Project: K-9-PC

[slaveofconvention]

http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/header.jpg

My son is Doctor Who crazy, and after about a year messing with card and ideas to build him a tardis - I've scrapped the idea and I'm going to go foreward with this idea - build a scale model of K-9 with a decent, upgradeable PC integrated into it - very very early in the planning stages at the moment - so early my wife has banned me from even telling my son about it in case it doesn't happen - but it will happen...

The idea's I have in place at the moment are as follows...

The area in the nose where the blaster usually comes out will have a couple of USB ports
The control pad on his back will do, well, other stuff - it will be functional - power and reset buttons for starters - I also have a set of USB buttons from an old media center PC case which I'm going to look into rewiring to do the job.
The tail will probably be a wireless LAN antenna - there is a wired gigabit network connection in his room but I thought it was a nice touch.
Convert the front recessed panel into a sliding door for the optical drive and card reader.

So far I have acquired....

A Removable motherboard tray
Several sets of plans
Lots of earache from the wife :p

Keep your eyes peeled - this is going to be done, and it's going to be done right....

EDIT: After spending a week or so with drawings and test fits, it turns out that it won't be a scale model at all - it's going to be full size - I could have maybe squeezed a 10-15% size reduction out of it but I'd prefer the extra space for airflow, expansion and ease of access, plus it'll be a little extra kudos for my son having a Real Full size K-9 - not a tiny model like some of his mates have :banana:

[Bopher]

I'll be watching this one. I have had plans in the noodle for a K-9 or Tardis case in the far future.

[slaveofconvention]

I'll be watching this one. I have had plans in the noodle for a K-9 or Tardis case in the far future.

Well I decided on the K-9 because, lets face it, the tardis is a box - and if you want a pc in a box - you can get those anywhere - the real thing I'm looking forward to here is trying to make the outside look as little like a PC as possible - I already have some plans in my head to find a way to get all of the cooling in the base to keep the outer shell as pristine as possible....

[slaveofconvention]

OK - first question for the masses...

On the back of the dog there's a 12/14 button control panel...
http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/controlpanel.jpg

This isn't a good pic but it represents my point. I was thinking about making the two large buttons as lights - one for power, one for HD activity. That leaves 12 buttons - two of those are easy enough - Power and Reset. In addition, I have a USB multimedia control thing from an old silverstone LC14 which will cover another 7 if I can rewire it without destroying it - Vol Up - Vol Dn - Mute - Play/pause - Next - Last - Stop.

That leaves me with 3 buttons going spare - any ideas?

One thing that occurred to me is to replace the two lights with temp displays, and then use the two of the spare buttons as lights but I'd prefer to have them as buttons which will actually DO something....

P.S. I don't want to go with BIOS reset - I don't want that on the outside of a case which will be my young son's PC

[Drum Thumper]

Is this case/dog/robot going to have a window? If so, one of those buttons could, in theory, be an on/off switch for the lights.

EDIT: What about adding a sound module like Crimson Sky did with his Doom3 mod?

[slaveofconvention]

Is this case/dog/robot going to have a window? If so, one of those buttons could, in theory, be an on/off switch for the lights.

EDIT: What about adding a sound module like Crimson Sky did with his Doom3 mod?

I'm 50/50 on that at the moment - on the opposite side to the K-9 logo there's a rectangle in the panel - it's meant to be a display and I do happen to have a couple of spare 10" lcds so it'll either hold one of those or a window - thing is, the monitors aren't really reliable (and I don't know why) and a window would probably be easier - I'm designing the internal layout so IF it's a window, it'll look at interesting stuff as opposed to the back of the motherboard tray...

Just been checking - the buttons are going to cost a fortune - looking at around $6 each in the US - can't even find them yet in the UK :think:

[Eclecticos]

Looks like a really creative idea. One cool control panel. +Rep
You could use the others to power the fans, and lights.

