Project : Halcyon in Black

[filthysanchez]

are you going to make a wind tunnel in the expansion card part?

 

[Excalib12e]

I should think the cover is already acting like a wind tunnel..When i turn on the fan the air comes out the pci slots at the back.So I guess the ventilation is more or less sufficient.Not intending to do any ocing anyways

 

[Unknown-One]

You might want to think about something to blow air in behind the top cover, if the mosfets on the motherboard get to hot it can cause instability, or worse, cause the motherboard to burn out (with the very real possibility of taking your processor with it).

 

[omegatotal]

You might want to think about something to blow air in behind the top cover, if the mosfets on the motherboard get to hot it can cause instability, or worse, cause the motherboard to burn out (with the very real possibility of taking your processor with it).

read the post he's putting a fan in dirrectly over the NB chipset, im sure that will be decent even tho most of it will end up coming out at the ram anyway

 

[Excalib12e]

Hi, yes I was worried about airflow to the mosfets..Considering most mobos got airflow for that from cpu fans and ive a waterblock instead. Ive actually put 2 fans into the cover, one over the chipset, and one blowing across the mobo (sort of).Its not in the pics because i just installed it.From what I think will happen, the 2 fans will blow air into the cover and leave through the open top, drawn out by the psu fan, bypassing the mosfets a least a little on its way out.

 

[Excalib12e]

heres a large update just before christmas. Ive put the finishing touches on both motherboard covers,done some psu modding, and now im all set to go full swing with most of the electronics.

Some motherboard cover goodness:

40mm Fans installed on the top piece.Test psu in the background..

Now where most of the work had to be done.The pci cover.A row of jackplugs fills up the previously empty space.

Now the addition of 3 modular connector type sockets, which will feed power and stuff to the 7 jack plugs. First a triangular hole was created.Then the mounting of the sockets on a seperate plate that mounts into the hole. (a laser cut piece as i couldnt get the right size hole for the sockets). The small rectangular slot will be for the jack plugs to feed from and into the jacks.

Remember the space on top of the plate where you could see the red graphics card? It was for this :

The halycon word logo will be lit from underneath, but as of now im not sure what colour LEDs to use.Most probably red or blue.

A few pictures of the completed covers:

 

[Excalib12e]

On to the psu, which was a antec 550w, with a beautiful 3 year warranty.previously.

After i was done with it, heres the unit with the addition of a junction box, and missing quite a few wires.The junction box takes power from the 2 molex lines that were from the psu.Theyll be used to power less impt hardware like the rheobus, cdrom and such. Hardisk, PCI-E connector, AUX and atx cables have been left as is. Other unnecessary wires were cut away.

After the unit was mounted into the casing, .The atx cable was routed through black wire loom, and into a hole in casing.All part of the stealthing process.

All the tape used for identifying the pins.

Heres what happens after it goes through the hole :

And after some sleeving of the remaining cables

Will be back in the next update to show how all that wiring arrangement will fit with the motherboard tray when its in place..For now Merry Christmas to all

 

[digital_exhaust]

Really nice work man, I love the innovation of this mod.

 

[Excalib12e]

much appreciated merry christmas

 

[Killermac]

Would you mind posting a wiring diagram of that psu setup I am really interested in that.
Excellent work, I can't wait to see the final product.

KM

 

[Unknown-One]

How are you going to make sure you don't plug in a connector the wrong way with those round plugs? I killed a hard disk once by wiring a molex wrong, so this is somthing to think about.

 

[Excalib12e]

Would you mind posting a wiring diagram of that psu setup I am really interested in that.
Excellent work, I can't wait to see the final product.

KM

Here you go.Basically there are two 12v/5v lines, one for every 2 sockets.The diagram shows one..

How are you going to make sure you don't plug in a connector the wrong way with those round plugs? I killed a hard disk once by wiring a molex wrong, so this is somthing to think about.

No worries, each socket has a sort of small dimple in it, so you can actually only insert plug one way. Besides i wont be disconnecting and connecting them all that much, or at all.

 

[TheToE!]

this is one of the coolest mods ive ever seen. This is totally my cup of tea right here. Excellent work my friend!

 

[spint3]

where'd you pick up those aircraft plugs/jacks. they look like the ones on my hiper, i wouldn't mind having some spares for future mods.

things are looking great thus far. Its very nice to see something that really is a little different, your precision is truely amazing. keep em coming.

 

[Solarfall]

dang this project looks so sweet, two tumbs up mate

 

[Excalib12e]

Very grateful for the comments : )

where'd you pick up those aircraft plugs/jacks. they look like the ones on my hiper, i wouldn't mind having some spares for future mods.

things are looking great thus far. Its very nice to see something that really is a little different, your precision is truely amazing. keep em coming.

Those plugs are everywhere in electronics stores where I am.Theyre quite cheap too, so I doubt the quality is anything like the hiper ones.But who knows though? You could get better ones from Farnell..think theyre known as industrial circular connectors

 

[Excalib12e]

small update :

First of all, I got the hard disk meter wired up and working finally..
Ive decided to house the circuitry inside the casing instead of on the rear.

The hdd meter circuit is in the black box, the lead with the jack plug is for power, it will plug into the PCI cover plate. The other lead connects to the LED meter by a vga plug. That way I can remove everything easily, which has become a goal in this project. The last lead connects to the hdd header on the mobo.

Here it is in testing :

Ive salvaged a old pci back plate from a graphics card and intend to use that to mount the vga plug from the meter. Dont have pictures at the moment though

Finally, a video of the working meter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn-0GpQUMYk

 

[brasherman]

Sweet work man! Love it! <thumbs up>

 

[Mysterae]

You're junction box idea gave me subliminal messages on how to fix my cabling problem, thanks!

