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Author Topic: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build  (Read 47397 times)

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gryhnd

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Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« on: July 11, 2010, 05:43:23 pm »
Late last summer I started to mull over another arcade machine, this one for my nephews as they really enjoy our cabs.  Being in a smaller house with 5 people, space is at a premium so a traditional upright was out of the question. I thought about a cocktail cab, but it would have meant displacing their family room coffee table and I figured the sister-in-law wouldn't be too keen on that idea  :lol

That led me to consider furniture style, hidden arcade options. Laying in bed one insomniac evening, it occurred to me that what I was coming up with in my head looked a lot like an old console TV from the 50s and 60s. As luck would have it, I came across someone giving away an old console TV on CL. Unluckily, it turned out that the cabinet was not wood but laminate, and wasn't in very good shape.

Fast forward a few months. It's now past the holidays and the nephews have all received DSs and a Wii, and the inlaws feel they have enough video games so I back burnered the project.  I still kept an eye out for another console TV cabinet though, as the idea intrigued me.

Luck struck again on Craigslist, and I happened across what looked like a beautiful mahogany RCA Victor. Here's the CL picture:



Based on the pic, I decided to go for it so long as it passed inspection. When I got there it of course had some flaws that photos always seem to hide (particularly on the doors, but also some crazing of the finish), but considering it's age I was very excited about the overall condition.  I dropped a whopping $35 on it, popped it into my truck,  then stuck it in my workshop for another 3 months while life swirled around.

About two months ago I caught the fever again, and began taking a more careful look at what I had brought home.

The CRT was gone, but the bezel and glass were in place:



All the vacuum tubes were MIA, as was the power supply, but the main tuner/electronics rats nest of resistors, caps, etc was still there (albeit in rough shape):



as were the brown bakelite knobs and RCA Victor gilded emblem:



Also the original 12" speaker and grill cloth:



It was that monster of a speaker that actually gave me a flash of inspiration: this thing could make a kick ass jukebox!

So over many more insomniac evenings, I decided I would go for something that was reminiscent of a car from the 50s, but one being restored and cobbled together in today's day and age. And so was born the Rat Rod (working title...not sure if I totally dig it yet).

« Last Edit: July 12, 2010, 08:57:19 am by gryhnd »
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2010, 06:00:23 pm »
I'm going to run out of time tonight I think, to post everything I've got so far, but here's a start. Bear in mind that the cab is dusty. I don't intend to work on the finish until the major parts of the (de)(re)construction are complete.

After removing the doors and gutting her down to the bare cabinet, here's what I had:





For the two left most knobs positions, I opted for a couple of old fashioned style incandescent backlit VU meters. For the larger hole on the far right (where the tuner knob was), a similarly lit volt meter was placed.

All the meters were just a smidge too large and required a bit of either/both drilling out with a forstner bit/enlarging with a drum sander:



And with the meters loosely in place:



For the final "knob hole" (sounds dirty), I agonized for weeks over trying to find a suitable ignition switch. None did what I wanted, fit the way I wanted, or had the quality I was looking for (like actually working!). Ultimately I opted for the late model style push button ignition.  Jumping ahead a bit, that will be what fires up the computer within:



While not entirely like a dashboard (VU meters?), it was the general look I was going for.

Next up, the "engine"...
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2010, 06:22:46 pm »
Power plant:

If you don't already know, I'm somewhat of a Craigslist and eBay addict. More by (financial) necessity than any particular fondness for either venue. I also hate wasting ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- that's perfectly useful.

So my list of engine components, after many weeks and months of consideration, consists of:

  • ELO 15" touchscreen: $65 delivered
  • Rockford Fosgate 400W 4 channel amp, bridgeable to 3 channel: $35
  • 10" 8ohm subwoofer, re-purposed from my son's school science experiment (Google subwoofer and non-newtonian fluids): $30
  • set of PYLE PLG6.4 6.5-Inch 300W 4ohm Four-Way Speakers: $30ish
  • 350W 12VDC power supply: $33
  • 24VAC power supply: free - scavenged from past furnace repair
  • 5 Farad capacitor: $30
  • VU meter driver board: $30 ish
  • Decased Acer 4420 Athalon notebook: free ( Edit 7/21: laptop is toast)
  • Dell Dimension 3000 P4 2.8: free

With the exception of the amp, all the parts are being mounted to the sides of the cabinet.  The laptop motherboard is light enough to be screwed into the 1/4 thick mahogany side boards with standoffs. The PSU, cap etc have a lot more heft and required sturdier attachments so I cut a 3/4 piece of plywood to fit within one side recess. Here's the general idea:



The Fosgate amp is not yet secured as I have lots more work to do (monitor etc) before it finds its final spot, but that's the basic place it will end up.

