"Bunsen's Folly" meets Bunsen'sRackMacHack™

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Original Post:

. . . ARGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 8-o
Bunsen, you sneaky lil' . . . erm? . . . INSTIGATOR!

I just spent more than a bit of my time at work turning a simple Isometric view of a Compact Mac (to do a wire sculpture for my son, who gifted me one father's day, with the most awesome little Ceramic Sculpture of a Compact Mac when he was a freakin' pre-schooler!) into a Wide Screen, Clear Plexi PseudoProtoMacMultiMediaCenter™ Hack!

I'm just gonna rough out some dimensions, post it in a new thread . . .

. . . and blame it all on YOU!!!!! } :rambo: )

See below for Bunsen'sRackMacHack™

HackMode >

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I haven't had anything new to report until today, I've been trying to decide how to mount everything and decided upon Plexi as the easiest medium . . . and see through to boot! [] ]'> So I've been scribing/snapping, sawing and filing my way toward a protoype MacQuariumChassis. I MEK'd my first positing piece on this morning and figured it was time for a progress report!

Voila! I'm happy with it so far. :approve:

The sides and snug up to the mounting guides for the shell in the front and butt up to the back almost perfectly, while the base plate in between positions them flush with the inside surfaces of the shell. With the shell in place, everything fits as snug as a bug in a rug! [] ]'>

If you look closely you can see where the monitor/bezel interface has been scraped to match the surface of my MIA 10" SVGA CRT. Many of the plastic positioning guides and mounting pads have been trimmed back/lopped off. While my 9" Compact Portable II CRT might be a perfect fit to the bezel, I'm not sure how a Standard Classic CRT would fit any more. =8-/

That was what started this whole mess . . . :scrambled:

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Looking good there
Is that transparent chassis to go inside the Classic shell? Because, looking at your first two pieces, and remembering the general flatness and angularity of boxmac rear shells, it occurs to me that fabbing up a transparent plexi rear shell would not be unpossible.

So, of course, Bunsen has to point me over the top again! :

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Looking good there

Thank you, comrade B! [] ]'>

Is that transparent chassis to go inside the Classic shell? Because, looking at your first two pieces, and remembering the general flatness and angularity of boxmac rear shells, it occurs to me that fabbing up a transparent plexi rear shell would not be unpossible.

Actually, it's a lot harder to do an inside fit than the external shell from the way I see it. So, of course, the shell slips around mine . . . : . . . hence, the MacQuariumChassis™ moniker! [] ]'>

Actually, for a near perfect clear case fab, all it'd take is a vacuum forming rig for the front, top & back sections, a router-table-ized dremel (preferably a real router, if available) for rabbeting and doing the cutoff work using jigs, a plexi-bender for the rounded edges, and boom, the whole things done! [] ]'>

For a less perfect shell, just snap, bend, saw, flame polish the edges and it'd be plenty good enough for anyone but a . . .

. . . erm . . . never mind! )

A good version for anyone who can stomach the Mini's "styling" . . . . . . bleh!

Use a few pieces of aluminum angle stock for all the joints, give the front a perfectly flat face like the ProtoMacPic in my ShugartMac thread over on 'fritter (I found it online, but it might have been from AppleDesign originally) festoon the front & sides w/an incisor removal AluminumAppleLogo and it'd be a decent combo of the best of the pre-128k ultimate FrogDesignProtoMacLook™ . . .

. . . and the least apalling example of the IvesDesign/JobsDesignerWannabe™ era! } :lol:

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Start thinking about a 9" - 9.5" deep, 12"- 15" wide, ClearCompactMacProtoHoax . . .

to be continued . . .

. . . sized for any readily available 640 x 480 resolution compatible (like a 1280 x 1024 or an 800 x 600) 15' - 17' VGA-in LCD, though a 1280p or even a 720p TV w/HDMI & VGA-in would be better! [] ]'>

Then mount the back, bottom 60% of a 6360's innards into your Plexi Shell BACKWARDS!!!!

This gives your Benchtop AV HoaxMac ZERO necessary clearance for cabling in the back! It would have readily available inputs for every single I/O function on the lower setback front panel. Trere's plenty of room for an Optical Drive (a DVD Player w/S-Video & HDMI out comes to mind [] ]'> ) in the right side of the front overhang and chimney space available for the cooling fan to its left!

Couple all that with lots of room for modern USB based Card Readers and a powered hub on the front panel with the remote control box, and maybe even an F-Connector thrown in for good measure for the ye-olde rabbit ear input that'd be strung in from bog knows where you'll put the tuner in the gaping maw behind the LCD this silly contraption!

Did I mention room for a RAID array and a secondary PSU yet?

Whatever! }

to be continued . . .

 

[Bunsen]

I accept full^C^C^C^C no responsibility for the directions this takes you I was actually pondering-out-loud towards making one up for myself.

Good luck!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Too late, you get the blame! } However, I've finally realized that:

. . . this gang needs pictorial inputs for proper processing of my hackage conceptualizations or . . .

. . . that I am incapable of translating my visual thinker's musings into effective .TXT based communications . . .

. . . or any possible combination thereof! :

ergo: BunsensFollyRev00.jpg

The other (besides the Dr. B) inspiration for this hack is sitting to the left of the Rev00 Mockup. I rearranged some of the 6360's "forward facing" innards so that they pointed out the @$$end of said Performa. They've been sittin' on top of the case where everything is readily accessible for the constantly changing arrangement of components involved in my primary hack.

