.:: ~ PROJECT: BLU ~ ::. pics, pics, pics

Ladies and gentlemen he is BACK!! well not here but he has posted back on overclockers.com forums on the 21st... he said school was kicking his ass but he is gonna start updates once he finishes up his basement.. :D
 
I most certainly am...give me a few days to get resituated..some very interesting things instore for you folks...consider them presents to reward your patience
 
woo hoo!!!

I have been waiting for this thing to start back up for awhile now. Finally you're back! Can't wait for pics!
 
I'm glad to see you back. I was very interested in this mod and when you fell silent for so long I began to think something happened to you. Its great to know that you are okay.
 
I’m, flattered you were all concerned about my well being. A heartfelt w00t to you all. Hokay, so I've emerged from my laboratory after 2 days of my reconstituting my abandoned chi. I am now unequivocally of the opinion that my design lacks enough innovative engineering. I know the fans are impressive but the more I think about it the more they seem like an overstatement overshadowing an otherwise ordinary case mod. As such, I’ve made a decision to fungineer project blu up a notch or so. I’ve devised a few small projects thus far that I’d love some feedback from. Most of these new modifications will invoke the heavy use of microcontrollers. For those of you that do not know a microcontroller is, it’s a small self contained computer etched onto a small integrated circuit chip. This will allow me to program the microcontrollers to produce interesting interactive experiences. Anyway, here are some of my thoughts.

i. Tactile response power switch:
I’m of the opinion that power switches are boring. Even well designed ones are ultimately mechanical momentary switches, which is boring. I’ve formulated an evil plot to implement a switch with no mechanized components. This switch would be activated by tactile interaction by a human finger on a metal contact; Much like those strange lamps that adjust their brightness when you touch the metal frame. But that isn’t nearly enough. Due to the ease of activation of a touch switch, I thought it necessary to have the switch only throw after multiple contact points have been activated. I then developed the idea of having the switch be a 5 contact matrix that is activated when you touch all 5 contacts in a certain order. Different ordered contacts could perform different operations such as reset or cold shutdown. If I have my permutations correct, using 5 contact sequences you could perform 5! (that’s 5 factorial) or 120 operations with a single switch. One could also password protect their PC by requiring the user to input a contact sequence as a key.


ii. Electroluminescent back lighting.
Poor lightning cheapens an otherwise successful mod. What’s more is that well executed lightning can render an incredible effect. Localized lighting like led’s and even cold cathode tubes suffer from uneven distributions of light. This can lead to inhomogeneous illumination. I’ve found that electroluminescent lighting solves a great deal of these issues. I’ve decided to light the meters and the front panel specifically using EL panels. The entire front panel will now be backed by a large EL sheet affecting an ambient blue glow. I’ll do the same to the meter faces which will render something of an “indiglow effect”.

iii. Binary chronograph
As vehemently as I oppose gratuitous aesthetics, I must allow myself one exception. This particular deviation will take the form of a binary chronograph. For those of you that do not know what the hell I be yappin’ ‘bout. It is very similar to a binary clock which you can find here: http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/lights/59e0/ . In addition to time, my chronograph would deliver a cryptic binary representation of the date as well. The chronograph will likely be implemented in a partial wrap around of my case. I promise it will look amazing. I imagine however that it may take me sometime to program the chronograph microcontroller.

I hope these new mods titillate you all intimately and inappropriately. They do me. Bear with me as I implement these features because I’m going to have to write the code for the touch switch and chronograph in assembly. I’m also experiencing some difficulty stabilizing my PWM so that will take priority. I’ll begin work on the switch first while I wait for my EL panels to arrive.
 
so i guess emooguy started showing the cat off? i wanted to see the cat :p bring back the cat!!! hahaha

awesome mod, i cant wait for the pics of this thing.
 
His name is Curry, Curry the threadjackin' kitty. Anyway, my apologies for letting this get out of hand, I'll have some updates tonight. I've ran into some interesting issues with the pulse width modulator.
 
