|  | September 05, 2017 Choosing the right DC-DC PSU August 27, 2015 AMD's Project Quantum August 13, 2015 The Redstone PC is the ultimate Mini-ITX Minecraft Machine October 09, 2014 The "Restomod TV" April 09, 2013 Installing NAS4Free February 28, 2013 Building an XBMC 12 Home Theatre PC January 25, 2011 XBMC Guide updated to version 10.0 August 06, 2010 Building a Green PC February 15, 2010 Building an ION powered HTPC with XBMC 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" Full alphabetical archive on right hand side of page... |
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"The Clock"
By Jukka Talvio - Posted on March 25, 2003
Introduction
I built my first multimedia PC during the summer of 2001. This was a 1.2GHz AMD inside a wooden case. It was big and at first unbearably noisy. At the end I had spent quite a bit of money making it quieter. It was still bulky and aesthetically not optimal. The heat problem was bad, especially under heavy load.
Somewhere during the winter, I heard about EPIA motherboards. It immediately sounded like something I should have used from the beginning. Then, in the summer of 2002, I could contain myself no longer. I ordered an EPIA motherboard and started designing a case that even my wife would accept into our living room.
From the start, I wanted to make something that does not look like a PC or a DVD player. It took me months to build it because I have so little free time, but I enjoyed every phase of the project. I used components from the previous media PC. I only bought an EPIA 800, a larger 80GB hard disk and the Windows XP operating system.
The hardware components
- EPIA 800
- 80G IBM hard drive
- 256 MB memory
- Pioneer full size DVD drive
- A used micro ATX power source
- Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI card
- 20 x 4 LCD display
- A cheap clock mechanism
- Papst 8 cm case fan
- IR Man infrared receiver
- Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse
- Biltema 4 in 1 IR remote
The insides
I needed to replace the fan in the power supply. I put in a supposedly more quiet 6 cm fan, but that turned out to be too noisy too. After I reduced the voltage to 5V, the PSU was quiet enough. Even the Papst 12dB fan at the back of the clock is wired to run with 5 volts.
Both my assistant (in the picture) and I think that there are too many and too long wires inside. In the picture above you see the power supply lurking behind the wires. The wires are extension cords from the PS/2 mouse and keyboard connectors to the Logitech wireless receiver. I removed the receiver casing because it would have taken too much room. Why extension cords? Because without them, I could not have closed the lid on the clock. The PS/2 to USB connector thingamajigs protrude too far from the motherboard. The Logitech receiver is hot glued to the inside of the front panel.
My assistant is sitting on a piece of plywood. On the other side of this is the EPIA 800 board upside down.
Below my assistant and the blue IDE cable connector, you can see a glimpse of the IrMan IR Receiver electronics. Again, I needed to remove the bulky casing. I also added wires between the actual IR sensor and the rest of the components. The black mark at 12 O'Clock on the clock face is the IR receiver. And no, the clock arms do not prevent it from working at any time.
The small battery you see is not for the computer but for the actual clock with the silver hands. The clock mechanism did not fit with the casing in there. The reason is the Hauppauge TV card that is right behing the face.
On the other side of the case, you can see the DVD drive and more wires. In these pictures, you see more of the wonderful EPIA motherboard. On the left you see the other end of the Hauppauge TV PVR PCI card. The wires going into it are the TV antenna, S-Video from the VCR, audio in from the VCR and audio out to the EPIA.
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