Crusader helmet

[hjongste]

Maybe not an entirely new idea, but I had for a long time a plan in my head to build a PC in a cool medieval helmet. Once I managed to find a place where I could find reasonably priced helmets I was off! Here is the helmet.

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/7081/img3235j.jpg

Although it looks fairly large, it can't hold much because of the round shape.

Micro-ATX wouldn't fit and I had to go to ITX form factor. I choose an affordable Gigabyte board with an Atom 330 processor pre-installed. It is only 17x17 cm's. Plus 2 Gigs of DDR2 should make it useful for most tasks.

[hjongste]

Here is the the bottom board on which the helmet will rest. The wooden plank with the wooden blocks which will be covered with dark blue coloured velvet. Underneath I put some feet from an old case. Not briljant but you can't see them anyway. Main purpose is that if you move the case you don't scratch the surface underneath.

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/2190/img3227o.jpg

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/3331/img3228z.jpg

Next thing that has to go in is the PSU. An ATX PSU would take up too much space so I took a micro-ATX PSU. Later on I discovered there are also ridiculously small ITX powersupplies but I am not sure about the wattage. Here you can see the size between a regular ATX and the micro-ATX. The PSU is fitted in a make-shift brace to keep it in place.

http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/3572/img3232j.jpg

The motherboard has to stand upright, upsidedown so all the connections for monitor, keyboard etc are at the back and bottom.

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/5636/bordd.jpg

The eye slits will hold the power LED and the HDD LED. However with the HDD LED it would seems that the knight is winking all the time . Not sure if I'll keep it that way. For the LED's to be easily adjustable I constructed “spectacles” to hold them. Maybe not very elegant but it does the job. Once the nosebridge is glued tight I can easily bend the LED's in the right place.

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/9074/img3230.jpg

I still need to fit the USB ports. The steel of the helmet is very hard I noticed.

I was concerned about the heat build up. Although the Mobo consumes only 17 watts!, the HDD and the PSU are getting fairly warm too. Everything is in a tiny enclosed space. Fitting a fan was not straightforward. The best place is right at the top which is also fairly flat. Drilling holes in a reasonable pattern is not easy. I should have made a mold first. Heat build up is now under control. The fan blows the hot air that rises to the top of the helmet out and sucks in coller air from the bottom. However it has added a few decibels to the whole thing.
Here is the (almost) end result.

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/471/img3245n.jpg

[hjongste]

Slave, the idea of doubling up the leds is great and I have made the adjustment. I tried wiring them in series first. The glow was greatly reduced and in fact when connected to the HDD activity pins it didn't work at all??? Strange, as I would assume the voltage on the HDD activity and the power indicator pins are the same. So I will work with farlo's suggestion to dim the bright glare. I tried some simple scotch cellotape which in single and double thickness does the trick. Here is a picture of the new "spectacles" with the 4 leds. I used a lot of glue to insulate the soldered joints and to fix their position. Maybe not the most elegant way, but maybe on a next version a nice pcb with the leds soldered onto it.

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/6783/img3464v.jpg

Btw here is the top of the helmet which has the fanholes drilled.

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/8564/img3465.jpg

Thanks for your help guys and the great ideas.

[hjongste]

The frosted eyeslit covering does the trick. Both eyes light up as power comes on. With HDD activity there is additional light that makes it look as if the knight is examining you even more intensely! Meanwhile it continues to gaze at you while you are at your PC. Still need to fix USB slots on the side and slave's suggestion to tune down the top fan. I might do it by letting it run on 7 V i.s.o. 12V. Don't know if that'll mess up the rpm measuring that speedfan does for me. Fan goes into a three pin connection onto the Mobo.

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/8318/img3477.jpg

[hjongste]

Check out my youtube vid of the mod:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSVYNyxEMfs

RSVYNyxEMfs