Project: BayPC

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widefault

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Dec 18, 2000
Messages
5,137
Inspired by Tom61's PC in a drive bay project, I decided to blatantly steal his idea and build my own version.

First, the parts.
Main part of this project is an Advantech SBC. Originally designed for use in a PCI backplane, it can operate just fine without one.
baypc01.jpg

baypc02.jpg

Here are the basic specs.
- BX chipset
- Socket 370, supports PPGA and FCPGA Celeron and PIII chips with 66MHz or 100MHz bus. This one is running a PIII-500
- 2 SODIMM slots, supports up to 512MB of SDRAM, this one has 128MB right now.
- All the BX basics, dual ATA33 IDE(note below), 2 COM ports(one port, one header), 1 Parallel header, 2 USB(headers onboard)
- One IDE header is 44 pin. With a 44 pin cable a laptop hard drive can be directly attached AND powered. Second IDE port is used as a Compact Flash interface(seen in second pic), although it only seems to work with the small CF cards I have.
- Onboard Trident video, has hardware MPEG2 decode AND headers for direct attachment to an LCD panel
- Onboard 10/100 ethernet
- Powered through a standard molex, will run on only a single 5 volt line, too. I'll be using +5 and +12 because otherwise the onboard CPU fan header doesn't work.
- Dimensions are around 4.5" x 7", 115mm x ~180MM. Height with heatsink is a little over 2"(50mm), so I won't be able to fit this into one 5.25" bay.

Here's a shot of the onboard ports.
baypc03.jpg


From left to right are a pair of USB headers, VGA out, ethernet, COM1, and a single PS2 port that splits to AT keyboard and PS2 mouse ports with the cable in the pic below. Also in the pic is the proprietary 44-40-40 IDE cable that allows standard IDE devices to be hooked to the 44 pin IDE header on the board.
baypc05.jpg


And because I have the pic, here's some things I won't be using that came with the board. Included is a proprietary floppy cable, an adapter for using an ATX PSU with a backplace, and serial and parallel ports for hooking to the onboard headers.
baypc04.jpg


And more cables, this time a USB port for one onboard header, the CPU fan(which I''m not sure if I'll use), and a section of cabling yanked from and old PSU. That will be adapted to power everything. Yes, that's a black cat paw on the USB cable.
baypc08.jpg


Next is the 8x DVD drive that will be used. It's a laptop drive, made by Lite-On, and has a 40 pin adapter for hookup.
baypc06.jpg


Here's the hard drive, a 10GB IBM Travelstar. Not sure what this PC will get used for, so the 10GB could be replaced down the road. Not shown is the 40 pin adapter.
baypc07.jpg


And here's the beginning of the case that will hold everything.
baypc09.jpg


It's 1/4" plexiglass. Cuts are rough, but that's nothing to concern me. The face of the box will be made of aluminum and once mounted in a PC, that's all that will be visible. I still have to do a bit of work on the pieces shown. Sides are attached to the base, but I have to trim down the base to make it fit my case better. Dimensions of the case are 3.25"x5.75"x8" deep. Overall depth will be around 8.25" when face and back are attached. All cooling will be done with one fan mounted in the rear of the case. There's just enough room for a 70mm, so that's what will be used. Faceplate will have cutouts for all the ports on the board, DVD drive, one USB, the power switch, and some vent holes to let cool air in.

One last shot of the case in place for a test fit.
baypc10.jpg


yes, I know it's short, that's on purpose. I may have screw heads on the top piece of plexi, so I wanted to make sure I had space.

The final setup will be powered by a secondary AT PSU mounted in the case shown, but could just as easily be hooked to the machines normal PSU since it will only draw about 30 watts.

Things to do:
- Drill holes for board mounting standoffs
- Make mounting brackets for hard drive and DVD
- make backplate, find a quiet 70mm fan
- Buy power switch and start wiring up everything
- mock-up faceplate using posterboard BEFORE cutting the aluminum.
- make faceplate, then finish the wiring

Probably going to get back on this soon, but I have a few other things to take care of first.
 
Looking good! So the secondary PSU will also be contained within the plexi? And if so, how do you power it whithout having to run a big powercord thru yer case?
 
if that's the case, power cords can be hidden quite well. just run it down 1 corner and drill a small hole in the back of the case. strip the connector off the lead, run it through the hole, and rewire it
 
i would resolder the main power supply for it so only one
 
Glad to see you're starting your project WideFault. I'll be restarting mine soon.
 
What's the deal with the LCD connection on the board....what can you hook up to that baby?
 
The BayPC's PSU is currently a standard sized AT unit, it'll be mounted in the large case above that system's normal ATX PSU. The BayPC will have a single molex connector on the rear for power hookup. I'm using a seperate AT PSU because I may want the BayPC running without turning on the other system. I have the spare AT PSU, so I'll just use it.

