Ghetto Mods

[Mussels]

Wait, what? How does that even work? To melt heatshrink you have to heat it way past its shrinking point, meaning it'll mostly be pre-shrunk before you can melt it together, meaning the melting will also melt what is underneath unless the shrunk heatshrink is very loose. Or are you using some extremely localized heat source? Soldering iron? I'd love to see a real-life example of this.

with enough fire, anything is possible
oh and the adhesive on tape melts in high ambients

you dont know suffering til you've tried manually removing that melted goo off wiring

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

you dont know suffering til you've tried manually removing that melted goo off wiring

Some of us do, it feels like you're trying to remove your fingerprints the hard way.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Some of us do, it feels like you're trying to remove your fingerprints the hard way.

Wait, there's an easy way?

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Wait, there's an easy way?

Go ahead, try it wearing gloves...

 

[silentbogo]

Here we go, the new batch of ghetto from this week, and fortunately it was all mine and all intended.
Long story short, I've decided to build a 3D printer. It's a run of the mill Prusa i3, but not the boring type
What makes it non-boring, is that I'm willing to sacrifice some comfort and manual labor in order to make it as cheap as possible, while being as good as possible.
Some parts are mismatched, and some parts have fundamental flaws, which includes my super-sturdy 3mm steel chassis.
1) It's been cut to the template with no margin for error
2) It's been meticulously and generously powder-coated, which made ^1 pointless since I had to file-down each and every joint by hand anyways
3) There are some mistakes, both in assembly manual, and in the hardware itself.
This brings me to the first of many pearls:


LCD front panel was meant to be RAMPS-compatible, but for some reason it was totally misaligned. Had to spend nearly an hour de-soldering and rewiring the display just to move it 10mm higher...
Thickness was also an issue, which meant it was time for some "hi-tech" sticky tape and "precision-cut" leftover padding for laminate floors.
Encoder is still a bit misaligned, but that's exactly why big-ass knobs were invented

 

[stinger608]

Frigging awesome to see you posting @silentbogo

How are things in Kiev?

 

[silentbogo]

Frigging awesome to see you posting @silentbogo

How are things in Kiev?

Relatively quiet. Few air raid sirens every day, but fortunately no rockets. Everyone is so used to it that they just keep going about their business.

Work is going well. Got a few side-hustles last month. The whole reason I'm building this thing, is because I've already earned a "free" lifetime supply of PETG after helping my friend to fix his production line (he makes filament for 3d printers). That's a ghetto-mod story for another day
Staying busy as usual.

 

[micropage7]

using hot glue stick as laptop pad, i can't use foam coz in days it will flat enough to support the weight, so i need something that more solid, so i cut the stick and double tape it

not very neat but it looks ok

 

[Mussels]

We're using raw, untoasted glue now.

That's actually a really good idea. I like it.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

using hot glue stick as laptop pad, i can't use foam coz in days it will flat enough to support the weight, so i need something that more solid, so i cut the stick and double tape it
View attachment 252420
not very neat but it looks ok

why not use the hot glue to stick the hot glue to it to stick the hot glue stick?

 

[micropage7]

why not use the hot glue to stick the hot glue to it to stick the hot glue stick?

i don't wanna leave any gluey residue everywhere, if it works just leave it as it is

 

[bobbybluz]

Not exactly totally ghetto but I did need the Dremel, utility knife, small files and electric drill to add this USB C port to this front drive bay panel. It did help that there was a perfed knock-out for where I wanted to locate it but the mounting was totally different. I had to cut off a mounting post inside the panel, remove the knock-out then slightly enlarge it for proper fit, drill the holes for the mounting screws then assemble and install it.

The total cost off Ebay for the 4 port USB panel, USB C socket & cable plus taxes and shipping was around $20. I'm going to make another one for my Cosmos II case but I need to get a C socket with a longer cable to reach the mobo.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Not exactly totally ghetto but I did need the Dremel, utility knife, small files and electric drill to add this USB C port to this front drive bay panel.

That's just modding done well!

 

[dnm_TX]

using hot glue stick as laptop pad, i can't use foam coz in days it will flat enough to support the weight, so i need something that more solid, so i cut the stick and double tape it
View attachment 252420
not very neat but it looks ok

Couldn't resist,had to post my....invention. Cheers
On my end is more like to raise it a bit more for better air circulation without altering the original pads.

 

[eazen]

Not exactly totally ghetto but I did need the Dremel, utility knife, small files and electric drill to add this USB C port to this front drive bay panel. It did help that there was a perfed knock-out for where I wanted to locate it but the mounting was totally different. I had to cut off a mounting post inside the panel, remove the knock-out then slightly enlarge it for proper fit, drill the holes for the mounting screws then assemble and install it.

The total cost off Ebay for the 4 port USB panel, USB C socket & cable plus taxes and shipping was around $20. I'm going to make another one for my Cosmos II case but I need to get a C socket with a longer cable to reach the mobo.

