Making Tag Mclaren Lemonade....

[AlienALX]

OK so it would appear I got lemons. However, I always had a back up plan.

So I have been looking for a TMC CD transport since I started my AV rig many years ago. Problem is they cost too much for how much I would use them. As such I waited for a player in poor condition to come along, hoping I could possibly repair it. 

 

I knew from the outside it had been tampered with, but obviously I had no idea about what had gone on inside. When it arrived the laser was in pieces, but I think this was a ploy by the seller to slow me down finding out that really it was dead. This is what it looked like.

 

 

 

 

Now you may have thought I was nuts spending several hours doing this.

 

 

 

Before trying to fix the laser, but like I said I have always had a back up plan in place. In fact, I have been looking for a shell for years.

 

 

One slot empty. However, I had a media PC but obviously it didn't fit well into the stack. I recased it and moved it to the side but that made it even worse.

 

So, I decided to go through with my plan. My friend still has this that I sold him that was the media PC.

 

 

That is the most critical part. It is a quad core "On chip" Celeron, and it is passive. It is more than man enough for 4k movies and streaming too, as I found out when I had it last.

BTW I am not doing this lightly. What I mean is, if it could be repaired professionally I would send it to a professional. Sadly someone got there before me and has basically ruined it. Look at this.

 

 

It is just full of bodge wires and god knows what else. Look at these broken traces.

 

 

It has been done very very poorly.

 

I am no expert but I am 99% sure I know what is wrong with it. I also know how a pro would repair it. See, it is supposed to look like this inside.

 

 

The thing in the middle is made from metal, and has shielding on the back. It is soldered through the main under board covering up the CD transport board. This one.

 

 

There are two procedures required to do it proplerly. 1, unsolder that cover. 2, unsolder the stacking pins that hold the board into the bottom main board.

 

Neither of these were done. That is why none of the capacitors match, as they soldered them in up top (wrong, they are through components) and yeah the whole thing has basically been butchered.

Now when I said I knew what was likely to be wrong with it? I meant it. It will be those Philips chips there that control everything.

 

When I fitted the new laser the tray opened and closed extremely slowly. Like it wasn't getting enough power. The laser bobbed up and down even slower, and the CD spun for about half a resolution before it stopped and "ERROR" came up on the screen. Bear in mind, this was a brand new laser assembly.

 

If it had not been butchered I would send it away for professional repair, but I don't want them thinking that I did something so horrific.

So yeah, I hope that explains why I do not feel bad about what I am about to do.

 

I stripped it last night. I removed the sockets from the IO on the back as I will be using those again. The idea here is to keep it looking as normal and original as possible. I then measured up to see what I could do PSU wise, and settled on this. It was £22 delivered.

 

 

350w Gold rated. More than I will ever need. It is also brand new, which was nice. I am going to change the whiny fan for a Noctua. I then measured out the whole inside. It is 55mm high in there, the PSU is 40mm. I laid it out like this. Yup, I am going to put a DVD drive in there.

 

 

Now you may be wondering why the parts are sitting like that. It is because I am going to fit them "remotely". I did this with a Mac mod I did a long time ago. Here, like this.

 

 

Again it is so I do not need to go full gangsta and cut up the shell. I will run the cables from the board into connectors like that. In fact, I still have all of those.

OK. So stage one? do something with the display.

 

The display on the CD unit is a little disappointing when compared to the 7.1 pre amp. Like, the wording on it is not generated, but made from whole words. So like, "PLAY" and "ERROR" are fixed. It does not have a boot screen like the AV unit either, as that is a far better screen. So, last night I cut all of the legs from the LCD screen to get it out of the way. Under it was a blue filter (important) and a piece of opaque acrylic to diffuse the light from behind.

 

 

Ignore the arrows. I was going to cut it apart along those lines, but have now had a better plan.

OK, so this is the screen on a AV32.

