Switchboard

[EM3Bilko]

Yesterday I ended with a few pics showing the position of the mobo tray. Today I'm going to show you what it looks like when the tray is mounted and with a test motherboard installed on it also. So first pics are a few of the mobo tray with mobo installed on tray and installed into the Switchboard.

After I got the mobo tray fitted and installed the way that I wanted it, I then started the work on putting my optical drive into the Switchboard where it would be easy to access but wouldn't stand out to bad. I decided on putting the drive under the grommet of the handset where the wire went into the front panel. So here is the pic of the drive in place.

This is all that I have done today. I have shown in the past posting the tools that I'm using which does require a lot of filing. The opening for the optical drive required a massive amount of filing which turns into time. So today I spent most of my time filing. While I'm filing away it does give one the time to think about what I want and what I can get, which most of the time I don't get both. I do have 2 computers that I use on a regular basis, they are Red Lantern my gaming machine and this one that I do my surfing and photo editing and so forth. So during todays think session I came up with the idea of putting this computer into the Switchboard. This idea isn't set into gold yet, but I'll be doing some measuring to see if I can get the Switchboard any where near my desk and still be able to reach with all cables. Next I'm going to show you the fitting of a controller but first I have some pics of the fresh air intake, which is located in the bottom of the Switchboard. So here are some photos of the bottom piece. I removed the bottom to make cutting of the opening easier for me.

After I finished installing the fans I checked on the sliding drawer that I worked on last night. The drawer didn't have a edge on the front of the drawer, so last night I glued a piece of molding on the front of the drawer to give it a clean look to go along with the lip to stop anything from falling off of the drawer. Here are some photos of that work.

Yesterday I told a person that today I would put in the power supply today but I forgot about it because of this next item that I put in instead of the PS. So here are a few photos of the last thing that I did to the Switchboard before 5:00pm EST.

Maybe I'll get the power supply in tonight but I'm not going to make any promises. So until the next time any and all ideas and comments are welcomed and remember Happy Modding to ya.

[EM3Bilko]

What I did today was to tear down. All of it, every board, every screw came out today. I have been working on this project without a square of any kind. I own one but my wife uses it also and I believe she has left it at our house in Virginia. Yesterday I bought a new square and today each and every piece of Switchboard was remeasured and squared. So I a few pics to show you how things are fitting today. So on to the pics.

There was one thing I did do before I torn it apart and that was to mount the power supply. Here is a pic of where the power supply is going to be located once I get it back in.

So until the next time remember that all ideas and comments are welcomed and Happy Modding to ya.

[coolcat97]

I think a slot-load CD drive would look cool... and even a CRT monitor inside of that thing would be sweet... i think cooler than an LCD... Maybe put in some speakers? Like car speakers and cut holes in the sides or front...

[EM3Bilko]

I think a slot-load CD drive would look cool... and even a CRT monitor inside of that thing would be sweet... i think cooler than an LCD... Maybe put in some speakers? Like car speakers and cut holes in the sides or front...

Thanks for your comment coolcat97. I don't have a CRT monitor small enough to fit into it but I do have a 7" DVD player screen that I'm going to try and get it working, then see about mounting it into Switchboard sometime in the future. The speakers will be mounted on the sides and I'll be getting to that soon. Happy Modding to ya.

[EM3Bilko]

I have been asked what color the optical drive is going to be but the one that's been in the past pics is a dead drive, it's for fitting only. Today I put in a CD-RW optical drive that works. So to start with pics I'll give you the front of the case.

As you can see there is no floppy drive visible. Since the floppy isn't really needed but it does come in handy when formatting a harddrive or something like that it's nice to have one available, so I have mine with the harddrive inside. Here is a pic of that setup.

I have received my connections for the Cat5 cables and have them semi-installed. I had to mark where I was wanting the input which I decided to mount them in the area of the phone connection and the power connections. I drilled a hole into each area that I marked out for each connection. Then I took my roto tool and cut out as close as I could get to the line. Then it was hand file time. Filed each opening where the connection was snug. After I put the finish on the Switchboard I'll glue each connection in place. Here is a pic showing some of the steps that I did.

Each and every hole had to be filed by hand and checked for a test fit every other stroke it felt like. Here are some more pics showing the connections in place.

The marks above the connection will be where I put the activity LED for each connection. All ideas and comments are welcomed and remember Happy Modding to ya.

[EM3Bilko]

I did a little work on getting the speakers in place but before I could do any mounting of speakers I needed to know where to mount them and what to do about having a grill to cover them for protection. As far as the grill was concern I decided to use the grill that they came with only do a little modifying first. The reason for modifying was because they are just to big. So before I started on the cutting the grill down I decided where the speakers were going and then cut a hole for them. Here is the first of the pics showing where the opening for the speakers is.

So there you have it, the location of the speakers. There is one on the other side, just thought I would let you know that so you wouldn't think that I only made one hole. Now that I have the holes I started on the grill. The grill came out of the housing real easy and I thought I would hold it into place and see how it looked. I didn't care for it but I'll show you so you can see what I saw which wasn't much to be honest. It was just not telling me anything and I was listening but nothing.

Now that you have seen what I saw, did you hear anything about how it looked? Didn't think so. So I took the speaker case apart and started working on the front section. Here is the front section.

Now that I have it no taller than a quarter I thought I would hold it into place and see if it says anything to me. So here it is and I'll let you tell me if you hear anything.

Now I thought I heard something saying that I was on the right track. It will only stick out from the side by 3/4" which isn't so bad. When I first started working on it the depth of the front grill piece was almost 2", so I got it cut down quite a bit and I'll paint the unit before I mount it. Last night I bought the clear coat once I get the unit sanded down. I also found that our new Wal-Mart store carrys KVM switches for only $19.95, so I bought one and I'll show you what I bought.

