|  | October 10, 2008
The "Cambridge Autonomous Underwater Vehicle 2008" September 12, 2008
"Florian", the DVD burning robot September 05, 2008
The "i-EPIA" May 22, 2008
The "GTA-PC" April 14, 2007
The "Digg" Case January 19, 2007
The "ITX-Laptop" December 07, 2006
The "Tortoise Beetle" October 02, 2006
The "DOS Head Unit" August 31, 2006
The "Janus Project" August 05, 2006
The "Leela PC" |
| | | | June 26, 2006
Nano-ITX in a Football May 17, 2006
The "EPIA Alloy Mod" April 11, 2006
Neatorama's Collection of Case Mods February 18, 2006
The "Rundfunker" October 24, 2005
The "ITX TV" October 06, 2005
The K'nex-ITX August 05, 2005
The "Waffle Iron PC" July 21, 2005
The "Supra-Server" July 18, 2005
The "Mega-ITX" July 07, 2005
The "Encyclomedia" May 25, 2005
The "Accordion ITX" May 16, 2005
The "FileServerRouterSwitch" May 15, 2005
The "Mini Falcon" May 13, 2005
The "Bender PC" May 11, 2005
The "BBC ITX B" May 10, 2005
The "Frame" April 20, 2005
The "Jeannie" March 09, 2005
The "Cool Cube" January 30, 2005
First Nano-ITX Project? January 17, 2005
The "iGrill" |
| | | | January 15, 2005
The "Gumball PC" December 15, 2004
The "Deco Box" December 03, 2004
The "TERA-ITX" October 06, 2004
The "Coealacanth-PC" September 17, 2004
The "Gramaphone-ITX-HD" August 26, 2004
The "C1541 Disk Drive ITX" August 25, 2004
The "SEGA-ITX" August 13, 2004
The "Quiet Cubid" August 06, 2004
The "BMWPC" July 14, 2004
The "Moo Cow Moo" July 02, 2004
The "Mini Mesh Box" June 17, 2004
Jukebox ITX May 24, 2004
The "ERN005PC" (KANA) March 13, 2004
The "Underwood No. 5" February 04, 2004
The "Humidor CL" January 23, 2004
The "Attache Server" January 22, 2004
"Racing The Light" January 21, 2004
VIA's Flat Panel DevKits January 20, 2004
The "Ambulator I" January 19, 2004
The "Borg Appliance" Full alphabetical archive on right hand side of page... |
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The "ITX-Laptop"
The Keyboard Surround
The keyboard that I bought came with an integrated mouse. It was a little more expensive than the USB wireless version, however I prefer a PS2 connection as it always works. Working with Aluminium was important as I felt if I made the case totally of Aluminium, then it would reduce heat build up better than a steel case.
Once I had welded the surrounds on to the keyboard, I measured it on the case and trimmed and bent it to shape.
The keyboard in place.
The Monitor
I stripped down my donor monitor and made sure everything worked. Then I mounted it inside the Aluminium frame I had made for it earlier. I made my own VGA cable as all the monitor cables I had seen were too bulky.
The reverse of the monitor before the plastic back cover was put on. The USB wireless was originally inside the main case, but I moved it into the monitor section to improve reception.
Here’s the laptop closed with the plastic cover in place. The hinges were quite a bit of work and are all hand made from sheet mild-steel and some stainless nut and bolts welded together. The nyloc nuts give enough friction to hold the screen in place. You can also see I have a key lock switch that isolates all power with the turn of the key.
OK, so it does look a bit ‘Rufty Tufty!’ but I worked on armoured tanks in the military and most of my spare time is spent grinding the rust of my old Camaro... my tools in the shed are more ‘industrial’ than pokey little ‘dremel multi-tool’ sized.
The Completed Project
The future of this project includes a new SATA drive so I can use the hardware raid on the board, a new keyboard and top, and if I can find a 'nipple/trackpoint' mouse unit, I will cut a sheet of aluminium with space for a nice ultra flat keyboard and mount the nipple nicely on the cover. I would also like to mount a 19" screen and better speakers, but I want to be careful that it doesn’t turn out to look like a desktop computer on its side!... Oh, and I put a dremel multi tool on my Christmas list :-)
Finally I would like to say a huge thanks to everyone at Mini-ITX for giving all of us all the opportunity to make these projects. Certainly a lot of the cool computers that you have on your site, built by fans of Mini-ITX would not be possible without the stuff in your store, and the positive design/building community that you create on your site.
*Advert* Tiny ARTiGO Pico-ITX Kits! *Advert*
Plenty in stock at the Mini-ITX.com Online Store. We serve the UK, Europe, USA and beyond. Order in-stock items before 7.30PM GMT and we'll ship same day! |
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