Project: Stargate SG-1

[Sobek]

Sweet, thanks for the fonts link.

No Problem.

I'm going to use the Stargate symbol ones, runes (for the Asquard), the Fremen one (from Dune), and possibly a few others. The idea is to put these on the Ancient Box to represent the 4 great races talked about in "The Torment of Tantalus." I can post pics from that episode for examples if you guys want. Just ask.

I'll use the Stargate font and heirglyphic ones for the heiroglyphic panel for the case.

 

[starhawk]

nevermind.

 

[CrimandEvil]

I've seen some Sammarian fonts somewhere but I don't think it'll matter much if you study how they look you can easily "make them up" on your own.

 

[starhawk]

i still have that d'ni font too... it's really cool.

i'll post a piccie in a minute or two.

 

[starhawk]

here is the pic... it's a large one, so i am only posting the link.

http://images.dr3vil.com/uploads/D'ni Writing Sample (jpeg).JPG

 

[Sobek]

No Problem.

I'm going to use the Stargate symbol ones, runes (for the Asquard), the Fremen one (from Dune), and possibly a few others. The idea is to put these on the Ancient Box to represent the 4 great races talked about in "The Torment of Tantalus." I can post pics from that episode for examples if you guys want. Just ask.

I'll use the Stargate font and heirglyphic ones for the heiroglyphic panel for the case.

I decided to post them anyway.

This is the Asguard, easily known since Runes are Norse and Thor is a Norse God.

The Ancients. Know this since it is on the steps of Atlantis facing the gate.

These last two are from the Nox and the Furling (race never met before on show) but I don't know which is which. In "Fifth Race", Thor tells O'Neill that there were once 4 great races and names them.

I can get the Runic font easily exacted but the other 3 I will just have to choose something close and go with it. I went ahead and downloaded all the Star Trek Fonts from that website I posted and a few come close to matching. I'll take artistic creativity and choose whatever the hell I want though so it relly doesn't matter.

 

[Main Target]

looks like all those pics are taken from the same place?
cool

 

[Sobek]

looks like all those pics are taken from the same place?
cool

They're screencaps from season ones' "The Torment of Tantalus."

 

[starhawk]

hey sobek, what do you think of that d'ni font? would it work for anything here?

 

[Sobek]

hey sobek, what do you think of that d'ni font? would it work for anything here?

I'm sorry but it won't. It's too scribbly. I'm looking into some of the ones I dl right now for close matches. I'll post what I'm going to use later.

 

[starhawk]

oh well... anyone else who wants to use it to say something specific... give me a pm.

 

[Sobek]

Update:

Last night I worked on the Heiroglyphic panel some. I made a duplicate out of foam board and began sketching where I will put the glyphs, wall decorations, and escape pod replica. I'm still working on it so I don't have pics of it.

Today I began where I left off yesterday by continuing to work on the heatercore barb side of the box. I cut a small piece of plexi to cover it.

I wanted a way to reinforce the original box from where I made all the cuts for the heatercore.

I took a few scraps of plexi from where I had trimmed earlier parts and glued them using the plumbers goop/glue to the back of the panel. I cut 2 small sections out for the tubing. This makes the smaller panel stick out a little more so that the tubing has more room over the barbs. I still have to glue 2 sides to the back and then sand them down even with the front.

I needed to paint part of the heatercore so it would hide behind the panels easier so first came taping, then primer, and finally the paint.

Since the box was empty I took the opportunity to remove most of the bottom so that the heatercore could get plenty of air.

This small remaining section is so that the mousepad/vibration pad and pump have something to rest on as well as the plexi that sepperates the pump and heatercore from each other.

Following CrimandEvil's advice, here is a dryer sheet accross the bottom of the case. It just fits over the hole and will work perfectly. I would like a way to make it so that I can easily replace them when needed without having to do a lot of unscrewing or dissassembly. Please post suggestions if you have them. I am planning to make the case rest about an inch or so off the ground using some rubber legs I can get a Home Depot.

I cut out the front two panels for some of the writing to be placed on plexi. I went extra slow to make sure the cuts were straight using the Dremel.

