"The ambitious one"

(15th May 2004)
Ok so nothing's happened since the last post, except I decided I'm building a new PC. But this time I will install the mobo into something other than a standard case. I'm currently trying to decide between an 8-bit NES, as lots of people have done. In fact such hobby (so far as I know) started at Junk Machine and has since perpetuated thanks in no small part to TechTV and Junk Machine's Forums. It looks really hard, which is the way a long term project/hobby is supposed to be.

On the other hand I could decide to do something slightly original: for some unknown reason my Dad has our original VCR from literally more than 20 years ago. It's the old kind that has a robotic-looking ejected arm to hold the tape that pops up. You youngins most likely don't know what I mean by this. You see the first VCRs were VERY, VERY large; very, very heavy; and were NOT front loading like virtually all VCRs and DVD players these days are. The old ones had a mechanism that actually popped up above the rest of the VCR, you loaded the tape in and pushed the mechanism back down. I'm sure you still don't know what I mean so I'll try to post some pics.

So the choice is an old NES or this old VCR that must weigh at least 40 pounds currently(edit: I actually weighed it: it's exactly 20 lbs.). I was thinking of making the old button that ejected the mechanism instead eject the CD ROM. If I were more creative I would figure something to do with that mechanism that pops up. Maybe a WiFi antenna that retracts and extracts? The button connects and disconnects it from a USB connection?

So the advantages/disadvantages of each:

For NES:
Advantages:

• Smaller mobos most likely cheaper.
  
• MiniITX types have CPUs built-in so I wouldn't have to worry about that.
  

Disadvantages:

• Near impossible to fit everything in
  
• Large dependance on laptop "slimline" parts (HDD and cd-rom) so I'd have to buy them seperate.
  
• Ruin many NES's and possibly mobos in the construction process
  
• Risk life and/or limb installing PSU with out the outer casing. What am I, nuts?
  

For old VCR:
Advantages:

• REALLY big, I can use a normal sized mobo and standard parts
  
• No need to worry about air flow
  
• Don't have to buy it, already have it at home here
  

Disadvantages:

• If my Dad still has it after 20+ years (keeping in mind it hasn't been functioning for at least 10 of those years) I'm guessing he has some sort of emotional attachment to it or something :)
  
• I'll have to convince my Dad to give it up (see above)
  
• So big and heavy it'll have a rather large amount of guts to take apart. Will there be anything left after removing it? Doubtful!
  
• Hopefully no life/limb risk because I can leave the casing on the PSU.
  

So this old VCR thing is sounding better the more I think about it. Still dunno if I can figure something creative with the robotic arm.

Update:

(17th May 2004)
I Obviously picked the VCR becase I have already ripped it apart. My Dad said OK with no argument what so ever. I proceeded to take a few before pictures with this extremely cheap digital camera. At least some of the images will turn out though.

I effectively completely gutted the entire VCR, and let me tell ya those things were expensive when new for a reason. Between the amount of metal, the rubber, the circuit boards, the unnecessary moving parts and pullys, I mean damn. Looked like the thing was hacked together by some kid in his garage or somethin'.

But finally The case is gutted and laying in several dozen pieces in my garage. Turns out there's actually two seperate compartments and one is slightly above the other. One side looks like it could fit about any mobo out there, the other is a little smaller. There's a few good places for a power supply albeit a fairly small one.

My first idea was to buy some particle board or cork board or something to that effect and mount it into the case then use one of my dummy mobos to line up where the screws should go with a marker and that's where I put in the brass stand-offs. Then just screw the mobo in to those stand offs. Course I have more work to do before then. Not to mention figuring out a cool way to make cuts for the all the stuff in the back along with a few mini chasis fans for proper air flow.

In fact I could put the mobo on one side and put all the stuff like a HDD, CDROM etc. on the other. I have lots of room. I could fit an entire seperate VCR on side if I really wanted.

I was commenting to some body how comical all the mechanical buttons and dials actually were (it had a remote but the remote had a wire instead of IR), looking like something out of the first Star Trek or a 1930s SciFi movie. The innards only drove such a point home.

As for cost: well so far I haven't spent anything what-so-ever. Just collected the screws and various parts as I tore it apart.

I was thinking of the following however (as crazy as it probably is): use "extension cables" to go from the actual connectors on the mobo to the outside peice where the parts actually hook up (keyboard/mouse, monitor, USB, serial/parallel if necessary). I've never heard of anyone trying such a thing nor do I know if it would work though I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't.

That brings me to a couple more points: this old VCR actually has its RCA ports in the front for some reason. Now I could cut apart the circuit board with those ports on it and mount it to the right place OR I could replace those connectors with couplers that hook up to the video card's (or mobo's if I get that kind of mobo) RCA outputs and/or inputs so they can actually be used.

The othe point was to figure out if I could some how bury a small LCD monitor into the top of the thing and assign one of the many buttons on the front the task of flipping it up. Originally I wanted to figure out how to assign "eject" to this task but I think it makes more sense to make that eject the CDROM tray.

Now I just have to figure where to put the CDROM so it looks natural up until it ejects. Too bad I can't put it in the old tape holder/robotic arm. That wouldn't be likely.

Ok the next idea is to have a LCD display with the CPU temp and various other information in place of the LCD clock. That'd be sweet.

So if I tried to make a list, not including the actual mobo and related CPU/RAM, I'd need something like:

• Various peripheral extension cables and/or couplers
  
• Some brass stand-offs/matching screws
  
• Eventually a new Dremel :)
  
• Some good glue/epoxy
  
• cork/particle board
  
• Seperate power supply
  
• LCD monitor (optional)
  
• Display LCD for various system info
  

So for sure I need something to make a mobo shelf out of and a power supply. The rest I have and/or is really cheap.

So this looks like a project that may be shaping up! Now all I need is money to fund it! I may even start a new subdomain to keep track of the progress. My goal should be/may be to finish it by the end of the summer: August 31st. But I think it's certainly doable. Rather ambitious but I think doable.

  ¶ 11:09 PM