Mod Me!! -- From multimeter to SFF

[Ozone77]

Hi all,

I was browsing the thrift store the other day when I saw this baby, it screamed "MOD ME!!" as soon as I saw it. (the pic is bad quality, but you get the idea)

It is a Hewlett-Packard Amp-meter the case is olive-green steel (?) with lots of vents. I will try to get a better close-up picture.

It is going to be really cramped in there (have to find a mini-ATX/ Shuttle mobo), I will try to make it a gaming-worthy rig. I am thinking an AMD64 3500 and a GF6800 but the case is so thin I am starting to have my doubts (mostly about the cards, I know the mobo will fit and I can always go laptop HD and CD).

I would like to have the Amp-meter working, maybe diplaying the amount of free/used ram or something, but right now I have no Idea how I will do that. Then again I might need to take the meter off to cram the insides in place (hope not)

Right now I am working on (building) my work-table, I just moved in to a new apartment and I have no place to work. Then I'll have to gut the meter to see how much actual room there is inside there.

In the meanwhile would like some ideas on other mods I could add to this case.

 

[Ozone77]

This is the rest of my set-up.

I recently finished the desk, it was much cheaper than buying a pre-made one and its just huuge

On the left is my girl-friend's "work" computer, a P4(2800) Shuttle that needs quieter fans (soon). Down at the bottom is my old system (Now, I almost-always use the shuttle) It is an old PIII 800 (I was sooo happy back when I got it) and this new system will be replacing it.

Here is a fast overview on how it was done:

- Bought a 8' x 4' sheet of woold, MDF is the preffered choice among modders, but I went for a board that had a "Birch" finish-layer. I went for 3/4" thickness, if you have a heavy monitor, consider something thicker or a solid support for the monitor.
- Had the HomeDepo/Lowes guy cut it to my required dimensions ( one 8' x 2' , one 4' x 2' , two 4' x 1' matching shelves )
- Got some 4/3" molding (Birch too) to mask the cuts/edges (girlfriend chose the molding, there is an iron-on birch finishing that can also do the trick).
- Affixed the molding to the parts (pain in the ass at the corners, the glue-on option was more simple. BTW, MDF does not need this.
- Labor: I had to cut a hole for the cables to pass through.
- Labor (optional): Got some tint color (wall mart) and "painted" the woold (only top side, i was lazy). Two thin coats with a light sanding with a high grit (800 or more, for example) after each coat. (Apply as many coats as you think are necessary). Got some poliurethane spray can (your choice of gloissiness). Same deal, two thin coats and a light sanding after each. Stuff dries fairly fast, but remeber to do it in ventilated area. Mask and gogles are a must.
- Got some heavy duty brackets (long arms) and a stud-finder. Make sure your brakets are more or less the same, they are NOT all created equal and I had to use shims to make my desk straight because one was almost 92 degrees instead of a straight angle.
- Reference your old desk for a confortable height, it will probably be arround 30". Take into account the thickness of the desk (well, 3/4" ain't that much). Carefully measure that all brakets are the same height and attach them to studs on the wall (or anywhere in a masonary wall). Lay your desk on top and pull out the level. You may need to shimmy up one of the corners before you screw the table onto the brackets.
- Y are done, 1 or maybe 2 days of work, set up your computer, sit down and enjoy.

 

[WillowHawk]

well, you could try to find a way to either replace the dial in the front with an LCD display, you could cut a rectangle in the bottle black part of the dial , and stealth a CD rom in it. you could convert one of those switches in the front for the On button, you could convert one of the knobs in the front for a fan rheostat. you could put a few leds in the front for power/hd activity. you could put a better handle on there. metal ofcourse, you could even put 2 if you wanted to. you could cut a window in both sides, of course painting is an option...anything is possible.

keep us updated tho, i'm interested in what you pull off with it

 