And on that note, I bid you good evening. I'm getting the "get off the computer and come to dinner" look  :burgerking:  More to come later.

(Edits for typos)
« Last Edit: July 21, 2010, 05:18:56 pm by gryhnd »
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

shateredsoul

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2010, 08:48:30 pm »
You were serious about making use of parts and things you found.  I don't think I'd be able to integrate non pc components like you have.

I really like the look of the RCA Victor. Looks great so far.

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #4 on: July 11, 2010, 09:39:26 pm »
A few more items.

The lower area of the cab, where the old 12" full range driver was, will now contain the two 6.5" 4 ways. In front of those I will be placing black powder coated steel speaker grill. In the middle of it will go this billet aluminum, CNCd, old school style V8 emblem. Found on eBay for a whopping $5  :applaud:



My original intention was to place a remote USB port (for the purpose of loading tunes via flash drive, etc) in the middle of the speaker grill hidden by a (see attached pic below) "Special Edition" emblem, until I found the V8 above.

Then I pulled the "RCA Victor" emblem off the cab, and was going to place the USB port there with said "Special Edition" again hiding it.

Finally I decided to go K.I.S.S., and today I fashioned myself a custom bracket out of aluminum L stock for the USB panel mount jack, and placed it at the back of the cab pointing up. I realized that with the power cord back there, there was more than enough room for 3/4" of USB jack protrusion:



The special edition emblem, however, will still end up replacing the RCA Victor. Being black and chrome, it will tie in nicely with the black grill, aluminum V8, and black and chrome meters/button.

PS - the reason for the narrow strip of MDF with the fan, USB and IEC power jack (out of frame below) is that it will be a fixed panel. This will prevent someone (me?) in the future from yanking out important cords during any maintenance. The remainder of the back panel will be freely removable and will provide plenty of access.
« Last Edit: July 12, 2010, 07:56:19 am by gryhnd »
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #5 on: July 11, 2010, 09:52:19 pm »
Slightly out of sequence now.

Yesterday I installed 3 sets of 5-way binding posts to the shelf that will hold the amplifier. These will carry the signals from the amp down into the (sealed) lower speaker bay area.  BTW, the 10" sub will be down firing. There's not enough room on the front speaker panel for the two 6.5" and the sub.



Here's the component panel before I mounted it.  Clockwise from top left: 12VDC 350W PSU, 5 Farad capacitor (to help buffer the PSU from transient audio spikes...might be over engineering on my part), 24VAC transformer which feeds into the...VU driver board. And finally a marine dual bus bar for distributing the 12Vs.



Here's a somewhat blurry close up of the VU driver board. It happens to run off of 24VAC, so hence the 24VAC furnace transformer:



In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

Paladin

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #6 on: July 12, 2010, 10:52:58 am »
It's looking amazing so far!  Keep up the good work!

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #7 on: July 13, 2010, 11:19:02 am »
I really like the look of the RCA Victor. Looks great so far.

It's looking amazing so far!  Keep up the good work!

Thanks!

The Windshield (  ::) )

A couple more updates, then things might slow down for a while.

My last two terminal rings arrived in the mail yesterday, so this allowed me to make the final connection from the 12VDC PSU to the dual bus bar:



Then it was time to fashion a bezel for the ELO touchscreen.

The ELO I have (used) can't be easily mounted into a cutout from the front, and needs to be back mounted instead (looks better that way too).  It has a slight raised lip with rounded corners of about 3/8 radius, and 8 screw holes distributed around the edge.



