Project Goliath - 70+ pounds of H2O goodness!

[starbuck3733t]

The circuit for the ICCB is DONE as far as the design is concerned. The board layout, that's a different story. I'm going to have a hard time fitting all of this stuff on the board size I have to fit it on unless I go to SMT (surface mount) components. My regular place of buying stuff might carry it, and it'll be smaller but it might not be too much fun to solder it. We'll see I suppose.

So, teaser

Integrated Chassis Control Board
Preliminary (Unchecked) Schematic Preview


A N D I N E E D I D E A S
...On how to combine the light from 2 or more LEDs into a single piece of plastic optical fiber for my front indicators, a preview of which was seen before in the thread, and is seen again below.


I'd prefer to keep the LEDs on the PCB ofr the chassis control board, but i've got no idea how to get 3 or more LEDs "light" into a piece of fiber. I got my fiber from hacking up spare TOSLINK optical cables (bought a buttload of them for this purpose for cheap @ compgeeks last year). Ideas?

[greenman100]

use a single tricolor LED

[starbuck3733t]

Won't work, I want blue, white, and red as my colors. That means I need combinations of the colors available from the RGB LED, and therefor additional circuirty to determine what colors to turn on. It would up the chip count too high to do this, even using i^2c PWM chips. That would be 3 of those chips per multi color indicator! ack!

[starbuck3733t]

Arright, perfection takes time. I'm nuking the ICCB in its current state (all the logic and optocouplers driving the status leds) in favor of a 2nd PIC 16F872 to do the lighting control. Fsck me, I can't believe I'm this anal?

Or is it: fsck me I can't believe I'm this detail oriented :wacko:

Anybody know if the 3m heavy duty tape will...
- stick to powdercoat strong enough to hold on ~ 2 pounds of plastic + a foot of stainless steel hinge?
- stick plexi together to the point where there's no way in hell it'll ever move?

[ReFredzRate]

Hey mate, I've seen you pop up around Bit-Tech several times. Haven't seen this project on their forums though. The actual reason I subscribed to these forums is to tell you how sweet this project actually is. Mod on!

[starbuck3733t]

It's in project logs on bit-tech too, man. Same title and everything. lemme know if you want me to dig up a link. Thank you very much for the compliments, they make it all worth it along with the satisfaction of the project.

[ReFredzRate]

Think I must have read over it on there than... I'll have a search on bit-tech Thanks!

[starbuck3733t]

VFD Playing Animations (532KB, Divx 5.1.1)

Clicky for video

[starbuck3733t]

The software that drives the display was written in VB.NET (.NET framework v1.1), and the GIFs themselves were ganked from Pioneer's (the audio folks) website, reduced to 2 colors (they were 3) and resaved in animated gif format.

I've written the whole thing as an extensible architecture so I can easily add plugins down the way, with the low-level stuff of writing to the display and rotating the plugins handled by the main program. The plugin just has to produce a 128x64 bitmap when its polled for a frame. Here's the source for the 'clock' plugin. The "it is now" text is a variable that can be passed in upon plugin creation, so thats why you don't see it anywhere.

PluginTextTest.vb:
-----------------------
Namespace Plugins
    Public Class pluginTextTest
        Inherits Plugins.PluginBase

#Region "Globals"
        Dim _screen As Screen
        Dim _notepad As New Bitmap(128, 64)
        Dim _note As String
        Dim _g As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(_notepad)
        Dim _font As New Font("Arial", 8, FontStyle.Bold)
#End Region

#Region "Subs"
        Public Sub New(ByVal Note As String)
            _note = Note
        End Sub
        Private Sub buildScreen()
            _g.Clear(Color.Black)
            _g.TextRenderingHint = System.Drawing.Text.TextRenderingHint.SingleBitPerPixelGridFit
            _g.DrawString(_note & Date.Now.ToString("hh:mm:ss"), _font, New SolidBrush(Color.White), 0, 27)
            _screen = New Screen(_notepad, False)
        End Sub
#End Region

#Region "Stuff to talk to the interface"
        Public Overrides Function GetRefreshedScreen() As Screen
            buildScreen()
            Return _screen
        End Function
        Public Overrides ReadOnly Property PollInterval() As Integer
            Get
                Return 1000
            End Get
        End Property
        Public Overrides ReadOnly Property RotateInterval() As Integer
            Get
                Return 5000
            End Get
        End Property
        Public Overrides ReadOnly Property Screen() As Screen
            Get
                Return _screen
            End Get
        End Property
        Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
            Return "Text Test: " & _note
        End Function
#End Region
    End Class
End Namespace

Pretty simple

(Did I mention the main program is multithreaded?!?!? )

The next one on the plugins list is the Speedfan and system stats screen, that should be a real monster

[starbuck3733t]

Begin Encrypted Message: Cebwrpg Ybt Flfgrz unf orra pbzcebzvfrq, unpxrq ol Evpuneq Chtu! Jbexfubc vagehfvba unf orra qrgrpgrq!

