Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: TheGoose on June 21, 2011, 12:08:47 AM
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I got one of these, I think it's really cool.
http://a4000t.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65_79&products_id=184
But a sick and perverted notion started to grow in my head that the front of the A3000 floppy bays should be modified to allow this sucker to pass through.
Has anyone ever hacked the front of a A3000D? What happened to your life after you did it?
Instead, why doesn't some one get into the plastics business and make new front ends/parts for A500 / A1000/ A600 cases that accommodate new hardware like cdroms, card readers, USB holes etc.
You can buy brand new door panels for your MG / Beetle / Camero but not for your retro computer, so sad. Please do not bring up the unmentionable, you know what "company" up. The thread is jerry riged to detonate upon it's mention.
[youtube]PSxihhBzCjk[/youtube]
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Stay tuned to this thread for this weeks episode of "Goose gone wild" :)
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It's like defacing a fine piece of art!
...though if you have an original A3000 blanking plate lying around and put a spring hinge on it....
(I never liked the look of the 3000 with more than one floppy drive installed.)
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Yeah, i'm in the same position as you. I'm still trying to figure out how to turn my A500 case into a condom dispensing machine. Any ideas? :confused:
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@Tone007. I'm looking at your avatar. Did you go to a toga party? :lol:
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All of our stupid dreams can come true! Maybe we could use this:
http://www.emachineshop.com/
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If you can sort out how to assemble/glue/whatever the parts from flatpack, a service like ponoko.com might be a bit cheaper than full CNC shop like emachineshop.com. Pololou.com has a similar laser cutting service.
You can create flattish parts at home with some scrap plastic, cutting paitience, and a heat gun. I'm planning to construct an A500 side door (w/DE9 cutout) in this manner. I guess I could document the process when I get around to it.
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Errm, does anyone own a 3D printer ?
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Errm, does anyone own a 3D printer ?
bah, sacrilege! they might as well just run winuae..
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Well, um, it was just a suggestion. I take your point though. ;)
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It seems kind of silly to ask if anyone has thought of making new parts, but telling them not to mention the company that does. Pretty self defeating.
Ignoring that, the reason that you can get replacement parts for a retro car and not for a retro computer is cost. The setup is the biggest cost. If there were as many Amiga owners needing replacement door panels as VW Beetle owners needing replacement door panels, and those Amiga owners were willing to spend as much for a door panel as a VW Beetle owner is willing to pay for a door panel, you would see replacement panels panels made available.
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I always wanted one of the Micronik Infinitiv tower cases. They had the cool feature where you could put your A1200 keyboard into their custom made keyboard case, then plug that into the Infinitiv Tower case. 12 Function keys are far too many lol.
Apparently they were shite anyway. The tower cases were plastic you see.
Ah well...
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Apparently they were shite anyway. The tower cases were plastic you see.
But the older "Classic" ones were rugged, typical cheap adapted PC cases - have seen them at least under "Octek" badge. And of course on my A500T...
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But the older "Classic" ones were rugged, typical cheap adapted PC cases - have seen them at least under "Octek" badge. And of course on my A500T...
Yea my A4000 is in one of the big Micronik towers. It's bloody huge!!
Shame they have that stupid Turbo button.
Ah well...
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Shame they have that stupid Turbo button...
I can switch the MHz dial from 7 to 50 for my A500 with it...
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I can switch the MHz dial from 7 to 50 for my A500 with it...
cheapest way to accelerate your machine
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cheapest way to accelerate your machine
:lol:
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Yeah, I guess we are a ways off from 3D printers or affordable CNC. But the concept is there, use some software, make up some bits and then here it comes in the mail.
Still, near where I live they have a cool DIY shop:
http://durham.techshop.ws/
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*edited
Stupid question lol
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cheapest way to accelerate your machine
Yeah - but with a Bliz 2060 not so cheap. Then lazy as I'm, haven't changed the figures; actually it's running @ 57 MHz.
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"Yeah, I guess we are a ways off from 3D printers or affordable CNC"
CNC will never be a 'cheap' option, I think, because the production runs would be too small to gain the benefit from CNC, & anyway, the operators are paid serious money, which would have to be recouped.
3D printers are actually not very expensive if you build them yourself. All the parts are available online & if you build a basic one then you can print the extra parts you need to improve it. :)
Cost of things you print with it are governed by the cost of raw materials, however.
We have one where I work & which we use for prototyping because it's cheaper than a one-off machining of a similar part, & there's a strong possibility of using it for small production runs of parts that are currently (& expensively) made from metal.
Conventional production of plastic parts is not really an option for us here, because of the cost of producing the mould & (because of small quantities needed) would likely result in something like a floppy drive faceplate costing £150.
The only problem I see with 3D printing would be getting the colour right.
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For a part that will not be touched extensively, paint may just be a reasonable option for color matching. I know that having our plastic the right color is better, but a $3 painted part that you do have is certainly better than a $300 solid color part that you don't have because it is too expensive.
I would think that getting the right texture would be the biggest barrier.
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"I would think that getting the right texture would be the biggest barrier. "
Texturing in itself is not a problem, but as you say, getting the right texture may be an issue.
Not sure how the surface texture is expressed in the data/drawing that is sent to the printer. I'll ask next week when I'm back at work. :)
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OK, so I'm back at work & I've asked the questions.
Our Design Engineers think that the easiest way to achieve the right texture would be to print the required part, then sand/beadblast the texture onto it.
This is partly because the accuracy of (affordable) 3D printers is not high enough to apply a fine grained surface texture, & partly because of the way in which printed objects have to be layed down - Most likely the exterior surface would be the first layer, facing downward, away from the print head.
However, if the surface that the plastic was being printed onto had the desired texture, then the printed item would 'inherit' that texture.
Thus, if a section of Amiga casing (treated with a suitable release agent) were used as the print surface, the printed part would have a matching texture.
My apologies for boring everyone rigid. ;)
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OK, so I'm back at work & I've asked the questions.
Our Design Engineers think that the easiest way to achieve the right texture would be to print the required part, then sand/beadblast the texture onto it.
This is partly because the accuracy of (affordable) 3D printers is not high enough to apply a fine grained surface texture, & partly because of the way in which printed objects have to be layed down - Most likely the exterior surface would be the first layer, facing downward, away from the print head.
However, if the surface that the plastic was being printed onto had the desired texture, then the printed item would 'inherit' that texture.
Thus, if a section of Amiga casing (treated with a suitable release agent) were used as the print surface, the printed part would have a matching texture.
My apologies for boring everyone rigid. ;)
Don't stop now! I like my plastic to feel, um plasticky. So, how hard would it be to make a 2 halves, clam shell sort of case that had simple plastic stand offs in the right places to mount a motherboard / circuit board to it? Then some self-taping screws hold the lid part on? Very simple, pizza box looking thing? Is that possible with todays 3D printers?
All I see is people making stupid little figurines and junk. See here:
http://i.materialise.com/
I would call up and be like, um I wanna make a box, can I make a box?
And they'd be like, you can make your dreams, imagination come into reality.
And I'd be like, hoollly shit ! My dream currently is to make a box out of plastic! Am I crazy!?
And they'd be like, What about an elf ? Nope, I need a box.
I need to find the right 3D printer crowd I think.
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At the risk of serious flaming, let me ask one question.
Wouldn't an entire case conversion be easier?
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At the risk of serious flaming, let me ask one question.
Wouldn't an entire case conversion be easier?
You're mess'in up the dream Iggy.
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"Very simple, pizza box looking thing? Is that possible with todays 3D printers?"
You could easily make that kind of thing, assuming your printer is large enough, & in fact, I am reliably informed that somewhere, there's a 3D printer that prints life size BUILDINGS ! (So's they can see that the whole plot works before they construct it for real)
How large do you want your pizza box ? lol ;)
BTW, the printers are fed their data from CAD software, so designing your box shouldn't be a problem.
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If your going to do a simple pizza box, and are going to do the whole case, it seems to me that a CNC would be a way better choice than a 3d printer.
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here is a 1/24 slot car chassis made with a 3D printer:
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here is a 1/24 slot car chassis made with a 3D printer:
Cool, I love this stuff. It's exciting to me like micro computers were in the 80s.
CNC, but I thought that would be more expensive? And could the plans/design for one (in CAD software) be use by either type machine?
○ shape I'm thinking is about 14"x16" 3.5" high.
○ slots for air on the bottom
○ back end would have just one long slot opening, for the Amiga backside to stick out.
Hmmm
@Fraggle1
Thanks for the input, I'm kinda of serious about it. Wow entire house, that gives new meaning to cookie cutter homes.
We will all be living in our own Lego creations in the future anyways, I for one am thinking blue and yellow blocks only.
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"CNC, but I thought that would be more expensive? And could the plans/design for one (in CAD software) be use by either type machine?"
It depends. We have CNCs at work that can be fed a drawing from a computer, & others that have to be manually programmed by the operator.
Naturally, manual programming takes time & skill, both of which have to be paid for. The computer to CNC method isn't exactly cheap either, because the resources needed may be quite expensive - the software we use at work cost around £4000, (about $7000) but of course you could do your own design & take it along to get it machined, so long as the data is compatible.
@ TheGoose
"Cool, I love this stuff. It's exciting to me like micro computers were in the 80s."
Yeah, I understand, because I was there & it gives me the same kind of buzz. :)
It seems that the DIY 3D printer community has a pioneering spirit, similar to the early computer scene with people helping each other to get something up & running, aware that THEY are the ones creating the future.
Might be worth your while doing some research & maybe getting in touch with some of these people to get first hand feedback about what's possible ? You might even find someone willing to print your pizza box. :)
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See, see what happens!
http://cgi.ebay.com/Amiga-3000-N-25-50-UL-A2000-8MB-RAM-Bd-working-/220808997785?_trksid=p3286.m7&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D3%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D1208438934110446627
I would not do this, done badly.
:confused:
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Yup, that's a kludge alright, & a prime example of why some means of reproducing original parts is needed. Went cheap, though.
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Well, found a link from a gallery post here at the org that took me to this place:
http://www.frontpanelexpress.com/products/custom-front-panels-enclosures-for-electronic-equipment/index.html
Pretty, cool, they have some examples too:
http://www.frontpanelexpress.com/products/showcase/enclosures/index.html