[Ozone77]

well, you could try to find a way to either replace the dial in the front with an LCD display, you could cut a rectangle in the bottle black part of the dial , and stealth a CD rom in it. you could convert one of those switches in the front for the On button, you could convert one of the knobs in the front for a fan rheostat. you could put a few leds in the front for power/hd activity. you could put a better handle on there. metal ofcourse, you could even put 2 if you wanted to. you could cut a window in both sides, of course painting is an option...anything is possible.

keep us updated tho, i'm interested in what you pull off with it

I did think about stealthing the CD with the meter, I'll see if that can be done once I take the case apart.
Excellent idea on the rheostat, I had no idea what to do with the knob.
There is a momentrary toggle switch in the back that I can use as the "on" button and keep the "ambience" of the mod
Same thing (ambience) with the handle, It is leather and it's heavy duty. The case weights a lot.
I do like the current paint, it is in good condition and It makes you think the damn thing is really old. Then again, once I start modding the case the paint might get damaged.
It would be nice if I could light the inside of the dial with a couple leds. and a cold cathode inside the case could look very nice with all the vents it has.
The window.. I'll think about it, I guess it comes down to how neat and tidy it looks after all the components are jammed inisde. Or maybe I could do a small window on the mobo side, I like how those look.

 

[WillowHawk]

just thought of it, you can take out the meter, dremmel 2 small holes in the back, slap a few 3mm leds in there and use the meter (if it works, if not replace it) as either a fan speed display, a HD activity meter, or hell, even a temperature sensor. I'm not sure exactly how you would hook any of those up, you might need to make ur own board to integrate any of those to send info to the meter.. OR...you could have all of those wired up, and use or add another knob in the front to switch between fan,temp,and hd signals to the meter

just a though. might take some work tho.

Luck

 

[Ozone77]

just thought of it, you can take out the meter, dremmel 2 small holes in the back, slap a few 3mm leds in there and use the meter (if it works, if not replace it) as either a fan speed display, a HD activity meter, or hell, even a temperature sensor. I'm not sure exactly how you would hook any of those up, you might need to make ur own board to integrate any of those to send info to the meter.. OR...you could have all of those wired up, and use or add another knob in the front to switch between fan,temp,and hd signals to the meter

just a though. might take some work tho.

Luck

Darn it! how do you insert the smileys? well, i'll improvise: 8-o

Great idea! I was going to leave the back of the meter as-is, but I think the power on and HDD activity leds are going there.
Depending on how complicated is finding & editing the software to get the readouts and then hooking up the necessary hardware.. we'll see what happens with the "multi" meter.

I know I am not the first to connect an analog dial to a PC, anyone has any links or info on that?

 

[Ozone77]

Well, I was searching for a suitable Mobo but I have had no luck yet. Shuttle does not seem to sell SFF mobos and The only Micro-ATX mobo for a 64 is a socket 754.

Should I go for the 754? Wait for a 939? Go Intel?

 

[Ozone77]

Ok, Thanks to SealTeam6 in the mobo forum i found one mobo candidate, the FIC K8M-NF3 250
I could not find it for sale anywhere, but it is reasuring that there IS a 939 SFF mobo out there (or at least will be shortly)
New, closer front shot

Anyway, I started taking the Amp meter apart today. So many things to say...
First, it is all aluminum this thing was designed to dissipate heat.
Second, it only took two screws to take it apart. Everyting was attached to a removable tray. I will definitelly try to make my mod keep this feature.

Third, this thing is OLD.. it has vacuum tubes inside it

Once the guts were removed, I have about 9-1/8" height and about 10-1/2" width in there. I hope it its enough for the mobo (or else, I'll try putting the mobo in diagonal or something.)

This is the best I can do, I'm taking pictures with a cell-phone, which are better than what I had (amazing)

 

[DR_K13]

this is going to be sweet!~

 

[jmattick]

Well, I was searching for a suitable Mobo but I have had no luck yet. Shuttle does not seem to sell SFF mobos and The only Micro-ATX mobo for a 64 is a socket 754.

Should I go for the 754? Wait for a 939? Go Intel?

