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Project: parallel HEX (completed!)
- Thread starter Mysterae
- Start date
freddiepm61
Gawd
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2004
- Messages
- 836
I prefer 3 down the middle, more symetry....what will the nobs be made of? steel chrome aluminium???
f
f
IntimidatorX
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2004
- Messages
- 119
Go with the 1st pic and lets get moving! lol
this mod is coming out great, pitty it wasent smoked Plexy, but you can always "smoke" it later.
this mod is coming out great, pitty it wasent smoked Plexy, but you can always "smoke" it later.
omegatotal
Gawd
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2002
- Messages
- 672
i like the idea with the three down the middle, but then it divides up the sides might want to rotate it so that the power / rst switches are on top, and the lighting switches on bottom, with the knobs for the fans/pumps in a horrizontal line
Ah well, it's been exactly one year since I started this worklog and I'm still not finished....I'm close though!
I've thought about the layout of the buttons and knobs and I'm going to go with alternating them, as fenton suggested and how Geo Fry illustrated earlier. This will give the buttons a 'Y' arrangement. HEX & Y, get it? Never mind....
I'm well happy, my circuits for controlling the lighting of the case works perfectly!
The above image is a bit chaotic, I've labelled everything in the image below:
The red switch controls the laser (only effective if high current signal from psu is present) and the blue switch controls the lighting of the fan controller, case uv leds, and the four EL wire data cables (2 IDE, 2 SATA).
Here's a close up of the light control motherboard:
The Daughterboard:
And the PWM fan controller where I've relocated the leds of one channel to test everything. The pots of this board will be removed and dual gang pots wired in their place but postioned to the front of the case as I've mentioned before no doubt.
I was going to make everyting on one board but it would have been huge in stripboard and taken to long to etch a new board. It'll do the way it is!
I'd really like to give credit to cpemma and his website that helped me get started with this circuit. I somewhat modified it, but it was an excellent starting place.
Also on my credit list is Rob 'linear' Arnold for his excellent LED calculator, very useful!
Before I go, one last thing - freddiepm61 - the knobs for the pots are brushed aluminium as the pic below. Not sure I like the brushed look so may sand them down. I ordered the wrong size by mistake, these are 28mm diameter and I wanted 22mm to match the Bulgin switches.
I've thought about the layout of the buttons and knobs and I'm going to go with alternating them, as fenton suggested and how Geo Fry illustrated earlier. This will give the buttons a 'Y' arrangement. HEX & Y, get it? Never mind....
I'm well happy, my circuits for controlling the lighting of the case works perfectly!
The above image is a bit chaotic, I've labelled everything in the image below:
The red switch controls the laser (only effective if high current signal from psu is present) and the blue switch controls the lighting of the fan controller, case uv leds, and the four EL wire data cables (2 IDE, 2 SATA).
Here's a close up of the light control motherboard:
The Daughterboard:
And the PWM fan controller where I've relocated the leds of one channel to test everything. The pots of this board will be removed and dual gang pots wired in their place but postioned to the front of the case as I've mentioned before no doubt.
I was going to make everyting on one board but it would have been huge in stripboard and taken to long to etch a new board. It'll do the way it is!
I'd really like to give credit to cpemma and his website that helped me get started with this circuit. I somewhat modified it, but it was an excellent starting place.
Also on my credit list is Rob 'linear' Arnold for his excellent LED calculator, very useful!
Before I go, one last thing - freddiepm61 - the knobs for the pots are brushed aluminium as the pic below. Not sure I like the brushed look so may sand them down. I ordered the wrong size by mistake, these are 28mm diameter and I wanted 22mm to match the Bulgin switches.
freddiepm61
Gawd
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2004
- Messages
- 836
Can you polish the aluminium so that it is more shiny? its just that the project seems like a quite 'shiny' clean project.
Great work, looks amazing, keep it up!
Freddie
Great work, looks amazing, keep it up!
Freddie
Hopefully you had a good holiday break Mysterae. Still keepin an eye out for this project. Mod on
Yup..i agree,well rested,and ready for the new year..Wishing you all the best.
Hi guys, yes I've been away for a bit doing the family thing, not sure on the well rested though! I have managed to do a little, mostly electrical work.
Here we go with the first update of 2007:
The two D5 pumps have had their internal 10K pots removed and wires soldered on; to relocate the their control to the front of the case.
Here's the blue LED at the rear of the Tagan PSU:
This led has been removed (but the zener diode remained) and wired to a connector to be plugged in to the light control board. This acts as a trigger for the laser to come on when the current load exceeds 20A(ish).
