Project: Fush Zero - Pictoral Journal of a Complete System Mod (56k beware)

[Fushyuguru]

Posted on: 09-30-03 03:24 PM

Camera is Fixed. Pictures have been taken. Im sorry for the delay guys, thanks for bearing with me.

To start off with, I figure this is a good time to chyme in and RE-introduce myself, if I havent really already.

Hello, Welcome to my Domicile.

My name is Matt, and I like to tinker. I also made up this name a long time ago (Fushyuguru) that means nothing and when people call me Fush, I hang up the phone (they really do, and I really do).

I study Electrical Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken NJ (really tough engiineering school in an incredible area).

This summer I started building a computer and decided to kill lots of bandwidth with a pic journal showing step by step and lots of eye candy.

Who knew, people seemed to like it. Though I have been on a 1+ month break getting back into the swing of school and trying to juggle fun, school, work, homework, beer, ladies, rotc and then maybe throw some OC-Forums stuff in there. Well Im back and Ill continue my project as planned. If you want go back and read some of the pages preceding this one, theres soome good stuff in there (So Ive heard).

Heres some pics of my little neck of overcrowded Hoboken, not quite moved in yet. We still have a loft to put back in and two couches to cram back in here:

My Crap.

Roomates Crap.

Now heres a pic of Fush Zero in his sad half completed state:

Wheres my Vapochill!

If you notice, Ive got some drives slammed into old Fush Zero there. I had a drive crash in my Raid0 setup of my server, Ive been trying to recover what i can. So far Ive gotten 72gigs recovered of the origional 240gig's of music. Sad.

Ok, Im off to Materials laboratory. Ill post some new pics tonight (Im not lying this time).

 

[Fushyuguru]

Posted on: 09-30-03 06:18 PM

Back from materials lab. We made diodes today with bare silicoon wafers. Kinda cool.


OK to start off, I lost alot of pictures from when I was doing the Brazing and modifications to the Vapochill and the camera broke. Im sorry, they were a good walkthrough to. *Jabs the wound*

So now Im just gonna have to do some hindsight explainations.

To start off with, heres a photo of the vapo after basic mods:

"Ive been modded!"

You can see the High Side valve that I added:

This was done by slowly drilling a hole into the piping. Then I formed a saddle shapped piece in the schrader valve extension which fit snuggly around the hole. Then I just put a nice thick layer by brazing around the joint. Afterwards I checked that the hole was open by sticking a toothpick through the hole and testing depth.

Heres the Factory Fill port:

Here I just cut the factory fill crips off of the compressor, making sure to keep fillings from going into the compressor (spray air while cutting). Then I just spliced in a schrader valve.

Next I went through and sealed all of my insulation joints with basic Black RTV (room temp vulcanizing) silicone sealer. Thsi stuff is very rubbery and its what Asetek used on their insulation joints.

Here you can also see my return line extension. I got a good 20" of extra height to the evap flex line as well as added in a 360 degree loop to catch liquid refridgerant when the system is off.

 

[Fushyuguru]

Posted on: 09-30-03 06:27 PM

Another thing Ive done is to start sleaving the Vapochill wires and work on the Vapo electrical setup.

I just bought a set of Molex tools:

The top tool is a basic spring loaded Molex tool (~$11), the bottom tool is a hard to find but very necissary "Mini-Fit" ATX Molex tool used for ATX Mobo connectors and others like the 12v mobo connector. This tool is very basic, and I could probably have made it myself (~$24) but, you can sleave your own PSU's with it.

So heres the new beautified Vapochill power cable. Each of the 20 atx pins were labeled and removed from the connector and sleaved. Pain in the butt, but looks slick. Some of the wires were also shortened to reduce clutter.

Next I sleaved the compressor and fan power cables. These are in the slick UV blue style. Again some were shortened to reduce clutter.

Believe it or not, these two cables together took me 2 friggin hours to complete. way too many pins to label.

 

[Fushyuguru]

Posted on: 10-28-03 11:00 PM

I did a little work on the old Fuzh ZERO box thing this weekend. Thought Id share it with you.

First off, a little tribute to my buddy Barly:

Doesnt he have a large head?

Thats a Huge cranium.

No more cro magnon distractions Barly...

So first off I finished off the insulation job of the vapochill with a little nylon pipe wrap I got off McMaster.com. Looks quite a bit better than the closed cell foam and black RTV everywhere. A bit more finished, plus a bit more insulated.