Shuttle does sell SFF Motherboard, directly.
http://us.shuttle.com/shop.asp?cat_id=22

Email Shuttle, and ask for a 64bit motherboard. As long as they have the model out, they should sell you one... I called them up, and got a motherboard that was available in their systems, it just wasn't listed yet.

 

[Ozone77]

Right now, the primary mod I have in mind is to get the meter working, since this will need a parallel/serial connection and a couple resistros, I will most likely add a small board and blinking LEDs to signal something else (besides the HDD, that one is easy). I am still searching the net for people who have thone this or something similar.

I will also try to give functionality to those knobs in the front (fan speed, lights, USB hub, heaphone.. its all undecided).

The CD rom still has no place assigned, and depending on how the mobo fits the inside, I might have to cut off a side/top (not the back) of the case and stealth it.

Seems like I will also have to get a small PSU, Shuttle or 1U, I have not researched anything yet.

 

[starhawk]

/off topic
if you want to get rid of those vacuum tubes... i could probably use any of them that say 6l6 or 5u4 on them... tho i can't afford to pay for them.

/on topic

shuttle psu's are dinky little things that give enough power for computers that are just as small, but anything bigger will pull too much juice, giving voltage fluctuations in the rails. i heard once of some poor fellow had his hdd wiped from this.

you want a 1u server psu or something... 1u server psu's are 1.7" tall or so, they are availible at servercase.com... as are p4 mini-itx mobos.

word of warning: i am told that most amd matx boards do not support speeds above default for the cpu core, so a barton-core xp will only run @ 1ghz for example. you will probably want a p4 board.

 

[Morphes]

sweet idea, maybe a VFD display? keep me updated

 

[Ozone77]

/off topic
if you want to get rid of those vacuum tubes... i could probably use any of them that say 6l6 or 5u4 on them... tho i can't afford to pay for them.

/on topic

Well, you can have them if you pay for shipping, but these are not the ones you want. Here is what i have:
General Electric NR 188-5 (x3)
General Electric LR 188-5 (x1) This one also says 12AU7A / ECC82
Amperex 6DJ8 / ECC88 (x2)
Hewlett Packard 188-5 (x1) 80-04 Looks the same as the GEs
Hewlett Packard 188-5 (x1) 80-04 This one is much fatter and bigger

 

[starhawk]

nothing there i can use... sorry.

my uncle used to build tube radios, and i was thinking of using those particular tubes to build him one.

 

[Ozone77]

Mini update.

I have been buisy with work and stuff in general. But I did have time to do some research. Man, did I get dissappointed when I saw some of the mods out there.. even if I make this an impecable mod, many people will think I am just a "Mee too". What I mean to say is that Zapwizard already built something like this over a year ago (a bit bigger though), and there are other people out there with "radio" mods and "ammo box" mods that resemble what i had intended for this.

Anyway, enough of that. Today I finished building my workbench, so I think that tomorrow I will strip the paint off the case, I am thinking of painting it black ("ultra-flat") but first i will see if i like it bare aluminum (...aluminum i always wanted an alum case )

I still have to decide what to do on the front panel and the overall lighting of the case. I got lots of ideas while researching, and I really liked some of the mods i saw out ther, like lights that are on even if the computer is unplugged or a geiger counter (radioactivity) this box could pass as a very old geiger counter

 

[MONST3R]

hehe thats pretty cool. good luck

 

[Ozone77]

I Don't have much time lately, but the old paint is stripped, just need a bit of sanding and buying the new paint.

I edited the second post and added a description on how I made the desk (by request). I am thinking of doing the same with my "work bench" and plugging it too.

Finally, I saw somplace a mod with working vacuum tubes, if I see that again I may consider adding that mod to this project it may not be original (as in "I invented it"), but you dont see that very often.