Awesome work man, i'm getting into the early stages of electricity. I completed my A+ certification from a 4 year cisco class yesterday, and i was very excited to stumble across this thread.

Very nice work man, especially on the transformer. GL with everything, i will keep checkin back to see how it progresses!
 
wow... very cool stuff... this is one of the best mods i have ever seen. :D :cool:

and let us know how that 'touch pad' idea works out. id love to have a touchpad to control my PC.
 
BTW. ive decided to hava a blue halo illuminate around each touch pad as you touch it. The light will be charged by a small capacitor, so once you remove your finger the illumination will slowly fade away. How crazy will that look when its done! Im working on the touchpad circuit design. I'll post a schematic when its done.
 
can we have some pics today? i wanna see how much you progressed in your MOD since the last "pic taking"
 
em00guy said:
BTW. ive decided to hava a blue halo illuminate around each touch pad as you touch it. The light will be charged by a small capacitor, so once you remove your finger the illumination will slowly fade away. How crazy will that look when its done! Im working on the touchpad circuit design. I'll post a schematic when its done.
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id love to know how to build that/how much it would cost. if it wouldnt cost too much, id definately buy/build one of those.
 
chronic9 said:
can we have some pics today? i wanna see how much you progressed in your MOD since the last "pic taking"
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Not much Tangible has happened since the last major picage, I've been brainstorming new ideas. However, I've beeen messing with the PWM circuit a bit. I'll post some pics of that afer im done studying for this cognitive psycology test. Tonight or tomorrow, sorry for the wait.

TSS modder said:
id love to know how to build that/how much it would cost. if it wouldnt cost too much, id definately buy/build one of those.
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I thought about building them for modders. I'll post the touch switch schemetics for you when I finish designing them. However, the whole touch pad requires programming a microcontroller. Which will be above most peoples head and/or resources. So that may be something i could make for folks time permitting. Nevertheless, i'll post any microcontroller wiring diagrams and programming code that I use. Unfortunately I cant afford a c compiler for my microcontrollers so all code will be written in assembly. If you don't know what assembly is it's the lowest programming level right before writing actual binary instructions in 1's and 0's, so it pretty arcane stuff, but thats why we're geeks.
 
Holy GENIUS Batman! Just how smart are you?!?!

I think this guy deserves his own special rank.
 
p0stal said:
Holy GENIUS Batman! Just how smart are you?!?!

I think this guy deserves his own special rank.
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seconded... something a little better than [H]Lite.

o wait.. he could get something better... if he posted updates :p ;) just messing, bud. keep up the awesome work!!
 
Though I greatly enjoy toying with everyone’s emotions I’ll humble myself and post something more than a filler update. First however, I’d like to show off my new and criminally underused toy.

Le Dremel XPR 400!
DCP_1246.jpg



With flex shaft accessory thank you very much. This thing is like a street pimps jewel studded chalet. Not a single geek should be without one.
DCP_1247.jpg


Alright, enough of why I’m better than you and your mother combined here’s what’s been a brew. Before the inception of the touch switch I’d planned to use a toggle fighter safety switch as a power switch. And since it is against my religion to add components to my project unmodded I took a hacksaw and the dremel to it and devised and interesting alteration. The fighter switch was of the type you often see with a red safety cap and a red led. I decided to first change out the led to blue, of course, though I now realize I could have purchased it with a blue led. Never satisfied I cut a hole in the top of the switch in an attempt to be the first to give a switch a window mod. I’ve decided rather than let this mod go to waste it will become my new power supply switch. This mod is not complete but it is progressing quite smoothly here is it’s story…in pictures of course…cause geeks can’t read…apparently. jk.

