Casemodding is an art almost as multidisciplinary as aeromodeling.
Behold, two essays in this modern medium.
1983. Sinclair ZX81 (the original British import, not the wussy Timex) mobo.
.
Add-ons:
- Commodore
SuperPet case
(designed at the U. of Waterloo, which I attended right after finishing this)
- 16K RAM expansion
- Thermal printer (not shown, but fits in the case where extra 16K's are stashed here)
- Full-size keyboard of mysterious provenance, rewired (not shown)
- 8-channel memory-mapped I/O board, soldered point-to-point
- 8-channel analog I/O: mechanical relays, trim pots, separate power supply
- Toggle switch to play or record to external cassette deck
- 120V power strip
The ZX81 itself I bought new from Arkon Electronics, Queen St W, Toronto.
All the rest came a few doors east from Active Surplus over the next few years.
Given the hours I spent there, they should have awarded me a degree.
2008. Blackmac. Silent (diskless, fanless) media PC.
.
- Case from a Mac SE retired in 2002 by Prof.
Kevin Doak. Domo arigato.
(Its power supply lives on as well, powering several li-poly battery chargers for my
airplanes. (2017 update: the power supply finally expired, with a loud bang.))
- 1 GB 600 MHz mini-itx mobo (ancient Via EPIAM II, bios 1.35,
chosen for compatibility with linux distro MythTV,
which turned out to be a poor choice for this)
- Mini-box cable-less 70W PSU
- "Super 80" ebay-hongkong LCD TV, which happened to have a VGA input. 640x480, not 800x600 as the vendor claims.
- TV powered from mobo's PSU, not the stock wall wart
- Primer: Raka laminating epoxy, with TAP Plastics black pigment to reveal coverage.
- Paint: cheap Rustoleum brushed base coat, two rattlecan coats of gloss Krylon, then generic car-parts-store polish.
- DSL Linux boots diskless from a basement server.
- Firefox hosts free Squeezebox software,
streaming mp3s from said server to xmms,
thence to line-out and the living-room stereo.