Custom Media Server

[Ond]

I finished this project today and was chuffed so I'm sharing it. Building stuff again like this is my circular way back to this hobby.  I wanted to build a home theater media server that met some specific design requirements.  It had to be really quiet during operation and be reasonably powerful with some consideration for the future.  I designed this around just one BIG heat sink and one very quiet fan.  The unit had to look pro and fit in with other shop bought gear I have.  It had to be capable of 4K with good frame rates, play latest codecs, stream to non wired devices and have a quality DAC with at least 96Khz/24 Bit handling. Finally, I didn't have a ton of money to spend and wanted to use components I already had lying around.

I don't have any amazing  HT setup at the moment, just the family TV which is a modest 1080P LCD unit in our lounge-room.  I'd like to have a decent HT in the future but probably no time soon.

The build:

Construction materials included MDF, marine ply, sheet metal, a small PC Motherboard. Other electronics included an Android phone no longer in use.

Construct a box from wood:

Glue it together and cut holes in box:

Undercoat box:

Install electronics and hardware onto the baseboard of the unit:

Hack Android phone:

Make heat-sink components for PS, Phone PS and CPU:

Put everything in the painted box:

This gets used regularly by the family.  I made something actually useful!   



 

[yotsuya]

Great use of the phone there!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Zebidee]

Make heat-sink components for PS, Phone PS and CPU:

As usual, your builds are always cleverly thought out and good-looking as well 

I'm curious about the role of those transistors attached to the heat syncs, what they are doing and how it all integrates into the design. Can you expand on this a little?

[Ond]

Great use of the phone there!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks yots, yeah better than throwing it out, it makes a great touch screen for the menu system.

As usual, your builds are always cleverly thought out and good-looking as well 

I'm curious about the role of those transistors attached to the heat syncs, what they are doing and how it all integrates into the design. Can you expand on this a little?

Thanks Zebidee, the transistor in the top pic is part of a separate regulated supply for the phone (no battery).  It provides 4.2volts at 3amps. The other transistors were carefully removed along with the original heat-sinks from the PSU:

The new heat-sink is a means of transferring heat to the big heat-sink.  I did the same for the CPU with just one fan to cool the lot. I would have left the transistors on the PSU and just removed the heat-sink but it's too cramped to do that.  De-soldering everything, disassembling, attaching to new heat-sink and re-soldering was easiest. 

I've run the box on the bench for hours of testing to see how it handles temperature build up.  It could probably run without any fan but its inaudible and keeps everything a few degrees cooler.

[Zebidee]

Thanks for the explanation Ond. Makes more sense now   

[bobbyb13]

Wow.
Every part of this build is very cool.

Especially the parts I couldn't have thought of or executed myself!

[nitrogen_widget]

I would to know how you went from this:


to this:


because first one looks like some rough wood and second looks like a sheet metal enclosure.

[jdbailey1206]

I would to know how you went from this:


to this:


because first one looks like some rough wood and second looks like a sheet metal enclosure.

Knowing Ond he probably pushed out a mock up from woood in 7 minutes to see if everything fit before he made the real thing.....

[Zebidee]

Ond just picks up his router, sprinkles some magic sawdust over the work, says abracadabara.

I'd like to know how Ond does those mesh bits, with the fine triangular holes. Must be something inset there somehow but it appears seamless so wondering how that was done.

Something interesting, I just noticed that there is an old-style foot pedal sewing machine hidden in there, probably a Singer. Behind the workbench with the vise, you can just see the legs at the bottom and the "pedal" to power it with your foot. Those sewing machines (or copies of the design) are still used all over the place in SE Asia.

[fablog]

Great work OND! Could you explain what hack you did with the phone?

Envoyé de mon LEX722 en utilisant Tapatalk

[Ond]

Wow.
Every part of this build is very cool.

Especially the parts I couldn't have thought of or executed myself!

Thanks mate, I've been looking at your curvy little marvel in particular your use of materials, in some ways similar to my approach to some of my cabs.  Great use of materials and methods..Look forward to seeing more.  I have a lot of fiberglass work on my horizon.  It's hard work but the results are very nice.


