Ghetto Mods

[Count von Schwalbe]

I've seen it, still has the hump. I was thinking about an acrylic top, but knew I'd end up stacking stuff on top and acrylic isn't that strong unless it's really thick.

Polycarbonate would work, but it might be too flexible.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Polycarbonate would work, but it might be too flexible.

Yeah. I was looking for functional rather than fashion.

 

[sneekypeet]

Yeah. I was looking for functional rather than fashion.

Look for an aluminum mouse pad maybe?

 

[nomdeplume]

That thought had occurred to me. Will have to find a way of discouraging that.

Lash together four aluminum strips, two each way, with screw holes drilled in the appropriate places. Should provide ample support for whatever you wanted to use as a cover. You could even take this ghetto mod further by placing two 90 degree bends allowing your chosen cover to fit flush.

As for the cat, I have another ghetto mod suggestion. Add a bit of depth to your bends above allowing small springs to be fit. Strategically fit some small but very sharp points to the metal bracing that poke through a temporary cover when the correct number of cat sized pounds of pressure are exerted upon the springs. Won't take long.

 

[silentbogo]

Got one more. This one is a life saver.
It is actually a lot more ghetto than it looks, cause it was hastily made out of mostly garbage laying in my workshop.
* the LED panel was salvaged from a broken solar streetlight (or more accurately - intentionally designed to break).
* battery was a spare I bought a few years back for my neighbor, which both of us totally forgot about. Had to cut a ribbon cable off it, but I left a BMS in order to keep discharge/overcharge/short protection
* mini-USB charging module was made out of 2 broken ones, cause I did not want to wait a few days for a new one
* LED driver was gifted by a friend who said "it's shit and overheats". Turns out those pesky Chinese messed up and used a 0 Ohm resistor on the feedback line instead of a proper one (I think it was 22Ohm according to datasheet). So, I didn't have one either... Soldered a 50 Ohm trim pot which also gave me the ability to adjust brightness.

Made 2 more of these for my apartment. Keeps the lights on up to 5 hours on a full charge, and recharges in ~3h.
I'm also waiting on some new 5V 2A charging modules, which will make my life even easier. I can throw in 5000mAh batteries on each one of those and recharge once a day, while having almost 6 hours worth of light. Beefier drivers would be even better. Tested it at 1.5A output without a driver, and that thing gets super-bright while remaining relatively cool.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Got one more. This one is a life saver.
It is actually a lot more ghetto than it looks, cause it was hastily made out of mostly garbage laying in my workshop.
* the LED panel was salvaged from a broken solar streetlight (or more accurately - intentionally designed to break).
* battery was a spare I bought a few years back for my neighbor, which both of us totally forgot about. Had to cut a ribbon cable off it, but I left a BMS in order to keep discharge/overcharge/short protection
* mini-USB charging module was made out of 2 broken ones, cause I did not want to wait a few days for a new one
* LED driver was gifted by a friend who said "it's shit and overheats". Turns out those pesky Chinese messed up and used a 0 Ohm resistor on the feedback line instead of a proper one (I think it was 22Ohm according to datasheet). So, I didn't have one either... Soldered a 50 Ohm trim pot which also gave me the ability to adjust brightness.

Made 2 more of these for my apartment. Keeps the lights on up to 5 hours on a full charge, and recharges in ~3h.
I'm also waiting on some new 5V 2A charging modules, which will make my life even easier. I can throw in 5000mAh batteries on each one of those and recharge once a day, while having almost 6 hours worth of light. Beefier drivers would be even better. Tested it at 1.5A output without a driver, and that thing gets super-bright while remaining relatively cool.

View attachment 271340
View attachment 271341

Nice! Is your local grid disrupted? That could be a literal lifesaver.

 

[Selaya]

Nice! Is your local grid disrupted? That could be a literal lifesaver.

yeah, UA's facing rolling blackouts across the entire winter

 

[witkazy]

Over the last few days, I've been doing some more modding. This time, my CoolerMaster HAF XB-EVO case.

