specifically for the TRON bike. There was no room for a conventional 240 rad, so with the help of Moddersmart, I had a curved one made up to take advantage of the available space around the wheel hub. Working in Sketchup, I made a rough model, and sent the specs along with reference pics to them and this is what I got back.







Here's a shot of the mounting method I devised to hold the rad. Two 1/2" square acrylic rods glued in between the two main ribs, one on top and one on the bottom.




And here's the radiator mounted on the bike.


And a shot with the front fairings on with the wheel rings. My goal was to make the radiator act as the front tire for the bike, and I think I achieved that look.


I will need to add some sort of bottom plate to make sure air goes through the rad and not out the bottom. Who knows how well this will cool all the parts, but at this point, who cares! lol

I thought I'd throw in a window shot of the bike. It's finally coming together!


Thanks for tuning in.

 

CURVED RADIATOR!!!

You really are pushing boundaries that much further with this build Brian

The technical concepts alone are just truly mindblowing!

I can't wait to see what else you have tucked up your sleeve

 

Wow, awesome fitting radiator & it looks like a tire in that 2nd to last shot, this is flipping amazing on many occasions throughout the log innovative modding Cheesecake . +rep if I can

 

Also plus rep from me if i havent already given it to you then i have now!

Its great when you see a build coming together piece by piece then from out of nowhere you get the whole picture for the first time, and you can see the design itself instead of the pieces and it blows your mind.... this was one of those moments.. awesome

 

I would've made the radiator differently, as this one seems to be a little bit inefficient.

In 2009 I showed a bent radiator-design for the mnpctech-contest where the tubes were bent and the fins horizontally aligned.



The vertical alignment of your radiator however matches the overall design better, so if it works I guess it's ok.

 

Thanks guys.

@ jrs77- cool rad design! Yeah it will remain to be seen how this one will perform. I may have to add some horizontal fins for more surface area. It's a work in progress, but for the contest, it will have to suffice for now.

Edit: Actually, looking at your rad, wouldn't the horizontal fin configuration hinder airflow at the curve? That was one of the concerns I had that made me go with a vertical fin orientation.

 

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that rad... just... wow!!! mate this mod its looking awesome, what I hate about it its how easy you make it look hahah

+Rep for you

 

Really no words man, you have my ultimate respect.
+rep , +rep, +rep....

Brian my friend can you please give us the mortals some info on the radiator design and how much it costs etc? Also some temp results will be interesting!!
Thanks bro

 

Bod, you topped my cooling setup finally (though it doesn't hurt to say that, this IS cool) but I think I have something hiding in a corner of my lab waiting to see the light that will finally beat this. As well as finally let someone one-up Langer.

You've done amazing work on this, and if you beat me in the contest, I will gladly take my hat off to you. This is superbly executed. And, it's a great idea to begin with. Best of luck in the voting.

 

Thank you Alex, respect is mutual. The rad is all copper, and measures 24" x 5.5" x 1" if it was flattened out. It's quite simple to build really. Just a couple bent tubes with some smaller cross tubes in between. Add some fins and solder it together. I could have done it myself, but there was no time. The job spec'd out at around $300.

As far as performance, It may work horribly and cause the bike to de-rez upon entering the grid, who knows lol. Maybe curved rads are extremely inefficient, which is why nobody makes them. But for this build, it was a good solution. Maybe more so to fit the design than functionality. At any rate, after the contest I will run some tests and see how it does. If I'm taxing it's abilities by running everything on a single loop, I may have to split it up. Not sure if I can fit another rad in there, but the bay res is dual loop capable. It will have to be a wait-and-see.

 

Thanks buddy for all those useful info and for answering all of my questions!!!
Performance wise you might be right. But damn that looks good bro!!
I am looking forward to the tests especially overclocked and full load to see the heat dissipation on that level of stress. I believe that if someone wants to build a good radiator must find the best way to trap and "use" as much air as possible but without limiting the airflow...
Also the flow must be exactly as much as needed to remove the desired heat from water.

Mod on buddy, you rock!

 

The bend I designed there is more then 90° - some 105° actually - so I made the spacing in the bend bigger as you might see. I also wen't with a single tube basically, so that the water has to run though the fins several times.

Looking at the curve of your rad, the spacing isn't a problem there really with horizontal fins. With fins being some 0.5mm and a spacing of 2mm between them, the spacing of the fins will still be some 1mm for the inward facing side.
With your 24" of length that would be some 250 fins round about and much increased surface-area.

The biggest issue with your design might be the very thin tubes, which don't have alot of contact with the fins there. Usually a rad has flattened tubes to increase contact-area with the fins.

So your design might work well, if you increase the amount of fins (thinner material and less spacing) and go with less but bigger tubes between the two main-channels.

 

This is epically cool man. That radiator is the coup de grâc. Good luck in the competition.

 

There are no simply limits to your design!
This is truly the creme de-la-creme of modding.
So happy I can see this brilliant idea (ehh string of brilliant idea`s) come to maturity!
Talk about raising the bar ....
+rep to the max !

 

Dude! That rad is SICK. I hope it works well This is looking awesome!

 

Faaaaaaaantastic!

 

Bloody hell that is spectacular!

Fantastic work as ever Bod, keep it up.

 

As wasnt that a winner from start on that rad now pushed it to "where no man has gone before".

+rep

 

Pushing the boundaries one update at a time!

Man I love Tron..... Presses play / repeat all on soundtrack