X500 Evo: Stuffing da beast (Part 3)

Hey guys.

Not many updates these days as I'm still waiting stuff to arrive from overseas :(
One of the things that troubled me was were to put the 4-pin power connector.

As you might saw already, the X500 Evo has a small hole on the back side in order for a normal PicoPSU female power plug connector to be mounted.

Since I use the big PicoPSU 160W with a huge 192W power brick that has a 4-pin power connector I had to find a place to mount it properly without adding extra holes to the case.

After some thinking, I decided to use the little rectangle area above the PCI-E slot which normally was meant for the VGA connector (as most low profile cards have HDMI-DVI connector and a VGA connector to a second backplate via a mini ribbon).

After a lot of research I managed to find some schematics of the power plug so the only thing I wanted was a metal backplate of about 35mm x 15mm with a central hole of 11mm. The extra mounting holes of the power plug, would be drilled after  the power plug was glued to the metal surface for stability.

As always, my good friend Leo (Keropi) made me some metal backplates for testing purposes. Some were from galvanized sheet and others were from inox sheet. You can check the difference on the first 3 backplates (galvanized) comparing to the last one (inox). I chose to use an inox backplate due to it's hardness and better looks (lol).

So I covered all plastic area with instant glue and after it was in place, I inserted the power plug which has a tight fit by default in order to keep it in place tight :)

After some time... PERFECTION!

I realized that the power connector was glued so tight and firm that the extra 2 holes for the screws were obsolete. I of course tried inserting and removing the power plug numerous times without issue.
After I was 100% certain that it holds, I used instant glue to keep the whole inox backplate+powe plug combo in place...

Success!!!
After some time the plug was ready so I wired the power cable accordingly and voila!

Lets see now when the other components will show up :P

Stay tuned.

X500 Evo: Stuffing da beast (Part 1)

Hey peepz.

As you seen on my previous article, I received the X500 Evo, but now the fun will begin for stuffing it with hardware and modding if required :)

First of all, I decided that this case due to it's awesomeness should get something beasty taking advantage as much as I could from the features it provides.

As I'm having a spare mini-itx mobo plus SSD and Hard Drive, I decided to use those in order to fulfill my needs.

A list of the hardware I have as we speak are:

• Motherboard: Asus P8H77-I
• CPU: Intel i3 3240 (3.4GHz @ 55W TDP)
• RAM: Kingston 2x 4GB (1600MHz)
• SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 120GB
• HDD: Seagate 500GB 5400rpm
• PSU: PicoPSU 160W (powered by an beefy 192W brick using 4pin adapter

So... I mounted the motherboard on X500 including PicoPSU and the drives in order to check it out.

Sadly the PicoPSU power extension cable has only 1x SATA connector and a molex which I didn't want.

No reason to keep it as-is :)
Molex connector was removed, and an extra SATA connector was attached to the wire. Ofc shrinking tubing was used to insulate the cables. After that both drives were mounted in place to check them out!
Awesome tight fit :)

As some might know I'm a bit OCD with the cabling so I used some straps to hold the SATA cables in place not to have a mess which I dislike.

OK. Data cables were ready. What about powering the extra bits of the case? Those parts are:

• DVD/RW's Molex connector (5V)
• 1x back side's 40mm fan (12V)
• 2x upper shell's 50mm fans (12V)

As you might saw, PicoPSU has two output connectors as you can see from the picture bellow...

...so the extra spare extension I bought in the past would come handy! After I removed the connectors it had (keeping only the one that attaches to PicoPSU) I thought about using a veroboard, to mount it along with 4x headers having 5V-GND / GND-12V.

As you can see from the lower part of the veroboard, it's really hand having each line shorted, giving me the ability to add as many headers I want in the future (not that it will be needed from what I can tell). I also putted some silicon base in 3 parts in order to be able to mount it properly :)

And here it is mounted and taking power from PicoPSU.

Here you can see it placed next to the motherboard and giving juice to the backside 40mm fan.

And here it's giving juice to the pin header of the DVD/RW (after I tossed the big and ugly Molex connector).

It's getting rather nice imho isn't it?
What I observed so far are the following:

• My i3's stock cooler has more height than the case can take, alas the upper shell doesn't close. The only valid coolers for that setup after searching a lot on Google were 2.
• Either the stock cooler of the lower consumption i3 3220T
• Or the awesome "Noctua NH-L9i" ultra low profile 37mm combo
• As you can imagine... I ordered the Noctua without a hesitation after contacting Loriano to get measuring of the innards of the case and the stock 3220T cooler height.
• All fans are mounted using silicon rubber mounts for better noise cancelation and ease of fitting. As these mounts are black, they don't look so nice with the rest of the white case. In order to make it look even better, I ordered a set of white silicone mounts to give them a spin.

So that's it for now...
More articles will come in the following days as I'm waiting some things to arrive :)

Stay tuned.

A1200: Checking out my former lady :)

Hi peepz and I wish a good year to everyone :)

Last week was kinda painful cause I didn't have my A4000 to tinker, since I sent it's motherboard to Cosmos for general repairs (that will be covered in another thread though).
That's why I had time to check out the former lady that was sitting patiently in my office after I sold it's powerful heart (BPPC+BVision).

I thought about removing all components to clean them up and take some photos in case I decide to split and sell every part individually.

Those components are...

My modded Idefix Express

My loved Slim IDE DVD-RW with 44pin JAE to IDE adapter and 3way 44pin ribbon cable

My old and trusty Subway USB (Serial No. 13!)

...and one of the Clockport Expanders by DJBase and an EZkey PS/2 adapter

I was very sad to see these go so I decided for now to keep and re-install to my A1200.
The problem existed with Ian's ATX adapter and PicoPSU that for some reason, didn't work as intended. It worked but power button needed pushing A LOT of times which made me rethink about the whole idea of Push-On switch.

