Downing's Basement

Computer Desk Update 11/16

Posted: 11/16/2011 in Current Project, General News

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!

Computer Desk 11/13 Update

Posted: 11/13/2011 in Current Project, General News

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!

Electric Fireplace Sound Mod

Posted: 11/12/2011 in General News

Though not much of an exciting mod, it is a mod nevertheless so I felt like sharing it. Basically all we’ve got here is an electric fireplace we bought at Lowes a few weeks ago just to add a bit of ambiance and supplemental heat for the winter. As we can’t have a real fireplace in the house, we figured why not. The only thing I didn’t like about it was the fact that it sounded just like a forced hot air heater which is essentially what it is.

But my iPod has had an app called Ambiance which is basically just a bunch of looped sounds of all kinds of things, rain, wind, fire, traffic, it goes on and on. So I just decided one night, why not make this fire sound like one too? The results are below. Not perfect sound but better than nothing and now when we have company we can listen to music right though the fire place!

Anyway, I’m getting back on to my desk project now so we’ll see where I end up with that today. More updates soon!

New Case Commission for Evil Nod

Posted: 10/30/2011 in General News

Had a quick weekend project that I completed yesterday. I made up a new case for Neil (Evil Nod) over on the MBB forums. This is for a commission he’s doing for someone over in England and I believe is for a portable Jaguar video game system. Never played one of those before but I hear they were fun back in the day.

Neil sent me over the wooden mold from the UK as he originally was going to try his hand a vacuum forming on his own, however ran into a slight problem that his oven he was using for a heat source was not big enough for the plastic sheet! But the mold he had made before was a bit rough and needed some work anyway. Because the back side of the case was so chewed up, I had to use the same face twice, but when you do that, you must have a 100% symmetrical design as you’re basically using a mirror image and if one side isn’t identical to the other, the case won’t line up correctly.

The pic below is for the unfinished halves. Neil wasn’t sure how thick he was going to need it so each half is about 1″ thick which is quite beefy. Once he figures out the width he can then cut and sand down the edges to make them level and clean.

Computer Desk Update

Posted: 10/19/2011 in Current Project, General News

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!

Downing’s Computer Desk Prototype

Posted: 10/02/2011 in Current Project, General News

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!