I went to work and templated the horizontal section lip into some hardboard, using a forstner bit to do the corners first, then cutting in with my jigsaw:



After I was comfortable with this, I got started on the official bezel, also out of hardboard. It took probably another 30'-45' after it was cut to fine tune it the way I wanted, but I am pleased with the results:



« Last Edit: July 13, 2010, 01:38:49 pm by gryhnd »
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

shateredsoul

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #8 on: July 13, 2010, 12:23:47 pm »
Did you keep the black bezel on your screen, or did you remove it?


gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #9 on: July 13, 2010, 12:27:43 pm »
Did you keep the black bezel on your screen, or did you remove it?



Kept it. Hence the hardboard bezel conforming to the shape of the lip in the black plastic.

Edit: when I took a close look, it appeared that the black bezel was an integral part of holding the touchscreen glass in place.  I didn't want to mess with it, and I saw no benefit to removing it beyond making square corner cuts in my hardboard.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2010, 12:38:13 pm by gryhnd »
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #10 on: July 13, 2010, 01:53:48 pm »
Next up will be to construct a sturdy support to hold the ELO, via its VESA mount.

I also have some ideas I am working through on how to best dress the bezel. Will post when I settle on something.
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #11 on: July 15, 2010, 06:36:23 pm »
Dammit...I just spent 30' composing a new post with pics, accidentally moved backwards in the browser, then lost the whole darn thing from the form.

Can that be addressed? It's not the first time...
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #12 on: July 15, 2010, 07:44:23 pm »
Second attempt  ::)

Today the replacement PSU for the laptop arrived. Previously I resurrected the Acer with a PSU from a different Acer so that wasn't a long term answer.  The replacement came in from, you guessed it, eBay, for under $9 delivered. I decided to give it a burn in (upper left resting on the bezel), and at the same time hook up the ELO:



The new PSU seems to run hotter than I expected, even though it is not charging a battery. If it lasts the next couple of days, I might break it open so it can breathe better. You can see it alligator clipped to the broken power jack on motherboard in the lower left of this pic:



My son calls this one "oodles of noodles":



Because the laptop is decased and all the supports for components are built into the bottom half of the case, I had to come up with a way to secure the HDD. Utilizing an upside down PCB mounting foot in one pre-existing hole, and drilling out a second hole, I was able to lock the drive down:



Finally, a couple pieces of aluminized tape for my HVAC holds the fan in position to cool off the heat sink:



And I'll let everything sit all night and maybe into the weekend.

« Last Edit: July 15, 2010, 07:47:38 pm by gryhnd »
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

drventure

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #13 on: July 15, 2010, 08:30:52 pm »
Oh Man.

Now this is my kinda build!

Very nice. Great find with that old set.

Can't wait to see how this progresses.

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #14 on: July 15, 2010, 09:48:12 pm »
So a little bit about my thoughts for the dressing up the hardboard bezel. Comments welcome.

My intent is to first wrap the bezel in a carbon-fiber look adhesive vinyl.



Being nearly black, it will tie in nice with the black speaker grille I will be ordering.

Then I will mount the ELO to the bezel, with either of these chrome torx bolts. They should be a nice contrast to the carbon fiber:



At the top of the bezel, the final name of this project will be spelled out in these cool chrome letters. Right now I'm thinking either "rad2tns" or "nomad". Not married to either yet though.

Finally, if they can fit (space is tight due to the size of the ELO's plastic bezel), a couple-few of these style dash inidcator lights in red and blue in the bottom part of the bezel:



In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #15 on: July 16, 2010, 11:37:11 am »
...In the middle of it will go this billet aluminum, CNCd, old school style V8 emblem...

I do some IT and web site work on the side for a local auto repair shop. I dropped the emblem off to them this morning and they are going to polish it up to a mirror finish. Even cooler, he said "and I'll hit it with some clear coat to protect it". Sweet!
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #16 on: July 16, 2010, 09:41:24 pm »
The new PSU seems to run hotter than I expected, even though it is not charging a battery. If it lasts the next couple of days, I might break it open so it can breathe better. You can see it alligator clipped to the broken power jack on motherboard in the lower left of this pic:

Well this is frustrating.

The PSU ran fine. Today, my smart strip arrived, so I powered down, installed it, and fired up the laptop to test. Worked fine of course, so I powered down again and went in to the house for dinner and a movie. Something brought me back out to the shop an hour ago, and I fired up the laptop again. Suddenly it wasn't working. Upon a closer listen I could hear the drive spin up, click and shut down, then spin up again...lather rinse repeat.