I know the apparent transition from rough wooden box to coated enclosure looks a bit unreal.  It's just me being a bit cheeky and sparing you all the finishing work that went on in between.  The wooden box had added to it sheet metal 'grills' that are slightly set into a rebate, worked over with Bondo fill and then Primer/filler coats.  That last process is repeated several times to achieve the smooth looking finish prior to applying actual black paint.  These days I only use my spray gun and compressor to paint with.  In addition to the grills (and using the same process) I added the metal bezel for the display.  The enclosure is thin and vented where it needs to be and thicker and sturdy over the rest of it.  It's a system that I've refined more and more over the years but it all goes back to my arcade cabinet building adventures.

@ Zebidee - very observant!  Yep, that is a genuine Singer sewing machine manufactured in 1928.  It has been in my family since new.  It was my grandmother's originally and is now my youngest daughter's.  It just needs a belt from the foot pedal, otherwise works fine.

@ fablog - The phone, a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 underwent various hacks. Firstly I replaced the standard OS with LineageOS, rooted and minimal app install including the Kodi remote app Yatse.

I removed the battery and replaced it with a dummy blank that provides the phone with power from a regulated supply I built for the purpose - using a variable regulator and other parts:

This fools the phone into thinking it has a near full battery that will last for EVER.  The final hack was to solder a switch cable under the main board of the phone to allow a power switch for the phone on the rear of the enclosure:

The phone only needs to be switched on once when the Media server is plugged in.  Thereafter it just sleeps when the unit is powered off.

Hit the on button on the remote and everything just switches on.

Just some fun before the serious business of arcade cabinet building resumes...   

[Zebidee]

I removed the battery and replaced it with a dummy blank that provides the phone with power from a regulated supply I built for the purpose - using a variable regulator and other parts:

This fools the phone into thinking it has a near full battery that will last for EVER.

How did you tune the variable regulator? Is there a couple of resistors to set the voltage and a cap on that breadboard in addition to a power button? I want all the gory details of course.

The phone only needs to be switched on once when the Media server is plugged in.

There is a "trick" that might work so that the phone comes on when the media server is plugged in, all at the same time. You put a capacitor across the phone switch terminals (paying attention to polarity) to simulate a button release.

As you power on, the capacitor will be initially closed and circuit pass current, like you are pressing the button. Once you power up over "some milliseconds" the capacitor will charge up and circuit becomes open, like you have released the button. 

The fun part is to find what capacitor to use. Around 1 - 10uF is good for PCs (you can also set this in BIOS for most modern PCs so not always useful these days). For the Loewe TV I have in my vertical cab, I use a 100uF cap.

This works because the larger the caps the longer to charge, you just need to choose appropriate value to give the supporting control system enough time to wake up and thus recognise the (fake) button press.

[BadMouth]

Master of fit and finish as always. 

[Gilrock]

I don't think I need one of these but man that looks so nice.  I just upgraded my phone and have a spare Samsung Galaxy S9+ laying around too.  My problem is I don't think I want to re-watch the hundreds of DVDs I have lying around.  I usually stream new content from my Tivo.  But that looks fun to figure out and build.

[Ond]

@ Zebidee - You are pretty close with the regulator tuning method.  I don't have the circuit diagram handy but yeah it's just the variable regulator, one resistor, one variable resistor and a couple of caps. The var resistor provides the adjustment for voltage.  I like your capacitor/momentary switch idea.  I think if I did use that, I'd take it one step further and use the cap to open and close a relay for the switch instead.  Again finding a suitable cap for the duration which is quite long for this phone.  That way I'd isolate the cap from the phone altogether and it can just discharge through the coil.

@ Badmouth - Hey buddy, we're still here and still building stuff! 

@ Gilrock - Thanks, yeah streaming the latest stuff is most peoples choice for movies (which this unit does also).  I really like Kodi and it's various incarnations in particular the LibreElec version which combines a very minimal Linux OS with Kodi - boots fast and is very configurable.  Video codecs are pushing into HD territory with H.265 requiring a bit more processing power than H.264.  The other main reason for this is to store my music in one place instead of all my CD's, with good quality audio playback options.

[Zebidee]

@ Zebidee - You are pretty close with the regulator tuning method.  I don't have the circuit diagram handy but yeah it's just the variable regulator, one resistor, one variable resistor and a couple of caps. The var resistor provides the adjustment for voltage.  I like your capacitor/momentary switch idea.  I think if I did use that, I'd take it one step further and use the cap to open and close a relay for the switch instead.  Again finding a suitable cap for the duration which is quite long for this phone.  That way I'd isolate the cap from the phone altogether and it can just discharge through the coil.

Seems like a reasonable plan. Running it through a relay gives you some more options. Less buttons to press is always good, saves your fingers for shmups.