Here's all the circuit boards for lighting control. This includes the stripped fan controller, 4 EL wire circuits and the 2 custom control boards.
If you look closely in the image above, I've soldered a little switch to the light control board to override the laser to help positioning and display it without loading the machine.
Here's what I'm aiming at once it's complete, minus the wires of course!
This should help me mount the laser, keep dust off the circuit boards and electrically protect it from wayward fingers, tools and dropped screws.
I have also mounted the buttons, pots and knobs to the front panel of the case. This definitely was the best positioning, thanks to those that helped !
You can't really see them that well in the picture above. Also the knobs above are 28mm type, I've yet to get the 22mm ones.
The electrical stuff is taking time, but it will be worth it in the end. Once all the electrical work is complete, I can move on to the plumbing. Oh joy .
Here's a random shot until next time:
Here we go with the first update of 2007:
The two D5 pumps have had their internal 10K pots removed and wires soldered on; to relocate the their control to the front of the case.
Here's the blue LED at the rear of the Tagan PSU:
This led has been removed (but the zener diode remained) and wired to a connector to be plugged in to the light control board. This acts as a trigger for the laser to come on when the current load exceeds 20A(ish).
Here's all the circuit boards for lighting control. This includes the stripped fan controller, 4 EL wire circuits and the 2 custom control boards.
If you look closely in the image above, I've soldered a little switch to the light control board to override the laser to help positioning and display it without loading the machine.
Here's what I'm aiming at once it's complete, minus the wires of course!
This should help me mount the laser, keep dust off the circuit boards and electrically protect it from wayward fingers, tools and dropped screws.
I have also mounted the buttons, pots and knobs to the front panel of the case. This definitely was the best positioning, thanks to those that helped
!
You can't really see them that well in the picture above. Also the knobs above are 28mm type, I've yet to get the 22mm ones.
The electrical stuff is taking time, but it will be worth it in the end. Once all the electrical work is complete, I can move on to the plumbing. Oh joy
.Here's a random shot until next time:
Paris who?
Oh joy, an update! (This, and "Silver Ocean" by mechatech are the ONLY worklogs on [H] I have followed with near-religious zeal.)
This project is just pure awesomeness. I absolutely love everything about it
Can you adopt me or something, so I can stare at it every day? I promise I'll behave myself...
This project is just pure awesomeness. I absolutely love everything about it
Can you adopt me or something, so I can stare at it every day? I promise I'll behave myself...
n00btard, if you are Paris Hilton incognito, then of course you can come and stare at it , but hey not all day, there's things to be done......like the washing up...completing the case for me....and!
Only got a few sketchup renders for you today.
After messing with the wiring, I soon realised that it was going to be come unmanageable. A lot of wires going everywhere, stressed connections and looking a bit of a mess. A goal of this case was to make it modular, easy to take apart, accessible and aesthetically pleasing. That wasn't going to be achieved using the standard 4 pin molex connections.
So a few hours in front of sketchup I came up with this, yet another HEX . This is the connection plate for almost all the electrical components. It sits above the lighting control boards:
I know what you're thinking, that's alot of connections, do I need them all? Hell yes! Here's what they are, but this is not strictly how I will arrange them in the final item, it's only for illustration at the moment.
The shape of the holes in the 3mm acrylic above will give some of you a clue as to what I'm using to make the connections. These arrive tomorrow, but the connection plate will take longer. I don't have the kind of machinery needed to make it, so will farm it out to someone that does and should get it sometime next week.
, but hey not all day, there's things to be done......like the washing up...completing the case for me....and!Only got a few sketchup renders for you today.
After messing with the wiring, I soon realised that it was going to be come unmanageable. A lot of wires going everywhere, stressed connections and looking a bit of a mess. A goal of this case was to make it modular, easy to take apart, accessible and aesthetically pleasing. That wasn't going to be achieved using the standard 4 pin molex connections.
So a few hours in front of sketchup I came up with this, yet another HEX
. This is the connection plate for almost all the electrical components. It sits above the lighting control boards:
I know what you're thinking, that's alot of connections, do I need them all? Hell yes! Here's what they are, but this is not strictly how I will arrange them in the final item, it's only for illustration at the moment.
The shape of the holes in the 3mm acrylic above will give some of you a clue as to what I'm using to make the connections. These arrive tomorrow, but the connection plate will take longer. I don't have the kind of machinery needed to make it, so will farm it out to someone that does and should get it sometime next week.
