ON3 Up....

This is sweet all the work your putting in to all the parts of this. Its mind blowing i mean just the video card by it self is insane. Can't wait to see this all done.
 
zeusenergy said:
...He's only 7 but hes been playing Q3 since he was 2! LMFAO..... :eek:
thats right! learn em while theyre young! :D

very very awesome job w/ the mobo. glad to have some new pics. bring more soon! :cool:
 
zeusenergy said:
I tried that, Spange. Maybe I put too much heat in one place, but the corners aren't too nice, there are little "blisters" embedded in the glass. This was for the mobo cover. You'll never see the flaws once that piece is painted and installed, but the outer covers will need to be transparent over some curves.

hmm.. sounds like it got too hot. I usually wave it back and forth to slowly melt the plastic, then cool it with some sprayed water.
 
altec said:
This is sweet all the work your putting in to all the parts of this. Its mind blowing i mean just the video card by it self is insane. Can't wait to see this all done.
Hey Altec, it's been hard to do these things so intricately as I want to rush on thru, but I'll bide my time and make a great case in the end.
The servo circuit is done and pics follow....
You can see how the board layout and wiring progressed from behind. Don't mind the boogered solder! The screw terminals are marked cryptically. DNL stands for DowN Limit switch. The other connection is obvious now, huh?
B-G are the two input connections. B stands for Button and G stands for GPO. Then there are +/- 12VDC, and lastly the two motor leads.
Of course the final layout was yet another lesson in packaging since I was determined not to use the next bigger size board. But the fruits of my labor are compact and elegant. Did I mention you will NEVER see this part since it will be hidden under the DVD drive????:eek:


servocircuit2.jpg

servocircuit3.jpg

servocircuit1.jpg

servocircuit4.jpg

servocircuit5.jpg
 
SpangeMonkee said:
hmm.. sounds like it got too hot. I usually wave it back and forth to slowly melt the plastic, then cool it with some sprayed water.
Hmmm, so maybe I shouldn't let the heat stay in one place too long.... Serves me right for trying to make it bend faster! ;)
I cut that piece off anyway (the section of the mobo cover that wrapped around the agp slot originally) so I'll prolly make another piece to replace the one left over.
 
zeusenergy said:
Jdub- The LEDs on the card are wired in series and each one is rated at 2.1 volts. 5 times 2.1 is 10.5, so I am overdriving them slightly.... This is okay by me, cause the LEDs in Framed have survived for over a year and a half and they are wired identically. At least with this setup the whole FHS on the card can be pulled without desoldering wires or disconnecting yet another connector, two is plenty! :cool:

I'm not sure if you know already, but if you're overdriving them, you'll probably need a resistor... LEDs become less resistive when they heat up, so they allow more current through, which heats them more, and you get the point. The heat will cause them to eventually burn out. You might not need it since they're sunk into the heatsink and are being blown on, but I thought I'd give you the heads up.

I replaced the dash lights in my car w/ blue LEDs and the driver's side window switch eventually blew out after about 5 months because I never switched the resistor. The stock LED there was a green one, so I needed a different resistor, but I was too lazy to go out and buy the correct one, so it slowly overheated.
 
jdub765 said:
I'm not sure if you know already, but if you're overdriving them, you'll probably need a resistor... LEDs become less resistive when they heat up, so they allow more current through, which heats them more, and you get the point. The heat will cause them to eventually burn out. You might not need it since they're sunk into the heatsink and are being blown on, but I thought I'd give you the heads up.

I replaced the dash lights in my car w/ blue LEDs and the driver's side window switch eventually blew out after about 5 months because I never switched the resistor. The stock LED there was a green one, so I needed a different resistor, but I was too lazy to go out and buy the correct one, so it slowly overheated.
I could always add yet another LED to the heatsink too.... LMAO. :D
 
TSS Modder said:
i second that! :) :p
Well lets see... I have the five LEDs in the vid card, five more in the DVD drive, three for the front mounted buttons, plus the six for indicators in the lower cover module. Then there will be five in the power supply aiming towards the mainboard area and prolly another six per side for underneath the mobo cover and drive cover. I think that may be enough.... :D
 
zeusenergy said:
Well lets see... I have the five LEDs in the vid card, five more in the DVD drive, three for the front mounted buttons, plus the six for indicators in the lower cover module. Then there will be five in the power supply aiming towards the mainboard area and prolly another six per side for underneath the mobo cover and drive cover. I think that may be enough.... :D

