Homemade Mini Case for Macintosh IIsi ;-)

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Blatant hack of BMOW's phraseology: Here's my serious entry in the "design a custom case" bonanza!

Playing with a couple more options using more esoteric toys from the parts bins I decided to take a whack at applying the KISS principal by using commonly available components and blatantly ripping the work of others in the quest for small. Keeping specs limited to stuff on hand that'd be inexpensive to source for others.





Shaving a little off the margins of a letter size sheet of paper works.

Reducing the 3.375" height doesn't.

Floofies ATX PSU adaptation required. MicroQuadra 630

toledogeek's fabulous cable hack required get a Radius Color Pivot II IIsi to fit in a   . .  .  IIsi.

Cheap, Quick and Dirty flexable SE/30 PDS extender

Hacking a cheap as RCPII/IIsi required  .  .  .  buy a couple of spares, they're that inexpensive!

PSU case is from the unit installed in my SuperIIsi's PSU sheet metal.

Smaller would be more convenient, pretty sure I've got a lower, longer one kicking around.

I'll be using UltraSlow Mac SCSI adapter on an Ultra 3 SCSI  2.5" SCA drive or one of the thin 3.5" SCSI II drives from the SPARCstack.

Less than inexpensive components someone may or may not have handy:

Asante Mac Con si

SCSI2SD to fit the boxy cubic running front to back through the middle.

 

[bigmessowires]

If you're going for minimal size, why not use the built-in video? 

Looks good. Time to get out your acrylic and start cutting?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I'll be getting there soon enough.  [] ]'>   Still working from the insides out, caught a real break tonight searching a PSU candidate:

250W ATX Low Profile Power Supply 150mm x 82mm x 40mm

It's a bare hair wider than the Stock si PSU, loses 1.5 inches of length and ships set up for flexible mounting. The real treasure is the full half inch of clearance gained in the vertical.  It'll be no problem at all to position part of the RCPII/IIsi PCB over this PSU.

As for IIsi Vampire Video, it defines its own class of awful. The only usable resolution it outputs as far as I'm concerned is Portrait@4bit GS and wreaks bloody havoc on memory map by buffering a section of Bank A in doing so. The RCPII/IIsi does 16"@8bit Color without breaking a sweat or Memory Map.

Its 640 x 480 output is a resolution you might knock your system back to for gaming, not for doing real work. I haven't used it on anything since running the Duo 2300c in the field. It had VidCard equipped DuoDocks driving TPDs at both ends of the commute for real work.

This promises to be a fun build. [] ]'>

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Forgot to say I'm not going for minimal size, I'm maximizing use of the cubic defined by board area and height of the PDS adapter card spec. I'll package it as tightly as I can. But like your orange monster, it won't expose all that much of the real deal's lid on the side. Height's not down much at all, but consolidating the workroom while getting rid of the storefront I/O space will be a good thing.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

The PSU above looks to be perfect for a Compact Mac build. Mount it inside an SE/30 bucket wherever it'll fit within reach of the AC connector port. My favorite notion for that is to use a DOA (flyback or other cause) A/B as a chassis mounting bracket. In that situation it would just need to be bolted up and the AC leads soldered to the appropriate points (trace cut isolated) points on the A/B PCB.

Thanks to BMOW suggestion I'll be using a smaller PSU for this build.

Converter Module +5V / -5V Negative Power Supply Module

It's a similar setup in the 3Com router from the part out bin that has everything covered but -5V.

Build's back to ghetto groovin' again!  :approve:

 

[bigmessowires]

If you get that LM2662 board for -5V, let me know how it works out. It seems almost too easy, but the datasheet says it will do the job.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I'll definitely be getting one for this cute little PSU.

PSU and fans have been reinstalled in the 3Com SuperStack II Hub's chassis and I'm suddenly being drawn over to the dark side. May have to work out two versions of the hack and decide which to complete.

The challenges of building maxed out 1U IIsi for the TelCo rack entertainment center in my bedroom are becoming irresistible. :blink:

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I won't be getting one, they don't accept PayPal. Not handing out information again to set up any other form of payment. Just ordered up a Flex ATX 1U 300w PSU that'll get here in four days instead of close to forty for less than $20 more. This way I start off fresh instead of messing with what's in the ancient box and can apply what I learn to a half dozen new and stalled projects.

IIsi re-case study is done for now. I cheated and fit the entire thing inside the shell of that 8.5" deep, 1U 3Com SuperStack II Hub! [] ]'>

Gotta dig into floof's ATX conversion work for his 630 build next. I can finally do the Mac re-casing in this hub that I've been sitting on for about ten years running. I thought it would be a MicroQuadra build, never even considered acquiring a IIsi back in those days, much less fitting anything that large into this tiny package.

I'll take another look at the original plexi plan above after the new PSU gets here.