Nameless Mini-Mod All-in-one Project

[Luciel]

Hi Guys,

I´m currently waiting on some materials to arrive in order to complete the last stage of diabolo (Thread also on here).

I´ve been given a netbook that was run over by a car, as you can imagine it´s pretty screwed, casing, screen, ram, hard drive, all gone, surprisingly, the motherboard didnt have any physical signs of damage, so figured, for what it´s worthed, might as well try to see if it works, so took the whole thing out and plugged it in to an external screen and a usb keyboard. Surprisingly, it starts!, went to bios to check everything, even run some startup tools with diagnostics in them, and... it checks out, seems to be in working order. Obviously, buying the parts to fix this netbook would cost as much if not more than buying a new one, and even if it didn´t, I don´t have the need for a netbook.

So had a look around the workplace, seeing what spares I had and figuring out what I could do with it, posted on another thread here looking for ideas, but nothing quite convinced me, and then I saw an "old-ish" 17" TFT LCD, bit dusty, but working perfectly. I though, would be cool to integrate the motherboard in to the screen and make an all in one, apple mac style. So I took it appart (the screen) and as it happens, there is enough space inside for it, but figured it would heat up to much, now the backplate of the mobo, i.e. the bottom side of the netbook, was damaged but fixable, i.e. twisted plastic but no cracks. So I fixed it, and put it on the back of the screen, and it seems like a perfect fit, so marked where the holes for the screws would need to go, just to make sure there´s no screen hardware behind them, and, yet again, it matches, quite lucky.

So I´m going to be doing that for the next few days, paint wise, I was thinking, either pearl white, or in the same style as my fallout project. Maybe radioactive green, not sure yet.

Another idea would be to reconstruct the back of the screen, add new mounting points and build the thing inside with some micro liquid cooling, which would (I think) solve any heating issues.

So yeah I will update with some pictures later on : )

[Luciel]

And here we go:

First I took the screen (the 17", not the netbook´s, that was done before and didn´t take any pictures) apart, this is the back cover:

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/1.JPG

The actual panel with it´s other components:

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/2.JPG

The netbook´s motherboard, note that the middle pcb striple is removable, would be interesting to find out what kind of connection it is that uses and can I get a cable of it, so I don´t have to use an SLI style piece of plastic to connect both sides, i.e. taking more space than needed.

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/3.JPG

This is the fixed, netbook´s rear casing which will be used in the case I go for an outside mounting.

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/4.JPG

And this is what it would look like mounted on the outside (bare of course, covers have been removed, etc, etc, etc).

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/5.JPG

[TheMainMan]

Neat project! Looking forward to seeing more.

[Luciel]

Hi Guys,

Finally had some time to go round to my local suplies shop and bought the dremel drillbits I needed for this (didn´t have the right size for the screws I wanted to use, normally I´d say, use different screws, but I decided on the screws normally used to mount fans as the grip very well. This surface being thing and plastic, can use all the grip it can get).

Furthermore, I´ve decided to mount it outside for several reasons. Looking in to obtaining power from the usb (5v) I could only find a few led strips that did the job, unfortunately they where (god knows why) stupidly expensive and I wasnt even sure how they would look (if they had been cheap I would´ve gotten them even if it was just to experiment with them). Reason 2 is, the enclosure is a perfect fit on the back of the monitor, and it seemed like a waste not taking advantage of this. The final reason is, I have to finish diabolo, this, and yet another small project in 2 and a half weeks, so I want to streamline it a bit and I personally think it looks great on the outside, while doing it inside would be more for the challenge, at this point I don´t think it´s needed.

On another note, I will be adding to the setup the philips ambx, of course with a paintjob to match, and seeing as I´ve decided to go for a white paintjob with black details, the light emited by the rig should add a very cool effect to the paintjob.

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/12.JPG

So as I said, I got the right drillbits and made 4 mounting holes:

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/6.JPG

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/7.JPG

Also used the original netbook´s mounting holes but made them big enough for the screws while not going over it´s original design, so it looks factory standard.

