Rogue

[craigbru]

April 16, 2008

Okay guys, I've teased you all enough. So, I'm going to give in and give you all a little peek...

**Disclaimer** The shots you are about to see represent a still incomplete case... However, I think you'll like what you see. The biggest exterior change, will be the addition of the front door. At that point, the exterior will be complete. Woohoo!

[craigbru]

April 22, 2008

I'm sure many of you were like me when you were younger? You loved taking things apart... To see how they worked, and to see what was inside. Well, who says that's something you outgrow? I surely haven't!

So, I've decided to tear apart my little Griffin Powermate...

There's really very little surface area left on the front of the case. That means my options for placement are pretty slim. I've decided to put it front and center on the case door. This is why finding the perfect knob is critical. Anything to large, or anything that doesn't match the aesthetics, will certainly look out of place. The knob hunt continues...

I'm currently waiting for a few parts to arrive... they should be here today actually. I needed a few minor things like wire sleeving, and some spade connectors, but I couldn't continue without them. It seems that there are so many little details that have to be taken care of. All cabling will be cut to length, sleeved, and pre-routed. Even wiring that will never be seen, must be in order. If it's not, it will really bother me... So, that's one of the things I'm going to be working on over the next few days.

In the meantime, I had a few details to wrap up on the case face. As shipped, there are acrylic strips that sit to the left and right of the door. These light up red when the case is on. Although they happen to match my theme perfectly, the strip on the right needed to be modified. The LED's from the Zalman fan controller actually reside in the area where the strip is supposed to sit. The fan controller can't be moved, so that meant the strip needed to be modified. This required me perfectly aligning and drilling 6 blind holes in the rear of the acrylic strip.

I'll show you the rest of details tonight...

[craigbru]

April 29, 2008

Sorry for the lack of updates guys! I've been pretty busy lately...

I've been getting ready to put this pile of 2x4's...

In to this basement...

I've only got around 3 weeks before my fiance and her son move in. I've got two bedrooms, and a family room to finish down there! Obviously this has taken away from my computer modding time a little. I guess I've been house modding too!

As far as the Rogue goes, work is still continuing, albeit a little slower than before.

So, how about a little front door work? Here, I've just finished drilling the hole for the Griffin Powermate.

All cleaned up.

Now for the knob. As luck would have it, part of the original Powermate's internals, happen to be perfect for the job. I just had to fill the pocket with a little JB Weld, and sand it down.

A fresh coat of the black metallic, and it's ready to go.

Now, I've got to switch directions momentarily. In order for me to finish wiring, I need to finish my new I/O panel. It consists of 3 switches for lighting, and I need to add a pair of USB ports for the Via system, and a cat5 port. I've got it all marked out.

Now cut.

Just like I wanted...

At this point, I could have been finished, but then I thought of something. How many times have you fumbled around behind your computer attempting to plug something in to a darkened crevice? I've done it plenty of times, and decided to remedy that little issue with the help of a few LED's...

Okay, now what? it's a lot of small details and wiring. I need to get all of that done so I can drop hardware in the case. Although things are very tight, most of the wiring should be hidden, and placed out of sight. I want a very clean interior. What little wiring is visible, will be sleeved, and tucked away nicely. So, lets start getting some of that out of the way.

The home for the Meanwell PSU relay...

A CCFL inverter tucked nicely away...

Some sleeved switch wiring...

Um, more wiring... Trust me, this will be clean by the time I'm done with it!

And the work continues!

[craigbru]

May 3, 2008

Well, fan issues aside, I've got a micro-update to post here. I've been working on wiring up the fans. Here you can see me soldering the fan wires to the contacts.

After the wires were soldered, the contact assembly just fit inside the wire channel. A few bolts were put in place, and she's good to go!

With any luck, tomorrow I'll get the contact strip done inside the case. Stay tuned!

[craigbru]

May, 3 2008

It's been quite a while since I first mentioned them, so I probably should have given a quick recap. Basically, you have male and female contacts. The male's are spring loaded. So, you have the female contacts attached to the fan assembly, and the male contacts will be attached inside the upper part of the case. When the top of the case is put on, all contacts will touch, and power will be supplied to the fans. There's no need to disconnect and connect wiring when removing the fan assembly. It's clean and neat, and should allow for greater airflow with the reduced wiring.

[craigbru]

May 4, 2008

No computer modding done today, but we did get a little work done in the basement.

The work continues!