Reminds me of when I had to use the USB C of my GPU because the bracket was in the way of mainboard IO and didn’t let the cable properly go into the mainboards USB C slot. Luckily since then I didn’t need it anymore.

 

[silentbogo]

Couldn't resist,had to post my....invention. Cheers
On my end is more like to raise it a bit more for better air circulation without altering the original pads.

That's not ghetto enough - getoutahere with your better-than-factory solutions
P.S. I think I will do the same thing on a customer lappy tomorrow. Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming in some weird config. Had the worst GPU and the least RAM, but the best CPU in a lineup, but CPU heats up like crazy (50-ish or more idle in "balanced" mode 7700HQ).

 

[micropage7]

Couldn't resist,had to post my....invention. Cheers
On my end is more like to raise it a bit more for better air circulation without altering the original pads.

nice but you should remove the stock feet and replace it with the thicker one, yeah thin laptop usually has bad cooling performance

 

[dnm_TX]

That's not ghetto enough - getoutahere with your better-than-factory solutions

I agree(i should've wrapped it up in a duck tape first ) but this thread here is the closest for anyone to show their home made PC or Laptop's inventions/improvements.

nice but you should remove the stock feet and replace it with the thicker one

It's a still a new lappy and my heart hurts when only thinking of drilling holes or removing parts from it. One day...maybe

 

[micropage7]

back to the old school laptop, it has bad hdd ventilation although it looks ok actually makes me worried for a long term, especially for daily
so i drill the cover of the hdd, nothing too much just grab a drill and draw some pattern then drill it up

 

[delshay]

GA-MA785GM-US2H Motherboard Repaired (Now fixed)

After the MOSFET blew-up I replaced every single MOSFET on this motherboard to Infineon IPD70N03S4L-04, including nortbidge, southbridge, Hypertransport, Memory, basically everything that had K3818 & K3819 MOSFET.


I had a number of problems when doing this work & I got sloppy & burnt the 24 pin header slightly. The BIOS seems very buggy or I have a faulty motherboard from when I first receive it, So this motherboard has moved to experimentation until further notice.

In the only photo below sofar you can see missing capacitors. Do not be alarmed, the capacitors are there but can't be seen on this side of the motherboard. Most of the capacitors are now on the other side of the PCB sporting some of the latest capacitors with the lowest ESR with some yet to released capacitors yet to hit the market. Apart from the 12v capacitors & the tiny Tantalum all of the capacitors are below
4 m ohms. All capacitors on the back are Surface Mount & there are still some electrolytic to be removed, & replaced.

PERFORMANCE

Normally the MOSFETS only make CPU run at a lower voltage, & i'm not disappointed here, but it looks like it can do 4.1GHz all cores prime95 (not confirmed).


OLD MOSFETS: 4GHz 1.525v

NEW MOSFETS: 4GHz 1.475v (confirmed Prime95) not in screenshot below.

The main focus of the screenshot below is the Northbridge/Hypertransport. It's the first time i got them working together with this processor, but with a dual core processor it can do 2.9GHz, but playing around what seems like a buggy BIOS once it hit 3.250GHz, but I can't repeat it. .


UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES NO ONE MUST COPY WHAT I HAVE DONE.

 

[micropage7]

making washer by using plastic from shampoo bootle

my manual lens thread is gone but i can't find the rest, actually i try to avoid glueing it but i saw a space there, so i managed to slip plastic from cotton bud to hold the screw, so far it works pretty good

 

[silentbogo]

I was digging in my phone today and almost forgot one more Dell-related "cosmetic" mod.
Dude's charger was a bit torn and chewed up near the plug, but the wiring was sound and solid.
Didn't feel like hunting down an original 150W DELL charger in place of still working one, so I did some patching, reinforcing, and "modding".
A bit of blue heatshrink and a few holes for the charge light - good as new

 

[lexluthermiester]

I was digging in my phone today and almost forgot one more Dell-related "cosmetic" mod.
Dude's charger was a bit torn and chewed up near the plug, but the wiring was sound and solid.
Didn't feel like hunting down an original 150W DELL charger in place of still working one, so I did some patching, reinforcing, and "modding".
A bit of blue heatshrink and a few holes for the charge light - good as new
View attachment 254314View attachment 254315

I've done this, but I shrink-wrapped it to not only add stregnth to the cord end but to deliberately cover up the blue led light. Way too bright for my liking.

 

[micropage7]

one reason i hate non removable antenna is when it loose it's annoying
this time i put a piece of plastic under the antenna and tie it

broken power button, no probs just move the switch to outside (not mine)

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

one reason i hate non removable antenna is when it loose it's annoying
this time i put a piece of plastic under the antenna and tie it

View attachment 254509

broken power button, no probs just move the switch to outside (not mine)
View attachment 254510

you could make a new switch panel out of cardboard and duct tape. Maybe even glue a knob, a 6 sided dice?, of sorts on the tip of the button.


.....

Sorry it that too ghetto?