I have a what now!?

I have a blog... type... thing...! I forgot all about it. Well, almost. I came back to get some info for formatting my macbook - list of apps and tweaks and so on, you know, the mostly usueless info to most people but I did record it for a reason. That's beside the point though.

Wait, what was the point again? Oh right! I HAVE A BLOG!!! I don't know what to do with it really though. From what I understand, people use personal style blogs to keep people up to date about their lives. I don't know if I really use this for that. I've tried and get bored of it. Besides, Facebook status updates are easier of that and I'm sure a lot of people out there will agree. I've heardt that Twitter is pretty good too and similar but I don't see the point.

Anyway, I'll decide later. Point is: I have a blog!

Alpine Carputer - Part 13

I am originally posting this project on the Overclockers Australia (OCAU) forums) in this thread:
Specific Hardware Topics > Modding > Alpine Caputer. This is post #70.

This project made the front page of OCAU! (direct link)

After hearing that MSG LED is actually NOT for network connections and is almost identical to PWR LED (thanks HellTaxi), I dug this out for a test:

BUT IT DIDN'T WORK!!! So, not willing to just accept that, I got this one out and gave it a shot:

Both of them are pretty old and were pulled out of a case that was scrapped a long time ago. This is why I tried the second one, just in case the first one had died somehow. Anyway, point is: THE SECOND ONE WORKED!!! So now I can get on with the power LED idea :) Well... after I get the LED... I'll have to come back to this later.

Now, even though I had the 2 brass motherboard stand-offs held firm by the metallic cement, I noticed that when I the amp casing upside down, the board comes loose down the bottom so I have to do something about that! My first thought was these:

I don't want to add too much height though so out with the knife aaaand:

This doesn't add any height whatsoever but still holds it down. Now, to attatch it, out comes Selleys Liquid Nails:

Bonding the modified stand-offs to the electrical-tape-covered surface probably wouldn't be a good idea so I put the motherboard into position and secured it down with the existing stand-offs. After this, I grabbed a pacer (from my old school supplies, much like my Coca Cola ruler... Product placement anybody??) and extended the lead so that I could make a mark through bottom mounting holes. I then went over it with Sharpie which seems to make it reflect a bit better under light:

I then cut the tape back around these marks:

The mounts went into the bottom mounts of the board:

A little bit of liquid nails, pressed it down and tried to get the motherboard off. Unfortunately, it hadn't quite set yet and the stand-offs came off with the board BUT this gave me a good look at the positioning of the holes I had cut. They weren't right! They were too small and a bit off so I made them a bit bigger:

And this is how they sit now:

So, they're still not perfect. They sit slightly on the edge of the holes in the electrical tape but the most contact between the stand-offs and amp housing is in middle of the holes so I'm not worried about it pulling the electrical tape now.

It's been setting overnight but apparently Liquid Nails is supposed to take 24hrs to a few days to set fully so I haven't put the motherboard back on yet.

I've also ordered the following parts from DealExtreme:

CF to IDE Adapter (DMA Support)
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.09304

2.5in to 3.5in Harddisk Convertor
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.02246

SD Card to IDE Adapter
Floppy Drive style power connector
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.01698

USB 2.0 Black Slim Aluminum Four-Port Hub
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.09722

Translucent Bluetooth 2.0 USB Dongle (Support XP/Vista Native BT Stack)
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11143

Hi-Gain 802.11G USB Wifi Dongle for PC and Wii / PSP / NDS
NOT selected for Wii, PSP or NDS use but because it has an external antenna socket AND runs off USB
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.05858

Looking forward to getting them!

Alpine Carputer - Part 11 and 12

I am originally posting this project on the Overclockers Australia (OCAU) forums) in this thread:
Specific Hardware Topics > Modding > Alpine Caputer. This is posts #55 and #56 .

It's been good to have a day off and just work on this!

I've had to re-stick the nuts onto the side pieces. This time I've used more metallic cement around the images:

I took into account the holes that will be cut off later to save myself some time. So, this is how it sits now:

So, first try with the nuts didn't work so well but the motherboard stand-offs held really well:

Held firm! Moving on. The screw holes on the amp housing for the lid (not the sides) also need raising. It's a little bit hard to stick those on the amp housing though so instead, I decided to mount it on the lid itself.

