Minimig Case

[arnljot]

@AJCopland:

If you click here you'll get a pretty good idea... It's a link on the first post in this thread

edit:
@TheDaddy:
You beat me to it.

[arnljot]

@Darrin

$ is toy money now-a-days, he said €...

Besides. Look at good looking ITX cases, the Nexus Psile is about £180 (that is about €224). Other cheaper ITX cases with hints of design: Silver Silverstone SST-LC12-S Mini-ITX is about €80, Silver Casetronic C137 Travla Mini CheckerCube ITX at €97.

Yes, you can get ITX cases at around €30 to 50. But they look like c*ap.

With the MiniMig case you get:
1) Unique Amiga design case, for a unique form factor card
2) Exclusive limited edition production run (euforism for small scale one person initiative)

I'm sure I could count more points, but it doesn't matter. With his design skills and entrepeneurship I'm sure Loranio could have made a killing on producing unique designs for ITX flex (SAM) and ITX(efika). There really isn't much to choose from. My dream is a Psile-like case just a little taller than a mac mini. And I'd buy two of them. One for a x86 AROS/Ubuntu box, and one for an efika MOS/*nix setup.

But think of the scale Silverstone and Psile can produce in. And still be so expensive as you consider them. And then what someone like Loranio can achieve in that market...

Thank god he's focusing on MiniMig! hehe

(but TheDaddy, you need to fix up Efika and SAM before Natami, Natami can still wait some months!

[arnljot]

TheDaddy wrote:
>> (but TheDaddy, you need to fix up Efika and SAM before >> Natami, Natami can still wait some months!
   
:-o  :lol:

I am drooling about the idea of making a case for those two motherboards, even though I have people pushing for a replacement A1200 case...

And I sympatize with them, But a new wedgie for the A1200 doesn't make sense. Either you have a working A1200 in a Tower or a wedgie, or you have a broken A1200 in a wedgie or a tower. Either way you do not need a new custom case for it. You might want one, but you do not need one...

ViaITX, Via PicoITX, Jetway ITX, Efika and SAM users are the one who needs cases.

Sure I can order a buttugly cheap ITX case from an online store and order a custom decal for it. But it'll be like getting drunk in a bar and settle... or - yeah you get the idea.

After seeing a hybrid mutant between the mac mini and Psile with my third eye, I've contemplated building my own from plexi. But cost of materials and tools, and lack of skills are holding me back.

The efika open client isn't ugly, but it's not pretty either. And only the GA630iBK for SAM is simple enough, but I'd spray it white and put on some amiga decals... But then I'm just glossing over again...

Requirements for a kick ass case for the Amiga users, with appeal to any ITX buyer:

- Plastic case. Three colors: White (pearl), Red (crimson), blue (midnight).
- Decals: Aros cat, morphos butterfly, amikit eye or your linux distro
- Roomy for cards: one AGP or PCI paralell to the motherboard (could be problem with samflex?) Also some Amiga people would like to have two cards: GPU and Catweasel.
- Room inside: 2.5" disk and slimline CD rom
- External front: One USB, on/off/read write led.
- External bacl: Power plug and cutout to i/o shield backplate. Backplates for Efika or sam included.
- No screws design. Itx card "snaps into place", and top can be removed from bottom plate for easy access to "innards".

Foot print, about the MacMini. Height: A bit taller than the mac mini since it'll have to fit at least one PCI/AGP card.

[arnljot]

Darrin wrote:
Strange, I get paid in US$ and I seem OK.  ;-)

Yup, just couldn't help my self. I'm not doing so okay, because US ebay and Amazon is getting more and more tempting with their offers due to the current exchange rate...

[arnljot]

TheDaddy wrote:
Cool! I have got a pre-order from Dennis...

You have mail

[arnljot]

@Darrin

I agree. A lot can be done to improve the lives of A1200 owners. However, even compared to a MiniMig project it's a strange proposal. Since making a case for A1200 is building something for a shrinking market. Building for Efika, Flex and even MiniMig is building for a growing market (Counting Efika and Flex as ITX market, and you are playing with the big'uns).

That said...

I'd love to see two products. One, a product that would reroute ITX I/O ports to a PCB strip that would fit inside the backplate of an A1200. This way owners with dead wedgies could house an ITX inside their box easily.

Two, a new wedgie. The precessor or followup to product no one. This wedgie would easily hold either a A500 or A1200 computer (some modularity to back plate? I can't be bothered to look up my A500 now).

And bundled with the I/O reroute module, with keyboard - in three parts you'd have an Amiga like wedgie computer that would host any ITX, FLEX ITX or PicoITX with ease. Perhaps some height problems, but you have some freedom...

Such a product would consist of three main parts:
1) The wedgie, also compatible with A500 and A1200
2) The IO rerouter. Two versions could exist. One for Amigas which convert PS2 to amiga signals. One for USB and PC standards (Efika and Flex etc)
3) The keyboard for the PC version. A USB keyboard that connect internally to a USB header on the IO rerouter.

It'll be expensive as h*ll. IO rerouter for Amiga would be more expensive than the case, and keyboard would only be compatible with this setup. But maybe some standard ones for medical equipment or similar products could be sourced.

Also the Amiga version of the IO router doesn't need to be made since an amiga keyboard can be used. But it could be made for those cases where a wedgie amiga keyboard doesn't exist for you anymore or in your locale.