For all those with Vapo's, heres a closeup of where the insulation meets the clamshell of the evaporator. I just folded the pipe wrap tight, then wrapped it with electrical tape to keep from unwinding and fraying. I also put a few dabs of superglue under the tape to keep it from warping with age. Then I put a black heavy duty zip tie to keep the mess from creeping.

Next I wire sleaved the temperature probes wires...

And added the new aluminum 120mm low noise, high output fan to the condensor. I dont thick I like the black fan filter, so Ill probably get another silver like on my radiator.

Lastly heres a distance shot, so you can see how much reach I actually gave this Vapochill. If youre just tuning in, a normal Vapochill cant do this .

Now all thats left is to mod the chillcontrol, finish the vapo case and charge the system and my phase changer will be done. Keep checking back.

...time to study Diff EQ. I gots me an exam tommorrow.

 

[Fushyuguru]

Posted on: 12-07-03 08:26 PM

I have to say this just to begin with. These things turned out amazing. Its all thanks to Charlie (aka 64Thunderbolt). He hooked me up and put in alot of effort with these panels. A million thanks buddy! I cant wait to see em in person!

Charlie took pictures of the cutting process and set em to me to post.

The panels were cut with an Abrasive Waterjet Cutter. These machines are industrial computer controlled cutters. They use an extremely high pressure, high velocity stream of water/abrasive mix that with some machines can cut 10" thick steel or more. The machines are high precision and can cut an extremely wide array of materials that most lasers cannot. Also because these machines use water, the material stays at an inert temperature thereby reducing the risk of fatigue or damage due to high temperatures. Lastly because its computer controlled you can cut just about any design you can dream up.

Charlie, if you wanna chyme in about the machine, go right ahead. You know it better than I do.

Heres a pic of Charlie's monster Waterjet with my puny panel strapped in and the computer ready to cut away:

Heres the right panel straped in and the cutting head at home position:

Then we cut away:

 

[Fushyuguru]

Posted on: 12-07-03 08:30 PM

Next heres the left panel methodically being cut:

All done.

Finally the panels were washed off and shown in all their glory!

Left panel, then the right one.

I have to say I pretty excited about these. Once I get them Ill be moving on to get some acrylic in those windowed areas and then bigger, but maybe not better, things.

Let me know what you think!

 

[Fushyuguru]

Posted on: 12-07-03 11:14 PM

Matt
You nailed the waterjet pretty good, not much more to add. If anyone has any questions just ask.
Programing the panels took about 6 hours. You dont just program the design (CAD), you have to "path" the cutting for the machine to read. With these many shapes it wasnt fun....LOL
I can cut anything from foam (water only) to glass and metals up to 8" thick. The machine has two cutting heads installed and has a 6' X 12' cutting area. I also have a 50hp pump the can run both cutting heads at 55.000 PSI.
A quik note about my site and custom cutting, the site is down and closed for the time being. I will be back in operation soon I hope. I have had some personal and business financial troubles. This machine is NOT cheap to run and our countries trade with China has cost me more then just a few regular long term customers.

cheers
Charlie

PS. if you look at the pic of the waterjet and monitor you can see Fushy's panel "pathed" on the screen....

 

[Fushyuguru]

New Panels, Soo sweet!

I recieved the new panels today.let me tell you. Only one thing can describe them... Glorious!

They are incredible, and exactly what I expected. Heres some pics, some closeups and some detailed shots with flash to show the aluminum grain.

I will also give a quick plan of action for the rest of the case look. Please give feedback in the Questions/Comments thread as this will focus the overall final look of the case. Please give some feedback.

So heres what the bad boys came in. Thanks for the great shipping job Charlie. Youre the best!

Heres the test fit. i still have to clean these bad boys, and move some wire around for a tight fit (hence the gap towards the right).

Down with low light. Look how the UV reflects!

Down, no light. Yum.

Begin the detail shots. I planned the looks of each corner out to draw the eye in different directions, and they came out wonderfully. Again, thanks Charlie for such great coding.

Closeup of Fush Logo.

Post Questions/Comments here.

 

[Fushyuguru]

Mmmm Panels...

More good pics, enjoy.

More detail work.

The backside. Skeleton Mobo action.

Lights off.

Again, more details...

Post Questions/Comments here.

 

[Fushyuguru]

Future plans.

Ok, so I said i would fill in a little on what is to come.