First up, it needed some cleaning to get those labels off (you do the math).

And then the actual work I set out to do to begin with:

Next up was some attempted neatening of the dried metallic cement. A little bit of experimentation with sandpaper came up with the sandy coloured one working best (see pic). Here are the results:

It didn't work very well... Kind of hard to work with in such a small amounts so next idea, just for those that might be visible (sides and lids, forget the stand-offs): COVER IT UP!

Lots of sanding first to get to this:

A tonne of masking tape...

Post-spray:

It looks pretty good. I think I'll sand the whole thing back and do the whole thing over later.

Now, moving on the the backplate. Seeing as I don't have a Dremel yet, I've just lined it up the side with the back of the motherboard and marked it off for cutting. I got it wrong the first time though...

I've got an idea of where to cut the backplate but haven't marked it just yet. I also broke off one of these little tabs:

So I just broke them all off and problem solved!

That's it for now. Not quite sure what I'm going to do next but I'll figure it out shortly.

Alpine Carputer - Part 10

I am originally posting this project on the Overclockers Australia (OCAU) forums) in this thread:
Specific Hardware Topics > Modding > Alpine Caputer. This is post #46.

I was able to get some supplies today seeing as shops were open (Selleys metallic cement, electrical tape and some screws with nuts):

The metallic cement is great stuff! I used it for a few things.

Putting the motherboard stand-offs in place:

It doesn't look very neat but I'll wait until it's fully set until I try to neaten it up. I might wait for the Dremel as well so I can use the sanding tools from that. Anyway, after I'd finished this, I noticed that the electrical tape seems to have shrunk!? I'm assuming this was because I stretched the tape out when I applied it the first time around.

So I peeled it all off. I noticed the packet on the metallic cement says it fills holes so before applying electrical tape again, I filled the holes (before and after shots).

After that, I applied the electrical tape again (maybe I should have waited for the stuff to dry but I'm a little bit impatient).

I also filled in 2 of the holes in the middle (before and after shots again):

Now for the nuts and screws. These are for the holes on the sides to raise the back cover. The holes for these screws were too small so I had to increase them by gradually working my way up through 3 different drill bit sizes (again, before and after plus the metal shavings aftermath):

The holes are too big to hold the screws in now but that's fine because I want to use the screws and nuts for this anyway. For this, out comes the metallic cement again. I screwed the nuts onto the end of a screw, applied the metallic cement, stuck it on, held it while I got the screw it and scraped the excess away with a toothpick before it dried. The first application didn't have quite enough of the cement (second pic). I learnt after the first one though.

So here's all 6 of them on now:

Now I'm just waiting for it all to set. The instructions say a few hours to overnight depending on the thickness. It's only been an hour or 2 so I'll leave it a little bit longer.

Now that I think about it... one of those 6 nuts that I cemented on wasn't necessary... That part of the side is going to get cut away to make way for the backplate. Ah well, good practice anyway.

I'll have to do a bit of spacing work to figure out where everything is going to fit now. There is nowhere near as much space that I was thinking there would be! I don't know how I'm going to work it yet...

Alpine Carputer - Part 09

I am originally posting this project on the Overclockers Australia (OCAU) forums) in this thread:
Specific Hardware Topics > Modding > Alpine Caputer. This is post #43.

Just a little bit of bits and pieces taken care of today. Shops weren't open so I couldn't go out and buy any supplies...

I've read around on the internet that the fan grill on the top of the CPU cooler causes a bit of noise when the fan runs so off it goes:

It will give me a few mm more clearance anyway and who knows, maybe I can use this for something later:

Looking at the old inner parts of the amp, I noticed these:

I'd like to use these to get power into the housing later so I powered up the good ol soldering iron and tried to get them off. That didn't work so well... (have a look at the joins for the one on the left... I only really scraped it, nothing helpful!)

I'll have to wait until I get the Dremel and cut the joins on the back:

I'm not sure if it's also glued to the PCB as well but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Next order of business is some testing. I grabbed a 256Mb DDR400 RAM stick from one of my other computers and put it in. Problem is, it might be a bit too tall!! (Photos may not show this very well but I've tried...)

The top still fits on though. I'm still thinking of getting nuts to raise the base as it's indented anyway so it should still sit flat when mounted. If anyone knows where to buy lower profile RAM sticks, let me know! Not that I have the money to buy that just yet but for when the time comes.