Crap.

I fetched the official Acer PSU, figuring the cheap one was screwed. Same problem. WTF? I yanked the laptop out of the cab and began going over it. Nothing obviously wrong. Plugged it back in, and...nothing. Not even a spin up. Put the battery in, which I know had a charge, removed the PSU, and tried to boot. Nada.

I removed the heatsink in case I goofed on my last reinstall...even though the laptop used to fire up just fine for a basic boot test without it. Everything looked good. I re-greased and reinstalled it. Next I removed the CMOS battery for giggles. Put it back. Still nothing. At some point I removed the drive, and was suddenly able to boot into the BIOS config. I restored the BIOS to default values, saved them, rebooted and it seemed OK.  I put the drive back and everything booted fine.

Figuring the BIOS must have hiccuped, I ran some tests and all seemed well. Scheduled a disk check, and rebooted. Oddly, it took 4 tries to complete, with the system shutting down mid scan then restarting all over again. It finally did complete, and while I didn't scan for bad sectors it didn't come up with any errors of significance.

I'm troubled by this development.

If the drive is failing, could it prevent a proper boot to BIOS (forget about even getting to Vista) and cause the cycling I saw? I've never seen that happen before if so.

Any other ideas on what might cause this?

Edit: I plan to install SpeedFan and see what it has to say about temps, drive condition, etc
« Last Edit: July 16, 2010, 09:45:36 pm by gryhnd »
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

drventure

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #17 on: July 16, 2010, 10:54:54 pm »
If you're worried about a drive, I can't recommend SpinRite highly enough. Fantastic little program for checking disks out.

Sounds like you got the same prob I'm having with my cab. After the lightning strike, the PC +seems+ to come up, PSU powers up, fans spin, LED's light, then it all shuts down.

From what I've read online, the main recommendations center around a possible ground problem, which could be the case, but the timing is aweful suspect.

What sucks about these probs is that you just have to start replacing things, not really knowing what's bad or good.

I DID however, pickup a PSU tester from Fry's a while back and it tests out fine. Next, I've ordered a PCI POST test card. Should be here in a week. I'll use it to see if I get any POST test failure codes. Here's hoping it's something easy to swap out.

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #18 on: July 17, 2010, 10:05:49 am »
If you're worried about a drive, I can't recommend SpinRite highly enough. Fantastic little program for checking disks out.

No disagreement there on usefulness. However I could get a decent size replacement drive for far less coin. There's nothing on the laptop other than the OS, and the laptop was free.

I did some research last night and found many others with similar problems, but with a different Acer model.  For those, the issue was with the nVidia chip's soldering. Believe it or not the fix was to bake your stripped MB at 200C for several minutes (with a 1 hour cool down) to reflow the solder.  :scared
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #19 on: July 17, 2010, 10:10:12 am »
Well, no comments on my plan, so I moved ahead with ordering the carbon fiber for now. $26 delivered for a 2' x 5' sheet.

Next week I need to order the chrome bolts.

So a little bit about my thoughts for the dressing up the hardboard bezel. Comments welcome.

My intent is to first wrap the bezel in a carbon-fiber look adhesive vinyl.



In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #20 on: July 17, 2010, 11:53:13 am »
Well triple crap. Went out to the shop just now and it's deader than a doornail. Even with the drive out it won't boot to BIOS. Clearly something is fubar'd in there. I popped the CMOS battery and will leave it out for the next several hours while I have other commitments.  I'll take another stab at it tonight or this weekend.

Looks like I might be falling back to the old Dell instead  :banghead:
« Last Edit: July 17, 2010, 11:57:28 am by gryhnd »
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #21 on: July 17, 2010, 01:35:10 pm »
That sucks man, good luck with that

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #22 on: July 17, 2010, 03:38:57 pm »
Very nice looking build

I think the problem you are having is with the smartstrip. I had similar issues with a Mame cab right down to the HDD whirling up and down in rpm's at boot then not being able to power up the pc again. I suspect the issue in my case was the powered USB on the PC drawing current on the smartstrip's switched outlet. I'm not positive that was the cause but it worked fine after i unplugged the smartstrip

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #23 on: July 17, 2010, 04:23:59 pm »
I wondered about the usb power when off not letting the smartstrip do it's thing also.