I've always been frustrated by the "hump" on the top of the case. It's meant for a 240mm rad, but I've not been using liquid cooling lately. So I don't need it.
View attachment 271216

I've recently been doing some home improvements and had spare carpet tiles left over. Been using them as covers for my work benches and desks so I figured, why not.
View attachment 271217

Now I can store things on top.
View attachment 271218

For those wondering, the change did nothing to my system temps. The case is so openly ventilated that the loss of the top venting had no impact.

So homey, all you need is mini Roomba to keep it tidy

 

[lexluthermiester]

Look for an aluminum mouse pad maybe?

Most are too small, the top of the XBEVO is very big, but that does give me an idea! I wonder how much sheets of it would be...

Answer: $30 per sheet.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Steelworks-24-in-x-36-in-Aluminum-Solid/3057473

It's only 24 gauge, so two would be needed.

Lash together four aluminum strips, two each way, with screw holes drilled in the appropriate places.

Yup, had that idea as soon as I read Sneeky's comment.

As for the cat, I have another ghetto mod suggestion. Add a bit of depth to your bends above allowing small springs to be fit. Strategically fit some small but very sharp points to the metal bracing that poke through a temporary cover when the correct number of cat sized pounds of pressure are exerted upon the springs. Won't take long.

While that would be a great feline deterrent, it would be hell on the hard drives. Have to pass on that one. Very good idea otherwise!

 

[sneekypeet]

@lexluthermiester , how big? Some of what I saw was decent size.

 

[lexluthermiester]

@lexluthermiester , how big? Some of what I saw was decent size.

14"x15.5"

 

[nomdeplume]

While that would be a great feline deterrent, it would be hell on the hard drives. Have to pass on that one. Very good idea otherwise!

At least one person was more concerned with sitting on a tack than preventable animal cruelty resulting from falling inside an electronic device and thrashing about.

To keep this relevant to ghetto mods I'd suggest looking through an industrial supply catalog for something like a metal ductwork patch and cut away some of the foam to glue in a few magnets. No case mods required and kitty should be fully suspended without anything grasp onto that would rock the case bounding off.

Will look like this on the outside (which you can finish). Other side has vibration deadening one sided foam tape along the outside which typically you would sink a screw through to make an airtight seal on duct you cut into.

 

[sneekypeet]

14"x15.5"

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I see many searching large aluminum mouse pad, that link was one of the first.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Workstream by Monoprice Textured Office Desk Mat - Monoprice.com

Upgrade and customize your desk with this desk mat. Get a professional work surface that helps improve the high‑contact area of your desk. The textured surface helps improve mouse tracking, espe

www.monoprice.com

I see many searching large aluminum mouse pad, that link was one of the first.

That's very nice actually! Might just have to try that. Thank You!

 

[sneekypeet]

That's very nice actually! Might just have to try that. Thank You!

Shit sorry, that one seems to be plastic, but may still work

There is this, but it may be too small the one way.

https://www.amazon.com/InWin-Aluminum-Gaming-BATMAT-RED/dp/B00OBA20WQ?th=1

 

[lexluthermiester]

Shit sorry, that one seems to be plastic, but may still work

No, that was actually a great idea! I might get two and double them up, trim them to size and fit them in properly. Seriously, grand idea!

There is this, but it may be too small the one way.
https://www.amazon.com/InWin-Aluminum-Gaming-BATMAT-RED/dp/B00OBA20WQ?th=1

Bit too small I'm afraid. Those are only 10" long and just a bit short on the width. The red does look good though.

 

[silentbogo]

Nice! Is your local grid disrupted? That could be a literal lifesaver.

Yep, it's pretty bad. If on schedule, then it's 4 hours on / 4 hours off throughout the day. It got better lately (outages only between 6AM and midnight with slight chance of no overloads on the grid during weekends), but last week it was very-very bad. Went to my boss to help him out with UPSes and LTE modem, but he lives almost 80km away from me(village on the opposite side of Dnipro). Supposed to be a quick couple hours, then chit-chat and dinner as usual, and a trip back home by evening, but I got stuck there for 24h. After last wave of bombings there was no power for 18 hours, then entire Kiev got clogged with traffic jams, and of course subway did not work, getting a cab was impossible, and cell service was barely functioning.

I've only managed to solve the lighting issue so far, but I'm also in a process of making a little DC-DC converter box for lead-acid batteries. Trying to get my soldering iron and bench PSU to work during blackouts, cause lemmetellya, it's very tricky to work in electronics without electricity...

