Project: DIRTY BOMB (cheap and nasty)

[jiggiwiddit]

After much time “lurking” in the background of TBCS, I decided it was time to try my hand at this modding lark. This is my first attempt at making a custom computer case and I have gained loads of useful information from this excellent site.
A lot of the inspiration for my mod came from reading Ouch’s worklog on his Interocitor mk14, so all credit to his original idea of using an old oscilloscope for a case.
After much researching and unsuccessful bidding on Ebay I persuaded my friend Callum to part with this… (cheers mate)

It’s a Cossor oscilloscope manufactured in 1950.

Callum had this stored in a spare room and it was no longer used as the last time he plugged it in, it smoked heavily and would have probably burst into flames. When it’s finished, I want it to look like an eco-disaster waiting to happen, hence the theme “Dirty Bomb”.

Here it is with the cover off.

The bottom compartment looks like its big enough to house the power supply and a couple of optical drives that will eject sideways. Because of this large compartment, there isn’t enough room for a full size ATX mainboard without major butchering of the chassis, so I’ve decided to use a mini ATX board.

[Bopher]

Thats gonna look cool. Now if you could get the oscilloscope to show more and more "squiggle" as the processor load went up and down that would be even cooler but probably a huge pain.

[jiggiwiddit]

Thats gonna look cool. Now if you could get the oscilloscope to show more and more "squiggle" as the processor load went up and down that would be even cooler but probably a huge pain.

Cool idea Bopher but might be more feasable to use the voltage fluctuations in the hard drive LED feed to get a display from a PC based oscilloscope.

I'm on it... fanx for the input

[tinker]

Sweet idea.
It already looks like a partial "eco-hazard waiting to happen."
Should be a sweet mod. I'll be watching fo sho.

[jiggiwiddit]

After some stripping and some measuring it looks like it will be a neat fit. The expansion slots will hopefully fit nicely between the two vertical supports at the rear. Since I can’t use my current board and can’t afford a new one at the moment due to a tight budget, I have to find a donor machine for the board, tray and expansion slots.

Here’s my old I-Friend desktop made by Hyundai. If my memory serves me right, it has a 1.7 GB Celeron and was working perfectly (albeit slowly) when it was cannibalised for its DDR memory and hard drive a couple of years ago. It has been in the attic gathering dust so I thought id check it out for more parts.

Yep, it’s a mini ATX board and it will allow me to finish the case until I can afford a decent upgrade. The power supply is a weedy 200 watts so that will do for now as I want to have lots of lights and fans running. The scope case is massive so has a large volume of air to move to keep things cool.

The optical drive cage shouldn’t be too much hassle to fit in the lower compartment although I will need to cut an opening in the lower left side of the case and alignment is important so I haven’t decided whether to stealth the drives or have them located in full view. I’m not sure of the exact thickness of the scope’s steel case but it appears to be about twice the thickness of regular PC case steel. I’m going to use a 4” angle grinder with a cutting disc as I don’t have a dremal and don’t think it would be up to the job anyway.

The hard drive cage looks like it will be easy to fit somewhere in the upper compartment in the scope. It only holds two drives but that should be more than enough for my needs.

[jiggiwiddit]

After some more stripping and some more measuring I’m well chuffed to confirm that it will all fit almost perfectly. This will save a lot of hassle. There’s 50+ years of dust and dirt inside, guess I’ll give it a clean soon….

This access panel on the rear of the case just needs enlarged to enable access to the mainboard and expansion slots.

This might be last update for a while. Next load of work is too dirty for indoors, my good lady would kill me. And the weather is typically Scottish (just the usual horizontal rain) so I can't do much outdoors but will update ASAP.

[IndyRacer27]

...use the voltage fluctuations in the hard drive LED feed to get a display from a PC based oscilloscope.

What a great idea! I'll be watching this one.

[Drum Thumper]

There’s 50+ years of dust and dirt inside, guess I’ll give it a clean soon….

I've found the best way to clean cases is to take them down to a carwash after you've stripped all the electronics out. Myself, I just put them in the bed of my truck and hit em really good with the hose.

[jdbnsn]

you made the front page!

[jiggiwiddit]

you made the front page!

Gawrsh...

edit: This is a real honour, thanks very much. I just hope that the finished mod justifies it.