A1200 "Slimiga" case project (fit to old blu-ray player)

[Epezpalace]

Good evening,

Not so frequent poster but I want share my project here. I haven't heard any kind of similar made. I have acquired A1200 pcb but everything around it were missing. I found that aftermarket solutions to build or buy case and keyboard are not in my budget. Donor case for this project is Philips-brand Blu-ray-player.

Nevertheless, here is some photos what is going on:

First fit with "ESD" bubblewrap

Making room for pcb as removing old plastic fittings

Yep, its a tight fit.

Planning back plate with Lyra keyboard module. No hole for PCMCIA just right now.

Now using computer aided and cardboard aided design of back plate.

And here is first version of back plate 3d printed. First I tried with metal sheet but find it hard to making any holes, cutting or bending it. Original back plate thickness is 0,5mm

Keyboard port was too near of side of the cover plate. In second model this is taken account.

Material was PLA and found that I have to use thicker thickness. It became too floppy as like 5,25" floppy discs. Too difficult connecting cables.
Also notice seam in middle of case. This project has very big homemade-stamp.

In current situation I am going to use old laptop HDD with SATA-IDE-adapter. Maybe CF-card is easier to fit it in.

And there is plastic foil covering bottom of pcb. So don't worry of short circuits.

More room for expansion slot. For expansion card I am still waiting for 8MB mem-addon. Enough for WHDLOAD.

And here is model 2 of back plate. Now with 1mm thickness and some reinforcement. Its not perfect but I learn everytime.

Currently, I have to design mounts for pcb to bottom plate.

Other TODOs:

• Proper Amiga/Commodore badges to case
• Color leds to front panel
• Maybe, GOTEK interface to front panel. Using that USB-slot and put screen where is transparent spot in the front panel.
• HDD needs proper bracket for inside install
• Cooling fans?
• PCMCIA slot hole?
• Usage for front disc drive tray ( I'm going not to put any cd/dvd-drives for it )

Maybe I need newer version of roms for proper use of that HDD. More pictures coming soon.

 

[amigean]

Looks promising, I like a challenge!

 

[CrazyC]

black translucent cover on the cd tray and use a Solas board to put an RGB LED strip behind it to turn it into Kitt from Knightrider.
Just a thought.
Cool project though.

 

[Watson]

Looking forward to seeing this finished

 

[Epezpalace]

black translucent cover on the cd tray and use a Solas board to put an RGB LED strip behind it to turn it into Kitt from Knightrider.
Just a thought.
Cool project though.

Solas board looks amazing. But I'm not sure if it be too fancy for my setup. Maybe I use cd tray cover as part of bracket for hdd. Let's see.

 

[btp]

I like your concept!
For me a floppy drive is a must but if you prefer it you can definitely replace it with a Gotek.

Keep us posted on your progress!

 

[Epezpalace]

I like your concept!
For me a floppy drive is a must but if you prefer it you can definitely replace it with a Gotek.

Keep us posted on your progress!

Thanks for respect!

I have one real external drive (need to fix it first) for use floppies but have few usable floppies.

The front of case has few openings as one for usb and couple of buttons. I'm planning to fit gotek usb-port to front case and desolder gotek function buttons for place of those round openings. And there is clear transparent section between Philips-logo and USB-port which was used for operating display. I could put gotek's oled or segment display here.

So I will keep in touch.

 

[Epezpalace]

Time for first update.

I made mounts for pcb to front side of case using M3 nuts, round head M3-screw and two hexagonal shaft with external M3-thread and 3d-printed PLA parts.

In left is part used for PCB front right. It has hexagonal hole and groove as you can see for fit it to bent metal corner of bottom plate. (see below)
And in right is part used for PCB front left. Screw head is tight fitted to round hole and that raised wall section is attached to front plate. (see below)

So here is front left fitting point how it is attached to pcb. Just round head screw and nut...

...fitted to 3d-printed part. And that wall section of printed part is attached to inside of front plate. Maybe I glued it with epoxy but now it's enough to reduce moving pcb especially when plugging power cable.

And here is front right fitting point with hex-shaft tightened with nut and...

...inserted with printed part. The groove pushed to corner of metal sheet is almost enough for fixed attachment. And off course I taken account back of pcb's smd-components which aren't harmed.

And here is fitting point of another hexagon shaft. I don't use hex-shaft internal threads at all. I will try hard epoxy to anchor those fitting points. It is necessary when this case+pcb is transported somewhere.

I also figuring out of indicator leds:

Here is slot in front panel for led attachent.

The case has good transparency I assume.

And here is another printed part fitted with semiconductor electronics. Now I really tested my printer tolerances. So hard to push those leds to place.

Some solder work to make led-resistor-wire.

And some testing.

8MB-addon fits almost perfectly. No massive plastic grinding from case.
Gotek has room with this setup. Let'see what kind of mounts it needs.

HDD to this case with SATA-IDE-adapter, long IDE-cable and buffered IDE-connector could be tough operation. Maybe I would use that for my A600 and instead order CF-adapter for this case?

 

[thabutcher]

Cool project ! following