NEVER!!!!
 
altec said:
NEVER!!!!
Yeah, I guess you are right.... Update time!
I got some time this weekend to do a little work. Had to cut open that brand-new, (only used to test it out) DVD drive. Take one new drive, cut it open, wire some remote leads for LED and eject button, install 5 LEDs without interfering with the tray, make a logo out of polystyrene, add paint and shake..... :rolleyes:
Fully lit up, no front cover yet but this is the result:
dvd1.jpg

Now for the in-process pix:
dvd2.jpg

dvd3.jpg

The next pic you can see the four-leaf clover my 7 year old son found... Lot's O luck!
dvd4.jpg

dvd5.jpg

dvd6.jpg

dvd7.jpg
 
Here you can see the three lower LEDs.The middle one is for the logo, but I think it needs more light still. The disk gets lit enough for me tho :)
dvd8.jpg

Now all five LEDs. The side ones were fun, had to drill and redrill to pass the wiring back and forth to get to the LEDs. But it all clears the tray!
dvd9.jpg


After getting thru with the DVD stuff (the top cover will be made later, ran out of large pieces of acrylic....) I had to make the GPU duct that will serve to allow cool air to the GPU fan from the bottom of the case.
duct1.jpg

It will be finished clear with paint on the very bottom portion where the Nvidia logo lives :) Theres three separate components to it, the curved middle part was made first and the other two were based on that piece. The bottom piece needs some more work, but you can see how it will match the contours of the heatsink parts I made a while ago. After getting it roughed out, I just had to add this logo: :eek: It looks okay, and it's my first try at etching with a Dremel by hand :)

duct2.jpg
 
BTW, plans up next include finish work for the duct and installation with custom aluminum bracket for both the video card and duct at the same time. It will be cool to remove it all at the same time, rather than two piece. Besides, the whole deal will mount to the frame work eventually and not the crappy mobo tray. It still needs trimming too ;) Just can't leave it alone I guess.
The DVD cover will be a bit more involved. It has to contain the three buttons for power, case powered open, and DVD eject facing the user as it sits on the desk. These buttons will be flush-mounted and irregularly shaped to match the outer covers that open up. This way as the case opens the buttons stay in place. There's really no other place I can mount them and make it work right. The good thing is that these buttons will cover the DVD IDE cable connection. The bad is that the buttons MUST match the outer covers perfectly or I won't be able to pull this trick off. And guess what? The covers and the frame still are MIA! But I gotta work on something until I get my hands on some real toolz! But the logo will be behind some window tint on the inside of the windowed portion of the cover to make it disappear when power is off. It's made from a sheet of polystyrene and as you can see in the first pic two posts up it glows real nice:) Better than frosted acrylic, I think.
 
Amazing work so far. I cannot wait to see how the movement works.

How about this for the DVD: put a LED on the tray itself so when you eject it lights up the CD and tray area in the dark. Easy placement in the night :D
 
MechWarrior said:
Amazing work so far. I cannot wait to see how the movement works.

How about this for the DVD: put a LED on the tray itself so when you eject it lights up the CD and tray area in the dark. Easy placement in the night :D
OOOH, I'm liking that idea!!!!!!!!
 
zeusenergy said:
OOOH, I'm liking that idea!!!!!!!!

just for the sake of mentioning it, you might want to make shure the light is off when the drive is closed i dont know it haveing the cd lit dirrectly will mess with the laser... ( i could see a red led being a particular problem) a simple contact switch at the back of the drive at the point when the drive is fully colsed will do nicely (contact switch is normaly closed, and is opend by the drive shutting) or you could do it the other way and have it not come on untill the drive is fully open (switch normaly open and is closed by drive opening (this one may prove more challenging... )

thore
 
Wow.. I'm truly amazed at the high quality of your work. I'd love to see how you fabricated and mounted the motherboard and video card covers! Very intrigued by those. :)
 
thore said:
just for the sake of mentioning it, you might want to make shure the light is off when the drive is closed