 

[starhawk]

hmm... maybe i'll see if i can fit a comp in one of my old cd rad meters (science teacher at my hs gave them to me 2 years ago at least... one needs a wierd battery and the other has a short)

 

[themark]

Have you thought about a slot-loading CD drive placed directly under the big Amp guage? The overhang of the guage would hide the hole. Although, as I think about it, you're probably going to have to go vertical with your media drive due to lack of space once the MoBo is installed. I really like your idea of keeping the removable tray. That should be a priority. I would also like to suggest a paint that I used to use a lot when repainting old equipment cabinets, it's called Hammertone and it's made by Rustoleum. It gives a cool sort of "hammered" finish without actually being dimpled in any way, something about two paints mixing in little pools. Cool stuff.

http://www.rustoleum.com/Product.asp?frm_product_id=21&SBL=1&dds=15

 

[starhawk]

anybody know of a good mobo for a "case" that's ~7" x ~5"? d*** rad meter's plenty bulky, but not bulky enough would be my guess.

 

[Ozone77]

This is getting trickier by the minute.

I have found some good new u-ATX boards there, mostly for P4 (socket-T, 915 chipset) and one or two 939 for A64. Unfortunatelly I just realized that the inside tray is just over 9" tall and most (all?) u-ATX are 9.6" so I either find some squeeze room somewhere or I will have figure out a way to install it at an angle

I''m still awaiting a response from Shuttle, since they are the only ones that make new/decent FlexATX boards (~7.5" tall, just perfect for my box) but nothing yet.

I just downloaded sketchup3D to model this project. I have to measure things carefuly, the CD will have to go vertical, I will make a window to load it from the top. I am still undecided if i will use a regular one or a slim/laptop one since I think I have room for it. The PSU will have to be flex-atx or 1U. Micro-ATX PSUs are just a tad too thick. Lastly, I also have to keep an eye on the width, I just eyeballed it and i may not be able to squeeze regular-width PCI/AGP cards, which is not good since the only low-rise videocards I could find are main-stream/budget. With the 3D software i hope to be able to play arround with things and arrange the insides of the case so that everything fits.

 

[Ozone77]

Mini update (Pics Soon)

I decided to go with a MicroATX board, wich gives me a ton of choices for the mobo. uATX form factor is taller than the removable tray, but it just fits inside the outer shell. So, I have to take the removable tray appart, I am removing rivets (4 down 2 to go).

I also got my old case and removed the mobo tray, then I cut(ed) it to uATX size. I will have to figure out a way to make a new tray out of the two trays that I have and slide it just a little bit so that i get room for a full-sized video card and audio card.

A 1-U Power Supply 300W(?) is on its way and I already have the sleeving kit, so I will be braiding my PSU when it gets here. I am thinking of using vinyl-dye on the connectors rather than buying a kit for those.

 

[Duster]

i think u need to rig up some tubes on the inside

they don't have to do anything but glow... with a window it would really look kick ars with a glowing tube and p4 sitting in the back

maybe make a fake tube with an led inside or something

(i really like tubes i say bring back the tube amps!! )

 

[SparksNelec]

I skimmed through the thread but didn't see this idea, so I'll throw it out there.

What about using the meter to measure the amps going through the various voltage lines like it was made to do? Use some sort of switch on the front to toggle between amps on the 12V line, 5V line and 3.3V line. Then you could see the needle move as you start up that power hungry 3D game. I think it was Anandtech that did an article on power consuption of graphics cards so that would give you an idea of how it could be implemented. Also, depending on the GFX card, that needle could be moving quite a bit.

 

[starhawk]

i think u need to rig up some tubes on the inside

they don't have to do anything but glow... with a window it would really look kick ars with a glowing tube and p4 sitting in the back

maybe make a fake tube with an led inside or something

(i really like tubes i say bring back the tube amps!! )

seconded on both counts...

ccfls would look good here... i believe orange would look halfway authentic...

<thread hijack> and tube amps are both better and worse than digital. they are more fragile and require more maintenance (don't drop it cuz tubes are hard to find and easy to break... and they burn out) but they give warmer sound and are simpler to construct. </thread hijack>

 

[Lunas]

there is a motherboard that includes a tube for it's built in sound....

http://english.aopen.com.tw/tech/techinside/Tube.htm



And since to make room for the mobo you will have to remove that large board with all the tubes.