Now, the above may change. I may be upgrading the "big" system, which will include a new ATX PSU and the merger of that box and another. If I do that, then the BayPC will be run off the system's ATX PSU because that new system will run 24-7.

There is another reason for running a second PSU. I have another one of these boards that may get made into another BayPC. Mmmm, two full PCs in the space of four 5.25" bays.

The LCD controller onboard is supposed to support standard LCD panels, but getting enough info to choose a compatible one has been difficult. I won't be using it anyway, this system will be running headless for most of the time so it'd be a waste of money.
 
A couple quick pics, got the mounting holes drilled and the SBC temporarily installed.
baypc11.jpg

baypc12.jpg


Up next will be the hard drive and the DVD mounting brackets.
 
but how are you going to get it to work with out the mobo. and why are you puting it in your pc why not put it in like a metal box??????
 
altec said:
but how are you going to get it to work with out the mobo. and why are you puting it in your pc why not put it in like a metal box??????
Click to expand...

Um, that is the motherboard. If you mean backplane, it can work without one.

Looking good widefault! I'm a bit envious that your SBC is not as wide as a drive bay, I have no room to put plexi on the sides, a plexi box would make things easier on me.
 
but how do you get it to work with out it being hock to a pci slot?????
 
Yep, this one runs all on its own. The backplane isn't needed, but would allow me to run additional PCI devices and power the system through the PCI bus. It would also make this setup pretty much the same size as a normal ATX board. Smaller is better in this case.

Why put it in the PC? Why not? I've got two full tower cases with unused 5.25" bays, one of which has a spot for a second PSU. I can slap this box and an AT PSU into that system, using it only as a "holder" for the parts. Better than trying to find a place for another box.
 
where did u get the sbc? i have 4 socket 370 celerons just sitting here, maybe ill make a cool firewall or something
 
so what your saying is the pci slot is just to hold the mobo and give it power
 
widefault said:
Bought it on another forum, I actually have a couple of them right now.
Click to expand...

a couple of this exact one? cuz i might be intrested in purchasing one if you'd be willin to part with it
 
Veeb0rg said:
a couple of this exact one? cuz i might be intrested in purchasing one if you'd be willin to part with it
Click to expand...

Well, I'd prefer not to sell any unless the price was right.
 
Hard drive bracket designed and cut out of the baseplate of an old 4X CD-ROM. It's attached to the heatsink on the CPU, which happened to be in just the right location AND has threaded posts. I did have to add a step into the bracket because the 44-40 adapter board needed more room. The bracket is also a bit tilted, needs some work yet. I have to redrill the hard drive mounting holes, two of them are a bit off.

And the pics...
baypc13.jpg

baypc14.jpg

baypc15.jpg


Next will be the DVD bracket, but I may have to shorten or "strand" the IDE cable a bit. right now it's too long and there isn't enough room for me to fold it out of the way.
 
widefault said:
Well, I'd prefer not to sell any unless the price was right.
Click to expand...

understandable.. i was just thinkin maybe turnin one into a small lan server so i could stop luggin these huge 4u cases around
 
altec said:
so what your saying is the pci slot is just to hold the mobo and give it power
Click to expand...

Sort of, but not quite. These were not really designed for running by themselves, it's just a happy accident for someone like me. These were made for use on a backplane with the backplane providing the mounting point, power, and more PCI slots for adding additional components. And it needs an actual backplane, sticking it into any old board PCI slot will likely screw up both systems.
 
Veeb0rg said:
understandable.. i was just thinkin maybe turnin one into a small lan server so i could stop luggin these huge 4u cases around
Click to expand...

YHPM.

widefault said:
Next will be the DVD bracket, but I may have to shorten or "strand" the IDE cable a bit. right now it's too long and there isn't enough room for me to fold it out of the way.
Click to expand...

Are you going to mount it above the HD? Oh, BTW I remember you mentioning something about wanting a 44-pin to notebook CD adapter, do you still need one? That would allow you to get rid of that adapter on the notebook. I found one here: http://216.36.236.148/Merchant2/mer...=E&Product_Code=T2CDMNTKIT&Category_Code=MPS2
 
Yep, the DVD is going right above the hard drive.

Damn, now someone finds an adapter. Ah, no biggie, I can make everything work as is. I don't think I'd save much room, anyway. Hmm, but I could go to the 44 pin cable and ditch a large chunk of my wiring..... Maybe for the next one.
 
DVD bracket added, not too fancy but it works just fine. Also doing some test wiring, looks like I'll have to build my own harness.

