Switchboard

[EM3Bilko]

Well, I said that I wasn't going to go back out and work due to the heat. I lied, I went out after supper and started cutting out the area for the radiator fan exhaust. I didn't finish but I did get a start on them and I'll be able to finish tomorrow. So here are 2 photos to show the interior and the exterior of the openings.

There you have it, so all ideas and comments are welcomed and remember Happy Modding to ya.

[EM3Bilko]

I got out into the garage earlier today than I usually do and put in about 4 hours of filing and fitting and filing and fitting and just when I thought I had it done, I had to do some more filing. I did have to do some drilling for the mounting holes but other than that all I've done is file and fit and file. I did take the time out to take some photos and I'll try to put them in order as taken. So here are the photos, starting from where I left off from last night. I started with the top fan which is the 120mm. I had to drill the mounting holes and enlarge the opening itself.

Now with those photos you can see that the opening is still in need of more filing. At this time I decided to continue on with getting the radiators mounted and then finish with the filing. So after getting the 120mm fan and radiator mounted it was time to go to the dual-80mm setup.

While I had the grills in place I took the time to mark the openings to where I was to file the opening to. Here is a photo of my markings.

Now the photo after I worked on the markings.

I still need to finish with drilling all of the mounting holes but to get the very bottom I have to remove the fans that are mounted to the floor of Switchboard and I had to take a break and my meds to boot. So until the next update all ideas and comments are welcomed and also remember Happy Modding to ya.

[EM3Bilko]

Today I cut my tubing to the approximate length needed for the routing that I chose for it. Still have the reservoir, pump, and Aquabay to mount but have gotten the radiators, power strip, cpu block, main power socket with GFI (Ground Fault Interrupter), the Aquabay is close to being finished. I took out the standard outlet and replaced it with GFI since there will be water within the 6' law in this state. I did take photos of the items above with the tubing in place but not clamped or all the way on the barbs. That will come about when I have all pieces mounted where they won't move on me when I move Switchboard. After all if I'm able to make QuakeCon 2008 next year and I would like to use Switchboard, it must all be stable for moving. So for now here are the photos. First is the GFI socket.

The last photo above is showing my reservoir which will have a Fill port attached to the top brass barb, the other top barb is attached to a shutoff valve to help me bleed off the bubbles when I fill the system. The two bottom barbs are for the input and output of the system, now back to some more photos.

The last photo shows that I still have the room to mount the 7"inch LCD screen that I had postponed the installation of and also the installation of the 8-port switch for the network. Then I think that Switchboard will be full. So all ideas and comments are welcomed and remember Happy Modding to ya.

[EM3Bilko]

I have some bad news. I found out today that the site where all of my photos are stored is going under as of the 15th and I have to backup all photos of all albums on the site. Which I have 14 albums and with Switchboard alone has 32 pages of photos to backup. Most of my photos are on the HDD that is in Switchboard but the latest photos are on this computer. At the moment I don't know when Switchboard is going back online but to be on the safe side I'm backing them all up on this pc. So far I have 1 album done and 6 pgs on Switchboard done out of the 32 pgs. What a bummer. So if the photos don't show up after the 15th you know why. I'll try and get things switched around so we don't lose anything. Happy Modding to ya.

[EM3Bilko]

Another update. As you know I'm working to cut down the heat on all of the hardware inside the case. I have my harddrives and the floppy drive all in a cage that is setup for 3 items, so with 2 HDD and the floppy drive the cage is full with no room for air circulation. To help with the air circulation I removed the floppy drive and then separated the two harddrives so that I can get the air to move in between them. I also made a fan mount out of a PCI slot cover and put a 80mm fan on it to blow air across the HDDs. Here are a couple of photos to show you how I'm cooling the drives.

I also have a temperature probe that I've installed which can be placed into the HDD area to read the temps that are inside the cage area. Here are a couple of photos of that.

I will be painting the temperature unit black later but I did want to get it to fit first. So there you have a short update and I'll try to get another out soon. So until then all ideas and comments are welcomed and remember Happy Modding to ya.

[EM3Bilko]

I have a short update for you today. When I changed the mobo and the location of the power supply I found that the power plug no longer reached the socket on the mobo. The power cable on the power supply was only 17 inches and if I pulled the cable straight from the power supply to the mobo I was about 3 inches to short. It also made wire management impossible, so to remedy that problem I removed a full cable from a bad power supply which was for a 24 pin setup while the Epox mobo was only a 20 pin but that wasn't a problem, now this power supply is ready for any mobo that I may put into Switchboard in the future. Now with the extension on, the power cable is 36 inches in length which is plenty for wire management and reaching the socket. Here are some photos of the power supply that I changed over.

So there you have it, another piece of the puzzle done and ready for service. Now that it's done I can start working on getting the color change of the temp. probe and I'm also thinking about putting a LCD character screen above the DVD burner. If I don't use the 7" screen on the front panel then the LCD character screen can do the same thing for me and keep the front panel clean looking. This would also be behind the plexy strip that will go across everything else. The screen would be built into a drive bay cover so that it would blend in with the DVD burner and wouldn't be any higher on the front panel than the Aquabay is. So until the next update all ideas and comments are welcomed. Remember, Happy Modding to ya.