Everfalling
Gawd
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2005
- Messages
- 676
should the corner of that hexagon plate be facing the flat edge of the overall case? wouldn't it be better to mount edge to edge?
Arcygenical
Fully [H]
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2005
- Messages
- 25,066
Yes... I think it should be flush with the front of the case...
16 years old, male, Japanese, wimpy body, rather thick glasses... LOL
..and damn, that's a lot of cables...
You mean like this?
I can see what you mean. In the original one, the plate is orientated in the same way as the hex distributor. I'll see what it looks like in person before I make any firm decisions, but I am swinging towards what you guys suggest.
Thanks guys, your suggestions are welcome. And n00btard, such a shame !
I can see what you mean. In the original one, the plate is orientated in the same way as the hex distributor. I'll see what it looks like in person before I make any firm decisions, but I am swinging towards what you guys suggest.
Thanks guys, your suggestions are welcome. And n00btard, such a shame
!And n00btard, such a shame
first pic, for consistency's sake...
and thanks to modern technology, I can always get a sex change and plastic surgery. (That's how far I'm willing to go for this case lol)
from the looks of the holes i would guess xlr, but that seamrs like it would be a waste
Not quite as extreme as xlr's, but similar DIN connections ranging from 3, 4, 5 and 6 way.
More on these in a later post.
I thought I would do some work on the videocards and their waterblocks. First on the list was to modify the led that comes with the AquaComputer Aquagratix. I changed my mind again on the colour of the led after testing uv and blue - I'm back to red! It will match the colour of the laser . I wanted the brightness of the led to vary depending on the temperature of the gpu by connecting it to the fan header of the card. So the higher the temperature of the card, the higher the voltage of the fan, or in this case, the led. The voltage should range between 5V to 12V.
So I fitted 4 IN4001 diodes in series with the red led and a 470R resistor to limit the current, sleeved it up and shaped the cable while it was still hot. Got the diode idea from here again!
I measured the current the above little circuit will consume with a meter, and it's 1mA at 5V and 15mA at 12V, plenty of difference in brightness. FYI, the stock fan of the x1900XT's is 420mA at 12V so I'm miles under spec. I can't find the exact same header plugs as that used on the card but I've got another solution ready.
So what are these heatsinks for?
One of the shortfalls of the AC gpu cooler (and the stock heatsink) is the area of the vregs.
As everyone knows, these get hot especially if you overclock and give the cards a bit extra juice. The water flow in the Aquagratix doesn't really go anywhere near the vregs and the area of the block has no fins to aid cooling.
I don't think this will be a problem with my Hedgehog coolers
I used some thermal adhesive to mount the sinks. I was going to drill and tap them to fit, but what the hell.
The X1900XT-CF in the background has lower heatsinks so that it can clear the northbridge cooler. I get a better overclock with the XTX (in the foreground), so I gave that larger 'sinks to cope. Overkill? Perhaps, but definitely an improvement...
The water blocks are dry fitted in the pic above because I need to take them off again to fit the acrylic inserts that are lit up with the led. More on that later.
More on these in a later post.
I thought I would do some work on the videocards and their waterblocks. First on the list was to modify the led that comes with the AquaComputer Aquagratix. I changed my mind again on the colour of the led after testing uv and blue - I'm back to red! It will match the colour of the laser
. I wanted the brightness of the led to vary depending on the temperature of the gpu by connecting it to the fan header of the card. So the higher the temperature of the card, the higher the voltage of the fan, or in this case, the led. The voltage should range between 5V to 12V.So I fitted 4 IN4001 diodes in series with the red led and a 470R resistor to limit the current, sleeved it up and shaped the cable while it was still hot. Got the diode idea from here again!
I measured the current the above little circuit will consume with a meter, and it's 1mA at 5V and 15mA at 12V, plenty of difference in brightness. FYI, the stock fan of the x1900XT's is 420mA at 12V so I'm miles under spec. I can't find the exact same header plugs as that used on the card but I've got another solution ready.
So what are these heatsinks for?
One of the shortfalls of the AC gpu cooler (and the stock heatsink) is the area of the vregs.
As everyone knows, these get hot especially if you overclock and give the cards a bit extra juice. The water flow in the Aquagratix doesn't really go anywhere near the vregs and the area of the block has no fins to aid cooling.
I don't think this will be a problem with my Hedgehog coolers
I used some thermal adhesive to mount the sinks. I was going to drill and tap them to fit, but what the hell.