thore
If I do the LEDs on the ejected disk, I'll make contacts on the tray itself and also on the inside of the DVD housing. This way 5VDC will run to two spots near the tray stop tabs, and make contact when the tray hits those tabs. Probably put the actual LEDs in the faceplate of the drive and aim them at the ejected disk to save on the trouble of wiring the tray itself, too. Thanks for the comments, you gave me some new ideas to play with :)
 
daedal said:
Wow.. I'm truly amazed at the high quality of your work. I'd love to see how you fabricated and mounted the motherboard and video card covers! Very intrigued by those. :)
Hey, thanks It was easy :) Yeah, right! Took alot of time (total 8 hours with paint and etch) to make those parts but the basic tool you need for the job is a router bit and attchment for the Dremel. You can get a "Rotary tool router table" at Sears for $30. It's awesome and well worth the $. Especially since I can't yet afford a real full-size table and router :) Soon, tho. The GPU card cover is bolted right at the points in the card where large heatsinks normally mount thru. The mobo cover will be temporarily mounted for now till the aluminum case frame is finished, and then will bolt directly into the frame with mounting tabs made from aluminum as well. I should be mocking up the hardware main components soon as the wiring harnesses will need to be made up and the power supply mods should be started too. So you will see everything coming together finally even tho it will be a temporary mount. Until the case frame is done....
And there are currently two more cases I'm developing at the same time. Both of those should be done well before ON3 UP is complete, due to the simplicity of their designs. One of them is a customer rig so it needs to be finished in a reasonable amount of time, say a month to two months.The other is my son's machine which can be finished in two weekends. Now that's a change! A quick build by yours truly??!
:eek:
 
Got a minor update for today. Just finished up with my carpenter friend and his take on the outer cover form was perfect to say the least. It was a simple project, but to me it meant the world. I could not have made this piece so perfect myself. So a big thanks to Pat! As you can see it's nothing more than a perfectly square rectangular "box" with curved edges. This piece will serve to bend the four total acrylic parts which will make up the outer covers. These covers are very important, as it will be the first thing you see and also because these pieces will move away from the case frame under power. Everything needs to be perfect. The inside of the covers will be airbrushed and different from what you usually see in the [H]forums. :D
form1.jpg

form2.jpg

form3.jpg
 
zeusenergy said:
Yeah, I guess you are right.... Update time!
I got some time this weekend to do a little work. Had to cut open that brand-new, (only used to test it out) DVD drive. Take one new drive, cut it open, wire some remote leads for LED and eject button, install 5 LEDs without interfering with the tray, make a logo out of polystyrene, add paint and shake..... :rolleyes:
dvd6.jpg


that looks pretty cool, but the cut-outs look a bit rough--maybe some more time with a set of rifler files to clean up the choppy edges?..--Keep up the good work!
 
CrimsonSky said:
that looks pretty cool, but the cut-outs look a bit rough--maybe some more time with a set of rifler files to clean up the choppy edges?..--Keep up the good work!
Thanks, bro. The acrylic cover will hide any imperfections in the metal. Just gotta get around to doing it!
;)
 
Okay... I know when you first started this I said I was hooked... Then I forgot all about it.
But I just found this thread again and after about a solid Hour of reading and looking over all the layout drawings and everything... I am RE-HOOKED! :D

All this hard work and extensive PRE DRAWS really make it fun to read this project. You get the visual as you read and look over everything.

I am really looking forward to seeing this thing finished!
 
Majin said:
Okay... I know when you first started this I said I was hooked... Then I forgot all about it.
But I just found this thread again and after about a solid Hour of reading and looking over all the layout drawings and everything... I am RE-HOOKED! :D

All this hard work and extensive PRE DRAWS really make it fun to read this project. You get the visual as you read and look over everything.