But the unit I picked up (A philips smartstrip from Walmart) worked perfectly. Course, now, I have no idea whether it's still any good or not. Certainly didn't protect my PC from getting fried  :(

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #24 on: July 17, 2010, 04:56:11 pm »
The smart strip was the first thing I removed from the loop. When it's not booting, it won't come up even even w/o any connections.

I pulled the CMOS battery again for a while, and when I replaced it everything booted and rebooted fine several times.

I left it plugged in for the last 5 hours while I dropped my kid off at the airport  (woo hoo! 2 weeks kid-less...I know where I need to be spending some time, and it's not only in the shop  >:D ) and when I got back, it was again DOA.

Maybe it's the CMOS battery?
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #25 on: July 18, 2010, 02:08:54 pm »
New working theory: bad VGA cable, perhaps in conjunction with weak CMOS battery. More to come tonight or tomorrow.

I know I'm going to jinx myself just mentioning it.  :banghead:
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #26 on: July 19, 2010, 07:20:29 pm »
Sigh. It's screwed. I ran into some other issues that I did manage to fix related to video. One was a bad thermal foam pad for what I presume was the GPU. The foam had a tear so couldn't be reused, and the gap between the heatsink and the chip was far too great to use just thermal grease.

I ended up using a piece of copper that actually came out of the RCA Victor:



The copper strip was too thin on its own, so I doubled it up after a cleaning with 800 grit paper, put some thermal grease between the layers and hammered tight on the back of my vice. Then a bit of grease on both sides of the copper and when fitted, it bridged the gap perfectly (gray square on the left is the grease coated copper):



I could feel the heat in the heatsink from that chip. Awesome.  However, the video was still flaky. After I swapped VGA cables it cleared up.

Then back to the squirrelly power cycling. No matter what I did, it wasn't reliable.  If I pulled the CMOS bat for a while, it would boot up. But leave it powered down normally for a while and it got the hiccups. I replaced the CMOS battery. No luck. I even reflashed the BIOS. That was fun, because the flash utility wouldn't allow me to run it since the BIOS date was the same as the one I was trying to reflash with. I had to use a hex editor to alter the date code and trick the program.  It flashed a-OK, but the problem persists.

When I spent some more time on google and eBay, it seems that this is a very common problem. Almost every MB from this unit being sold on eBay has a power-on problem like mine.

So at this point I figure I'll try the last ditch option of trying to reflow it via the Bake Your Board method. Nothing to lose at this point right? If it fails, then I'll have to drop back to the original plan of using the Dell 3000 and sell off all the Acer parts.
« Last Edit: July 19, 2010, 07:34:38 pm by gryhnd »
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #27 on: July 20, 2010, 04:16:30 pm »
So at this point I figure I'll try the last ditch option of trying to reflow it via the Bake Your Board method. Nothing to lose at this point right? If it fails, then I'll have to drop back to the original plan of using the Dell 3000 and sell off all the Acer parts.

Well believe it or not, the MB survived the 400F bake in the oven. It did not, however, cure any ills. So pisser. I guess I'll part it out.
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #28 on: July 20, 2010, 08:32:55 pm »
So farking around with the laptop consumed FAR too  much of my time. I didn't make the monitor mount yet, which I really must get done. But I did take a little time tonight to drill out the bezel and place the bolts I purchased from Lowes, while I await delivery of the carbon fibre.

I picked up this style:



with a knurled knob in stainless, not chrome, but far far cheaper.  All 8 for the price of 2 of the chrome guys.

I wedged the monitor into place and snapped a few pics:




Finally, the look I've been getting from most of the family lately:



GTFO of the shop!

(Please ignore the weeds.)
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #29 on: July 21, 2010, 12:55:05 pm »
The carbon fiber vinyl arrived today. It looks REALLY good "in person".



The dust and specs are just from the cardboard delivery box.