Suddenly I've got another clear-cased hack on my hands . . . : . . . and since I've got plenty of ancient (free) and new (but incredibly discounted) Plexi, in several thicknesses, leaning against walls, equipment, furniture and laundry baskets all over the joint . . . I may just hone my long unused PlexFabbin' skills by turning B's notion into as completely clear a "BenchTop" AVMacHack as I can manage. Unfortunately, I'm running low on my supply of exactly one 6360 and exactly one of its fugly AIO or, even fuglier, Mid-Tower Derivatives. [] ]'>

So don't expect a long lived hack to materialize, look at it as more of a performance art piece, as I'm almost CERTAINLY NOT springin' for the required LCD for this PlexAtrocity! :rambo:

 

[Mars478]

I must say, this is quite an amusing thread.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Not much really new to report . . . the explanatory .TXT got whacked by the *&^*%&*% server over at Caribou Coffee!

It was my fault, really, I got caught hitting the button w/o copying the .TXT to the clipboard again . . . oopsie . . . :I

Just a couple of piccies of the MUUUCH nicer DVD Player from the Downstairs workstation. Assuming that the LCD for this puppy will be a small LCD TV or Monitor w/ VGA & HDMI in, like my 22" 1080p Monitor downstairs that this unit drives over HDMI, something on the order of this Player will work swimmingly! [] ]'>

There should be plenty of room! }

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Serendipity ROCKS!!!!!

For those of you unfamiliar with American History, see "Ericsson's Folly" . . .

http://www.conservapedia.com/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads

To Make a long story short, if you ignored the link above, or longer if not! [] ]'>

"Bunsen's Folly" was a play on words (my SOP for good & ill) which has proven particularly apt in this case. "Ericsson's Folly" was the USS Monitor, which turned out to be quite a success, and "Bunsen's Folly has now morphed into two hacks, one of which may prove something useful . . .

. . . as a "Monitor" no less! :

I've had a TelCo Rack for over ten years now, and I've always wanted to do a RackMountMacHack! I went so far as to bend up a Galvanized Steel RackMount KBD Drawer Carcass, but I've never bothered to finish it. Well, it seems the time to do so has finally arrived!

Front view of confiuguration using a redundant IIfx PSU Case, showing my $12 semi-borked "Duping VCR" with editing input and 4 Channel sound outputs. I'm not so sure what the "DJ" portion of the frontplate means, but I figure it's worth a little work to get this sucker up and running! [] ]'>

Here's a slightly oblique view of the config with a Q630 class PSU . . .

Here's an aerial shot of the setup, the only mistake I made was to "mount" the HDDs "backwards"

. . . but it wasn't worth the effort to do another set of shots . . . }

Anyways, I've got about 1.300 VHS Tapes to transfer to DVD . . . don't laugh . . . I haven't watched TV for almost 10 years now and they cost $0.99 ea. at Goodwill, which ius cheaper than NetFlix and I get to keep 'em . . . [] ]'>

. . . or, then again, I could just download "backup copies" that'd be wide screen formatted & pre-chaptered. }

Whatever . . . now I've got two Clear Plexi Hacks to add to the rest of my list! :

 

[Bunsen]

Is the intention to fit it into the VCR shell, or is that merely a handy assembly shelf and size reference? I suspect that a 19" rack case would give you room to lay that PS down on its side, trading in some width to save a little height.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

NO WAY! The VCR is a Duping Unit that needs a lil' TLC! It was a size/direction of hack reference. :

The shelves on my TelCo Rack are about 17.25" wide, so no-go on laying the PSU on its side . . .

< considers the possibility of cannibalizing one level of the new pile-o-SPARKS for a lower profile PSU . . . } >

. . . but I'm not all that concerned, I've got plenty of available rack space and a clear plexi slide-in rack-o-HDDs on the right side to match the height/visual signature of the IIfx PSU case on the left is . . .

. . . just . . . about . . . irresistable! [}] ]'> [] ]'>

 

[Bunsen]

Heads up on a source of small NTSC LCDs!

I don't recall where I first heard about them - perhaps it was übermodder Ben Heck's forums.

Audiovox VBP2000

The LCD is an independent, detachable, plug-ready module, that runs at 12V. The "trick" is to persuade the seller to cost shipping for the LCD alone, and turf the rest Unless a 12V car VHS player appeals to you :rambo:

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Heads up on a source of small NTSC LCDs!

Nope! Don't need 'em, the point of the hack is to have AVP throw a pixel-doubled 320 x 240 progressive scan window (three sizes available) onto the screen set at 800 x 600.

This will leave room for AVP's control windows and maybe a small app/control console window that'll somehow help to automate the duping process using the VCR's remote control jack.

The hack's still in the formative stages, images flipping every which way in the ole' post processor section of the thing installed between my ears. I'm only just beginning to try to make use of said organ as a marginally normal human brain.

)

p.s. how'd you like my esoteric reference/compliment: comparing you to Ericsson?

 

[Bunsen]

The Monitor was badass.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

That's just a bit of an exaggeration, possibly outright hyperbole!

IMHO, even an Active Matrix 4" NTSC LCD would only deserve a "one naughty cheek" rating . . . :

. . . but it could NEVER achieve BAD@$$ status! )

 

[Bunsen]

Not that monitor, ya doofus! This Monitor!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

:lol: In that case, you forgot/left out for family friendly-politically correctness, the leading adjective for BAD@$$ when it comes to the USS Monitor! [}] ]'>

Now that I live down here in NC, I gotta stick up for the CSS Albemarle!

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-us-cs/csa-sh/csash-ag/albmrl.htm

Not as revolutionary as Ericsson's Folly, but very effective and somewhat amazing considering the lack of resources and shipbuilding infrastructure of the CSA!