 

 

It is blue tinted btw. IDK why in stock pics it looks like that. So, I started to think about what I wanted it to say. I am going to keep all of the buttons (those will control things like opening the DVD drive later) and the power LED etc. All of that will be connected. So I had this idea.

 

 

Hmm nah.

 

 

Nope not the same.

 

 

Jackpot it's identical !

 

So I cut it. God it was a nightmare. So smol and my eyes are so bad.

 

 

I had to take a break... Any way.

 

 

 

lmao. Soooo good. I am going to cover that with some smoked acrylic, and use the original diffuser also.

 

Happy with the day's work I bought this.

 

 

And this.

 

[AlienALX]

OK so wifi is out. I had the wrong board. Asrock do a B version with no wifi socket. Have cancelled that !.

 

I just did one of the few mods the actual chassis needs. There is an area where the original PSU is built in. I needed it gone. I thought about cutting all the way along and getting the welded in bolts out, then I realised it was spot welded.

 

 

It's kinda in reverse. I was too busy thinking about doing it than taking pics. But this is what I removed.

 

 

That side wall ruined the layout, and yeah welded in posts and a bolt. It looked something like this.

 

[AlienALX]

OK so a couple of late night Ebay purchases.

 

Firstly I offered up my new display to the tinted acrylic I bought for another job. The blue looked far too bright. So, I dug in the waste basket and dug out the LCD panel I had liberated. It is dark. Oh so dark... I don't want it looking tacky, so I bit the bullet and bought some of this. A5, it was only £4.

 

 

Which will be perfect. I then thought some more about the HDMI socket, as it was the only unknown, and the only thing I may have to cut into the rear panel for.

 

As it happens square thing in round hole.

 

 

And a 20cm patch cable to take it to the mobo.

 

[AlienALX]

sake. Don't post before you have finished coffee ! it will go in the balanced output hole in the pic.

 

[AlienALX]

OK so today's job - start thinking about the drive. As funny as it sounds it will probably be the hardest part of this. Well, other than the LCD which I already did. What I mean is, getting it in there in the correct position with the cover panel on the front and all lined up and working will be the most work. Well, that and removing said front cover.

 

The first thing I wanted to do was remove said cover. Thing is, the drive is heavy and has a whacking lump of metal attached. So, I removed the metal. I then took the entire drive apart, removing all of the annoying dangling wires.

 

I then started to pry and poke. I had to get a little rough, but eventually I heard that "schloop" noise as glue starts to let go. So, I pulled and pried a little harder. POP !

 

 

You can see what they used there. Yup, that is 3M tape lmao. What amazed me? it is solid. Like, that metal cover is a solid piece of billet that has been machined and it is *heavy*.

 

I then started tossing it all in a trash bag. However, I was being nagged by the carrier. So, I got out the ruler.

 

 

See that? 5 and 1/4 inches LOL. I decided to keep that. I will use it to hold the drive, once I cut some hole rails in it.

 

I've also decided to paint the insides, and make it all look nice. For no other reason than I have absolutely nothing better to do

 

I then went and bought a drive. Thought about getting a used one, but given I need to customise the drive itself and would hate for it to die I got a brand new one for £17. Not worth the risk over a tenner, given the amount of fiddling it will require.

 

[AlienALX]

OK so that should be about it for today. I need to dig out a momentary switch and CNC a holder for it, then mod the original power button onto it.

Let's talk about the sound.

 

I had a media PC with the same board in it a while ago. This one.

 

 

I tried a variety of sound cards, but my fave was my trusty old STX

 

 

This will be mounted on top of the PSU. I will even try to use the original signed TMC shield. I have this ribbon somewhere at home.

 

 

So it won't be hard to connect up. I will then take a 75 ohm digital RCA, plug it into the sound card, lop off the other end and solder it directly to the connectors on the back of the unit.