[slaveofconvention]

Ok so I was having a little scour of the old interwebs n stuff, looking for more specific information regarding size, dimensions etc and came across a complete set of plans for the whole thing - some of you might think it's cheating but I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth and this will bring the project on in leaps and bounds. The only problem with them, is everything is in inches and with me being a modern man, I work in mm lol - oh well - lots of x254 calculations to do :facepalm:

Anyway - check these out....

http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/plan-frontrear.jpg
The external drives are going to sit behind a door where that recess is under the head on the front. The tail is going to be a wireless LAN antenna - I'll have to sacrifice the chrome and extending bits of the antenna and it'll be plain black plastic but I kinda want the antenna to DO something - although, I am vaguely considering putting an FM radio in there - when I say vaguely, it didn't even occur to me until I started writing this....
http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/plan-logoside.jpg
Thinking about some kind of perspex/painted steel sandwich for the logo so the edges glow, probably just white but not decided yet on that
http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/plan-screenside.jpg
As mentioned previously, this is where either the 10" LCD or the window is going to go - I'm leaning heavily towards the window at the moment because of the reliability issues (and image quality) on the 2 10" IBM LCD's I have
http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/plan-topside.jpg
There's those buttons I was talking abouthttp://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/plan-head.jpgI don't see the head doing much other than just being there - I was thinking about a couple of USB ports as my son is always plugging his phone into the USB to upload ringtones n pics and it'd be nice for them to be easily accessible
http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/plan-logo.jpg
And finally a nice template for the logo...

Should certainly make things a LOT easier and should speed up progress - I was initially expecting this to take a LONG LONG time - now I think it'll just take a LONG time :p

[slaveofconvention]

And now it's time to start digging through this lot....

http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/workspace1.jpg
http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/workspace2.jpg
http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/workspace3.jpg
http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/workspace4.jpg
http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/workspace5.jpg
http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/workspace6.jpg

For some stuff to make this into something outside of my head....

Edit: Yup, for the eagle eye'd out there, that IS an original 48k rubber key Spectrum in there :p

[slaveofconvention]

Thought it'd be a good idea to make sure everything is going to fit and if I could get away with making the whole thing a little smaller or not. Turns out that I'm going to be building this to the original full scale and the bits will fit in relatively easily, without being overcrowded, and without wasting huge amounts of space.

http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/baselayout.jpg

For now, as I don't have access to the actual hardware (it's at home, I'm at work, and most of the parts are currently in my son's PC and I don't think he'd appreciate me taking it apart now when this project will probably take a good few weeks, if not months to complete)

Couple of things to mention which might make this a little clearer

1. The Hard disk (and spare hard disk bays for future expansion) will sit directly above the Optical Drive - as the Optical Drive is by far the larger of them, I thought I only needed to prove that would fit.

2. The intake fans (bottom in image) are going to be set at an angle (actual angle yet to be determined) - this should mean that I'll have a nice airflow from 2x120mm fans directed onto the motherboard, and one straight up the side of the drives.

3. The exhaust fans will have a shroud which creates an intake funnel going most of the way to the top of the case, so the air being expelled SHOULD be the hottest air which is at the top (heat rises, after all). At the same time, the PSU will also draw air out of the case, at a lower level.

4. All of the wires connecting things like KB, Mouse, PSU, Monitor etc will come out of the base of the case, in a hole under the area partially blocked by the rear slope of the case - this will allow me to keep the outer shell as pristine as possible.

All in all, it looks like I'm going to have plenty of space for future expansion - I've based it all on full ATX 2.2 specs, and the current PC is using a MicroATX board so space should not be an issue.

I've also laid out the front panel - this will go under a flap of some sort under K-9's neck.

http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/frontpanel.jpg
In total I'll need 4 5.25 inch bays, because I plan to install a Thermaltake iCage in the case - it's a module which allows you to fit 3 3.5 inch hard disks into 3 5.25 inch bays - I happen to have a couple (or maybe 3) of them lying spare as I bought them for my server and have yet to pass the 10 HD point. This will allow me to put the first hard disk in immediately and leave room for two more for the future - there's a fan mounted on the icage which will help with cooling the drives too - in fact, in light of this, I may remove one of the intake fans in the floor of the case - 3 120mm fans taking in air will be more than enough - pretty sure I won't need a 4th.
http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/icage.jpg

There's also lots of space left so I may well put a couple USB ports, front Audio and maybe (if I can find a way to do it without obstructing screwdriver access to the 5.25 bays) a fan controller.

