Downing's Basement

So I’ve got a basic arrangement down of how I want the lighting and the systems set in the desk. I think I’m going to order a few more LEDs because some place in the desk are still pretty dark and could use a bit of extra love. Learned last night though that my power supply has a surge protector build into it! Just got a bit careless and when trying to power some of the LED’s temporarily, I bridged some connection and there was a spark and my computer went dead! Needless to say I was still washing brown stains out this morning, but fortunately the PSU did what it was supposed to and nothing got damaged!

It’s very difficult to take low light shots though without a tripod so my good camera has to wait and my phone is responsible for these. I have more posted on MBB which you can check out as well as on ModRetro and Racketboy if you prefer one or the other. But let me know and if you haven’t subscribed yet to either my blog or YouTube channel, please do!

Got the trim work around the fans done as well as temporarily mounting the fan grills that came in this afternoon! Tested with 12V power supply which will be what is plugged into the switch on the control box but as you can see, I have a defective fan. The LEDs don’t work but the fan itself does. So I’ve ordered some more green LEDs and I’ll just wire it the connections. Now all that’s needed for the face is to just paint it black and the back I need to put the directional vents in place. Shouldn’t be too difficult. Will post more updates hopefully in the next day or so!

Just made a small amount of progress today on the desk. Got my 4 120MM Blue and Green LED fans roughly mounted to the back panel of the desk.

I still have to put the directional ducts on the back as the two left fans blow air out and the two right ones blow the cool air in. However without directional duct vents, there’s nothing to stop the hot air from bouncing off the back wall and getting sucked back in by the right fans!

Simple up and down directional ducts will solve that, hot air pointing up, cold air in pointing down.

The pic below just shows the rough mount. I have to trim them in, paint then wood and I have 4 fan grill covers on order to give it a bit of style. Slowly getting there!

Sorry for the lack of updates but unfortunately time is always against me when it comes to the actual posting of any progress! That’s not to say that any has not been made! The control box for the three Nintendo systems and VGA converter is well on the way! This will also include controls for the fans and USB hub, and probably be an iPod and HTC Evo dock! I apologize for this update being brief, but it’s late and my days have been long! The MBB forums have a bit more info on it so you can check out the progress there, but here are a couple pics of the control box! Enjoy and more updates soon I promise!

Not saying too much about this at the moment nor am I starting up a work log, but I just wanted to give a sneak peak at my project that I started when the Mario & LOZ project went on hold. Saw a few cool hacks that people had done with these, and I already had the glass top desk so I though what the hell? But this one is going to be over the top as not only does it house my computer, but also a PS2, original Xbox and will have a NES, SNES and N64 built in as well, which will all play on my second computer monitor!

I’m awaiting more parts in the mail before I can hook everything up, but the PC works so I don’t have to be without it in the mean time!

So a few complications have shown their ugly head with this project. My worst fears that not being able to test the system as I went are starting to give me headaches. But worst case scenario is I get another FC Twin and just make that system into a portable with changeable carts. I can still make it a Mario/Zelda tribute with decals and such though I feel it won’t be quite the same.

In either case, I’ve got much work to do! Here is a pic of some of the work I did, tapping out a hole in an N64 heat sink for the 5V regulators to sit on. As always, check out MBB for more info.

On a side note, got some feed back from Hail today about the guide. Gonna clean up some errors which I knew were in there, but once that’s done we’ll be making a short You Tube video to promote it! We’ll see where this leads!