LUMPsi - not exactly a MiniTower . . .

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

.  .  .  but the spec. is literally stuffed with goodies.

Bodged together EVERYTHING remotely IIsi related I could find and substituted kinda-sorta variety junk for what I couldn't lay my grubby little paws upon without tearing the place apart:

We'll start with the good news, it's got 1.37 sq.in. less surface area than the CorrugatedQuadra chassis in the pic:



Not so bad, it does fit on a sheet of letterhead!



I went ahead and pointed the business end of everything in the pile toward the camera to save film.



What a lump of junk, but it began to grow on me after a bit.

Doesn't get much better from this angle:



Gets even worse from this side:



Much, MUCH worse yet, but don't stop here, it gets better toward the end, I promise!



Flipped the pic over to show the potential I saw in it and right away saw that nobody else would see it. :-/



Nuts! No way to put it into words. So I skinned it over with laser cut plexi in the surrealistic world inside the bubble of my OS9 Graphic Arts mode reality exclusion zone.



Q700 influence is obvious, Multiple panel influence is the Apple Multiserver, but its six segmented panels would have been too much.

Fan in the pics is only 100mm. It'ss standing in for the huge one stored in a box somewhere around here, but most likely for the 120mm RGBY LED clear job I've been eying on eBay. Hacking those four LEDs to run off an HDD's disk access indication header will make it into one of my upcoming hacks one way or another. [}] ]'>

The IDE Zip is standing in for a 250MB IDE Zip drive. I've got a pair of them mounted to 5.25" brackets with big IDE->SCSI adapter boards underneath. They were made by vertical market upgrade mfr. for some non-Mac OS or other. They work great for moving files onto a Mac, but moving files off the Mac is problematic. Trying to eject the disk or to shut down the system hangs every Mac OS I've tried so far  .  .  .

.  .  .  perfect for a prototype! [] ]'>

Purple panels are bolted up to the black plexi chassis' front panel using some nylon spacer/standoffs and hex head cap screws. The four on the top left panel are just for show, that one's hot glued to the CD Tray. If I budget the greenbacks to actually have any of this cut it'll be fun, but I've got way too many hacks laying around as it is.

The thing is a BEAST, but with CD/FDD/5.25" Zip Kluge/HDD and monster cooling unit for it all requires a bit more cubic than the other builds going on around here lately.

The empty cubic between the stock IIsi PSU and CD is earmarked for the aux. lump-onna-rope power Molex driving doohicky for an IDE/SATA->USB adapter to power the Savvio, Zip and CD.

What looks like a Thin/ThickNet card is a Futura II VidCard with the ThinNet NIC Daughtercard inatalled. Maybe I'll finally break down and buy a transceiver for it. Like I said, I've thrown everything but the kitchen sink into this pile. So along with the Rainbow-Blinky-Lights Fan and the Transceiver, I'll be looking for a Barbie sized Laundry Basin for the backside to fill the cubic left over after the DC adapter is installed.

All in all, it's only 90% the volume of a IIsi and only 70% of the Quadra 700's volume! It takes up only a 7" wide x 8.5" deep patch of desktop, so that's considerably handier than either of the above and it has I/O up the wazoo.

Margarita time! [] ]'>

edit: oopsie! Fan opening winds up at the bottom portion of the side panel when you turn the business ends of the MoBo and PSU through 180 degrees to where they belong.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Edited down to the basics of IIsi Optical Drive Luxury and ATX PSU simplicity. Shaving 2 inches of width to a 5" x 8.5" Desktop Estate requirement in the process brings total cubic down to 63% of the IIsi's and 50% of the Quadra 700's. The even cross shape is now faithful to the Apple Multi/Server's example.



With the Floppy EMU available, CD and ThinNet on board, there's really no call for the FDD or internal Zip. Much happier with the skinnier LUMP. :approve:

BTW, If the front panel is laser cut in clear, it can be back painted in all manner of colors and patterns.

Blue Dalmation/IIsi anyone? [)] ]'>

 

[bigmessowires]

I like the color.

Your second version eliminates the power supply? Or what am I missing?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Magenta is one of my favorites, but it's a swatch in Illustrator so it's probably called purple.

I've got the shell of an ATX PSU in hand that's about the same thickness as the half height 5.25" Optical Drive. That or something like it goes in the white space/cubic underneath the CD.

I've got a 1/3 height CD in one of the SPARCstations I'm parting out, but it'd be too thin for this one. Gotta check to see of it works. You want a SuperSPARC heat sink for the proc in your new orange toy?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Well, this project took off on one heck of a tangent.

I was test fitting the PSU from a recasing candidate that's been kicking around on the TelCo rack for Bog knows how long?

Decided to re-install it in the 3Com Hub's chassis with plans to use some of the sheet metal as the floorpan (sidepan?) of the LUMPsi  .  .  .

Plonked the IIsi board down next to it  .  .  .

Magenta Madness abruptly subsided and a 1U IIsi recase hack took shape.

Always figured this as the future home of one of the 475 boards, but if the IIsi fits  .  .  .





The "wrong angle" adapted, passive SuperMac Video Card riser is standing in for the NIC that will receive the same treatment. The RCPII/IIsi plugs straight into it. The NIC won't block the RAM slots, the SuperMac riser is in maximum permissable+ SE/30 mode so they're blocked by it in the pics.

I'll be using (if and when) toledogeek's fabulous Cheap, Quick and Dirty flexable SE/30 PDS extender hack to connect NIC and PDS.

The most wonderful thing about this unholy union is that I'll be using the DA-15 ThickNet port cutout and holes to bolt up the mobo. That DA-15 is the one connector on the IIsi board that will NEVER be used! [}] ]'>

edit: paper box is the prototyping stand in for one of the PSU candidates.

 

[bigmessowires]

Yes, but... but... wasn't the point here to make a IIsi tower? Your purple squid has personality.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I'll grant you that, but I've decided that the Beige G3 MT needed to be cut down to size to get it outta the friggin' way! Dunno how may folks might want to do a 2U rackmount homebuilt, but as an under desk, kneespace computer or shelf mount build the 2UBG3 will kick some serious butt.

The IIsi stack all needs recapping anyway, so the Magenta Monster can wait, the G3's alive and kicking. [] ]'>

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

The SQUID is back! [] ]'> The G3 is no longer Boring Beige.