[EM3Bilko]

I have a short update for ya. I'm working on putting a 2x16 LCD character screen into Switchboard and it will be getting it's data from the printer port and free software. At this time I have all parts together and in the process of wiring. The first thing that I needed to do was to make a entry point for the printer cable, which is going to be thru the PCI slot area. I used a old cover and drilled a hole large enough for the cable to fit through. Once that was done I then tinned all of the wires. The reason that I did all of the wires was because at this time I haven't located the wires that I will be using. I will only be using 16 out of the 25 that is in a printer cable. I will also be tinning the connections on the LCD but haven't done that yet. Will do that later today. I've also made the circuit for the contrast control of the LCD screen. This was made with a 10K-ohm micro potentiometer and a 10-ohm resister mounted to a PCB from Radio Shack. This all will be mounted to a aluminum drive-bay cover which will be located above the DVD burner. Here are some photos to show you what I have done so far.

I still have to make the mounting setup for the LCD screen but the contrast circuit will be held into place by way of foam double-stick tape. I also still have the power connectors to make-up but later today I will be soldering the printer cable to the LCD screen and the contrast circuit. I'm also still working on getting all of my photos transfered to the other photo hosting site I'm using. Lot of work to do yet, so until the next update remember that all ideas and comments are welcomed, also Happy Modding to ya.

[EM3Bilko]

Here is another short update. It will also be the last one for today. I have the LCD screen all wired with the exception of the power connection. So I thought I would take a couple of photos to show how it's coming along and maybe tomorrow after my appointment the the neurologist to find out what is going wrong with my arms and hands I might get to hook up the power connections. Once they are connected then it will be testing time and then to get it mounted into Switchboard. So here are the only photos that I took of the connections.

There you have it and all ideas and comments are welcomed and remember Happy Modding to ya.

[EM3Bilko]

Today after I got out of the Dr. office the wife and I went to do a little shopping. So I thought I would show you my purchase. I got myself a 3 speed fan with green LEDs in it. This is the last fan that I was needing to put on a radiator in Switchboard. Now I'm waiting on the Fill port which should be here in a couple of days. Once the fill port gets here then the water cooling setup will be assembled and filled to test for leaks for a couple of days. Then if no leaks then in it goes. I'm hoping that the LCD screen will be finished by then and I can get it installed. Once that is installed then it's time to work on the plexy cover that will go over everything in the front. So here are some photos of the new fan.

There you have it, so now you know what I did today. My Dr. appointment ended it with more appointments for a myelogram which they inject a dye into the spine and the table that I will be laying on will be able to tilt so that the dye will travel from one end to the other while the Dr is looking a screen to see what problems that may show up. The only thing that he said to me today was that from my records I have every reason to hurt. Since this was my first visit with him, he is wanting some fresh photos and from there he will tell me what, if, anything he can do for me. So now it time for me to get the power cable attached to the screen so that I can test it out. Happy Modding to ya.

[EM3Bilko]

The last update for today. Tonight while watching the story of the CSS Hunley, the Confederate's submarine, I worked on wiring the power connections and the backlight. So now that's done and I can now test it tomorrow, getting close to bed time. Tomorrow I will also mod the driver bay cover to hold the screen and the contrast controller. Here are some photos of the screen completely wired.

There you have it and tomorrow it will go for testing. So all ideas and comments are welcomed, maybe not used but welcomed all the same. Also remember it's Happy Modding to ya.

[EM3Bilko]

Todays update is a good one I think. At least I'm happy about it. I worked getting the LCD screen mounted to the Aluminum drive-bay cover and got that to work. Then today when the mailman I got a package. Oh boy a package for me! It had a 120mm fan with 3 speeds on it and the Fillport that I was needing for the wc package. I worked on the mounting plate for the Fillport, not finished with it by along shot. Here are some photos for you, of the things that I worked on today.

That last fillport is a little to much light bouncing off of it, I'm sorry I'll try better on the next photos.

That last photo is showing that the LCD screen is staying in place with the double sided tape that I'm using to hold the screen on. I've used this double faced tape for mounting the electric motors into my HO scale locomotives. So it can handle quite a bit when it comes to the twisting action of the motors, so it should hold tight the LCD screen. The screen that you are seeing in all of the above photos is not the one going into Switchboard. It's the one that going into my brother's PC, Twin Dragons. Here are some more photos.

Well there you have what I've done today after the mail came. Those last two photos are showing the correct screen in place. Tomorrow I will be cutting a 1" diameter hole into the top of Switchboard so the nipple of the Fillport will go down into the bowels of Switchboard. Now that the wc system is I will be pulling it out of the case and putting it back together and filling the unit for testing 24-48hrs. All of my fans are in place to pull the air thru the radiators. While the system is going thru the testing for testing I'll be polishing the plate for the Fillport. I'll be using my new buffer wheel to buff it to a shine. So it's almost ready to get back into service but until then all ideas and comments are welcome. Also Happy Modding to ya.

[EM3Bilko]

Today's update is for the cutting of the area where the LCD screen will be going. It will be right above the DVD burner. The first thing that I did was to mark out the area for the drive bay cover and then taped it off so that I would markup the top panel with the portable saw that I was using. The saw that I use really was a pain to see the line so I just cut out the largest part of the area and then used my rotary tool with the flex shaft to get closer to the line. Here are some photos of the area that I'm working on and some of the tools that I used.

Here is the rotary tool that I used and the bit.

Once I got the opening cut out as close to the line that I could with the power tools I then went to the hand file. Here are some more photos of that process.

Now have to stop working on this project because the wife wants to go to the State Fair. So before I leave I have a little more to show you. The pump has a 12' power cord and it's just to much to wad up in the corner so I cut off what I didn't need. Here are some photos of that.

So there you have what I did for this morning. I know it's not much but I tried to get something done before I had to go to the fair. So until the next update remember that all ideas and comments are welcomed. Happy Modding to ya.