(no subject)
Feb. 4th, 2007 06:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theducksSlept in this morning for the first time in ages. Had a quick breakfast, then went about making another back panel for the photo frame.
Cut out the piece of plastic, but some of the edges were still a bit rough, so I duct-taped a piece of 80-grit wet and dry paper to a chopping board, went outside and lapped them on it. Took a while, but I'm pretty pleased with the result.
But, the next problem was drilling the holes for all the components.. the smaller, M3 sized holes were easy, but the larger ones rip up the plastic as they exit. Then I remembered, they rip up the plastic because I'm a newbie. Not because I'm a dumb newbie, but because my drill bits are sharp, and not made especially for plastic. As I put it to Liz, I solved both the problem of the drill bits being too sharp, and the pavers not having any holes in them.
Drilled all the holes, then went to the swancon picnic and met up with people, and pondered my project.
Soldered the new switch in position, and the new DC-jack (I didn't like the first one.. there was no way to "unthread" the wire and the jack from the plastic without de-soldering it). Also soldered up connections to the reed-switch that is normally used to detect when the screen is closed, including a way to disconnect it easily, since the reed switch is in the top assembly, and the switch is in the bottom one. Re-assembled it all, and it wouldn't turn on by the switch (easily circumvented by shorting the right connections), but it would go to sleep.. it also wouldn't boot, because I'd put the wrong hard drive in it. *smacks head*.
Mounting the hard drive the first two times was pretty hard, since I had to balance the spacers awkwardly while doing it. Then I spotted some model making plastic cement on the table, and glued the spacers to the bottom of the hard drive. Given it's a plastic to metal bond, it broke away easily, but not before I was able to get the hard drive in place.
Then came the problem of the switch. It's a DP3T switch, with (on)-off-on positions, meaning it latches in one of the positions (sleep in this setup) and is momentary in the other (power on). There are 6 pins on the back, in two rows. You'd expect a fairly normal configuration, where pushing it in one direction closes the circuit for the two sets of pins in that direction, and in the other it does the same thing. Yeah, not so much. See the bottom of this image to see which pins actually make circuits in which position. Let's just say I'm glad I was able to identify their manufacturer and read the data sheet.
So, I think I'm all done with hardware for now... well, maybe I'd like some cute way of running ethernet without a cable sticking out the top, and to reconnect the PRAM battery so it doesn't warn about the clock being wrong at login, but I can wait on them. Next thing I'd like to do is write an Applescript that starts at login, waits to see any drives mounted, guesses if they are memory cards, sucks all the JPEG's off them and copies them to the screensaver's source folder, then unmounts the drive and speaks a message saying it's safe to unplug the drive... hmm though I would need to add in speakers too, which shouldn't be too hard.
New pictures up on the flickr set as soon as flickr finishes their massaging : http://flickr.com/photos/theducks/sets/72157594510329242/
Cut out the piece of plastic, but some of the edges were still a bit rough, so I duct-taped a piece of 80-grit wet and dry paper to a chopping board, went outside and lapped them on it. Took a while, but I'm pretty pleased with the result.
But, the next problem was drilling the holes for all the components.. the smaller, M3 sized holes were easy, but the larger ones rip up the plastic as they exit. Then I remembered, they rip up the plastic because I'm a newbie. Not because I'm a dumb newbie, but because my drill bits are sharp, and not made especially for plastic. As I put it to Liz, I solved both the problem of the drill bits being too sharp, and the pavers not having any holes in them.
Drilled all the holes, then went to the swancon picnic and met up with people, and pondered my project.
Soldered the new switch in position, and the new DC-jack (I didn't like the first one.. there was no way to "unthread" the wire and the jack from the plastic without de-soldering it). Also soldered up connections to the reed-switch that is normally used to detect when the screen is closed, including a way to disconnect it easily, since the reed switch is in the top assembly, and the switch is in the bottom one. Re-assembled it all, and it wouldn't turn on by the switch (easily circumvented by shorting the right connections), but it would go to sleep.. it also wouldn't boot, because I'd put the wrong hard drive in it. *smacks head*.
Mounting the hard drive the first two times was pretty hard, since I had to balance the spacers awkwardly while doing it. Then I spotted some model making plastic cement on the table, and glued the spacers to the bottom of the hard drive. Given it's a plastic to metal bond, it broke away easily, but not before I was able to get the hard drive in place.
Then came the problem of the switch. It's a DP3T switch, with (on)-off-on positions, meaning it latches in one of the positions (sleep in this setup) and is momentary in the other (power on). There are 6 pins on the back, in two rows. You'd expect a fairly normal configuration, where pushing it in one direction closes the circuit for the two sets of pins in that direction, and in the other it does the same thing. Yeah, not so much. See the bottom of this image to see which pins actually make circuits in which position. Let's just say I'm glad I was able to identify their manufacturer and read the data sheet.
So, I think I'm all done with hardware for now... well, maybe I'd like some cute way of running ethernet without a cable sticking out the top, and to reconnect the PRAM battery so it doesn't warn about the clock being wrong at login, but I can wait on them. Next thing I'd like to do is write an Applescript that starts at login, waits to see any drives mounted, guesses if they are memory cards, sucks all the JPEG's off them and copies them to the screensaver's source folder, then unmounts the drive and speaks a message saying it's safe to unplug the drive... hmm though I would need to add in speakers too, which shouldn't be too hard.
New pictures up on the flickr set as soon as flickr finishes their massaging : http://flickr.com/photos/theducks/sets/72157594510329242/
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-05 12:37 am (UTC)with your ethernet... maybe a wireless solution? does that beast still have USB ports somewhere? you can get cheapo (slow, but do you need fast?) USB wireless adapters off eBay which you should be able to nicely hide away somewhere.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-05 12:57 am (UTC)The reason I'm looking at Wired and not wireless is that there is a switch on the floor underneath the set of drawers it is on top of.. that model is actually Airport capable, and I have a spare card, but the airport slot is in the top case and is not present in my mod.