I tried different methods for the writing. The first was to write backwards using a Sharpie adn then paint over it with the orange spraypaint. The result was that the paint made the marker come off and mix. Looks like shit so this method is out. I'll have to try to find an orange marker that will work since the colors are going to be the opposite. I'm currently planning for the box to be orange, the Alu corners to be black, and the plexi side panels orange as well.

I had a better idea. I wrote backwards again with the Sharpie on a plain piece of plexi and used an earlier test strip of orange plexi behind it. This makes the top piece of plexi flush with the box and I can fill in small sposts with Bondo later.

I did almost the same thing as above except this time I tried etching my name. I had to write with a Sharpie first and then go over with the etching bit at level 2 (out of 10) on the Dremel. I think this looks sweet with the black plexi behind it. If I decide to go with this method, I will have to practice my etching, use my plex shaft, and hopefully JessAlba452 will have that etching guide out soon.

I think I'm going to order a replacement Lian-Li fanbus tonight to put in the box to control the 120mm fans. I like the one that came with my case since it's small, has 3 speeds, and is just a simple switch that I can hide easily. This will make it easier for me as well since I don't have to worry about extending the fan wires all the way to my case. I'll buy one of those mini PSU's from Xoxide that you just plug into the wall rather than run a molex all the way to the box.

 

[Sobek]

flat4 has been kind enough to give me his Lian-Li fanbus since he doesn't need it for Project Dark Angel. He's also saving me $10 by giving me his UV Blue Dye which is from aqua-computer in Germany. I just have to get it from him sometime (we live w/in 20mi of each other).

I just ordered the wall PSU and some clamps from Xoxide.

 

[starhawk]

keep in mind that that dinky peewee of a psu can only drive 1a of stuff... you may want something a little beefier.

a 1u server psu is 1.7" tall and would probably fit in that orange thing.

 

[Sobek]

keep in mind that that dinky peewee of a psu can only drive 1a of stuff... you may want something a little beefier.

a 1u server psu is 1.7" tall and would probably fit in that orange thing.

I only need it to power the 2 120mm fans. Is it strong enough or do I need to look elsewhere? My dad used to be an elctrician but his knowledge didn't transfer over to me and I don't want to call him to ask.

I'm still ordering it since it's easier to use than that $5 PSU I have to test my wiring.

 

[starhawk]

what about the water pump?

 

[Sobek]

what about the water pump?

It's AC. Plugs straight into the wall. I'm going to run the cord out the bottom of the box.

 

[starhawk]

hmmm... lemme look up those fans...

::later::

you'll be running that thing at 76% of maximum. i would put a 1a car fuse (slow blow) in between the psu and the fans, just in case.

 

[Gongo]

nice you'll have bounty fresh air over your rad

 

[CrimandEvil]

You could put the dryer sheet inbetween two sheets of mesh (to make it alittle more stiff) and close it off with some U channel modding and attach with thumbscrews. If so let me know since I'm going to be buying a few sheets of mesh and I'll have some left over (the sheets are like 11x16 or larger so I can cut some for you).

 

[Sobek]

Update:

I did a little bit of work on Friday. I tested the color schemes. Black for the Alu corners (this small piece is going to hold the right inside and the dividing plexi piece together) and orange for mostly everything else.

no flash

flash

Finished paint on the heatercore.

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flash

Heatercore in place.

Last night I decided to make a posterboard mockup of what I want to make out of plexi to hide the AGP and PCI cards. I'll probably just keep it simple and paint it black and make another one later on to match the heiroglyphic panel once I get a GPU waterblock.

My wall plug-in mini PSU came in the mail from Xoxie today along with some clampstoday. The clamps don't fit hardly at all around the thick clearflex but I think I can make it work. The mini PSU is powerful enough to run the Alu 120mm fans at full speed and I'm glad I got it. Much easier than having to extend molex out from the case. Starhawk, it may work for what you need. I'll hook up some CCFL's up to it along with the fans to see how much it can power. If it works, I can power the resevoir CCFL's with it.

I didn't do hardly anything today until later tonight. I googled for gate addresses until I found some. I then picked 12 and after figuring out which were what using a Stargate Glyph font, I printed them out and put them behind a piece of old plexi (going to have to buy more, this piece is a bitch to cut since the jigsaw melts it, it's for practice etching anyway) and traced over with a fine point Sharpie) I started etching 2 of the glyphs but don't have pics of those.

