Colossus - wall mounted with scrolling display

A

agent420

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 6, 2001
Messages
1,388
Meet Colossus:
colossus_1.jpg


I named the project Colossus for a couple reasons. #1, Colossus was the name of the first programmable digital computer (reference ) and this is my first 'mod'. Also, Colossus was the name of the infamous computer in the 70's sci-fi movie of the same name (reference) that in conjunction with it's Soviet counterpart takes over humanity.

The cheap flash photo really doesn't do it justice, the flash seems to bring out the minor haze in the lexan that is not visible under normal lighting; it look much more polished and shiny by eye. Don't know why, I just like the 'tech' look of the exposed components.

95% complete, I am finishing a lexan panel that holds the power button and indicator lights (which will be neon) that will be positioned at the bootom right corner.

colossus_0.jpg


Colossus started life as a Dell 400Sc server [H]ot deal, picked up a p4 3.2 system for about $200 after coupons and rebates. I built a 1" square tube aluminum frame and mounted the components on a sheet of lexan. Open mounted th psu and hand wired all the components. Chopped off all the drive molex connections, just soildered the plug pins to the end of the wire and heat shrinked the connection to avoid potential shorting.
colossus_2.jpg


colossus_3.jpg


I picked up a Betabrite scrolling sign display for cheap off eBay. The Betabrite units are nice in that unlike many of the other scrolling displays, there is open published programming data available (many others are propietary). The display connects via RS232 serial and is driven by a small VB app that I coded. This interfaces with MotherBoardMonitor to display all kinds of system stats such as voltages, temps, etc.

Here's a shaky small digicam wmv showing the scrolling display in action. Sorry for the ppor quality, combination of cheap camera and limited bandwidth.

I have been experimenting with coding voice recoginition and speech synthesis into the system, future plans are to see if I can get good voice control and feedback, as well as a faux AI chatbot like WinAlice.

Thanks for looking.
 
thats super cool. nad HUGE - hence the title lol.

i would hide all of those wires thou, like the monitor connectors and such. Fishing em through the wall would be awesome.
 
Yeah, the wires will be hidden in a stainless steel box conduit. I had thought of drilling through the wall, but my wife drew the line there ;-) All our walls are barnboard and holes are not as easily patched as plaster or sheetrock.

The size is 36"W x 30"H. I drew the layout in Autocad and printed templates to drill the holes for accurate positioning.

I forgot to mention that all the components are rubber mounted with expansion nuts and grommets to keep vibration noise to a minimum. The ambiant air helps with cooling, so all the fans (psu, cpu & vid) are running on 5V to furhter reduce noise. All in all it's very quiet, with the exception of the CD / DVD burner that sounds like a turbine when it kicks into high speed. (Lookout! She's gonna blow 'capain!)

Thanks for the compliments.

[edit]

System Stats:

P4 3.2 HT
1GB Crucial DDR
Antec TruePower 430 (removed from case)
2X Hitachi 7K250 SATA 120G + 1X Maxtor DiamondPlus 9 PATA 120G (360G on line)
48X Plextor CD-DVD RW Combo
ATI 9800 Pro 128
2X Dell 1704 Ultrasharp Monitors (Main = DVI, Secondary = VGA)
Logitech MX700 wireless Keyboard & Mouse
External Presonus FirePod Firewire Audio for Sonar Studio Multitracking
 
that's awesome. wow. Very nice job. Very orginal also. :) *applause*
 
i seen other wall mounted pcs, but they were just out of cheapness for not buying a case.


but this is trully [h]ardcode. congrats!




the only negative i see, is getting up everytime to change a cd :p
 
Thats really sweet, until you want to upgrade.
nice job, probably took many hours.
 
You should put another layer of lexan overtop, cuz if someone sneezes you are screwed!
 
Mysticcal said:
I would protect that PSU before someone touches it and dies!
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That'll learn 'em !!

Actually, the height and positioning of the psu make it unlikely that anyone will come into contact with it, or any of the components. Unless they are standing on my desk, which isn''t likely either since my wife put a stop to the pole-dancing ;-) I'm not really worried about that.

I am more woried about them being fried from touching the 15,000V Jacobs Ladder on the opposite side of the room. Thinking about it now, I should probably have friends sign a waiver before they come into my office to jam or play pinball.

bored-sarcasm said:
DUSTage
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Actually, I haven't neede to dust it once. Whatever's in that Plexi cleaner I used seems to repel dust very well. Beyond that, I'll take the dust as payment for having it the way it is.

Goat_187 said:
the only negative i see, is getting up everytime to change a cd
Click to expand...
True, but it's an easy reach. I am thinking of adding a usb or firewire external drive that can be placed on the desk between the monitors.
 
Excellent work! Cool idea with the display to emulate the Colossus from the movie!

BTW when you get the voice recognition up and running, do you plan on building a spherical speaker box like in the movie, too?
 
great job man. that's pretty cool (pun intended)

i can imagine it would be super quiet even without watercooling because of the lack of case fans. again......sweet mod.
 
Wow. I tried to do basicaly that same thing (without the scrolling display) with an OLD-ass computer. I think it was socket 7 or so... ANYWAY, it doesnt work anymore, and my mod was a failure. I wasted a huge sheet of plexiglass in the process too... :(
 
hope u never by accident jump over your monitors into your wall while playin a little koosh ball and totally destroy ur whole set up... other than that that shizznit roxors my panzors off
 
I realize now that perhaps I should have posted this in the Worklog section... Oh well.

Found a VB AI bot framework named ArchBot, looks very interesting in that it has Voice Recognition and Speech Synthesis built in, I'll probably do without the Agent animation and direct the output to the scrolling display instead. The included low quality MS speech sounds much more like the original Colossus and other early computer scifi, but I think I like the Cepstral voices with the Liquid Love effect; reminds me of HAL. It's also more understandable.

lamarth said:
BTW when you get the voice recognition up and running, do you plan on building a spherical speaker box like in the movie, too?
Click to expand...
Based on that idea, anyway... I've got one of those color-chainging spheres (seen in the room shot above), I can add some electronics to change the lighting based on audio input.

TVersetti said:
Thats really sweet, until you want to upgrade.
Click to expand...
Actually, I think upgrading couldn't be easier... No case to open, no pci card backplane framework, cards pop in & out (held stable by a drop of Locktite at the ends; I tested 1st), etc.
 
Do you have any plans on building Guardian?

"THERE IS ANOTHER MACHINE!!" :D

Good work, would love to hear Colossus talk.
 
PhantomLimb said:
Do you have any plans on building Guardian?

"THERE IS ANOTHER MACHINE!!" :D
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Hmm... Perhaps an evil AMD counterpart in my garage workshop, with wifi networking... I wonder what conversations two AI bots would have with each other ;-)
 
agent420 said:
Hmm... Perhaps an evil AMD counterpart in my garage workshop, with wifi networking... I wonder what conversations two AI bots would have with each other ;-)
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Funny that you (and PhantomLimb) should mention that idea :) Reason being is after having read this thread when I first came across it- and remembering the movie and the Soviets having come up with Guardian - I recalled seeing another thread by another board member who was going to build a 'USSR' mod PC. He dropped the idea however, feeling that it glorified Communism. But at the same time this individual DID state that anyone who wanted to take up the idea was free to do so...... :D

I'll see if I can't find that link....

Edit found it Unfortunately most of the pic links are dead....
 
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