 

Since having to get rid (I got a new larger TV on a new larger TV stand and doubled up my front stage, so there is nowhere to put a PC) I have gone to using my Fire TV cube to listen to music. It's not great. It also pops when playing HD music, I would imagine because it doesn't support it properly? IDK.

 

So with that sorted I ordered some fans. One for the PSU, the other two might need to be fitted but I will only do that if it gets too warm in there.

 

 

As well as a fan hub, because the board is very short on connectors.

[AlienALX]

Hmm actually no, let's sort the power button.

 

First thing I did was dig for anti vandal switches. Seems I had two in my drawer 'o crap.

 

This project is a funny one, because it is almost like it has been waiting for me. I only had to file for around 30 seconds.

 

 

Ignore the braid. That will get replaced with black.

 

 

So the issue was getting the original button to work with it. I stuck it on, but it is too big to press the button.

 

 

Well, I say stuck it on, I just used the adhesive still left on it. It came straight off after.

 

I then measured the travel of the original with a vernier, how far it needed to be from the button and the diameter of the button. I need to CNC an adapter to sit between the Tag power button and the momentary button.

 

 

11mm circle. Will calculate the thickness in a minute, but will no doubt need to make one of out 6mm and then machine down some 3mm to get the right thickness.

[AlienALX]

Right, so I threw that into Easel. Been a while !

 

 

The shim needs to be 7.5mm long with a diameter of 10.5mm. So I welded two scrap bits together. a 6.19mm and a 2.91. So I need to machine that down to 7.5, then cut a circle out of it. Will set the machine up tomorrow.

 

 

Also asked my pal to 3D print me a new, non gorilla attacked one of these.

 

 

[AlienALX]

OK been very busy, so time for an update.

 

The fans arrived. They are 140mm. FFS. So they need to go back.

 

My friend modelled the LED box.

 

 

That is getting printed. I machined the power button post.

 

 

And fitted it, first to the power button.

 

 

Oh and machined an IO cover.

 

I then fitted the anti vandal switch with the now glued in post and put the front back together. At which point I used more JB weld to connect the original Tag Mclaren power button to the post. That is now one entity. It also sticks out of the front to the exact position it did before, so that was awesome.

 

 

With that done I turned my attention to the HDMI socket. Amazingly it dropped right in, and one of the screw holes even lined up. What are the odds?

 

 

So another job was done. I also removed the digital output sockets from the original board, removed all of the spares I wanted and then binned it.

 

I then did this.

 

In went the dark acrylic piece I machined.

 

 

Then in goes the new faux screen.

 

 

Then the opaque diffuser.

 

 

And then finally the original PCB.

 

 

Which holds it all in. Then with it flipped it looks like this.

 

 

OK so like I said, it was all going far too well. So, it was time to be bitten on the ass several times.

 

The DVD drive arrived. What I have done here is remove the front cover bezel, and the tray bezel, and soldered wires onto the eject button to be connected to the original board's open close button.

 

 

I then closed it up.

 

 

And then found out I had a big problem. I put in a temporary floor whilst I wait for the flat black acrylic to arrive. I then taped down the drive in the perfect position, after putting some spacers on the front of it so it could sit flat against the steel inner panel.

 

 

At which point I could place the original Tag Mclaren bezel into the face and yeah, it all lined up very well.

 

 

Other than some touch ups I thought I was done. Note, thought. I figured the last thing to try before calling that done (and making mount holes etc) was to force eject the drive (no PSU around) and make sure it comes out OK. And this was where the hype train derailed, and burst into flames before blowing up.

 

 

Can you see the marks on the face of the drive? those are from me trying to pull the tray out through the front with pliers. In short? the openings in the Tag Mclaren are too small. That left me two options.

 

1. Attempt to modify the tray and make it narrower. It is around 1.7mm too wide. Height is absolutely fine.

2. Send the entire front panel down to my friend to mill out professionally, and then touch up the insides of the opening with paint.