[TheGreatSatan]

Wow, I totally thought about doing this mod a year or so ago. +rep for actually doing it

As for the lights on top I'd just have multiple lights for HD activity and such

[slaveofconvention]

Thanks TGS - I was pretty much thinking along the same lines. Basically, my current plan is as follows:

http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/controlpanellayout.jpg

And I think I'll just buy a pair of these:

http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/templcd.jpg

Put one in as-is, and tear the other one apart to get the surround so it matches, then put a piece of frosted perspex in it with an LED or two for the HDD activity.

As for a power light - I'm planning on illuminating the inside of the case, maybe adding a downlight under it etc so there'll be no doubt if it is on or off...

The two spare buttons, I think I'll just wire in LED's - all of the lights will be on permanently so it won't make a huge visual difference.

Anyone know what the "usual" max rating for the motherboard LED headers is - can I get away with running more than one LED in parallel off of the header or will I blow something up???

[slaveofconvention]

I have a choice of two drive bay setups for this project - well - two I'm considering anyway - one from a shuttle and one from a silverstone media center case

Shuttle:
http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/drivecaddy.jpg

Silverstone:
http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/drivecaddysilverstone.jpg

If i opt for the shuttle one, I'll have less dremel work to do, no dedicated cooling, one optical and 2 hard disk slots. If I go with the silverstone one, there's a fair bit of cutting to do (not really a problem) and then room for one optical and three hard disks because the iCage (shown below) will quite happily sit when just attached to one drive bay

http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/icagebox.jpg

http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/icageopen.jpg

Like so:
http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/testfitdrives.jpg

I'm personally leaning towards the silverstone solution for the extra cooling, lighting, extra hard disk bay and the relatively long mounting slots will allow me to fine adjust the drives to sit where I want them without having to be UBER precise in my construction. Having said that - any thoughts? I may be overlooking something you guys can spot....

Second dilemma - I now have TWO removable motherboard trays:

http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/mobotray.jpg
http://slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/k9/mobotraymatx.jpg

Obviously one is a lot smaller - both should fit without any problems - the MATX one will give me more room around it to play (my son's PC is currently running on a MATX mobo) but the full ATX one will allow better potential for the future (I hope) - again - opinions welcome but I am leaning towards the full ATX as that IS the one I originally drew up my plans around...

[slaveofconvention]

Ok so I went with the silverstone drive option and have cut it down to just the part that I need.

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/K9/hdcage-cuttosize.jpg

And a quick test fit of the drive & icage to make sure I'll be able to get the drives nice and smooth against the front of the case behind the flap...

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/K9/005.jpg

Going to paint it all black anyway, just to keep with the dark innards of the case I want - should make the lighting I put in a little more effective etc.

And now I NEED help please fellow geek type people. Let me explain....

I took the buttons out of the silverstone media centre case...

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/K9/008.jpg

And then took them apart to check on how to rewire them into the control panel on the top of the case...

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/K9/006.jpg
http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/K9/007.jpg
http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/K9/004.jpg

and on the back of the board is this...

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/K9/003.jpg

it's actually two boards, back to back, with 8 pins going from one to the other....

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/K9/002.jpg

But there are no physical buttons to rewire - it appears to be a touch-sensitive panel. I thought at first, with 7 touch-pads, and 8 connectors going between the touch-board and the control board, that there's be a common ground, and 7 "live" but when I've looked at the circuits, it doesn't appear to be the case - I have done my best to copy the circuit layout here for clarity....

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/K9/circuits.gif

The 1-8 are the pins going to between the controller and touch boards, and K1 to K7 are the 7 touch sensitive sensors - and they appear to be wired as follows...

