Project: Onyx

Coming long nicely I think, got the supports for the power supplies finished, here are a couple of pics....

Managed a couple of nice touches to the internal rods, rounded over the ends on the horizontal piece under the power supplies.

And I'm trying to keep with the theme established by the main support rods with the vertical internal rods.

Got the plasma ball in place, decided on a pressure mount for this. The hole is 1/8" shy of being too big for it, so the ball fits snugly. The large (admittedly ugly) base is rubber. I cut a disc of plexi to fit it, then cut the single piece of 1-inch rod I have to length and drilled a couple of holes into it that meet in the middle to feed the wire through. On the other end I drilled a shallow hole, about 1/4" deep.

Here in the back panel is a screw that looks loose but really isn't. This controls the pressure. The hole it goes through in the rear panel is threaded, and the end slides into the shallow hole in the end of the rod. By tightening this screw I force the rod against the disc I cut and against the rubber base in turn. Seems to have turned out fairly well. The wire coming down out of the rod will of course be sleeved when all is said and done. The small coil for the plasma ball will sit on the bottom panel directly below the hole where the wire goes into the large rod. The circuit board will be hidden under the bottom panel.

Hope to have the power supplies cross-wired and reinstalled tomorrow and start on the support rods for the drives.
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Looks bloody fantastic mate, keep it up.

Wow. Impressive work.
+Rep

Beautiful Job!
Really like it.
Looks very slick.

+rep

Yieha! Didn't expect this to go into such direction of design... But wow, thats hot!
+Rep!

Thanks for all the encouragement and compliments, guys. This thing has taken on a life of its own and is *WAY* more than I ever expected it to be. My shop and my office have been disaster areas since I started but I press on.


Must. Finish. Mod........
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Wow! This is turning out amazing.
+rep

Done with the work week so I get to mod a little. :banana:

Been working on the front of this thing lately, got my intake fans/fan filters/grills installed. Bought 2 UV-reactive 80mm fans from FrozenCPU, didn't even realize that they had four UV LED's built into the fan until I plugged them in. :)

Haven't decided on the fan filters, they look great with the lights out but I don't think I like seeing the metal mesh with the lights on, may flip them to the inside of the fan.

Also undecided on the fan grilles, still looking around for something better, who knows?

Also got my temperature probe/gauge installed.

Quick overall look:

Closeup of some of the newer additions:

Finally got the plasma ball working!!!! Still have no idea what I did to let the magic smoke out of the last one, but I did. You can see it working with the lights dimmed:

But of course I like the whole thing in the dark:

Don't have the bulgin switch lit up yet but that will be the last light on the front.

Did run into an interesting and unexpected problem: the temperature probe reads between 10 and 20 degrees higher with the plasma ball turned on than it does with the ball turned off. Obviously EM interference, but I have no idea what area I need to shield or how to shield it. Any input would be appreciated. :?
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Man that looks cool with the plasma ball. sorry, I can't help with the EMI problem.

In regards to the EMI, your best bet might be to get some good ol aluminum foil and do a little bit of trial and error.