The X1900XT-CF in the background has lower heatsinks so that it can clear the northbridge cooler. I get a better overclock with the XTX (in the foreground), so I gave that larger 'sinks to cope. Overkill? Perhaps, but definitely an improvement...
The water blocks are dry fitted in the pic above because I need to take them off again to fit the acrylic inserts that are lit up with the led. More on that later.
filthysanchez
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2006
- Messages
- 2,669
i like the LED power meter idea you had.
DarkenReaper57
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2003
- Messages
- 2,173
Mysterae, you do amazing work. Keep it up!
Finished the graphic cards, adding a subtle touch...
Need to wait for daylight to take a better picture, probably when it's in the case.
Got the connection plate in...
That would have taken me ages to do, even if I had the right tools.
Populated it with the DIN sockets...
No need to count them, there's 31. Looking forward to wiring them up. Seriously, I am .
Need to wait for daylight to take a better picture, probably when it's in the case.
Got the connection plate in...
That would have taken me ages to do, even if I had the right tools.
Populated it with the DIN sockets...
No need to count them, there's 31. Looking forward to wiring them up. Seriously, I am .Your not kiddin when you say that..Outstanding work..
Thread Subscription...for Sure
DarkenReaper57
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2003
- Messages
- 2,173
That connection plate rox0rz.
Everfalling
Gawd
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2005
- Messages
- 676
who did you get to cut the plate for you?
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2001
- Messages
- 15,821
when i read the first post this image poped into my head for some reason
lol
also... suggestion.. your main blue power LED... you should make a "throbber" circuit for it and have it throb when the PC is off... you could easily do this by making it run off of your PSU's +5v STBY line
lol
also... suggestion.. your main blue power LED... you should make a "throbber" circuit for it and have it throb when the PC is off... you could easily do this by making it run off of your PSU's +5v STBY line
You can do it either way, depending on how you hook up the circuit.
Blazestorm
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2007
- Messages
- 6,940
Wow. (That sums it up...)
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2001
- Messages
- 15,821
the one i made would make it fade in and out... blinking would be easy also
TheOneGreatX
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2005
- Messages
- 116
do you have a link to this circuit?
Alright guys. I'd be a bit further on if I wasn't outside putting the roof back on the shed or fixing fences! It's been a little breezy here in the UK . Still deep in the wiring of the lighting control stuff, but close to finishing.
Flecom, I seem to recognise that image, perhaps it was in a nightmare of mine! Regarding the pulsing led, I was thinking of having the switch leds on pernamently or even pulsating, but can't remember when or why I decided not to!
TheOneGreatX, here's a circuit you could adapt. It runs off 12v instead of the available 5v though, so the chip used may not work. Experiment!
. Still deep in the wiring of the lighting control stuff, but close to finishing.Flecom, I seem to recognise that image, perhaps it was in a nightmare of mine! Regarding the pulsing led, I was thinking of having the switch leds on pernamently or even pulsating, but can't remember when or why I decided not to!
TheOneGreatX, here's a circuit you could adapt. It runs off 12v instead of the available 5v though, so the chip used may not work. Experiment!
Continued working on the lighting control module, marking out where to place it, and wire it.
Then there was the wiring to sort out
Glad thats done
Yes, thats a lot of wires!
Here its in position. Its getting crowded between the dvd drives and the power supply, but manageable. The ide cables here have been reduced from two connectors to one. Sata dvd drives would be so much better here!
With the left hand pump removed you can see how the control module gets its power, and where Ive hidden a good bit of psu cables.
Taking about pumps, I reduced the cables from two to one. The camera flash makes the sleeving really blue, its normally quite dark.
Heres the pump back and plugged in. The connectors for the two pumps are black, all the rest are chrome.
Now that the sockets are wired, I have to do all the matching plugs. Hopefully that shouldnt take long. It's going to look a little strange with al those cables. If you can't hide them, make a feature of it!
Then there was the wiring to sort out
Glad thats done
Yes, thats a lot of wires!
Here its in position. Its getting crowded between the dvd drives and the power supply, but manageable. The ide cables here have been reduced from two connectors to one. Sata dvd drives would be so much better here!
With the left hand pump removed you can see how the control module gets its power, and where Ive hidden a good bit of psu cables.
Taking about pumps, I reduced the cables from two to one. The camera flash makes the sleeving really blue, its normally quite dark.
Heres the pump back and plugged in. The connectors for the two pumps are black, all the rest are chrome.
Now that the sockets are wired, I have to do all the matching plugs. Hopefully that shouldnt take long. It's going to look a little strange with al those cables. If you can't hide them, make a feature of it!