I am really looking forward to seeing this thing finished!
Wow, thanx! I think that was the plan all along. To make it entertaining like the Bit-Tech.net worklogs. The guys across the pond in England really know how to hobby. And they make it possible to see what will be to come from their very complete writeups and concept drawings. If you haven't guessed already, I'm half anglo myself.... :eek:
This damn mod is really, really involved. When it's done the peripherals will also be modded (speakers, LCD 17", MX1000, EL keyboard, and Nostromo N52) Then everything will be mated to a custom built seat/workstation made to match the rest of the modded stuff. That's where ON3 UP will really begin to take shape- mounted to the newest of my ideas- project "Station"
 
project "Station"
Will be the 4th mod to have the the Quake 3 Driver used in it.
LOL

Zeus, you have TOO MANY IDEAS!
Can you spare a few... ;)
 
Majin said:
project "Station"
Will be the 4th mod to have the the Quake 3 Driver used in it.
LOL

Zeus, you have TOO MANY IDEAS!
Can you spare a few... ;)


i wanna see him take a premod case and make it...untacky :D


anyway, this is really looking nice. cant wait to see the end result
 
Majin said:
project "Station"
Will be the 4th mod to have the the Quake 3 Driver used in it.
LOL

Zeus, you have TOO MANY IDEAS!
Can you spare a few... ;)
Hahaaaa! :) Too bad most of them don't ever get built or even posted! I'm a silly po' bastaad..
el rolio said:
you sir, are project MAD
No I'm just MAD! :eek:
snoopy said:
i wanna see him take a premod case and make it...untacky


anyway, this is really looking nice. cant wait to see the end result
That would be cool. It's been a long, long time since I did any modding to a "regular" case.
 
i just think it would be a good challenge. If i had the money, Id do it. Im just sick of these gaming computers that look like...well...this
 
snoopy said:
i just think it would be a good challenge. If i had the money, Id do it. Im just sick of these gaming computers that look like...well...
Worked on the CTF~Flag and it's almost done. The fan duct for the AGP card is also nearly done.
on3_up_1.jpg

on3_up_2.jpg
 
ZEUS!
This Thread fell to page two!
You can't let that happen again!
More UPDATEDs needed

How are things coming with this project?
 
Majin said:
ZEUS!
This Thread fell to page two!
You can't let that happen again!
More UPDATEDs needed

How are things coming with this project?

If you subscribe to the thread, you won't have to worry about it. ;)

 
Majin said:
ZEUS!
This Thread fell to page two!
You can't let that happen again!
More UPDATEDs needed

How are things coming with this project?
Ahhhhhhhh! Page 2??????
Man I've slacked long enough, huh? :) Looks like I need an update soon for this rig. Too bad my time has been taken up by non-modding activities. But like the proverbial sands o' time, this case will be finished.
Now for the good and bad news. The good news is my progress should move forward quickly, and maybe a month from now this thing will be completely done. The bad news is- the case frame material has changed from aluminum to acrylic.
Waiting for spare cash is like watching paint dry. So therefore it will be easier to use something that I can work on NOW. The good points of acrylic are:
>Easier to cut and shape with my current stuff
>No need for TIG welding, cuts costs SIGNIFICANTLY
>Can be edge-lit and painted any way I please
>Bending the leg sections will be much simpler
>Will get it DONE QUICK

Drawbacks are:
>Not as strong or durable as aluminum
>Welded seams are better than adhesive-joined edges
>Tapping holes in acrylic scares me... :eek:

I'll have to paint the case frame parts and make them look "metal" since this was the original style of finish chosen for the case frame. I know dam well that the paint will look awesome, so that's not such a big deal. It sucks that it has come to this, but looking at the mockup and wood form every day gets to you! :mad:
 
sarbz said:
Any more progress zeus?
Hey Sarbz. Got to start the frame parts today. The lower plate with the mobo port cutouts is nearly done, but that's it. I've been doing the summertime thing and put the project on the back burner. Got two kids and a wife to deal with ya know...
:rolleyes:
Tough cutting that thick acrylic, man. But well worth it- looks great having such thick parts. By two weeks from now, the frame will be done and painted. Only because next weekend is the Westfield Airshow, and our little town's having the yearly town fair too. I'll be busy all weekend yet again! This weekend was reinstalling two machines for customers. Lucky to have the time to make that one part today :)
 
Hey all. Sorry about the lack of posts over the summer. Progress on this mod is picking up steam and real installation of the main parts into the frame should be ready shortly after the frame gets cut out. It's a hell of a job cutting these parts, since the thickness of the acrylic is double what I've worked with so far. But regardless, it's not forgotten! :D
 
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