[craigbru]

May 26, 2008

Finally, an update! Thanks for being so patient guys! Things have been crazy around here lately, but progress was made all the way around. So, let's get on with it!

First up, I'll show you all a few pics of the basement progress.

Here, all the electrical work has been done.

Drywall started! Most of the ceiling has been done in this shot. We should get the wall insulated, and some rock on the walls starting tomorrow.

Well, let's move on to the Rogue.

I mentioned all the goodies that will find their way under the motherboard tray. Of all those things, one of them is a 4 port USB hub.

There are also a pair of USB wireless adapters. One for the Rogue, and one for the Via.

One of the additional features I'm adding to this case, is integrated bluetooth.

I've had to modify and sleeve a USB cable.

Here I've stripped the cover off the bluetooth adapter.

Finally, the adapter sitting in place on the front of the case.

This may look a little messy, but I had to test all my modified cables before I went any further. Once the motherboard is in place, things are going to be a little difficult to troubleshoot.

All seems to work fine. I've got video, and all USB connections work as they should.

With everything else take care of, I dropped the motherboard tray in place.

Next up, I'll get the front of the case in place and start some assembly. Woohoo!

[craigbru]

June 1, 2008

What a busy weekend! I've made a little progress on the Rogue, but even more on the basement...

Each bedroom has a recessed pocket for a desk...

Taping and finishing started!

So, how about the Rogue? Here I've got the front of the case installed. Maybe someday I'll actually get started on that door...

The motherboard sitting in place. I've not screwed it down yet. I may need to move it a little to get the second radiator in place...

Okay, so what now? I've got a little wiring to finish. I need to make a custom cable for the LCD screen and the Via. Due to the way that the Via is situated, I need more clearance above it, than I currently have. There's no way a normal VGA connector would work... not if I wanted to clear the fans on the top of the case anyway. So, a little bit of old-fashioned hackery was in order.

Here I've got the stock VGA cable.

A few minutes later...

That should about do it... almost... I still need a little more clearance.

About 45 seconds with a heat gun, and I was left with this... Up next, I'll clean it up a little more, and sleeve it...

[craigbru]

June 11, 2008

Update time baby!

I'll start off with a little basement recap. As I mentioned earlier, I needed to put an egress window in one of the bedrooms. To do that, I needed a hole... A shovel and concrete saw, got me this far...

I've got no pics with the window installed yet, but they are coming. With the window installed, we've been busy hanging a little more rock, and doing some finishing work. Since I've been neglecting progress on the Rogue while working on the basement, the fiance said she was willing to help me out. She can put screws in like a pro. I told her it wasn't bad for a girl. Actually, I told her I was going to put pictures of her 'screwing' on the internet...

Well, enough basement work, let's get on to the Rogue! Assembly, assembly, assembly... that's where we are at. I've got just a small amount of fabrication left, but I need to get some things put together first. What you are about to see, represents hours worth of work, but I'm not sure a few pictures represent that. I may be pretty good at packing things in small spaces, but there is one downside, assembly is a pain!

The second radiator has rejoined the case!

See the wiring for the switches? Um, yeah, I need to get some 3/4" tubing through there. I knew it would be tight, but damn...

Finally, the tubing is in place. Sure, it's tight, but it's still clean. Yeah!

Up next, more tubes!

[craigbru]

June 19, 2008

How about some more assembly? I've got several small things that I've been working on. Not a single one of them are very large (well, with one exception), but they all are needed just the same. So, let's get on with it!

A few posts back, I mentioned needing to make a new mount for the Via system. The following pics will show you exactly why.

The fan assembly on the case...

Here you can see the problem. The VGA output on the Via, is directly below where the contacts for the fans need to be. There was no way to modify things to fit, so a new mount was needed.

Here I've got the new mount marked out, and ready for cutting.

Cutting done, and ready for bending. (I'll get the finished pics up tonight hopefully)

After the bracket was bent and painted, I decided to move on to a few other things while paint dried. One of the things I did, was to drop the auxiliary PSU in to place and double check fitment. Fits like a glove!

There is minimal clearance on both sides, but it's pretty much what I expected.

Another small project... Due to the numerous wires surrounding the motherboard's 8 pin connector, it was virtually impossible to connect the PSU cables after assembly. Obviously, I wanted the PSU to be relatively easy to remove. So, to fix that little problem, I bought a pair of 8 pin connectors...

I found a suitable location on the PSU cable...

I painted the connectors black, and installed them inline... I can now plug in the PSU cable, in a much more convenient location.

More coming soon...