I sure was surprised when I saw that KVM switch for $20.00 at Wal-Mart, I'll be using it soon. My everyday machine and Red Lantern are on one KVM right now and then I'll have my Linux machine and a machine for testing on this new KVM switch. I use dual monitors on this setup and I have a third monitor that's on my Linux machine and it will be used with the test unit also now. I also want to tell you that the motherboard for Switchboard arrived the other day. It's a Foxconn 6150K8MA socket 939. The board came from my son, he sold it to me for cheap. It's a micro-ATX and has everything that I want on it. The graphics is a GeForce 6150, has firewire, USB, nic card 7.1 sound and uses both PATA and SATA. I will be using my old AMD64 3000. This will be the main computer for me when I finish the case and then everything from this computer will get put onto the Switchboard. Here is a pic of it.

The heatsink and fan came from the Opteron that I have in my gaming machine which has a Ultra Fire heatsink on it so this will be used on the AMD64 3000 that will be used here. So now I took my router and enlarged the openings for the speakers. Now I have the speakers installed. Also the circuits for tone, balance, and on/off switch had to be mounted so that the knobs would be in the proper place. Here is a pics to show you what I mean about the circuit.

There you have what the speakers looked like before I started on them and how the circuits is mounted in the case now. I have a couple of pics to show you how it's looking from the outside with the circuit in place but the shell of the speaker isn't mounted to the side of the Switchboard. It's being held on by the circuitry that is going thru the side of the Switchboard. The shell was a 2 piece affair when I started with this mod and I'm only using the front section after I file it down quite a bit. It's no taller than a quarter now after my filing. This way it won't get knock off so easy. Also the two pieces where screwed together with 4 screws. I now have to do some measuring so that I can drill some holes so that I can mount the front pieces to the side of Switchboard. So here are the remaining pics for ya.

So there we are. Now to get the holes drilled so that I can get the cover pieces to stay nice and snug. I have gotten the speaker face plates mounted where they won't fall off if someone runs into it. The first pic is of the whole unit and I was somewhere around 10-12 feet away from it before I could see the face plates of the speakers. Here are the pics.

So there you have it. Everything that I planned on putting into the Switchboard is starting to come to an end. I think it's all in and all that is left is the removal of everything and then work on the finish of the Case and then put everything back into it. That will be a lot of work. It's been a lot of work already but I made it. So until the next time, remember that all ideas and comments are welcome and Happy Modding to ya.

[SMeeD]

Sweet that mod is coming along very nicely.

[EM3Bilko]

Sweet that mod is coming along very nicely.

Thank you SMeeD. This will replace my main PC when it's done. So I'll putting everything that I need into it, such as a TV capture card, Firewire for my camera, a card reader, the home network and anything else that I think of. Happy Modding to ya.

Edited July 12, 2007 by EM3Bilko

[OneShot 926]

Looking good...I love the originality of this build..

lookin forward to the finnished pics.

murrivel whers that lol.

got to watch us tennesseeans.

[EM3Bilko]

Looking good...I love the originality of this build..

lookin forward to the finnished pics.

murrivel whers that lol.

got to watch us tennesseeans.

Glad that you like Switchboard OneShot. I'm just south of Knoxville about 20 miles. I'm just off of State Hiway 321. I won't be long before it's finished. Happy Modding to ya.

[EM3Bilko]

After the last update I have torn Switchboard down to get it ready for Clear Coat. I started with the clear coat after I had sanded each and every piece. So I'm going to show you how they are looking at this time. I'm spraying the clear coat on by way of a rattler. So far it has taken 2 cans and it's going to take more. So here are a few pics of a few pieces.

So there you have it for this update. I've started getting it ready for assembly. It's close but no cookie. The reason for using spray Clear Coat instead of using a brush and can is that I found the spray can for $1.25 USD per can and I bought all they had at the time which was 2 cans. I had to buy more because I was wrong thinking that 2 cans would do it, so I went to Wal-Mart and found the same brand for $5.65USD. I bought 2 more cans. I think this will do it, sure hope so with the cost of cans I don't want to buy anymore. When I started spraying you could see how the wood was sucking up the Clear Coat. So after getting the other cans I put on more coats per instructions. So this should be nice and dry by tomorrow. So until then all comments and ideas are welcomed and Happy Modding to ya.

[EM3Bilko]

Well with the last update I had pics of the pieces drying after being clear coated, so yesterday I started working about putting it all back together again, all the King's men and all the King's horses couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. So that's the end of the story of Humpty Dumpty but I could get Switchboard back together and here is the prove that I did.

Now I'm sure that you all remember the beige speaker grills that I cut down and mounted to the side of the case which was before I did the clear coat. Well, the first thing that I did after the clear coat and putting it back together again was to paint the speaker grills. I used the only paint that I had left from my modding projects, so here are the speaker grills.

Now that I have them painted, I went to work on the motherboard tray but I had to go out and purchase some paint because I ran out of the paint using it on the speaker grills. The motherboard tray needed to be a color that would help the motherboard stand out because it's orange in color. So now I'll show you the motherboard tray and the motherboard also.

There you have it for a little while, I need to get back to working on it some more. Maybe I can get another update this evening if I get back to work soon. So let me know what you think of the speaker grills and how it's turning out so far. If something isn't what you would do let me know, I listen to my wife about what she thinks of this project and I also take into account what everyone posts in the way of replies to me for this and all projects that I have done and whats to come. So until the next time all ideas and comments are welcome and remember Happy Modding to ya.