Me: What the HELL is going on here

My intrusion detection system caught this single, fascinating frame:

Original: De-noised:
Inverse Gausianned:
It appears that this scallywag broke into my house and was spying on my project!

Forensic examination of a SmartMedia card left behind at the scene yielded the following.

EXIF Comment: Strange box that arrived at the MRI - with Starbuck's name on it. I could feel the energy radiating from the box, calling me, begging me to open it. "You must open me, fear not!"


EXIF Comment: I looked closer, the box appeared to be from the magical land of plexi and laser cutting, but the box may hold a curse too.


EXIF Comment: The cursed box's powers were simply too strong, I had to open it!


EXIF Comment: The box began radiating a strange glow, followed by a low, rumbling, vibration. Startled, I dropped it.



EXIF Comment: I am terrified.. The box continues to rumble, and slowly unwrapped itself, revealing its cursed cargo... I am terrified, I must leave!


End forensic evidence. I was greeted by the box, looking harmless, spread open on my office floor when I arrived home one day. It appears that the spy felt the impending curse which I was blind to seeing at the time, and fled the scene. I was very excited to see my hardwork embodied in 1/4" and 1/8" thick plexi, so I began to test fit the pieces.

The baseplate tapped in place with modeller's masking tape.


Perfect fit, my dimensions were dead on. The sides, top, and bottom all line up perfectly



The outer plate for the new front bezel, wrapped lovingly in plastic, still with its own plastic cover sheet intact.


The top and bottom plates taped into place over the baseplate. The top plate will stay as-is and the bottom plate will be glued to the baseplate, and painted to match the rest of the case.


Flashless shot.


Close up, flashless shot. The spot for the CDRW tray will be filled with matching plastic, but the bottom part of the panel needs to be recut. The slot for the DVD-ROM and hole for the CDRW were placed too high by about 500e^-6 m. No big deal there.

[starbuck3733t]

To the basement!
When making modifications to the housing involving drilling, dremmeling, or anything else that makes a huge mess, its a good idea to gut the system. Yes, I left the mobo and radiator and PSU intact for now - I'll be blowing everything out with compressed air before reassmbly.


Remember the rear faults in the powder coating that made the backside so damn ugly? Well... we'll cure that.



Laser cut 'acrylic fowlup cover and dressup plate' with custom etching (you guys will LOVE the etching ) In place, protective film on, holes marked for the centers.


Holes drilled in plexi and case, case tapped with 8-32, and plexi cover attached with black headcap screws. The plexi is a bit darker than that, but the flash washed it out. Quite difficult to photograph.


Money shot #1


Money shot #2 (SUP GUYS!?)


Money shot #3 (SUP GUYS!?)


Tapping the holes for the power plate after marking and drilling them. (forgot to photograph it for the top version)


Installed and held in place with headcap screws. (Ignore all the dirt inside the case, its mostly powder from drilling through the jbweld - it'll be cleaned before reassembly)

[starbuck3733t]

Money shot #1 (stupid ISO 100 equivalent camera!)


Money shot #2


BIG Money shot #2 (the crinkle coat powde coat and the plates look AWESOME together!)


Now, if I only had a door...OR the curse of Zittware strikes home... maybe the spy was right?
One small problem with mounting a hinge on the front of the case...


...Cured by judicious use of the Dremel!


12" of 304 stainless steel hinge (to be powdercoated in the future) aligned with tape to hold it, then clamped to be drilled.


Lower hole drilled through both sides of hinge, and case. (9/64" for the headcap screws) Damn stainless is hard stuff!


Hole in the top half to match (I couldn't put it in the same place as the bottom (2 knuckles in from the end) because there's no case structure underneath it to drill into/tap to hold it.


Drilled hinge setup in my big drillpress, 5/32" hole to be drilled (so that the 9/64" headcap screw can pass easily through it)


Size difference.