K1 - Pins 3/6
K2 - Pins 2/3
K3 - Pins 1/3
K4 - Pins 3/8
K5 - Pins 4/7
K6 - Pins 4/6
K7 - Pins 4/5

So, two things - one does this actually make sense to anyone because I'm not an electronics guru. The second is a little more cheeky....

My soldering is barely competent, at best - is there anyone out there willing to lend a hand with this - I THINK what needs to be done is the solder removed from the 8 pins on the touch-board side and that whole board removed - then individual wires connected to each of the 8 pins, or alternatively, a new board fabricated to replace the touch-board and give more accessible contact points for wiring in cables to then connect to the momentary push-to-make switches I'm using for the control panel on the back...

I'm obviously more than willing to cover any costs and I don't expect anything for nothing, but if there's someone who can help me get past this hurdle, I'd really really appreciate it - I don't want to end up with 10 buttons on the back that effectively are just lights.

I'm in the UK but really don't care where you are - I'll ship to whereever I need to - can anyone help?

[slaveofconvention]

Just in case I screwed up when I made the circuit diagram, here's a hi-res image of the board ....

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/K9/circuit-hires.jpg

It'll probably end up resized - here's a link to the original...

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/K9/circuit-hires.jpg

[Eclecticos]

I think the designs are fantastic. Can't wait to see the robodog.

[slaveofconvention]

Well I can't take credit for the design - just the implementation - thanks though!

[Mach]

What's on the other end of the green, black, orange and white wires? USB connector? I can likely help if no one on your side of the Atlantic volunteers but testing could be a problem if that's not a usb connector. PM me if you want to give it a go.

[Mark_Hardware]

Sorry I can't help out. I'm sure someone will. G/L

[slaveofconvention]

What's on the other end of the green, black, orange and white wires? USB connector? I can likely help if no one on your side of the Atlantic volunteers but testing could be a problem if that's not a usb connector. PM me if you want to give it a go.

Yes, it's a standard 4 pin female connector to go onto an internal USB header

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/Moddin/K9/009.jpg

[Mach]

So it's likely recognized as an HID device. Should be easy to test then. Let me know if you want help.

[slaveofconvention]

Under XP Home SP3 it comes up as a HID Keyboard Device and didn't need any drivers - I think it's pretty safe to assume that it'll be detected by pretty much any OS if it's that generic

[slaveofconvention]

I think I'm going to have a go myself because I just checked and the 4 pins seem to be identical in size and layout to an internal USB header - my thinking is that I can de-solder the pins, slip on a USB header connection, then hot-glue the plastic to the board so I don't have to solder onto the PCB at all...

One BIG question though.... does anyone have any experience with this kind of switch? Are they push-to-make or push-to-break?

[Mach]

Push to make the connection if they're like any other button on a case.

[slaveofconvention]

Push to make the connection if they're like any other button on a case.

Confirmed - roped the wife in to help - between the 4 hands we managed to hold everything together and test it with a multimeter - they are push to make which hopefully means full speed ahead....

[Mach]

God speed and good luck! :)

[madd0ct0r]

Two remaining buttons - one to turn radio (FM?) on, one to scan.

[slaveofconvention]

Having a bit of a rethink on the buttons - I don't think my son will ever use the play/pause, next, prev or mute buttons so may not rewire those - leaves me with 6 spare - I'm bidding on a 1:4 scale remote control K-9 on ebay which has a 6 button, 2 joystick remote - hoping I can rip it apart and integrate the sound module so the dog does the k-9 phrases. I'm also toying with the idea of a motion detector kit i found, which I'm hoping to connect to a servo or two to make the ears twist (like they're supposed to) when someone gets close to it *grin*

This is getting more complex by the minute, but I've also just enlisted some help if i need it, both work and financial, from his grandad so it'll all get done, 100%

EDIT: Scratch that - I won the model - whee.....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180378175487

[slaveofconvention]

This is not dead - it's turning into a nightmare of planning - there are SO many pieces of sheet metal needed and they all have to be so damned accurate - I'm now at the point of going to a fabricators (tomorrow) and seeing how much it'll cost to get it all cut for me - otherwise it's going to cost a small fortune in dremel wheels and jigsaw blades!!!