After fiddling around Ian's website and some schematics about ATX to Amiga Pinout... I removed Ian's ATX adapter (that took some time as I soldered PicoPSU directly to the adapter - you need to check some older posts to see it) and soldered the appropriate cables into it directly :)
After that, I only needed to wire Pin 13 and Pin 14 of PicoPSU into a simple On/Off switch and that was it.

That's one white nice switch I had on my stash for quite some time (which replaced my old switch that was mounted on Ratte's Auto AGA/RTG switch).

...and here is how I mounted PicoPSU now (without it's connector) into a plastic custom stand

Working really well I might add :)
Check the following 2 photos to get a better general look.

You can also check a quick video I grabbed showing how fast it boots ClassicWB 68k.

Not feeling bad about keeping the lot in the end (at least for now).
Only thing missing right now is an 030 I think... Oh well, ACA1231 is close :)

Stay tuned \o/

A600: Power + Kickstart switch installation

I thought of mounting at last the Power Switch plus the Kickstart Switch into their permanent position.

After a lot of patience dremeling a little rectangle for the kickstart switch it mounted just fine and it hotglued.
The power switch was easier but needed a careful measuring and filling.

It looks really good imho.

A1200: CF + PicoPSU mod

One more morning update coming ahead since I was in a hack mood when I woke up this morning

First of all I spend a long time to measure, dremel and sand the area above the PCMCIA where the CF adapter would go... Result was perfect!








Time for putting the custom 44pin cable (stripped carefully) into position
Aye, DVD-RW fits so much better now!






Some more informative pics about the way I got the power cables with hot tube to ease a bit the mess, along with the PicoPSU+Ian's Adapter positioning (along with the space for the extra Fan that will blow the mini heatsinks).








An voila... Everything works like a charm!

A1200: Re-modding everything from scratch!

Saturday at last... and after many shity days @ work... Time was up for tinkering teh Beast!

I don't remember mentioning that after so much time building that A1200... I never tried the Audio. Since I got a new 22" LCD/TV I thought of trying it.
For my horror I realised that ALL audio sounded like crap!!! Damn, caps apparently hitted my 1B mobo as well

Well after my first reaction... I thought... Oh well. Every obstacle is for the better so I thought of switching the mobo for my spare A1200 with 1D.4 mobo.
After checking the spare mobo for sound quality... Everything worked like a charm so it was time to take everything OFF!!!
I gotta admit. It was a shity procedure not to mention how weird it felt taking everything apart after all this effort!

Changing the mobo gave me lotsa thoughts of making my MOD even better since I wanted:
- To change the position of PicoPSU + Ian's ATX Adapter.
- To change the position of Ratte's Auto Swich
- To soldered Clockport Expander signal cables instead of extra Kickstart socket and
- To get an extra Audio Cable under mobo for future Audio Mixer and Delfina

LET'S START:

First as usual I had to remove the Composite connector, TV Modulator, Power Plug and move a capacitor that blocked the way of mine (lol).
Soldering Clockport's Expander signal cables, along with Power Cables was an easy task done many times. I also soldered the extra cable for audio.
I also thought of insulating the soldering with some duct tape just for safety




Yep, everything was just fine. I also insulated the place where the modulator+power plug for safety. Clockport Expander feels good now and you can also see the capacitor that was moved to give me some space





Now it was time to Dremel my a$$ off
First of all I used my friend Keropi's custom Power plug Inox Backplate, and Dremeled a VGA backplate to fit the place I wanted it.
I also Dremeled the lower metal Backplate of A1200 in the modulator position in order for the VGA backplate to fit.
Everything was glued into place and voila!




Now for the hard part... Dremeling A1200's case for VGA plug to fit! That was painful
I also decided to put a custom PS/2 keyboard connector into Composite's place since I always wanted to have it there for as long I modded my miggy and couldn't have the keyboard ribbon in. Everything fitted like a glove and felt really good for the effort.




Time to put the components back in place...
Ratte's Switch (including cabling to U8 for switch signal+Manua swich), EZkey PS/2 Adapter, Floppy terminator connector. You can also see the Extra Audio cable connector that is near the Audio RCAs.




And yes... time for the heavy machinery to be placed.
BPPC, BVision, Idefix Express, Indivision AGA, along with correct and easy to put cabling (not to mess with me later)



Now it was the most difficult part of the day, since I decided I wanted to mount PicoPSU+Ian's adapter where the end of the ex-Floppy ended.
Since in the past I have Dremeled Ian's Adapter+PicoPSU ATX connector... I decided I had to desolder BOTH connectors and mount PicoPSU directly to the adapter. That was really... really... irritating!
At least it worked and felt a lot better than before.




If you saw correctly... you must have noticed the NEW switch for Manual Switching Ratte's Auto Switch. Why anyone would wanna do that? Because Ratte's Switch only operates with a program under OS3.x
What about MorphOS, or AmigaOS4.x or DebianPPC?... That's why
I didn't like the classic little switch, so I bought a better one



OK... just for a quickie now, you can see the "End of the Day" full update on my A1200 with A LOT MORE TO COME in the following days.
You can clearly see the new layout, with almost everything mounted.
You can also notice that the CF adapter that was under DVD-RW (with OS4.x and Debian PPC) is now over PCMCIA (where case will be Dremeled for CF being able to be removed when needed)



Things missing so far are:

• Subway,
• Fan for PicoPSU,
• Delfina

Many things need to be done, but at least I was sooo glad I made such a progress in one day! Time for me to enjoy some wine

I hope you'll like it.

Soon more to come.