Pics:
baypc16.jpg

baypc17.jpg

baypc18.jpg

baypc19.jpg


And one with a test fit in the PC. Might notice that the top isn't on in this pic. Well, I screwed up. The DVD drive sits about half a millimeter too high. Not a big problem, it doesn't really need a top, anyway. I'll work something out.
baypc20.jpg
 
wow, you could build 2 of those and have some external hard drives and bam, 3 computers that are file servers for a LAN ;)
 
Gargoyle_Hunter, this is probably going to be hooked up over a wireless USB adapter. If not, nothing special will be done for the ethernet cable. This will get used as a test box, so most of the time it won't be on my network, anyway.

conundrum, Tom61 is mostly right. The board, memory, and CPU came from other forums, the hard drive and DVD came from ebay, wiring harness from a dead PSU, and the plexi was left over from other projects. Total cost? I think it's less than $100 so far for this one. I also have another two boards with CPUs and memory, plus two more laptop CD drives. One each of those is going to be used to build a PC in an old lockbox, which there is a thread for somewhere.

Tom61, nice find, although I think it's $65 each. Hmm, those have a normal IDE header, normal DIMM slots, normal CPU socket, but a lesser video chipset. Still a good place to start.
 
tom61 said:
I believe he said that he got the boards off Ebay. There's three boards, with processor, like his for $65 BIN at this auction (not mine): http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1244&item=6731111975&rd=1
Click to expand...

Buyer beware!

Those do not have power connectors, and as such will require backplanes to operate. Backplanes of 1U size (the kind wanted for this type of project) would be too long and too costly. The effort is appreciated, but I don't think they would be a very good buy :(
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
k1114 said:
Buyer beware!

Those do not have power connectors, and as such will require backplanes to operate. Backplanes of 1U size (the kind wanted for this type of project) would be too long and too costly. The effort is appreciated, but I don't think they would be a very good buy :(
Click to expand...

If you RTFM here You'll see that there is a power header on the board itself. It's a custom header that takes 1 VCC, 2 Ground, 1 +12 V and 1 -12V, However, having said that, I'm not sure if that's enough power for the whole SBC to run off of, or if some power is provided by the ISA bus that it's supposed to be plugged into.
 
I use advantech industrial PC's at work... I had a couple of those laying around... All broke though... Looks good so far.
 
tom61 said:
Hey widefault, make any progress since your last post?
Click to expand...

Coincidentally, I just did a few things today.

I broke down and got that 44 pin laptop CD/DVD adapter. Now I can power the laptop hard drive and the laptop CD through the data cable. Simplifies my wiring a ton. The "bad" thing is the adapter sits higher than the top of the DVD drive. Not that big a deal since my own screwup previously made me ditch using the piece of plexi I cut for the top. I'll worry about that down the road, though. The other "bad" thing is the 44 pin cable that came with the adapter is pretty short. It's just barely long enough. It did come partially stranded, but I need to strand the piece between the DVD and hard drive.

Since power wiring is no longer an issue, I started making my wiring harness. All I needed was one female molex, one male, and a DPSt switch(still need to run to Rat Shack for that). Anyway, ordered the male molex and was able to scavenge the female molex off an old Apple PSU{1}. Just so happened that the Apple PSU uses all "right-angle" punch-down style molex connectors. So I now have a small stash of those, too.

Going to start prototyping the faceplate soon, and I have to make the backplate. That's waiting for the male molex and a 70mm fan, which will just barely fit.

Haven't taken any pics yet. Might do that tonight.

{1} I bought a PowerMac 9500 a while back with the intention to resell. Well, no one wanted it so I parted it out.
 
A few pics....

The start of the wiring harness and the back of the new laptop DVD adapter. 44 pin IDE cable in place. Can also see part of the hard drive bracket.
baypc21.jpg


With the DVD drive out of the way you can see the newly-flattened hard drive bracket.
baypc22.jpg


Shot showing the spacing between components and the severely stretched IDE cable.
baypc23.jpg
 
widefault said:
conundrum, Tom61 is mostly right. The board, memory, and CPU came from other forums, the hard drive and DVD came from ebay, wiring harness from a dead PSU, and the plexi was left over from other projects. Total cost? I think it's less than $100 so far for this one. I also have another two boards with CPUs and memory, plus two more laptop CD drives. One each of those is going to be used to build a PC in an old lockbox, which there is a thread for somewhere.
Click to expand...

Hehe, yeah, hard drive... Now I remember you. ;)

Looking good.
 
And the back panel has been cut and fit. 70mm fan installed.
baypc24.jpg

baypc25.jpg

baypc26.jpg

Now I need to find one of my Zalman fanmates, that sucker is loud at 12 volts. Circle was cut with a Dremel and the Dremel Circle Cutter. Worked pretty well, which surprised me. Pay no attention to the marks on the plexi, they won't be seen by anyone but me once this is finished and living in my primary box.

I still need to cut the spot where the molex will fit. And I still need to make a trip to Radio Shack for a few minor items. Hoping I can get this more or less finished this weekend.

And yes, there's dust and bits of plastic everywhere right now. Had to do some quick trimming to make things fit better.
 
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