[starbuck3733t]

Case has been tapped with 8-32 tap, hinge attached!


Hinge lines up perfectly with the ouside edge of the sheet metal... but one small problem (which I anticipated) -- it can't close all the way!


Problem solved, mill a portion of the stainless out for the headcap to protrude through, and mill same relief hole in the baseplate. Everything closes up nice...




As I was milling out the groove for the hinge knuckle to ride in, diaster struck. Not because I dropped it, but because I was cranking the X axis and not watching where the work was going. I cranked it into the pillar on my millpress rig, and then a sickening SNAP. The spy was right, the parts are cursed.


DOAH!

No one was harmed in this update, and the damaged pieces will be recut. Until next update, my fellow modders in arms...

[bigben2k]

Nice handy work! I'm in the middle of my case mods too, so I can also appreciate the mess that it can make...

[starbuck3733t]

Thanks BB - what are you up to? Something insane like MMZ's system revision?

[starbuck3733t]

Touch Board Key Construnction

We all remember this thing - the touch control board. Also remember how ugly it is. Why? because the keys are ugly and there's no hiding the subunit anywhere... not a problem anymore. I've got to do something while I wait on a response from Ben @ mountainmods.


Raw 1" plexi cylinder arrives @ my house from the land of ..well... everything. McMaster-Carr, what DON'T they sell?


Setting the fence on my bandsaw to 3/4" for each 'key' section of the cylinder. This appears to be (by imperical investigation) the approximate best length for LED light spread of the blue and white LEDs I'm using. Any shorter and the light is too intense, any longer and the light is concenrated in the middle (bad as you'll see later)


4 keys cut. Note that these went for a little ride on the belt sander after these shots



My ingenious way of marking the center of a circle... I got lucky that the label on the solder was symeteric and had a line down the center of it. so I put a piece of tape on the key to be marked, marked one line, rotated, marked another. Boom, where the lines cross is the center.




Key secured in my drillpress, ready for the hole through it. The hole is to accomodate the wire going up to the touch-sensor's electrode (a sanded flat penny).


Drilled with a 5/32" straight through.


Preparing for the shallow 3/4" hole to accomodate the touch electrode (penny, which is about 3/4" diameter) with 3/4" wood spade bit (works fine on plexi if you go slow - plus is easy to center with the pilot drill!)

[starbuck3733t]

3/4" at 1mm deep relief drilled. (Ignore the holes in the bottom for now, I'll explain those shortly)


Touch sensor electrode in place (pre-sanding)



Sanded penny - touch sensor electrode. I plan on painting it flat black to match the rest of the parts - polished nickle or even sanded nickle won't look right. I'll get to that sunday when its supposed to be like 45*F out! yay!


Sanded Electrode in place. Still have to get gas for my torch to heat up the penny enough to solder some 24AWG copper stranded wire to it, and then paint the electrode. The wife is using my torch gas for the BBQ! Arg!


Marking centers for holes to accomodate 2 5mm LEDs (1 white, 1 blue)


Drill with a 7/64" (hey, I don't own metric bits!) bit and have just a little wiggle room (enough for the adhesive goop to sit in)


Holes drilled (yes, that's what those holes were for)


Chucking the key into my hand drill (the corded one) via a nail through the center to 'frost' the edges (evenly distribute light around the body of the key)


Sanding with 220 grit emery paper (flexes a lot easier than regular aluminum-oxide sandpaper since its on a fabric-like base)

[starbuck3733t]

"Frosted" key with electrode in place.


2x5mm LEDs, 1 white, 1 blue.


Key on LEDs (no illumination)... hrmm...


Key on LEDs (White illumination- a little too intense in one spot)


Key on LEDs (blue illumination (which in real life doesn't have that nasty aqua spot, not sure how to photoshop that out)... same problem.)


Time passes... I come in 3rd at a LAN tourney... I return home

Manufacture 3 more keys! Wrap them in aluminum tape to rid myself of 1.) Light leaking 2.) uneven intensity around the key ring.


4 keys with electrodes (1 flipped, just to show what the keys are, its sanded on the other side)


4 white LEDs with their tops sanded off. This also helps diffuse the light out of these narrow-angle LEDs a bit more, plus the fit into the holes I drilled perfectly now, I guess I drilled them just a little too shallow.


1 white and 1 blue 5mm LED GOOPed into place on each key.