Close up of the texture.  The vinyl is actually jet black, but sometimes reflects light in such a way as to appear lighter. I like it. Can't wait to get it on the bezel.
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #30 on: July 27, 2010, 02:35:41 pm »
While I was away, my previously brushed aluminum emblem was polished up nice and clear coated. The two dashboard lights I ordered also arrived:



I really like these lights. They are a very high quality. Real glass lenses and metal bodies. They also have a nice, moderate glow. I was trying hard to stay away from your typical blinding super bright LED look.





Here's the emblem up close:

In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #31 on: July 28, 2010, 06:17:50 pm »
Today I ordered the black perf. speaker grill.  Then a quick trip to the hardware store for a drill bit for the pilot lights, some 0000 steel wool for finishing, and four M4-.70x25 screws to complete the monitor mount.

Last week I had made the MDF mount itself. Sort of a shallow "C" shape with beveled edges so to make it easier to swing into position within the confines of the cabinet.

Today I mapped out the VESA pattern:



Drilled the holes. Perfect! Woo hoo!



and then set the whole thing temporarily into place:



(sorry about the poor quality cell phone pics. I'd left the camera in the house and was too lazy to run in and get it).

I made the mount wider than is really necessary so that I could have an additional surface for mounting any additional components...like perhaps a HDD, or the engine-start relay box.
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

drventure

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #32 on: July 28, 2010, 09:17:14 pm »
Nice! That V8 emblem is MyT Fine!

shateredsoul

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #33 on: July 28, 2010, 11:09:26 pm »
Hey grey,

What kind of screws or bolts (or whatever they are) did you use? I've always seen people use this method and I am curious about what type of bolts (you know what I mean) fit the versa holes. 

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #34 on: July 29, 2010, 07:05:04 am »
Hey grey,

What kind of screws or bolts (or whatever they are) did you use? I've always seen people use this method and I am curious about what type of bolts (you know what I mean) fit the versa holes. 

four M4-.70x25 screws to complete the monitor mount.

These are longer than the VESA spec because I am mounting through 3/4" MDF. They are about 1" long. Found them at Lowe's in the drawers of various hardware.
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #35 on: July 29, 2010, 07:06:48 am »
Nice! That V8 emblem is MyT Fine!

Ain't she?! I'm really happy I stumbled into it.
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #36 on: July 29, 2010, 05:29:50 pm »
Time to wrap the bezel!

First I cut off a section of the carbon fiber vinyl a couple inches larger than the bezel:



Then I flipped it over, centered the bezel, and traced out the inside section:




Next I excised the interior, leaving about 3/4" extra for wrapping around the edge and onto the backside:



The vinyl had a curve to it from being rolled up for so long, so I sandwiched it under another cutting board and set it outside in the sun for a little while to let it relax.




Next came to what turned out to be the trickiest part: removing the backing without folding or sticking the vinyl onto itself.  For future reference, a helper here would have been ideal, but with patience I succeeded:




And here's the final product.:




I still need to poke holes through for the bezel mounting screws (see above), but I'm going to let this set up overnight to give the adhesive time to bond.
« Last Edit: July 29, 2010, 05:31:38 pm by gryhnd »
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #37 on: July 29, 2010, 06:27:02 pm »
Oh, one tip.

I wasn't super confident in my ability to get the vinyl to lay into the curves properly. I suck at wrapping presents, and this was more complicated than simple right angle corners  :dizzy: So on the chance that a bit of MDF might show if my cuts and folding were off, I took a fat permanent marker and inked the inside edge, as well as about a 1/4" around the front face of the inside field.

Looking very closely at those inside curves now, there is one where the vinyl didn't quite cover 100% (more like 99%). The marker did its job because I otherwise can't tell!
In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

gryhnd

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #38 on: July 30, 2010, 11:00:33 am »
I still need to poke holes through for the bezel mounting screws (see above), but I'm going to let this set up overnight to give the adhesive time to bond.

First thing this morning I poked the screw holes through the vinyl. Here's what the completed bezel looks like now:



In progress: Rat Rod Jukebox ** 99% Complete **
Completed: The Island Cocktail, and here
Completed: No Name Upright

shateredsoul

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Re: Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build
« Reply #39 on: July 30, 2010, 01:42:17 pm »
Wow, that is look very nice.  Very nice indeed.  :applaud: