Project Capella (Lian Li PC-P50R)

[whuzabi]

kibbler give us more

[Kibbler]

Holy Cr@p! By Lord that turned out gorgeous, Kibbs!!!

Thanks a bunch Capt, I always appreciate your inputs. Hey hey there's more on the way...NOW.

This build is awesome. I love your attention to detail. Nice work Kibbs

Thanks a lot man!

kibbler give us more

Yup, just scroll down man.

***

Text ahead, skip ahead for juicy photos if you wish.

A few days (a week?) ago I mentioned the 2nd round of laser cutting will happen this week. In a way, I consider the 1st batch a trial, kinda: A test run of laser cutting precision (and the programmer's skill), a test run of my measurements & mounting setups, and a mock-up for the aesthetics.

Since then, and with the TREMENDOUS help and suggestions from all of you (), I tweaked my designs, fixed measurements that were (sLightly) off, changed mounting setups that didn't work, and of course doodled with the visual elements. Today I went back to the laser.

How long did everything take? About 2 hours. I had lunch, walked around a mall, and when I went back at 2pm it was done. I'm very impressed and will definitely go back for future projects. Singapore XSers: Sinya Industries, ask for Watson. I do regret not sandblasting, though. He showed me some of their other contract work and the sandblasted surfaces were excellent.

I'm extremely excited to show you the results. There's enough work ahead for the next 3~4 updates (Aquaero, LCD, drains, etc.), and today I want to start with my favorite part. I thought to myself earlier, today's progress has been the most encouraging and invigorating since the start of the project! I hope you like it.

***

The METAL updates, round 2
Subtitle: Part 2, Kibbler's s-sLight twist ('s' for small), test fitting

This is the latest autocad.


And the laser-cut results (with cameos from two pieces from the 1st batch). Very precise. And there you go that's the new front panel.


I took a (ghetto, poorly photocopied, translated by illiterate monks) page out of callen's book to clean up the surface and re-do the brushed surface. Mountainmods' original surface is rough and grainy, Lian Li's is smoother and I tried to replicate that with 800+ grit.


Now the work begins (nice little butane pen-torch I picked up recently).


Soldered pins to #17 & #18 (power and ground). This is one of those thinner units that can take +5V as opposed to +3.5V, so I can power it with native PC voltages without messing with resistors. Sorry about the focus/lack therof on that.


Now, direct your attention to the 8 bent metal tab thingys...


Straighten them out with pliers and out comes the LCD glass and rubbery zebra connectors. We're left with the backlight: A thin acrylic rectangle, diffusion paper, and 4 tiny LEDs: Just like a miniature sLight panel, only 3mm deep. Thinner than anything I can DIY.


One of the laser-cut pieces joins the fray.


It is a backplate/mounting plate for the s-sLight. Nylon washers are required to avoid shorting out the back of the PCB (I used 2x 2mm washers).


There is a rectangular cutout on the back for the connector.


I dug up some spare screws for the test-mount....


The s-sLight assembly fits perfectly, that's the beauty of CAD work.


This profile shows how the washers work to separate the layers. Actually there's a small gap between the backlight and the front panel, so I could probably make do with 1 less washer at the corners. Conserve precious space.


Nothing happening...yet.


At this point I hooked up my spare power supply and crossed fingers. I was a nervous wreck...one mistake could easily burn out the backlight, a waste of time and money. I flipped the switch...


And not gonna lie, I did a fist pump.


More on the way. Thanks guys!

[aka_GK]

god damn, Kibbler that's genious, no else word to say
And new panel is awesome, I though it is impossible to improve the excellence, but you did that, bravo!

I owe you...a serious apology man.

It's totally my mistake. For some reason the first time I saw your name my brain registered "ala" and it stuck ever since, and I never took a closer look.
It's like going on the 5th date with a girl and still getting her name wrong.
I mean it's not *like that* like that but, it's kinda like that.
I'm terribly embarrassed. Sorry man.

no problems, mate actually that's not even a part of my nickname (forum engine doesn't allow less than 3 letters)

[Kibbler]

@aka_GK
Thanks as always for your support mate, I'm very glad you like it.

[Xion X2]

Looks excellent, kibbler.

[callen_1]

More unbelievable work and pics, it looks fantastic. Thanks for showing the components of the LCD too, that light diffusing paper has given me some ideas

[shazza]

Whoa ... Christmas came early. Amazing stuff, Kibbler.

[Colossous]

Thats great work duder

[Wezly]

damn.
You sly devil...
(have I said that already? probably, because this log is full of simple yet robust designs)

And I like that new faceplate. I totally voted for that one

[Liderc]

Love the new panel design, really turned out amazing.
Decide on the mesh color yet? =P

[prava]

So you mixed both designs

[whuzabi]

is his the new faceplate ore is this a midplate ?!

[C-J]

That Loks SICK !!!

[C-J]

Sorry Double Post

I just Saw the Lastest Pics and WOW, Amazing Front, and Light affects !

[skinnee]

And not gonna lie, I did a fist pump.

I'd fist pump at that too! That's just plain awesome!

[charles_h]

I'm lovin' it.

Attaway Kibbs!

[Red-5]

Just love the the new faceplate. The backlit lettering is simply AWESOME

[Kibbler]

@Xion X2
Thanks mate, as usual if your 20/20 eye for perfection sees anything I should fix, please let me know.

@callen_1
Thanks callen!

Btw my ghetto sanding setup didn't work as well as yours did and for the finer edges I ended up doing by hand anyway lol.

@shazza
Ho Ho Ho Merry XSmas...

@Colossous
Thanks Colossous!

@Wezly
Yeah, as soon as I sketched out the design, I thought the same: "Yes I'm voting for this one." Simple and robust designs, I would love to adopt that as my motto.

@Liderc
YES

@prava
Yes I did, thanks for setting me in the right direction.

@whuzabi
That is the new faceplate sir. Try as I might, I do not think a midplate would make sense in this build. The case is not designed for it, there's no natural segregation of space.

@C-J
Thanks man.

@skinnee
Hey thanks skinnee for dropping by!!

@charles_h
Thanks Charles my friend, very glad you like this one! Gotta be honest with you I will have to send you another email...this whole VOIP and time difference thing is not working very well. I'm sure there are matters to discuss!

@Red-5
Thanks Luke Skywalker!

[dreamaxx]

LOVING IT! PURE GENIUS!!!!

Yes I was yelling that.

[dro]

Panels are drop dead gorgeous
The illumination are S-I-C-K!

Hands down to Masta Kibblerrrrrrrrrrrrrr~~~

[Liderc]

@Liderc
YES

hah, nice.

[Kibbler]

@dreamaxx
THANKS NAT!

PS. btw purple = blue + red I'm replying to you now...

@dro
lol I'm no masta but thanks very much dro, I'm glad that you're liking things so far.

@Liderc
Nothin' else to say except and thanks for your help with the photochops.

***

A request

I'm looking for something that can open/close circuits via instructions from USB/software. The 1st solution that comes to mind is the Aqua Computer Multiswitch although it has way more than I actually need (I only need 2 or 3 discreet circuits to control case lighting). You guys have any other ideas? Or something that can be DIY'd? I've found USB relays online but I don't have the first clue on how to set them up.

Other updates.

-I dropped off the relevant parts for anodizing. I have no experience with commercial anodizing so please keep your fingers crossed for me and hope for good results.

-As a result I won't have any significant updates for the next few days. I did test-fits for the rest of the parts before sending them off but...as luck would have it, forgot to take any photos. My bad.

-I have a small order from Chilled-PC that's been "dispatched" for upwards of three weeks now, finally I couldn't wait any longer and shot off an email asking what's up. They have a decent selection of stuff but I've already had a few bad experiences with their shipping practices.

-er...I'm also waiting on two orders from PPCs (for fittings that I somehow thought I had but don't). Once those packages are in then I can finish the drain setup. But no worries here for now as I've had great experiences with PPCs across many (many) orders.

-AT has a comprehensive review of the first two Fermi cards. Performance seems to be competitive (10~15% over 5870) but power draw, temperature, and noise (at least not an issue on water) are and .

[aka_GK]

-I dropped off the relevant parts for anodizing.

that's gonna be awesome

[Wezly]

I love PPCs. Their specialty "tweaked" stuff is interesting.

Plus, their shipping and customer support is friendly and knowledgeable.

I hope it all turns out well for you with getting your stuff. let's hope annodizing isn't something you can screw up like powder-coating. Those are some horror-story pictures....

[Kibbler]

Progress

Hey it's been a while. I was waiting for orders to arrive for a period of time. A couple have come in so I was able to make a bit of headway. Here goes. It's not quite a 1gb update like Callen's usual but there are quite a few photos. 56k sit tight.

First, I wanted to fix what I felt was an issue with the Aquaero.


The back. Mostly bare PCB in the middle.


Remove two screws and the heatsink for the Powerboost mod comes off.


Now I take two pieces I've made. The black piece is something I had laser cut then (nicely) re-anodized. The clear thing is a piece of rubber cut to the same shape + dimensions with a scalpel and leather punch (cut out of an IKEA desk protector lol).


I reattached the heatsink. Wait so what did I accomplish?


Ah ha! A backplate for the PCB to prevent warping.


Moving on. Here's another piece I had laser cut then re-anodized. I think you can guess where this is going.


I call this "The Headless Aquaero." The LCD controls (three buttons) which are absent on the LT are preserved. There's a rectangular cutout opposite the buttons for the pin array which connects to the LCD (relocated).

EDIT: Wrong! Aquaero LT has the buttons but no display (which makes the buttons quite useless).






Two more pieces, cut + drilled from aluminum angles, then polished and anodized.


Now I can mount this thing somewhere.


And this is where it goes.




The fan cables route nicely up (from under the rad) to the connectors. I have not yet sleeved the white pump cable so it's just loosely hanging out somewhere for now, it will be similarly hooked up later.


Moving on. Now to work on the LCD.


First, gotta solder on the 8x2 pin connector.


Here's the original LCD mounting plate I showed last time. But I alluded to a problem with it.


You see the LCD screen portion is not centered on the PCB, it is offset to one side by 1mm. I assumed it *was* centered when I worked out the CAD, so here you can see the mounting holes are centered on the plate, but the screen (silver color bezel thing) is not. It's off and that's a problem: Either center the screen and offset the holes, or center the holes and offset the screen. Ugh.


My solution: Two new plates. Leftmost one is the exterior plate. Center one is an internal alignment plate.


The "genius" here (lol yeah right, if you can call using a ruler "genius") is that the internal alignment plate is offset. See this side is 32mm.


The other side is 30mm


Pull out my bags of M3 button head screws...


The alignment plate attaches to the *front* side of the PCB (to not interfere with the pin connector on the back).


And the exterior plate goes on top, plus AC plexi window, which sits flush. Bonus: Stealthed screws. Two holes at the ends of each plate line up.


The assembly screws into the top of the case, same as before.


So compare this (original version)...


To this (new version). There's a gap there which I overlooked, which means I need some longer screws, which I need to order. Again. Sigh. But overall, very pleased with how things worked out.


I have more things to work on and assemble (like the front panel, which was polished and re-anodized beautifully), but right now I'm dead tired and going to bed.

And I'm patiently waiting for ASUS to give a release date for the Rampage III Extreme. It will be paired with a 980X, that much is already decided.

Hope you enjoyed it, thanks for looking!