I connected it up using just the 20pin ATX connector of one of my spare machines:

I used a screw driver to power it up (just between the 2 power switch pins):

There doesn't seem to be a power LED connector though! That could be a problem...

First boot:

IT WORKS!!! But that logo... No thanks:

So there we go. Not much but all needed to be done. It's also good to know that it's not shorting out after the application of the electrical tape. I should be able to get some more done tomorrow once I can go and get some supplies.

Alpine Carputer - Part 08

I am originally posting this project on the Overclockers Australia (OCAU) forums) in this thread:
Specific Hardware Topics > Modding > Alpine Caputer. This is post #42.

Well, I was going to have a quiet night but I couldn't resist so... Here's the electrical taping!

The tape, well, what's left of it:

The taping (layer 1) with the ends of the tape neatened up:

Taping the step-down area of the casing (application and neatened):

Wasn't too happy with the second side but I've run out of black electrical tape :( So, moving on!

I had to slice through where the 2 screw holes I'm using are and then put screws through them to open the holes up through the tape:

Didn't work so well... Over time this is going to take the tape off:

So cut out tape around the holes and problem solved!

Neatened up around this dip. No idea why because nobody's really going to see it!

Putting it back together, looks like the tapes push the sides up slightly. Putting screws in it makes it good though:

Here is how the board sits on top of the tape now:

I've noticed that only the plastic that holds the PCI slot onto the board is the only thing that touches the tape so maybe it wasn't an entirely necessary process but at least it'll give some protection if it gets bumped, squashed or would come in contact with the amp casing in any way.

Now, I've decided to go with the proper, screw-in, brass(???) motherboard stand-offs so I installed them with screws onto the board and put it in the case. Looks like it actually now sits flat. It must've been sloped down before and I didn't notice because these stand-offs are definitely taller than the other ones.

Photos probably don't show that too well... Anway, now that it's level, it sits a bit above the top of the side:

Top still fits on though so I might be safe!I might have to add some nuts on top of the screw holes to push it up a little bit. That could help with ventilation anyway.

So there we go... So much for an easy/early night... Next (small) step is to attach the stand-offs to the amp housing. Probably just use huge blobs of glue to keep it in place... Maybe solder?? I don't know if that will work though. Hmmm...

Edit: Come to think of it, solder's just for wires isn't it... scrap that idea!

Alpine Carputer - Part 07

I am originally posting this project on the Overclockers Australia (OCAU) forums) in this thread:
Specific Hardware Topics > Modding > Alpine Caputer. This is post #41.

Well, look what arrived today!

Came packaged like so (dunno why.. maybe I'm going just a little bit over the top with this recording thing :Paranoid:):

Looks like it fits!

AH CRAP!!!

So now... I'm wondering whether to cut the side of the casing to fit the ports or just take it off altogether and make something else up. This would be along with the original back plate (cut up to fit). I can't do any of that (well, not so easily) before I get a Dremel so on to positioning.

I've got stand-offs for the top of the board but have the bottom just sitting on the casing. Unfortunately it didn't quite sit flat:

And here's why:

They're the screws for the LED mount. So I'll take them out and probably glue it in place. Now it sits flat:

Now, this is the area where the bottom of the motherboard rests:

I have to stop the bottom of the board making contact with the casing. This has to be done without adding any extra height now that I have it right where I want it! This rules out using more stand-offs or even putting something like a small strip of perspex in there. I have no way of holding the board down so I can't push it into something either. This rules out double-sided tape or foam or anything of the like. So my current thought: Electrical tape.

I'll cover the whole area with 1 or 2 layers of electrical tape to stop the motherboard making contact with the bare metal.

I may have a problem fitting too much else in here now! :Paranoid:

I'll also have to address how to fix the motherboard stand-offs. I'll probably glue the plastic ones I'm using now down to the amp casing. Alernatively I may drill down into the casing and screw in the metal ones that you get with new cases. That'll be easier to take the board or stand-offs out later but then I run the risk of drilling through the housing.

So, that's where I'm up to now... Plenty to do, many more parts to get but a huge step forward now that I actually have the board. Thanks to everyone who's following this :D I'll be back when I have done more.