The addresses are from left to right, top to bottom (6 glyphs make up an address w/ 2 exceptions here but I figured out an easy solution to keep it even). 7 glyphs are actually used since the 7th is the home address.:

Othalla (Asguard world seen in "5th Race") and Chulak (Teal'ks homeworld) (Othalla is 7 glyphs to dial outside our galaxy, I used the first symbol of Chulak to keep it 6 since they are both the same)

The Nox homeworld and Kheb (Jaffa 'heaven" from "Maternal Instinct")

Proklarush Taonas (Ancient planet from "Lost City" where the ZPM was) and Abydos (Stargate movie, Pilot ep, etc)

Heliopolis (meeting place from "Torment of Tantalus") and Antiker Colony (the Ancient time travel experiment place in "Window of Opportunity", one of my favorite episodes)

Lok'nako Planets ( 3 of 5 adresses actually and I don't remember where from but was on a website) and the Atlantis Stargate (shares it's first glyph with the other's last)

I tried to pick addresses that had signifcance (except Lok'nako Planets, it was needed for the shared glyph of the Atlantis Gate).

I almost forgot, I got a PM from a Chinese journalist wnating to put the project in their magazine. I haven't responded yet but I will. I have no idea when the project will be dont though.

CrimandEvil, I'll let you know about the mesh. Thanks for the offer. Now if I can only get someone to donate a couple 200+ gig SATA Seagates.

 

[Sobek]

Update:

I went to Wallmart and Home Depot today and got a few supplies. The PVC peices are for a new reservior that I can use temporarily until I get the Naquada Generator Res finished which will take a while. The toothbrushes were $0.88 at Walmart and the idea to use them as the Power Crystals just popped into my head the other night. I thought I might try to use the hinges for the lid on the box. I got the plexi because I was running out.

The following pics are of the progress of the temporary resevoir. It took about 20 min total to make it except for the the drying time between the purple primer, gluing, and painting with Krylon Fusion.

I plugged the two white CCFL's for the Naquada Generator Res into the mini-PSU along with the fans and it still is powerful enough to run all of them.

This is how the toothbrush haandle power crystals and a glass rod will be aranged on part of a PVC endcap and placed on the box. I cut holes for the "crystals" and cut a hole in the side plexi for this as well.

Here is where I'm going to mount the fan switch from my Lian Li case. I cut out a small hole and two holes for rivets. The side plexi piece should cover this perfectly and the only part exposed will be the black switch so it should be barely noticable which is what I want.

I cut the plexi pieces that will be etched with the four ancient languages. They will have to be trimmed and sanded to fit perfectly when the time comes.

I printed out multiple copies of the 4 texts until I had them so that they would fit 2 on each plexi piece. I wont tell you what they say yet but I had to space the "letters" out to make them fit so the words aren't exactly complete. You can see the 3 different engraving bits I have to use. Most of the etchings on these will be done using the tiniest bit.

I printed out each of the 4 texts again and put them on a scrap of plexi to practice with. I did the first line of each using the tiny bit before quiting for the night. Trying to keep your hand steady while doing this tires your arm out.

I really want to get the majority of the box done tomorrow and ready for paint and etching fo the plexi. I'm going to try and move everything from my PC over to the Lian Li case and sleev everything by Thursday night and set up the WC loop to test run.

 

[CrimandEvil]

That is so cool, I really like the look of those power crystals.

 

[starhawk]

same here.

love the whole d*** thing to be honest.

 

[Sobek]

Thanks guys. The original idea was and still is to put some power crystals on the plexi panel in the case with them just below the PSU to simulate the engine room. I'll try to work on that tomorrow as well.

 

[omega-x]

the mod is FINALLY shaping up

im impressed, too

 

[Sobek]

the mod is FINALLY shaping up

im impressed, too

What do you mean FINALLY! j/k

You guys can rest assured that I will not be distracted with HL2 like I was with GTA:SA considering I can't afford it since I'm practically broke.

 

[CrimandEvil]

Are you going to light up the crystals?

 

[Yaik]

Hard work is really paying off!

 

[Sobek]

Are you going to light up the crystals?

