Project CZTR

[cheztir]

Hello everyone, majority of you probably have no clue who I am as i am quite the newcomer to this forum. This is by no means my first mod, nor will it be the last. But this is my first worklog to a mod and the first "published" (for lack of a better term) one.

First off. WTF. Project CZTR. Ok about 3 years ago when Motorola started naming everyone of their products as something with 4 letters my friends and i started trying to do that to a lot of stuff. My s/n was one of them, cheztir -> cztr. It was nice and short. Eventually my network was named that, but none of the stuff matched. A Blue Linksys Router, Beige Cable Modem, Silver G5, Black Dell LCD, Clear Speakers. Well it's time to change that. In one of my searches for a unifying theme i went with a barcode and CZTR printed underneath.

Part 1 of this project has begun, i'm making an old Compaq Presario 7470 into a MythTV Server/Client. With a modified Xbox or something as a front end in my media room.

A Stock 7470. (so kindly provided by someone on ebay)

The case is going glossy black, with 2 barcodes found on it. One painted in white on the front over the compaq logo. the second is on the side, but in a very creative manner, or at least i think. More on that much later.

The Case bezel ripped off. This was taken for a photoshop idea.

I don't like that power button...not at all. Time to fix that.

yeah my outdoor workshop for now.

Sanding...........

This is my status right now with the case, the lighting and fan controls will be housed in the opening you see towards the bottom of the bezel, there are already two USB plugs for there. USB 1.0 for now, making them 2.0.

All for now. Sorry not much done, as i headed out to visit family last week. Lemme know what you think so far. Expect updates almost everyday. Time to go sand more.

[Short Modder]

Nice little mod. What did you use to fill the power button? Bondo? Great job!

[cheztir]

First coat of primer down. I used every last drop from my last can. Time for a trip to the store.

While that is drying other things are coming along. Like reverse engineering compaq's power on/off, power led, and HD leds. For anyone who would like to know these for future reference, i doubt compaq would change the wires up too much.

Blue - Power Good
Brown - Ground
Red - Power LED +
Green - Power LED -
Yellow - HD LED +
Orange - HD LED -
(Full Pinout Later)

also work on adding things to the little USB bay begins.
Any ideas or where to put the power switch guys?

[Omega]

also work on adding things to the little USB bay begins.
Any ideas or where to put the power switch guys?

Hide it somewhere.

In my mod, the top panel of my case can come off (and it came that way), and i am putting the buttons under there =]

hidden = good.

[cheztir]

Well, I had hoped to get much more work done on this, but last night i got distracted by a PSP and my friends new intel iMac, nice machine btw. Anywho I noticed a nice little feature on the new iMacs that many, myself included until last night, didn't know about. The little remote sticks to the case. Not with glue or anything, but magnetically!

I figure since this first mod in the series is a media center-esque tower, why not give it a try.

Magnets found:

Finding a resonable place not too close to the HDDs.

Using my DVD Player's remote (the heaviest of all my remotes) and gave a small trial run seeing how well it holds up.

IT WORKS! Now just to add a few more magnets so i can be certain it stays on all the time when i need it to.

Btw Omega i took your advice, all of the buttons are hidden inside that little flap area. I plan to have it light up when you flip the cover up.

[maximan1]

Nice but how will you rerout the power buton? I may want to do that for mine too.

[cheztir]

Less time spent on mod again. More time spent on GTA:LCS or just trying to get it to work on a 1.5 PSP (those of you respectful PSP owners out there you know the challenge)

Well in the idea forming process I decided i just hated the floppy drive being there. And since a nice BIOS update allows booting from USB, why not just eliminate it? Well i did and i also found it will be the perfect place to add my touch to it.

After the bondo has been applied and sanded barely. I left the case out in the sun to dry. Unbeknownst to me, it was going to rain today. Hence why the case appears slightly wet in this image.

Good news is the bondo was dry by then anyway.

Dried and sanded more.

Probably one more layer of bondo, and I'll be good, there are a few holes to patch. Then the invert of this image goes into that spot.

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Maximan1 basically i went to Radioshack and grabbed two switches, a nice toggle (SPDT) to control my aux. fans, some LEDs, and a few momentary switchs. I wired those up to the control panel, they are temporary. The Momentary switch for power is going to be replaced by a nice Vandal Switch, and if i can find a nice SPDT switch by Bulgin as well ill get one of those. I also plan to get white LEDs to light that little area. You can find ym wiring diagram up top. Though take notice, when i found another 7470, the power plug was reversed, i have no idea which one is the correct setting, Blue at the top or not. But my design calls for 1 pin on each side of the plug.
See the pic:

Anybody know where to find a Bulgin Vandal SPDT Switch? For a reasonable price?

[Cool1Net6]

This project seems very cool. That magnetic remote seems almost ingenious.

-Cool-

[cheztir]

Small update, but no new work cause it's raining here still. Basically where the bondo is now nicely sanded off, I'll be painting it with the CZTR emblem. But surprise, I'll be eliminating the power button......why you may ask.

I'm stealing more ideas from Apple.....I went to go power back on my PowerMac today, I have an older Studio Display with a touch sensitive button, and sudden i was for the first time really blown away by how cool that was. So i looked up schematics for making a touch sensitive button. Long story short, i shall make one and add it to the CZTR Emblem. Like So:

PS: Other Mac people, you can invert this image by hitting Apple-Alt-Ctrl-8 and you other people it's a fun ay to freak people out.

Other note I'm still contemplating where to put the IR Reciever. (My PSP is the remote control)

[maximan1]

Touch sensitive...you're giving me ideas Tell me where you found it.