Awesome case btw.

 

[Excalib12e]

Thanks brasherman

You're junction box idea gave me subliminal messages on how to fix my cabling problem, thanks!

Awesome case btw.

Most welcome.. glad it could be of use

 

[Killermac]

thanks for posting the diagram.


Great mod over all.


KM

 

[Excalib12e]

most welcome..thanks

ok this is a more than overdue update, apologies to the slow going project, but i predict il be able to finish it in about 3 more weeks or so

If everyone remembers the small window next to the large one on the side panel, I had intentions of just leaving it as is so one could view that section of the case. But it didn;t look too right, so after some planning, I decided to mount a plate , together with the USB n audio ports fron the casing front.

This plate had to be be laser cut, because i wanted this :

A biohazrd logo

After mounting the ports like so (will cover on where these will plug to in the next update. think sound card modding.)

Now to get to work on backlighting that biohazard cut out.

First, red acrylic.cut to size, sanded, and glued to a piece of white acrylic.
Red and white together would give me some sort of orange when light was passed through, or so i assumed.

For the lighting part, i drilled 2 holes on either end of a spare project box cover i had lying around

After ripping the bare 10cm cathode out of its casing, it found its new home here .fits perfectly

On its own the lighting produced wouldnt be even, so a piece of tin foil was used to line the cover, and the result is much better.

The whole assembly was glued together.Acrylic behind the logo , and cathode behind the acrylic

 

[Excalib12e]

now for the money shot, when the cathode was lit up .

Its orange all right..

After proper mounting it should look something like this :

Thats it for now, finishing up on some other areas and will be back pretty soon.

 

[98EXL]

that's pretty hawt

 

[AuroraProject]

Very nice work.

 

[digital_exhaust]

Very, very nice.

Waiting for more, hopefully soon...

 

[Excalib12e]

thanks to all the great comments..will be updating soon as i get a little bit more work done

 

[Excalib12e]

Heres a update on the electronics of the case. Here ive been busy wiring up the switches that will control the various circuitry, as well as the PCI cover.

With all the mess this was going to become, I made sure to make plenty of diagrams so I wouldnt get lost. However careful I was though, I did get a short or two, burning up several wires in the process. But all's well and tested working in the end.

From connector to jack plugs on the pci cover

And now the switches on the top cover piece. basically they screw onto a acrylic piece and are mounted in the small rectangular space on the top piece.

Wired up are several toggle switches for the front panel lcd cold cathodes..leds..hdd meter..temp sensor , and a rotary switch to select between different temperature probes, 4 in total.

With this much wiring, and the fact that i somehow needed to terminate them into 2 plugs that go into the PCI cover, i decided to go with a simple circuit board.

With temperature probes attached (sleeved) the mess becomes even worse, so its all stuffed into a coverless project box (cover went to the bio hazard logo).

 

[Excalib12e]

The box with all the circuitry was mounted to the side of the drive bay area

And some pictures of the testing, (where i fried some of the wires, which
were replaced) .You can see the temperature monitor in action

And to end it off, a picture of the casing thus far

 

[scrawnypaleguy]

This has got to be one of the best mods I've seen since that Alumaxx mod a while back. Everything looks fantastic, keep up the good work, I can't wait to see the finished product.

 

[98EXL]

it does look beautiful dude, keep up the good work!

 

[Solarfall]

wow thats so clean looking case mod.... i salute you. keep the intresting updates coming
biohazard logo kicks some serious arse like it a lot.

 

[Excalib12e]

thanks so much guys..

I should be coming up with an update sometime before the end of the week..

The bio hazard logo wont be lit after all im afraid, as it doesnt match too well with the overall look im trying to achieve

 

[Willsonman]

This is GREAT!!! I have gotten some great ideas for a case mod I have wanted to do for awhile now. Know where I can find some electroluminescent ribbon?

 

[Killermac]

I said it in the ealy stages this thing is kickass great job.. Is your real life job in electronics?

KM

 

[Excalib12e]

This is GREAT!!! I have gotten some great ideas for a case mod I have wanted to do for awhile now. Know where I can find some electroluminescent ribbon?

glad you did As for that im not really sure..havent seen it around much

I said it in the ealy stages this thing is kickass great job.. Is your real life job in electronics?

KM

Appreciate it..Well nope..currently im a student waiting to go into university..

 

[Excalib12e]

Well..some good news, and some terribly bad news which out does the good.

Good news was I put most of it together, had it running, only to have a barb on the waterblock untighten itself, and drip coolant onto the mobo. As of now, at the least the graphics and mobo itself are fried.Ive yet to check the status of the ram. Luckily its all under warranty, and I hope to get the replacements soon. But the delay will be significant.

So for now, just something pretty small. Heres how im going to measure water temperature :

I soldered a temp probe to a jack, and stuffed the whole thing into a 1/2" inch barb. Then filled it with plumbers goop. The barb will screw into my bay reservoir, which has 2 inlets and 1 outlet. Perfect.

Heres the plug that will go into this.

Il try to salvage some pics i took of the previously almost set up system in the next update. Now i need to go drown my sorrows. :waah:

 

[Willsonman]

oooo... bad luck!! I had a leak in my insulation on a pelt block I had on my video card. I covered the thing in conformal coating and all and it still fried. I feel your pain. Try not to drown them too much... the superbowl is tomorrow afterall

 

[98EXL]

that sucks man, keep you chin up! Nice job with the goop, that stuff is the tits! And like Willsonman said, Superbowl is tomorrow, it's time to put the PC down, and drink beers

 

[Excalib12e]

Thanks for the heads up guys, no superbowl where i come from But anyways ive gotten most of the parts replaced under warranty, and am waiting for the graphics card before im continuing again