Not now. I'll probably wire some LED's up to them and behind some of the plexi in a future upgrade once the main parts are done.

The ones that will be under the PSU on the plexi should light up nicely since one of the white CCFL's will be almost directly above it. I'll have to see how they react to the UV ones.

 

[Sobek]

Update:

I've spent the past three hours working and am only taking a break now to update and eat while some paint dries.

I've painted the plexi that goes on the front behind the etched texts black as well as the back piece of plexi. They're still drying so I don't have any pics yet. I also started gluing the power crystals into the PVC endcap base. I'm doing them one at a time so that the glue dries enough so that they don't start to lean the wrong direction if I were to do them all at once.
I also painted the screws, washers, and nuts that hold the back plexi piece in place.

I drilled a hole for the tubing from the res to the pump.

I realized that I forgot to paint the part of the heatercore that will be able to be seen behind the back plexi panel so I had to paint it. I decided to just cut a hole in a grocery bag and tape it up this way since it was faster than wasting time taping every single side.

I peeled as much of the Krylon Fusion off of the CCFL's and then used some paint thinner on a paper towel to get the rest off. I'll probably just take a black permanent marker to them. I may sleeve them if I have enough sleeving but I'm going to try to hide every single wire in my case so it shouldn't really matter.

I went ahead adn hooked up the pump and res adn put some water in to test it out. The pump is a but noisy so I am going to do the impeller mod to quiten it down. I'll leave this running for the next few hours to make sure the res doesn't leak.

I'm working on the bottom of the case and a way to mount the fan filters. I'm going to use some screen door mesh I have from another project a while back and stretch it across the bottom. Then I can just tape a dryer sheet to that mesh and easily change it out when it's time. I believe in KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) and that is a lot simpler than working out some intricate way of having a pull out dryer sheet tray or something. This saves time as well.

I'm going back to work. I'll update again in a few hours.

 

[emorphien]

Not now. I'll probably wire some LED's up to them and behind some of the plexi in a future upgrade once the main parts are done..

I think eventually that you should definitely light them from beneath, afterall thats kinda how they were in the show if I recall and that would just look cool.

 

[Sobek]

Update:

Here is the screen door mesh I'll glue to the rear.

The same mesh on the bottom I'll glue and partially held in place with the flat Alu I recycled. Remember I said it'd just be easier to tape a dryer sheet to the bottom of this.

3/5 of the Power Crystals glued in place.

I began drilling the rivet holes for the bottom edges. I still have to drill some holes in them to hold them to the box itself.

Here I drilled the hole for the tubing from the res to the pump. It took a while since the battery kept dying and I had to let it charge for a few min and then drill.

Here is the right plexi peice in the front. I still have a little sanding to do on both of them to make sure they fit well. I'll etch them eventually.

Tonight I took a permanent marker to the front USB cord, UV and White CCFL's, and those little clear plastic things that can loop the wires on Lian-Li's between the Mobo panel and front fans. Here's the USB cord thing.

I noticed that the res I made seems to cause cavitation (IIRC that is the correct term) and there is a lot of tiny air bubbles in the loop. This is probably because the barbs are too close together. I glued a half piece of plexi between the two barbs to try to minimize or elimnate this. I'll see if it worked tomorrow. I could always cut the res in half between the barbs and add a flush brushing to space them out more. That will require another trip to HD and more work I really don't want to do but we'll see.

flat4 and I met up tonight and he gave me his LL fanbus and aqua-computer UV Blue dye (half empty but still enough) so I have to thank him in my log. Thanks Mike!

I also started to sleeve a few things but stopped since it is better to do it all at once rather than waste excess sleeving on something. I'll get the majority of the box finished tomorrow including starting to paint it hopefully. I really want to transfer everything over to the PC-61 and start sleeving everything. If you don't see an update late tomorrow night, it's because I've transfered everything over and haven't been able to update.

 

[CrimandEvil]

aqua-computer UV Blue dye

Wow! Looking great. You have to give your impressions on the A-C dye when you use it, I'm looking at Dye's right now and I'm looking at ordering some A-C stuff anyways.

 

[Sobek]

Will do CrimandEvil.