EDIT: and just when I was writing this post (yesterday) these assfaced brainless russian fucks did it again. Another massive missile strike, more civilian infrastructure targets damaged or destroyed. Even nuclear power stations had to halt completely to avoid catastrophic overloads. In my area there was no power, no cell service, and no water only for 30-ish hours. Some regions are still in the process of recovery.

Though now I did a proper stress-test and my ghetto-light can actually hold up to 8 hours on full charge. With 3 of them that's approximately 2 days with winter's early nights. Also went down the memory lane this morning, remembered all the things from my "happy" childhood and made a mini alcohol burner to warm up a cup-o-joe in a tin can. Good thing I restocked on IPA a few weeks ago.
No pics, 'cause I didn't want to waste charge on my phone.

 

[silentbogo]

Wazzup, slackers.
Got a few more for you. Some PC related, and some are "slightly" PC related
1) My new "guest light" at the office, made out of spare LED backlight for a monitor. If power draw wasn't an issue, I've always dreamed of making light panels out of broken laptop displays, but I guess that'll be a project for a next year, when our grid becomes more stable. Third pic is a revised version. Uses an old semi-functional UPS battery as a source, and even has a "fancy" toy car switch which one of my suppliers either sent as a mistake or as a joke.


2) One of my regulars brought over an older Skylake PC, which I built a few years back in my old LianLi Q11B. The dude is a bit slow with tech, and didn't invest a bit of cash even in a small UPS when the prices were still OK, so he suffers from occasional "stupors", where after a few power losses you need to reset CMOS to make it run again. So, I added a magic button to the back panel.


3) A ghetto-rigged portable power bank for my soldering iron. Uses a battery from a cheap-ass gyroboard (36V 4.4Ah) and a spare DC-DC step-down converter I bought awhile back.

4) Finally modded my UV flashlight . It was barely functional before, so I had to tear it apart, cut and drill some stuff, and put it back together using epoxy and tape. Now it fits standard 18650 Li-Ion cells, and puts out nearly 10 times more UV for all of my PCB curing tasks and "detective work". Also replaced that stupid flashlight switch with something sturdier.



Oh, and I almost forgot the most important one for this month. It's kinda PC-related, cause it uses a HDD cage from an old Supermicro chassis.
Yeah... I have a major coffee addiction, and even an apocalypse won't break that habit.

Spoiler

 

[micropage7]

just give it little space so it will have better airflow

 

[Shihab]

just give it little space so it will have better airflow
View attachment 274821

 

[micropage7]

View attachment 274840

i need to make some cut out so the hot air could escape better

 

[mechtech]

Most are too small, the top of the XBEVO is very big, but that does give me an idea! I wonder how much sheets of it would be...

Answer: $30 per sheet.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Steelworks-24-in-x-36-in-Aluminum-Solid/3057473

It's only 24 gauge, so two would be needed.


Yup, had that idea as soon as I read Sneeky's comment.


While that would be a great feline deterrent, it would be hell on the hard drives. Have to pass on that one. Very good idea otherwise!

pfff 4'x10'

cover the whole table

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edit - this looks way more sexy

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[The Von Matrices]

My Swiftech MCP35X pump died after 13 years of valiant service (I can't believe it's been that long). I ordered a new pump, but it won't arrive for a week and I needed my PC back online now.

After a few trips to the hardware store, I bought a pond pump, bought a few plumbing fittings from the irrigation section, put it in a food storage container, added some distilled water, and connected it to the loop. It's loud but it works.

 

[de.das.dude]

what about using safety tape as grip for mouse?
yea since it's for the floor the texture is pretty rough
View attachment 261868

never seen an exfoliating mouse before.

 

[ThrashZone]

My Swiftech MCP35X pump died after 13 years of valiant service (I can't believe it's been that long). I ordered a new pump, but it won't arrive for a week and I needed my PC back online now.

After a few trips to the hardware store, I bought a pond pump, bought a few plumbing fittings from the irrigation section, put it in a food storage container, added some distilled water, and connected it to the loop. It's loud but it works.

View attachment 275871

Hi,
Wow did that green tubing start out clear