Here is the original switch with a small dent from a less than clever attempt to remove the shaft.
DCP_1249.jpg


The switch with the shaft and safety cap removed. Note the red led.
DCP_1250.jpg


The dismantled switch.
DCP_1251.jpg
 
I don’t know what the hell is going on here
DCP_1254.jpg


Oh ok, I’m threading the wire for the new led.
DCP_1256.jpg


The threaded wires. I had to score channels in the black plastic gasket for the wires
DCP_1260.jpg


Partially reassembled switch
DCP_1262.jpg


Saftey cap.
DCP_1264.jpg
 
After I cut the hole in the cap with a small hack saw and the dremel.
DCP_1266.jpg


Side shot.
DCP_1267.jpg


Saftey cap with unshapped window cut from the left over front window material.
DCP_1278.jpg


I bent the cover of and old dvd player to shape the window. I’ll set it on the top and heat up the bottom with a torch.
DCP_1279.jpg


Propane torch
DCP_1275.jpg
 
Shinny switch shaft.
DCP_1268.jpg


Dremel again :-p
DCP_1269.jpg


I wanted the shaft to be a matte aluminum so I scored the shaft with the dremel.
DCP_1270.jpg


Primed shaft ready for repainting.
DCP_1271.jpg
 
This is the progress thus far on the switch mod. I’m having a busy ass week so I’d imagine I’ll finishing it next week some time. But I’ll post updates often. I also encountered an overheating problem with my mosfet on my PWM circuit. Under the advise of my electronics guru Gary I stripped the heat sink from a Pentium II I had laying around.

Heatsink stripped from mobo.
DCP_1273.jpg


Drilled a hole in the heatsink and attached my mosfet.
DCP_1277.jpg


Ok that’s it for tonight kids have an algorithms test coming up so I hafta hit the books. I’ll have more updates soon.
 
Yay, he's back! Now I wish there was one of those helmeted clapping emoticons! Lookin good on that stuff, but I fear for the mosfet who has to have a heatsink that big.....! ;)
 
I think you're the only person here who doesn't mod barefoot. Maybe the other people should start wearing shoes, 'cause the man with shoes has the coolest mod.
 
if your thinking of selling the touch switches later on, you got my order 100% id definatley buy one. I dont know for what yet, but it'll come to me.

the window'ed fighter switch is something new that no1 has done before, you should put a window on everything that you stick in this PC, lol.
 
chronic9 said:
if your thinking of selling the touch switches later on, you got my order 100% id definatley buy one. I dont know for what yet, but it'll come to me.

the window'ed fighter switch is something new that no1 has done before, you should put a window on everything that you stick in this PC, lol.
Click to expand...

If i can build them effeciently I will definatly sell them.
 
This may be the first time that one has to worry about the airflow through the case dislodging/ripping off components ^_-

Why didn't you just mount the PC's guts to the inside of a wind tunnel?
 
Elledan said:
This may be the first time that one has to worry about the airflow through the case dislodging/ripping off components ^_-

Why didn't you just mount the PC's guts to the inside of a wind tunnel?
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No air will enter the actual case cavity. It will all be ducted through the radiators and out of the back of the tower
 
em00guy said:
No air will enter the actual case cavity. It will all be ducted through the radiators and out of the back of the tower
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1200 CFM through dual radiators? Talk about overkill ;)
 
because alot of us got free time at work or wherever we maybe and choose to look at peoples crazy mods.
 
chronic9 said:
because alot of us got free time at work or wherever we maybe and choose to look at peoples crazy mods.
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I think you missed the point...thats exactly what uzor is saying. Crazy mods...not dull mods. ;)
 
Elledan said:
1200 CFM through dual radiators? Talk about overkill ;)
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Belive it or not there is some method this particular bit of madness. These blowers are increadibly well engineered producing almost no mechanical noise. It is a persintant theory in fluid dynamics that the pressure created by forcing air through the heater cores causes traditional fans to loose a great deal of performance due to poor tourqe. Because of the non existant mechanical noise i can run these high tourqe blowers at a very low rpm and still best the performace of several 120mm case fans.
 
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