ZapWizard's LAN PC -Custom Ammo PC -Completed Jan 18 '04

Hey zapwizard...do you ever plan on selling it? or is it sold? I saw this case a while back ago and i decided to get my own ammo case...lol the project stopped there. Please send me an email later about selling it and if you have any advice on how to build this... crazyman_130@yahoo.com Thanks man...the case is really really cool

 

I have had quite a few offers, but I have no plans on selling, or making a new one.

 

Imagine how much money you could make selling stuff. Respect to you for not selling, it means everything you do is unique and yours only, but the cash! You could make thousands upon thousands of dollars.

 

where did you get that shell ammo box from?

 

Number 1 question:
Number 1 Answer: www.colemans.com

 

do you use a regular soldering iron to solder stuff to the mobo or do you use a battery operated soldering iron?

I heard that regular irons that plug into the wall carry a bit of static that could potentially harm the mobo.

 

not if you have a good soldering station that has a ground outlet which when conencted to for example the outlet ground will ground all static from the tip of the soldering iron.

 

not if you have a good soldering station that has a ground outlet which when conencted to for example the outlet ground will ground all static from the tip of the soldering iron.

 

Any soldering iron designed for electronics work is designed to not damage semiconductors.

 

I use a Weller brand grounded soldering iron:
http://www.zapwizard.com/Electronics/Electronics_iron.html

I also have a Loner auto-tempature controlled iron, but the tip is worn.
(Also grounded)

As far as damaging an IC on a motherboard, it depends on how hot your iron is, and how long you keep it on the part.

 

Zapwizard, first off, great mod.

I have some questions about that bomb keyboard you modded. First off, I am assuming that the "membrane" of the keyboard is the soft rubber layer that is two layers below the keys.

I got lost when you "masked" the keyboard, as I believe you put it. Did you cut most of the plastic above the membrane in order to the light to shine through? If this is what you did, does that mean that the keys are sitting on a soft rubber membrane? How is that to type, do the keys even bounce back.

I know that I must be missing something in this mod. If you could please explain how you did this, and if you have time, I guide would be greatly appreciated. (I know that this is the incorrect thread, but I was here, so I thought I would post it).

Thanks in advance.

 

The keyboard was translucent green on the topside.
The keys sit on a clear membrain, that touches a flexible, clear electrical layer.
The last layer is made out of green PCB like material, you can see it as the green stuff in this image:




This is the only solid surface that would block light.

In the next few steps I made replacements for the PCB material out of plastic.
(Explained here: http://www.zapwizard.com/lanpc/keyboard/ )



Here you can see the plastic backplates that give the stiffness, and the clear electrical layer.
The keyboard works exactly the same as it did before, with the keys poping back up as they should.

As far as masking, this image shows the keyboard after I painted it.



What I did was to tape off the area's directly under the keys.
I then painted the rest of the keyboard black.
The result was that they area under the keys is left translucent, while the rest blocks light.

 

Okay, I think I get it now. In order to do this mod, the membrane (the layer directly below the keyboard as far as I can tell) has to be translucent to begin with. The average Logitech or M$ keyboard would not work. Thank you for the help. Keep up the good work ZapWizzle.

 

I have a 30watt iron that simply plugs(2 prongs, no grounding prong) into the wall but what I was worried about was static.

 

does your soldering iron happen to be the brand CFH ? (ls 30w) if so (i have the same one) it has a small hole in the front plate simply plug a small metal rod in there that you connect to a ground and that's bout it.

 

You need a significant amount of static electricity to damage an IC. Rubbing it on a carpet a few times wouldn't necessary kill it. I doubt a metal soldering iron would do any damage at all to components. I've never had a problem with static electricity. You should be more concerned about the temperature of the iron damaging the components.

 

no, its a radioshack iron
edit:
this one: http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog_name=CTLG&product_id=64-2067

2nd edit: btw, I wont be soldering to any of the ic parts, just some plugs.

 

First of all, congratulations on designing the best case I have ever seen and winning all of those competitions. Secondly, how did you get the key to work for the case?

 

Thanks,

The keylock switch runs this relay:


The relay is DPDT, and allows me to switch both a +12volt and +5volt connection.
------------
The +5volt runs the USB ports, so when the key is turned, the USB no longer gets power.


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The +12volts runs the fans, so when the key is turned the fans all go to 100% power, and the fan controller is disabled.


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Finaly the keyswitch itself has a ground connection, when turned it cuts off the ground wiring to the funtion switches, killing the Power, Reset, and Eject buttons.

 

Hi Zap, loving this case. Just out of interest, re: your last post - if the key switch works by killing power to the USB ports, would it be a theoretical possibility to overcome the security by running a keyboard and mouse into a USB hub with separate PSU, then plugging the powered USB hub into the unpowered port on your machine? Or does the uplink from even a powered USB hub require bus power? In that case, would it be possible to hack together a device, using a USB extension lead and a suitable battery / power adapter, thereby bypassing your security?