|  | 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 "K'nex-ITX"
Introduction
I needed an interesting case for an embedded Linux/Wireless control computer
that will be installed in a Science Museum running some mechanical Art.
I looked all around the house for something "interesting" to use for a case, but
I couldn't find anything the right size, so I decided to see if I could make a small case out of K'nex.
I started with an EPIA 5000 MINI-ITX sized motherboard and a Belkin Wireless Access Point.
K'nex are very easy to use since you can assemble them in many ways.
You can choose to make a very densely connected case using white circles and
green rods, or a loosely connected case using longer rods. I chose to use blue
rods which made the building go a little bit faster, but still make a very stiff
case with little flex.
The case does not need to be rectangular either. If you wanted to include an
AC power supply in one corner, you can build a small "room" attached to one
end of the case for the power supply.
As I started building, I found that I could use the many K'nex shapes to build
mounting points for the Compact Flash adapter, the indicator LEDs, the power
switch and the DC power jack.
Construction
The connector-side view of the completed case.
Bottom view of the completed case showing the motherboard mounted to a sheet of thin plywood .
I removed the Belkin AP from its plastic case, and mounted it to a sheet of thin plywood using "t-nuts" from the local hobby shop.
Then I used small screws and washers to mount the plywood to the K'nex, Be careful you don't use screws that are too long or you will short out the APs PCB.
I used a Sherline lathe to bore a hole through a white K'nex rod so that the APs coaxial antenna wire could pass through. I need to unsolder the wires from the PCB and then solder them back after running them through the white rod.
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