My Silent Playstation 2-HTPC Hybrid WIP UPdate 17/10

Show off your quiet rig.

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elendil850
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Post by elendil850 » Fri Sep 15, 2006 10:14 am

Excellent work!

Any updates?

justblair
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Post by justblair » Sat Sep 16, 2006 8:21 am

Thankyou....

I have been working at this, making a front panel and mounting brackets for the psone screen. But I have been hitting problems of all sorts with the screen.

The cables that attach the psone screen to the molex that attaches to the pcb are very fine. They keep breaking when I manipulate the screen. I have an idea though to make that connection a bit more durable.

I also have had issues with my power regulator. The rerouted section of the circuit is pretty weak, and the heatsinks weight dammaged the connection of the lm350t unit to the pcb. I have repaired it successfully, but I am looking for a method to prevent it happening again.

I should have some more piccies tomorrow....

justblair
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Post by justblair » Sun Sep 17, 2006 11:35 am

Well this update has been a while coming....

So what have I been up to?

Well. I built a mount for the psone screen. This I made out of alu L brackets. Finally got to use my drill press in anger... What a usefull tool it is.

Basicly I made a rectangular box. Then using four bolts through the screens mounting points I had an adjustable (for depth) mount.

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Here you can see the psone mounted (ooh err).

And one from behind (double ooh err!)

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When I fired it up, nothing happened... I had damaged the cables at the molex end going into my homemade pcb. The problem (I found after spending an hour with a multimeter) is that the psone screens cables are very fine. This was a relief, as to get the right clearances I filed off about a centemetre of the screens pcb. On the right of the pcb is a lot of ground plane, this is what I removed. I have a plan to make a more durable connection which is yet to be executed. I did though get it working.

When it was lit up I noticed something that had eluded me before. The backlight of the screen shines through the pcb highlighting the gaps between the tracks. This i thought had to be exploited. So I made a cover for the back. i used 2mm thick perpex then covered it in a smoke tint film (the kind you get for car windows).

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When I get the power to this, I think it will look pretty damn good.

Next on the things to do list was a front panel. This is made of a very thin sheet of alu, then a sheet of perspex in front of it.

There was a lot of cutting and shaping to do to both layers. On the perspex there is a hole cut for the drive bay covers (lian li) plus two stainless steel buttons which will be the power buttons for the pc and the playstation.

I also drilled and counter sunk some screw holes top and bottom to hold the facia onto the case. I had considered glueing, but the countersunk screws I think look cool. It would perhaps have been a bit bland otherwise.

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On the alu I did the same plus cut a hole for the psone screen and the remote sensor. Here is the result....

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The scratches are on the alu sheet behind. There are still some bubbles on the tint, but I am hoping that they will disapear as it dries out.

I am pretty pleased with the result. There is a whole lot more to do, but I think that the front panel is getting to the point where you can imagine how the finished case is going to look.

The alu will be spray painted black. This should make the psone screen and the IR sensor disapear behind the smoked perspex.

On the to do list now.

1. A side panel needs to be manufactured with the PS2 inputs, Usb ports and two rotary switches (with alu dials of course) which will switch the usb (between the PC and PS2) and switch the lights and psone screen on and off.

2. A base needs to be made. i have a set of sorbothane feet already. Some of the base will be meshed.

3. I have a sheet of perspex mostly cut to sit on the mobo tray where it is exposed. i will cover this in some more of the silver sticky backed plastic. The pcb will mount to this.

4. I will have to redo the ps2 controller extensions to take into account the new location of the psone.

5. I have to build a new mount for the ps2

6. I still have some tidying to do for the case lid, including screwing it all together. I plan to use countersunk screws in the alu bands. I also have to put a final strip in on the front at the bottom.

Ideas are still welcome even at this late stage?

justblair
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Post by justblair » Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:01 am

How long overdue is this update then???

I have not been lazy though I have made some progress..

First of all the bad news.

The window tint did not take on the perspex. I dont know why, but I got too many bubbles in between the tint and the glex. This was frustrating to say the least.

So I was left with 3 options...
  1. Try again with the tint
  2. buy some proper smoked perspex
  3. come up with another idea
I tried to source some smoked sheet perspex, but was not having much luck, so I thought I would give the third option a go. I managed to source 3mm thick sheet alu locally so I thought that I would give it a go...

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What do you think.

Of note in the design is that I made a small panel for the power switches. It is made from a sheet of thin perspex sandwiched between the main 3mm sheet and a much thinner sheet (1mm at most) of alu. The power buttons hold the panel together. I have been experimenting with shining blue leds through perspex rods to backlight the panel. I get a nice sort of glow from behind it. I should really be honest, this was not my origional plan, but I messed up with the drilling of the holes in the 3mm sheet. My 16mm drill bit chewed up the sheet leaving a rough edge that I just couldn't fix. The panel masks this. I have plans to try making a couple of panel designs to see which I prefer.. I'll be taking votes.