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/8.JPG

Sanded everything down and gave it a coat of primer:

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/9.JPG

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/10.JPG

And after it had dried and sanded it down a bit, the first coat of Icy White:

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/11.JPG

I am now waiting for it to dry in order to give it it´s second coat.


PS: I came up for a name for the project, it is now named Project: AIO AL (as in All-In-One AmbiLight)

[AmEv]

Something that might be worth investigating is if you can hook the netbook directly to the LCD.

[Luciel]

that was the first thing I looked at, unfortunately, complete different kind of connections (the connect from the lcd that goes on it´s pcb is quite wider than the one on the netbook´s mobo : /

[AmEv]

Bummer.

[Luciel]

In deed, would´ve been great if otherwise : (

But it´s not to bad, I´ll get a really short vga cable or cut one to size in order to make it as less visible as possible.

[Luciel]

Update time:

Second coat of icy white done, unfortunately I wasn´t happy with how it turned out as it had bubles in some places, at first I though it was just trapped air, but when I sanded it down and re-painted it, it appeared again, I noticed some other imperfections on the rest of the screen, yet not on the netbook so it can´t be the paint, aniway, sanded it all down, got rid of the paint, reaplied 2 coats of primer just to make sure, white, same thing happened, must have something to do with the material of the screen, no idea, aniway, since at this stage I am not discarding this screen I´ve done my best in disguising the imperfections.

Aniway, covered the parts that would remain white and started on the black parts:

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/13.JPG

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/14.JPG

Once dried I removed the masking tape, there is some detailing work needed but no problems, it´s easy enough : )

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/19.JPG

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/20.JPG

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/21.JPG

Figured I´d do a test mount of the backplate:

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/15.JPG

Unfortunately found out that it wasn´t as perfect fit as I though but no problem, sanded down certain parts in order to make it a perfect fit and...

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/16.JPG

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/17.JPG

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/18.JPG

Pretty perfect fit no? ; )

So marked the backplate, following the black patern, took it off and started painting it:

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/22.JPG

2 coats done, now have to wait for the second coat to try, mount it, do some detailing where the black has gone in to the white a bit, lacquer the whole thing and we´ll go from there.

Next update hopefully tomorrow : )

[TheMainMan]

Looks good, it's coming along nicely. The bubbling certainly isn't visible in pictures, looks like a good finish overall.

[Luciel]

Cheers mate, if you look at the first picture, the reflection on the right side makes it easier to see the imperfections on the surface (i.e. bubbles) and on the left side, while less obvios, it´s there, almost as if you had painted it with a brush instead of paintgun.

the other and last place they are at is on the second to last picture, to the left of the black, you can see white imperfections if you look close enough, of course these things are more obvious in person, the back doesnt bother me as its a lot less visible, it´s the front that does, but cant do anything about it. As I mentioned it aint that bad anymore after the re-paint, but it isn´t completely smooth as it is on the rest .

[Luciel]

Update:

Painting of the center unit (screen with mounted system) is finished, line detailing is fixed and all has been lacquered with a clear glossy finish.

Next update will be of the system put togueter and the start of the painting of the philips ambx system.

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/23.JPG

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/24.JPG

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/25.JPG

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/26.JPG

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/27.JPG

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/28.JPG

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/29.JPG

[Luciel]

Quick update:

I´ve put all the hardware togueter plus some test ram and test hdd (not the final components) and I´m about to install windows and do some stress testing to monitor stability and temps. Luckily, it all started the first time : )

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/30.JPG

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/31.JPG

http://www.neonit.net/images/nameless/32.JPG

PS: Don´t worry, no HDD was in at the time of picture ; )

[xr4man]

that's pretty slick.

[AmEv]

Now I'm thinking about cows........

[msmrx57]

Now I'm thinking about cows........

Not sure about cows, but it kind of reminds me of WW2 German navy camo.

Looking good by the way. :up:

[Luciel]

thanks guys : )

[whatitcanbe]

This is how birth of the all in one pc started