I've also reserved myself a spot in the coolermaster case modding contest but haven't yet posted any details - I really doubt this will be done in time but we'll see :s oh that and I'll have to dig thru my parts to see if I have enough coolermaster bits to qualify - think it needs to have at least 5 coolermaster bits and so far, I have a PSU and a musketeer - I can see me putting in coolermaster fans just to make the numbers up!

[masbuskado]

Love the concept!!!
but you are too way behind for the CM comp. but I know you can make it!!!
Luv the plan...!!! The design look like those Jap Dog Robot!!!

[slaveofconvention]

I have sheet metal plans away at a fabricator at the moment - hoping to get some news re: price tomorrow - once that's done, I should be able to make pretty rapid progress on this - ONE of my jobs is as an unsupervised security guard on an outdoor site at the weekends - means that other than a 5-10 minute walkaround every hour, I have nothing to do for 12 hours a day - putting in 22 hours, possibly as many as 44 a week (depending on what shifts I work) without interuption on the project ON TOP OF time I spend at home working on it should mean it moves pretty quickly once I have the sheet metal sorted....

[gntlkilr]

I'm definately looking forward to the unveiling. Subscribed

[slaveofconvention]

Finally got a price from the fabricators... After I picked myself up off of the floor, I ordered some sheet metal - now it's just a case of waiting for the next payday so I can buy all the bits to make a decent bending brace or something and I'll start making some progress. There's every chance though that I'll push on with Lobo first and get to this next - I don't really have the space to have two projects on the go at once....

[gntlkilr]

awesome part = watching someone build a great rendition of K-9.

Bad Part = having ideas of a TARDIS HTPC/Conversation piece project while on crutches and drugs.

[slaveofconvention]

I toyed with the TARDIS idea - but thought - at the end of the day, it's just a box - where's the challenge lol - REALLY REALLY wish I'd ignored that thought - this is turning into an expensive nightmare, but I'm not giving up - stubborn has its uses sometimes :D

What else am I going to so with all this sheet metal anyway?? heh

[gntlkilr]

the hardest part of a true TARDIS mod would be the details, IMO. lite on top to flash correctly, opening door, etc.

[slaveofconvention]

One day I might buy one of those mini-itx boards and then, and only then would I consider doing a tardis - it''d just end up being a huge waste of space in the height with a bigger board - imo anyway. Especially if you went for a base-mounted board

Problem I have with that idea is that I REALLY really don't need any more computers - there are about 12-15 in working condition in the house now, and probably another 5-6 I could fix for the cost of a single part


lite on top to flash correctly - well this might help you with that one - the light doesn't flash at all - its a rotating reflector on an always on light....

[YesNoMaybe61]

I just want to say I think this is a great idea =) good luck with it.

[Ouch!]

Nice ideas....keep going!

I know K9 is just begging to have a webcam for eyes!

Ouch!

[gntlkilr]

One day I might buy one of those mini-itx boards and then, and only then would I consider doing a tardis - it''d just end up being a huge waste of space in the height with a bigger board - imo anyway. Especially if you went for a base-mounted board

Problem I have with that idea is that I REALLY really don't need any more computers - there are about 12-15 in working condition in the house now, and probably another 5-6 I could fix for the cost of a single part

- well this might help you with that one - the light doesn't flash at all - its a rotating reflector on an always on light....

True, it wasn't a flash, but I meant finding something that small to work as it. altho, getting an old cd drive, tearing it apart and feeding the 5v to it to get a spinner might work. *thoughts*

BTW, are you going to have the spinning ears on K-9???

[slaveofconvention]

I'm hoping to have something set up to make the move back n forth the way they're meant to - I was even toying with the idea of making some kind of PIR sensor set them off for a period of time, so when the dog detect movement, it's ears move, and possibly his eyes brighten up - one of a hundred ideas and now there's no timeframe involved (I was toying with trying to get this done for the coolermaster case modding competition) there's no reason not to try to make them all come to fruition...