Scratch Build – In Progress Valve Radio Conversion: Thermionic Logic - 26/01/14

Very nice addition to the base, looks like it was meant to be there all along.

 

^ my words exactly.

Nice job!

 

Very nice project you have here. I love all this kind of retro mods.
Everything coming together really nice.

But now I have to comment on these:

















...I'm speechless.... I would love to live in the place like this.
I can imagine how hard is to get a job over there. Maybe some day I will visit your island
I see it's 400 miles from Glasgow, biggest part of that - 222 miles is via Aberdeen ferry... nice

...and this aurora....

 

Cheers Phinix, it is a stunningly beautiful place (especially when the storms are raging, I LOVE bad weather). Just a pity it's so expensive to get back to civilisation.


Anyway, another small update. Been thinking how best to mount the H80 as the case is getting pretty tight now. Decided to use some of the perforated aluminium I bought for the rejected case back to make a mounting point. May use wood also to surround it and to give stability but I'm not sure it will fit if I do! Cut everything out with the dremel then did all my 'careful' bending using some bits of scrap wood, a couple of clamps and a big mallet! Sprayed it with the usual brass aerosol and voila...

 

Got the magic eye valve VU circuit wired up.

 

You did it! Well done!

 

I see now where you wanted to use those gold case screws . How the hell did I miss this tread .

Great job mate, I'll take time to carefully read the whole thread. I have an unused magic eye too (the bar one). Keep up the good job.

ps: I second Phinix, I'd love to live in a place like that. Civilization is not for me

 

Yeah! Was delighted with how well it worked. Can't fit it in where it needs to be in the case though so further modifications are going to be needed. Thanks for your help.

Thanks very much. This has been more of a learning experience than I ever expected and the project has become much more than I originally imagined. Have Bit-Tech to thank for that!
Shetland is beautiful for sure. Planning on doing a scenic tour for the final photos, whenever I finally do finish that is!

 

Time for another update. Been having some problems recently with joints coming apart and things breaking but hopefully I'm on top of all that again and can start moving forwards once more.

I finally gave up on the AMD CPU route and bought an Asrock Z87M Extreme4 with an I5-4670K to put in it.




Got my mount finished (just about) for the H80. Not sure if this will be sturdy enough in the long run but will try it for the moment and see how we get on.




Didn't like the look of the sticker on the block so made up a brass panel to replace it.






Did a test fit of the components to see how it all went together. Fit was very tight.




...too tight unfortunately! Can't get the ATX cable fitted to the motherboard. Will need to either remove the rear fan, replace the fan with a low profile version or see if I can find a right angle adapter to fit the small gap (can you get such a thing?).




Much happier with the look of the new mobo as well. Coming together slowly!




So does anyone seen any right angle ATX adapters or do you think a low profile fan would be suitable for the job?

 

Hey good to see this up and running again bro,

 

Magic eye is awesome, and the case is looking great overall. The green felt trim is a really nice touch too.

Right angle ATX connectors . . . you'd think they would make such a thing, but I'm only finding right angle receptacles on Mouser. I'm guessing you don't really want to desolder and attach a new receptacle to your mb. You could probably make your own right angle connector though - use little pieces of solid wire with right angle bends to attach to the pins of a standard straight connector, hook those wires up to your power supply wires, then coat the whole mess in epoxy to stabilize it and keep the wires separated.

And I know it's already been mentioned, but wow, what an incredible view from your workshop! I don't think I'd get any work done there though, would be too busy admiring the view

 

Cheers bud, always been running, just sloooowly!

Thanks for the positive comments. Have ordered a slim fan to see how that works first then, if necessary, I'll try to make my own connector. With all the admiration of my surroundings I think an outdoor photo shoot will be in order once I finish this!

 

Thanks for the update. Looking good!

Excuse me for missing this vital piece of info: What is the magic eye going to be used for, except for looking good?

 

Well, quite simply its there to look good!!

Its on a VO circuit so will act as an output volume indicator. For me the magic eye was important to keep or replicate to maintain the feel of the original radio. I may, in future, try to build the circuit Nexxo linked earlier in the thread which uses CPU activity to control the magic eye output.

 

Stunning work !

 

Cheers Andy.

 

Been spending a bit more time working on this now that the festive period is over. Seeing the build nearing completion is also spurring me on to get it finished and in use.


Wanted to make a soft pad for the back of the drive bay to stop the drives rattling against the wood so cut a chunk off of my trusty Razer Goliathus mouse mat and glued on some of my leftover green felt.






With a bit of jiggery pokery I managed to get the cables all connected and squeezed in so that the inner compartment and outer shell could be bolted together for the first time with everything in situ.

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All the electronics are now connected and working, was delighted with how it looked once the dial and magic eye were illuminated.








Inside I have wired up the heater elements of the two decorative valves and added a couple of warm white LEDs to give a little more internal illumination while matching the front dial lighting. Internal lights can be switched on and off via the vandal switch on the side of the cabinet.








Finally some pics with the back panel in place (have left the internal lighting switched on).






All that is left to do is some tidying up underneath, make up a couple of trim panels to cover exposed cabling, make some sort of cover for the magic eye valve base and connect the audio input to the VU circuit controlling the magic eye.

Getting there...

 

Bo
Splendit looking mod my friend

Hope that the weather and the up coming Up Helly Aa wont affect you finishing this little gem

Cheerio fae noo

 

Awesome work mate, so lovely.

 

wow how did I miss this Very nice, love the tubes inside and the eye on front is neat too