Money Shots!

Lights on, white LED on (normal key state). A little intense in the one corner, but a lot of its the camera, and the angle.


Lights off, white LED on (normal key state). A small degree of light leaking out the bottom, but nothing that won't be cured when I spray paint the electrodes black, and spray paint the key bottoms black to eliminate light leakage)


Lights off, blue LED on (key touch state). It's a little less aqua and a little more blue in real life, but I was unable to get the effect I wanted in photoshop.


So that's the state of affairs. I've redesigned the front panel baste plate to allow me to have these keys perfectly aligned by CADing in 1.05" (the extra 50 mils for the foil tape) holes into the base plate design. I'm waiting to hear back from Ben at mountain mods about the ETA to get the new parts in my hands. Until then, I'll keep chomping away at what I can do.

For the time being, I'm going to split the chassis control board off from the board that has all the case indicators. For one, it was getting too big for me to use my favorite board fab house, and 2, I've dediced it'll get its own PIC for controlling 8 RGB indicators for ANY friggin color I like.

Until next time (and I'm not sure when that will be...) Stay tuned, same bat forum, same bat post.

[bigben2k]

Nice!

Sorry I missed your earlier post. I'm not doing anything terribly fancy, so I'll just post it all when I'm done.

In short; 3 * 300W redundant PSU array, front bezel mod, case re-paint and windowed 3 way, 4 * 12" UV CCFLs, 3 * 6" blue CCFLs, water cooled, Ford Mustang blower, 6" x 8" x 2" core, general theme is black, blue and copper.

[starbuck3733t]

I hope to see a worklog, maybe even on www.wizdforums.co.uk. I know its low-flow stuff, but it's a groovy place for modders and water cooling folks to come together, and I'd appreciate your presence, even if it is only maintaining a log. Sometimes I wish we had someone who was a bit stronger in theory than the rest of us.

[bigben2k]

I'm joined, thanks for the invite!

[starbuck3733t]

Cool, and your welcome.

[starbuck3733t]

Almost There!
The touch keys are almost done, very little left. Final integration will be when I install/assembled the new bezel. Laser cut parts are on there way from Oregon (mountain mods - ben kicks ass!) and are slated to arrive on wednesday of next week (the 30th). I'd expect to have a new update a day or 3 after that.

Keys prepared for having their bottoms painted


Thank god for the warmer weather, but I still have to heat the paint up - rustoleum satin black sitting in my laundry sink (the black thing is the washers' waste water tube) full of hot water.


Ready to rock!


Keys painted




Oh... that worked well - money shot (note no light leaking out the bottom now)


Death by electrodes?

The touch keys have to connect back to the QT150 somehow, so I've got to attach wire to my electrodes. The average soldering iron (and obviously not what I have - hakko 936) can't heat up a penny enough to solder to it... but a propane torch can!

Ready to solder - don't try this at home, kids. This is all the stuff I took outside to the concrete back porch. The wife would get kinda pissed if I burnt the house down, ya dig?


*Squints* look real close and you can see the propane flame. The bright side (pardon the pun) is that the solder burnt off all the crap on the penny - I had a feeling it would, which is why I didn't prep/polish them beforehand.


First one soldered - 24AWG stranded copper for flexibility

[starbuck3733t]

All 4 soldred with tails.


Even the shiny silver side wouldn't look real good amidst a sea of black which will be the front panel, so paint the tops of the electrodes. This won't alter the functionality of the QT150 as its a capacitive touch sensor, and is designed to have the electrode not in direct contact with the user interface.


Closeup of the paint drying on an electrode.


Car Key Gnomes?
Gotta attach the keys to the acrylic key backlight diffusers somehow... the answer - GOOP! I love this stuff! (Lick the q-tip, then pickup some goop, don't repeat!)


Small slot milled in key to accomodate the fact that the wires aren't attached dead center to the electrodes.


Slide the wire through the key


Apply goop...


Then push key down and embed into goop, keeping it as level as possible and centered in the indent.


4 keys - goop curing


All done.


all that remains is to put foil tape back on the keys (I removed it because it looked crappy with the painted foil tape) and install them into the bezel. I'll be leaving a 2 or 3mm gap between the top of the acrylic backlight diffuser and the top of the key so you don't see the foil tape's edges on the bezel... which is the other reason I nixxed the first round of tape.

Until next time!

[killernoodle]

Very cool!