I just finished drilling holes for the top rivets, a hole in the bottom for the pump's AC cord, a wider fan switch hole and a different way to mount it (still in the same place though), and drilling a hole in the motherboard for the tubing (that was a bitch ).
I'm hungry and tired but I have to get started on the sleeving so I'm taking my computer to my neighbor's shed/shop to use his air compresor to blow out all the dust. Having an acrylic case with 3/5 fans blowing all the time and lots of holes for air and dust to seep into have left my stuff dirty even though I clean it regularly. It's better to have everything looking clean too. I'll update the log as soon as I can but it may not be until tomorrow.

 

[Sobek]

Sorry I haven't updated in a week everyone. It's been a mad dash trying to get as much done as possible and I had a fw problems with my PC that delayed me. The main reason I'm rushing to get as much done as I can is that on Dec 1, I leave for AF basic training. I'll explain more later. For now here's the first part of the update. I took 109 pic over the past week of the project. I'm uploading 62 of them so it will take time esp since it is Thanksgiving and I have lots of family to visit before next week.

Here you can see where I cut a hole for the pumps power cord.

The Power Crystals.

The rivet holes being drilled and test fit.

Masking the mobo tray to cut a hole foe the tubing.

The basic cut. This wasn't easy.

The hole with some fresh paint to hide the Alu color.

Finished hole with tubing for reference. Eventually I'll buy some quick disconects.

Here is my current Frozen Acrylic Case

It's craptastic wiring

My workstation/desk. I took the Acrlic case over to my neighbors to blow out all the dust with his air compressor.
For the curious: 20" Flat tube Toshiba TV, VCR, DVD/Divx/XVId/MP3 etc player, PS2, NES, Sony Clie TG-50 PDA on desk. The Dell is my old P3 733mhz PC (my first PC (first as in only I used it!)Eventually it may get a HD and DVD drive to be turned into a server.
The middle monitor is the 17" that came with my Dell. The right 15" I baught for $25 used to have something to aid in writing papers, multitasking, etc but at 640x480 res it's still a POS. My TV is also a 3rd monitor but I only use it to watch divx rarely. I finally have money to but a NEC DP930SB like I have wanted but since I'm leaving for basic training there is no time to order it.

I'll update some more later. This weekend has been a PITA and my computer has a virus or worm that causes it to reboot every time I try to logon into Windows forcing me to do a repair install everytime. I got Norton Antivirus 2005 to replace an old Corporate Version I had and have to clean my registry. I appologize if I can update after this one and it will probably be 2 months till the next one.

 

[starhawk]

ygpm, Sobek... and them pics don't work. might be the virus got in 'em (this has been heard of)

 

[CrimandEvil]

Ouch! Seeing all that messly wiring hurts.

So your going into the AF, my Uncle is in the AF too. If you ever run into an Indian guy (Native American) named Leland Jim tell him you know his nephew Tony.

 

[Sobek]

The pics work, iupload may have been down while you tried to look at them.

Starhawk and anyone else, the virus or worm problem is whenever I restart my PC, after it boots and the WinXp Pro user logon screen comes up and I sign in, the PC either restarts or I get this message:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or currupt: <windows root>\system32\hal.dll

Please reinstall a copy of the above file.

I have to do a repair install of windows which takes about an hour. I've done it 3 times now. I've rebooted in safe mode as well and run Nortan which found some things but didn't fix the problem.

Some of the virus's/worms that it found that kept popping up every few minutes while auto-protct was running are:

logppmj.dll
s_elite.exe
Backdoor Agent B

I downloaded and ran a file on Symantec's site that is supposed to get rid of Backdoor Agent B but when I rebooted to run it again I still had the same problem. I can make do with just not restarting for the next few days but I would like to get this fixed. I plan on ordering 2 Seagate 200gig+ SATA's to RAID when I get done with BT and a fresh Windows install will be on them.

 

[rogue_jedi]

looking very nice

wrt the sata drives in raid: i love my 200gb SATA seagate. pretty fast on its own. if you can get a NCQ capable controller, then this drive (being native sata and having NCQ AFAIK) will be faster than a raptor (according to a review on viperlair i read), even without raid. then you put 2 in raid, and it gets marginally faster... whee

good luck in basic.