I want to dress the case up a bit more. Its not flashy enough for me. So I plan on getting some Honeycomb pattern perforated stainless steel sheeting, like the type they sell at www.mnpctech.com (under the name "Modders Mesh"). i want to replace all fan grills in the case with cutom overlays that utilize this honeycomb. I am also considering overlaying the acrylic windows of the panel cutouts with it. I want to use it sparingly, but enough to give it a more industrial Tronish look.

Heres a pic of the "Modders mesh" I'm talking about. (Pic is property of mnpctech.com, all credit for picture and ownership is theirs. Image just for reference purposes)

I want to make custom fan covers and cutouts around the case utilizing this material. give me some suggestions please.

Post Questions/Comments here.

 

[Fushyuguru]

Fan Freshening

I'm a few days behind on posting pics, so Ill try and catch up... Ive been sick lately.

So I decided I hated those white fan hubs on the aluminum 120mm's Im using. So I quickly went out bought some supplies.

The fan in question, and the quick solution.

I figured there may be some who want to do this also so I went into some detail...

I started by unscrewing the hubs from the fan housing and popping them off.

I then took some tweezers and pried the retaining ring off of the fan spindle. This small ring sits on a cleft in the spindle keeping it inside of the motor bearings. keep an eye on it, its small and may fly off. That would be bad to lose.

Post Questions/Comments here.

 

[Fushyuguru]

Fannage!

Here is the hub and fan seperated.

Next I prepped the fan for dyeing. I wrapped whatever I didnt want dyed with tape and then put a small circle of tape over the sindle whole in the hub. Why? Because ball bearing dont like foreign materials in them. So I took scotch tape, put it over the hole, and scored around it with a razor.

I am using this stuff:

It's called Vinyl Dye. Most of you know of it. You can pick it up at any automotive store, yup the ones that sell spark plugs. Its not like paint. Its much thinner and is actually soaked up into porous materials such as plastics and fabrics, like a dye. So You get a clean chip-free color without losing any surface features and without sanding.

I started with the gray, but I hated it. Too dark (I was going for silver) so iinstead I re-dyed them gloss black. Next best thing.

Whats also great about this stuff is you really cant over-spray. It just keeps soaking in.

Last thing I did before reassembly was to take some 250 grit paper to the rough edges of the fan blades. Anyone who owns rough edged fans, do this! Reduces turbulance. Better working fans...

Post Questions/Comments here.

 

[Fushyuguru]

Fan-a-dago!

Heres the finished thing:

The little black circle is actually electrical tape, you need to recover the hole for the spindle. Otherwise dirt and moisture get in the bearings, reducing fan life.

It shows up in the flash photo, but its unoticable in person.

Also, the water dye is actually green with some orange in it. Looks freaky without UV lighting, but full on green when on. Its not dirty.

I would like to welcome any non OC-Forums people browsing the thread. Hope you enjoy my Project and check out other areas of the forum!

A big thanks to "lgthorn" on HardForums for finding me a supplier for hexagonal perforated aluminum! Youre the best!

Post Questions/Comments here.

 

[Fushyuguru]

This update actually should have been put up before the last update, it was done before the last one. I just forgot to put it up and I found the pics stowed away in my camera.

So I finished the Side Panels off with some acrylic windows. I went down to the local Haome Depot and had them cut up some 1/8" acrylic into sheets just big enough to fit how I wanted. Little did I know the Home Depot guy didnt know the metric or english systems of measurment, or how to use the glass cutter. So I ended up having to cut one myself anyway.

So first I had to clean up the panels for mounting the windows. There was some residual abrasive from the waterjetting as well as some tape I had put on the panels duriing shipping. So I got out the old Elmers Sticky-Out. Its a citrus based remover and works well without hurting the surface. This pic also shows my mounting method. Scotch Permanent Photo Mount double sided tape (well see how permanent).

I started by taking 250 grit sandpaper and getting rid of most rough edges left from the cutting. I lightly sanded the backside of the panels at close to 180degree angle.

Theres rough edges there, I swear.

Then I just washed them in warm water. Gets rid of all oils and dirt, makes the tape stick better.

I thought this pick looked cool.

I cut the photo mount tape into very thin strips and put it over 60% of the intricate cutouts as well as all the way around the window. Then I just lined up and pressed the panels into place. They hold very very firmly. With the tape the idea is to cover a large surface area to get maximum hold.