I don't think I need one of these but man that looks so nice.  I just upgraded my phone and have a spare Samsung Galaxy S9+ laying around too.  My problem is I don't think I want to re-watch the hundreds of DVDs I have lying around.  I usually stream new content from my Tivo.  But that looks fun to figure out and build.

If you have younger kids around they will appreciate it. They always seem to watch the same things over and over. Besides, you can't always rely on streaming services to have what you want or to be available when you need it.

[Gilrock]

Yeah I need to avoid starting another project right now.  Still need to finish my Mame cab I started in 2014 but to be fair I did complete a Robotron, Joust, and 2 bartops in between...lol.  Also just ordered all the parts for a new 3D printer.

[Zebidee]

Oh 3D printing yes another thing on my list of projects to get into.

I made a simple media center 14-15 years ago when my house in Australia was full of CRTs. Not like OND's. Just grabbed a spare P4 with XP and XBMC, stuck an ArcadeVGA in and ran it out to my 31" Grundig CRT via VGA-SCART. There was also a LAN ethernet port in the wall at the back which ran back to my NAS, which was (is) chock full of good movies, TV, music and other content. Also put a huge bunch of old kids games designed for 640x480 or less, there are HEAPs of fun & educational kidsgames out there (eg ScummVM, Jumpstart, Dora, ABC...lots) and they just POP on on a CRT TV via RGB with a decent sized screen, so much better than LCD. Could play MAME too with a USB arcade control box. Got a lot of use and my kids never complained about their Dad's daggy old fat TVs.

[Ond]

Glamour shot:

[bobbyb13]

I never looked that good

[Zebidee]

@Ond Slick! 

[leapinlew]

As always - looks great!

Not a big Kodi fan, used it for a while when I was looking for a substitute for Windows HTPC. I'm using Plex for ease of use.

[lilshawn]

just looking at your power supply solution there....

you know these exist right?

https://www.quietpc.com/st-nano-psus

can't imagine your computer there needs more than a few hundo watts, but this is a perfect DC-DC converter and all it needs is an external 12v brick for power. (or a battery so you could use a computer in your car without an inverter)

[Ond]

just looking at your power supply solution there....

you know these exist right?

https://www.quietpc.com/st-nano-psus

can't imagine your computer there needs more than a few hundo watts, but this is a perfect DC-DC converter and all it needs is an external 12v brick for power. (or a battery so you could use a computer in your car without an inverter)

Thanks, but yes, I do know about similar fan-less solutions. The unit could probably get by on under 200 watts although the graphics card destined for this unit specs at ~300W again, probably could run on less.  Many of my builds are all about using stuff I already have, I like the challenge of re-purposing stuff for my needs...sometimes I'll go to extremes when a ready solution may be available.  For me that's part of the fun.  I am a secret member of PBJs dumpster diver elite retrieval squad.  Our Motto.."why pay, when it's free".  it's a way of life. 

[Ond]

As always - looks great!

Not a big Kodi fan, used it for a while when I was looking for a substitute for Windows HTPC. I'm using Plex for ease of use.

Thanks Lew, Kodi get's better and better especially when you want to do more than just stream.

[lilshawn]

just looking at your power supply solution there....

you know these exist right?

https://www.quietpc.com/st-nano-psus

can't imagine your computer there needs more than a few hundo watts, but this is a perfect DC-DC converter and all it needs is an external 12v brick for power. (or a battery so you could use a computer in your car without an inverter)

Thanks, but yes, I do know about similar fan-less solutions. The unit could probably get by on under 200 watts although the graphics card destined for this unit specs at ~300W again, probably could run on less.  Many of my builds are all about using stuff I already have, I like the challenge of re-purposing stuff for my needs...sometimes I'll go to extremes when a ready solution may be available.  For me that's part of the fun.  I am a secret member of PBJs dumpster diver elite retrieval squad.  Our Motto.."why pay, when it's free".  it's a way of life. 

oh yeah, yeah. just something to keep in mind if you want to build something really small or super portable.

the one i linked as just an example. not from that particular company, but from pico-box you can get them in like upwards of 500 watt versions pretty easily for about 80 bucks which is the amount you'd pay for a decent 500 watter anyways. they come with like dual 12v rails and stuff for to make a gaming rig that's not much bigger than the videocard itself.

back in the early days of MP3 in the late 90's into the 2000's we'd build carputers and frequently post on mp3car.com forums... having a good power supply that was reliable was paramount for a good build.