I have an old CB that has tubes in it...


And to make that front meter work i am not completely sure how you would do it maybe you could get a driving unit for another analog meter from like walmart and you can have it setup so the meter on the front is linked to your 12v line with a dial that will switch it to the 5v i dont really know how you would get fan speed displayed ther.

 

[jonesey]

I saw this link a while ago, it might be helpful with getting the analog meter to work.

http://www.bit-tech.net/article/46/

 

[malingjc]

The unfortunate thing is that the meter is probably worth more than the computer you'd build in it. Those things are collector's items now.

 

[Ozone77]

Funny fact, I was seeing "Back to the Future" (part 2 or 3?) and guess what! there it was, an ammeter just like this one sitting on the table besides the model Doc uses to explain Marty the jump.

Any way, here are the pics I promised, I pulled out the dremel and made a few cuts to clean up the front and back plates, separate the back plate from the aluminum tray and to cut an old mobo tray down to mATX size.. baby steps i know, but I also ordered a few lights and stuff. The hardest part is deciding on the actual guts of the machine..
The removable aluminum tray that held the old guts

an ATX mobo tray that I cut to mATX size,the front face without any knobs, the backside of the aluminum tray

 

[starhawk]

<doc brown>that looks excellent, ozone77!</doc brown>

 

[Ozone77]

OK, another minor update, I got a 300w 1U PSU, and I also bought Vantec's green UV molex connectors and Vantec's green UV cable braiding. Soo, I got lucky and my gf had to work this weekend, so I was able to do some braiding.

Next is a how-to so feel free to skip it.

Remember to measure the braid before you take the connectors out, then cut it a bit longer because when the cables are inside, the braid becomes fatter and shorter. Cut it with a hot knife, or if you dont have one, I used my soldering iron to melt the ends of the braid (just a little bit) to keep it from coming appart. Use the molex removal tool and take out the connectors, it's child's play. The other types of connectors are a real pain in the ass to remove, I used one of those micro screwdrivers to bend in the little tabs that hold the metal leads in place (once you remove a molex head with the tool you will see what i am talking about) so I could then push the leads out. I also tried breaking the connector apart (only the plastic part), after all new ones are coming in. but that was also a pain in the ass, you decide how to do it. After you remove the conector heads from the pins, better make sure you remember their order. Tape the pins together so that they will not get caught in the braid. Snake the braid through, cut the heatshrink to size and slide it over as well. Cut the tape and put the new connector heads in, then shrink the heatshrink. I used a powerful hair drier, but i had to put the heatshrink really close to the drier and put something behind it to keep the hot air from leaving too soon.

the PSU before the operation... , sear the cuts,

take the molex out, do not tape the pins like this!,

bend them out like this, and then tape them

I like 3/8th braid better than 1/4 for molex cables (you can seed through), all done

 

[[nCn]Preacher]

Where did you buy the 1U PSU and how much? I need 2 for a mod I am doing....

 

[Ozone77]

I got it at www.pcpartsleader.com for $62 (300W). I have not tried it yet so I don't know how loud, hot or good it is. I got the skyhawk, but they also had Sparkle brand, which you will find in other places that sell 1U power supplies.

I tried to take it apart to have the heatshrink get inside the case for beter looks and to "look" at the quality of the componets heatsinks and stuff (not that I am an electrican, but I am curious) but I could not, the case is somehow glued together and removing the screws is not enough to open it up.

I also noticed that it has two small holes with mini-screws inside the case, I suppose these screws are just potentiometers and you can adjust the output voltage/current. But This is just a guess.

 

[Ozone77]

Update:
Well, so much for my Idea of getting an AMD64 at the last minute (literally) I found a bundle with a P4 550, an intel Mobo and Windows Pro (all of them boxed) for $215. Now if i was to buy these things in newegg, it would cost me $282 +$153 + $143 = $578. Of course, the site said that I was saving a lot more money than that. Did I do the right thing? I guess it depends if I can sell/use the mobo in some other project. I get a $50 discount on the CPU and XP Pro is free. But I don't care much for the mobo.

I bought a Gigabyte GA-8i915g-mf m-ATX mobo and 1Gig of corsair value DDR. Which arrived just in time for the weekend

With the astral foces in place, my girlfriend was away for the weekend and I was free to mod BWAHAHA. so I got my dremel and I cut up the original aluminum tray to make a more conventional mobo tray. I am happy with the results so far, but I had a little accident while i was cutting the back-pannel insert, so its no big deal since that can be replaced. I will post pictures after new year (girlfriend took the cellphone/cam).

Now, this does not sound like a lot of work but, I completely changed my design for the interior, here are some drawings, the rectangle in the back is the backplate of the computer

The board was upside-down (like a BTX). Putting the mobo in the same place as the old circuit board seemed liek the least amount of work. Unfortunatelly, the Alu tray still had to be cut b/c the mATX board is just too tall. Plus the tray had to be moved to the left to make room for full-height AGP/PCI cards

For the new layout, I cut the Alu tray in three pieces, one holds the mobo (not too rigid) an the other two ends use existing screws/holes to provide a little bit more rigidity, but they are bit in the way, I may end up removing them. There is room in the front of the mobo for a full-width AGP/PCI, and there's space in the back for the PSU and a HDD, but not for a regular CD/DVD (which would be loaded from the top) I will measure if a Laptop CD/DVD will fit, otherwise I will have to think of something

 

[Drunkinsquirl]

this reminds me of that radiation meter hdd case, it also makes me think of the front of that hl2 mod.

 

[Ozone77]

this reminds me of that radiation meter hdd case, it also makes me think of the front of that hl2 mod.

Actually you are right, I hope that the final result will look different (better? ), but as said before, none of the mods here are very original/innovative, not that I am trying to copy them, but they just did them before me.

 

[Ozone77]

Another update:

Santa-girlfriend gave me a nice sony dru-530 it's not dual layer, but I can write DVDs now. Only proble is that its a regular-sized CD, and as you can (almost) see in the picture, i had no room for it. So I changed my mind on the design (again). If set the PSU vertically, I can fit both the DVD and the PSU in the back of the Mobo, but I need to re-position the on switch and the plug-in socket to the side of the PSU. Also, I will have to figure out how to fit the HD now. I finally got the PSU opened, which was very tricky since the "cover" was glued to some heatsinks. I managed not to break anything

The one mayor advance was that I added the stand-offs for the mobo, I can now see if the holes I made fit, and I can make all the other cuts I need to make with no guess-work. I also added 2 braces tha make the tray sturdier, will have the holes to attach the DVD and will have yet another stand-off for the mobo.

Oh, I also got my CPU-Mobo-WinXP combo, I must say I was impressed.

The new LGA chips come with a HUGE heatsink, it's very similar to the old P4 hs, but a tad larger and with an 80mm fan. That sucker is going to get hot hot hot

Props to Intel for the very nice D915PBL mobo, it's not mATX so I cannot use it, but the extras included were very nice: flopply ribbon, IDE ribbon, 4 (YES four) Sata cables, 2 molex-sata power cables (for 4 drives), a bracket with 2 USB sockets for the back aaaand a floppy-sized box with: audio, mic, 2 USBs and a Firewire (black or beige faceplate). Compared to that, the Gigabyte had the flopy and IDE ribbons, 2 Sata cables, 1 molex-sata power cable (for 2 drives) and an IDE to Sata adapter to use your old HDD with the Sata cables.


the open PSU, the DVD

the P4, the mobo accessories

the tray as I left it before Xmas, detail of the bakcplate

OK, you can barely tell, but I added the stand-offs here, and this is the result.

Oh, I forgot to post pics of what the outside looks with the paint stripped. Once all the holes have been cut, I will paint this puppy black.

 

[Ozone77]

oh boy, wiring this is going to be a nightmare.

 

[WillowHawk]

looking food....i still remember the day that i first saw the first post on here....come a long way from ideas, to actually putting the thing together...

i MUST see this to completion

keep up the good work