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You can also see in the photo how I tackled the IR sensor. I used my drill press to cut a set of 5 4mm holes in the pannel. I then forced through some perspex rod, trimmed it and then sanded it down to flush. The final stage will see the whole front facia polished to either an even brushed alu or more likely a mirror finish. The pespex in the sensors by the way is not that light looking in real fife. Its very dark in fact but the flash lit it up.

What you cant see in the pictures (cause I forgot to take a snap) is that I have removed even more of the steel in the chassis. I added a couple of alu w shaped rod in first then jigsawed out the remaining side panels. This is of course to add more ventilation.

I had origionally intended to keep these in to mute the sound of the HD. But the enclosure has been so successful, I have no need for this.

I have a plan sorted out for the back of the unit now as well... More Alu. I have enough 3mm sheet left to make a cosmetic plate to tidy the back up and also to put a polished alu sheet in to the exposed floor of the case.

I also made a first attempt at the side panel for the case, but you will have to wait on that one, I think I will be revisiing it again

In the meanwhile, does the alu sheet get a vote of confidence or should I try and find some of that elusive black perspex?

EndoSteel
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Post by EndoSteel » Tue Oct 24, 2006 11:06 am

I dont know why, but I got too many bubbles in between the tint and the glex. This was frustrating to say the least.
When dealing with car windows they use a special tool to drive air bubbles from under the tint - it looks like a rubber spattle. There's no way the bubbles can dissolve or come out by themselves.

In the meanwhile, does the alu sheet get a vote of confidence or should I try and find some of that elusive black perspex?
Not unless you get it perfectly polished\brushed. These scratches look quite untidy.

Avalanche
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Post by Avalanche » Tue Oct 24, 2006 12:28 pm

Wouldn't it match the optical disk drive bays better if it was brushed? I agree with EndoSteel that unless the scratches are much less noticable in RL than in the picture, they need to be delt with.

Overall, Justblair, your mod is awesome. I use my PS2 too much to afford the downtime it would cause, but integrating it (and silencing it) with a HTPC would be a pretty sweet project! :D

justblair
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Post by justblair » Wed Oct 25, 2006 12:10 am

EndoSteel wrote:When dealing with car windows they use a special tool to drive air bubbles from under the tint - it looks like a rubber spattle. There's no way the bubbles can dissolve or come out by themselves.


The stuff I used suggested that a few bubbles would not be an issue. The bubbles started off life with liquid in them. The idea being that as the liquid evapourated it the film would dry flat to the plexy. This seemed to hold true for the first version I made, but for some reason not the second??? :roll: I thought I had it all clean, and was working in a clean environment. For the life of me I dont know what was different to ruin the panel.
EndoSteel wrote:Not unless you get it perfectly polished\brushed. These scratches look quite untidy.
I agree, they are not very deep thankfully. I dont intend though to do the final polish until I have the outer case complete. I will sand it down thorugh the grades then use a set of polishing wheels on it. I intend to do this with all the raw alu on the case. Question is what do I laquer it with after to make the finish durable?
Avalanche wrote:Wouldn't it match the optical disk drive bays better if it was brushed?
I am in too minds on this one Avalanche (indecision has been the prevalent emotion throughout this project!)

On one hand it would certainly match better, though I would have to brush the alu on the vertical plane to make it match. This is not the most desirable I'm thinking. The case is already pretty tall and I think that this would likely higlight this. Convention (in hi fi equipment etc) is to brush the alu horizontally.

On the other hand, a little contrast I think will possibly be a good thing. There is fair expanse of metal there, a bit of contrast should break that up in hopefully a subtle manner.

There is a third way, polish the alu drive bay covers to a mirror finish. This I think is positive. The Lian li covers are certainly good for this project, however, they are whatever way you look at it lian li covers. Polishing them to mirror would disguise their origin to some extent and reinforce the "bespoke" appearance of the project..

Too many ideas floating round my head. My plan is to start with polishing to mirror finish, then If I dont like it I will have a well prepared surface to brush.

Meanwhile this week I am working on the inner tray and the side panel. The tray I have rough cut and mounted the ps2 onto. This is also going to be where I mount my temp/screen controller pcb to. The side panel will also be attached to the tray.

Should have this stage complete by the weekend.

qviri
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Post by qviri » Thu Nov 16, 2006 1:55 pm

Any updates to this beauty?

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