Closeup of the thin strips of tape under acrylic.

Post Questions/Comments here.

 

[Fushyuguru]

So as usual I took a ton of pics showing the case up to now. Its repetetive but if you hate it let me know, on to the *bling*

Right-Left 3/4 shots. Looks kinda elegant and complete with the shiny windows.

My favorite of the lot:

I'm done being sick as a dog, so I'm back in the workshop (my kitchen). Time to knock out that Vapochill finally!

Post Questions/Comments here.

 

[Fushyuguru]

This update is a little different. I am doing a little bit more planning than modding and I would like any and all input I can get.

I am designing the fan guards for the case and there will be 6 custom grills in all, all different. I need to explain the design a bit before showing some drawings as otherwise its a little confusing.

THEME: To start off with all of the grills will follow the same theme. Geometric shapes like the side panels that are aranged symetric right to left, and asymetric front to back. The look should be somewhat Tron-ish.

WHERE: Two will cover retangular cutouts The first cutout will be the area in the front face of the Lian Li case. Where the holes for the 80mm fans are.

Self explainitory.

The second rectangluar will be a cutout of exact size in the front of the Vapochill case. The other 4 grills will go over the 4x 120mm fans throughout the case (Radiator, Blowhole, Condensor, Vapochill Blowhole).

CONSTRUCTION: I hope to have these designs made out of several materials. The fram of the grills will be made of scrap Lian Li aluminum, and hopefully watercut by Charlie (64Thunderbolt, hope youre up for it!). Then I will use mesh honeycomb steel as the actual grill material. To give the grills a contasting color and a layering effect, I will place small blue acrylic accents for color and depth on the surface of the grill.

SKETCHES: The following are some sketches I have made for the front case grills and two of the 120mm case fans.

Front top case. Letter B designates where I may put blue acrylic shapes. Other cutout areas will have honeycomb mesh inlaid.

Front lower case. Similar to top, desined to flow from top to bottom.

Two 120mm grill ideas. Designed to minimize air restrcition over fan blades. Cutout areas will have honeycomb mesh inlaid.

Please give me some feedback! If you hate them, tell me. If you love them, even better!

Post Questions/Comments here.

 

[Fushyuguru]

After drawing 3-4 more grills that I thought sucked badly, I made this little guy that I thought was neat. Thought Id share it:

Ive already started drawing up the Vapochill panels tonight. My head is spinning. Its tougher than it looks, because it looks like just some shapes in weird angles. You have to make it all flow and look natural.

Also, Id like to say that this week the Vapochill will be charged with refridgerant and tested. Yee Haw! Sube zero cooling here we come!

Post Questions/Comments here.

 

[Fushyuguru]

Hey guys, Im back with a few mods. Well, kind of incremental half done mods but it should take me long to finish them.

First thing is first. With the Vapochill case I want the Chillcontrol Unit (the microcontroller for the compressor/fans) to sit in the back of the case while the LCD display is in the front of the case. This will give me good clean wiring, keeping all of the mess in one section of the lower case.

Follow the green arrow.

Problem is the LCD is attached to the microcontroller board...

Oh wait, did I say that was a problem?

Post Questions/Comments here.

 

[Fushyuguru]

I just took my dremel and lopped off the lCD unit. Its not a big deal, besides voiding the warranty. Luckily I bought the latest V2.0 from Asetek already because these boards cost about $72 to replace and id rather not be stuck with an old revision.

So the next thing to do is to link the now severed LCD to the original board. My roomate is a network admin for our school, so we tend to have lots of Cat6 cables laying around for spare wire. If you havent seen Cat6, the only difference between it and Cat5 is they stick this blue star shaped shielding between each of the channels.

Now the solder points are rather small, but I dont have the time nor the patience to buy a fine tipped solder point. I'll just make one with a standard tip and 250 grit sandpaper. Presto, one ultra fine tipped solder point!

Before.

After.

Post Questions/Comments here.

 

[Fushyuguru]

Then I started soldering the new connections, just tracing back the original traces to their approprate components. For the ground planes, I took some bits of sandpaper and sanded away the soldermask so I could make solid connections with the ground planes.

16 wires and 16 solder points later I have a big stream of wires comming off my former Asetek Chillcontroll unit. Now its a "FushControll" Unit. I still need to hunt down a 16pin quick connector to finish off this mod, but it wont take long.

Post Questions/Comments here.