 

By this time it was 10pm the night before I had to leave. Like a total idiot I chose option 1. Total idiot because I did not want to try it as I knew that tray would be extruded plastic and likely melt if I tried to cut it, but also then if the drive ever failed I would need to do all of that again. Unsurprisingly as soon as I tried to cut it it did indeed melt and I trashed a brand new DVD drive. /facepalm.

 

By this stage it was midnight, I was tired, and extremely pissed off. So, I packed it all away, cursed a few times and went to sleep.

 

I then arrived home the next day, licked my wounds, asked my friend if he would mill the front panel (and he agreed) and started sourcing parts.

 

I then hit fail 2.

 

 

The good news.

 

I had the really nice PCIE 1 lane ribbon I was hoping I still had.

I had the Xonar STX.

I even found a 30cm HDMI cable after realising the one I bought was too short (being 20cm).

 

The bad news.

 

After measuring the sound card I knew I had fudged up. I had 15mm to put it on top of the PSU, the only place it would fit, and it is 22mm. This meant I would either need to remove every single last capacitor (of which there are about 20) AND all of the audio sockets AND the copper shield.

 

After the cluster fudge of the DVD drive? I realised it was not going to work, and trying to make it work would cost me a very expensive and pristine sound card. Not exactly filled with confidence (more panic) I realised yeah, leave well alone.

 

Then I had a brain wave. See, I had one of these in a pile that was going to be given to my pals.

 

 

USB in, that can work (ordered a 50cm cable A to B) and digital out. Super. Just one thing nagging me. Whilst it would totally fit and totally work again it is a sledge hammer where a toffee hammer is needed. IE, 99% of that sound card would do absolutely nothing. The relays, sound chip, DAC, op amps and god knows what else (oh and volume knob) would do bugger all. So I decided to look for another solution. And I found one !

 

 

Cost? £5. What is it? well, it is sort of a DAC. It has two functions. The first is a DAC, which I wasn't interested in. The second function? is a USB digital audio interface. It uses a Texas Instruments PCM2704 chip. Which is basically sort of a USB sound card? but on a very basic level. Moreover, the function I want is the digital side. All I need is a device that can take a USB signal, work without a driver, and turn that into a digital audio signal which can be outputted through the unit. From there? it goes into the AV32 cinema surround unit, which has DACs a plenty. IE, it will not colour or tamper with the digital signal AT ALL and leave it down to my surround processor.

 

Superb. The added bonus? it is fudging TINY so won't be an enormous dick pain to get in there.

 

I have also bought a used Sony DVD drive.

 

 

Which will need the same basic conversions and soldering as the one I killed lol.

 

Oh and I found a baggy of blue LEDs, so I will be running the activity light out of it into the front panel also.

 

 

Not sure if I posted this either, but I also bought a media remote.

 

 

 

[AlienALX]

Things I may have forgotten. 

 

The board I have is not the one I thought it was. It is the B revision.

 

 

That does not have a WIFI M2. So that was a waste of money. However, I got around that. First by ordering this.

 

 

And then this.

 

 

There is a pilot hole in the back of the unit where it used to screw into the original main board. So all I need to do is enlarge that, fit the antenna socket and run it back into the USB card before installing the antenna on the back.

[AlienALX]

OK so one last bit for the sound part.

 

 

It's a USB isolator. Also stops power spikes and etc. Good thing is it has a switch to turn it on and off, so I can see if it causes any sound degradation. It shouldn't because it has a proper Analogue Devices chip on it.

 

I've also ordered another A3 sheet of acrylic. Mainly for the small pieces I will need, and the PSU cap (will explain that at a later date, no point now I can't design it until I have the PSU to measure).

[AlienALX]

OK so I figured out what OS I am going to use a couple of days back. It's called LibreElec and is basically, from what I can see, a type of Linux that is shaved down to almost nothing and boots straight into Kodi. Problem is I have never used Kodi. I thought it was just a way to pirate and steal, so I figured I should install it on my Fire stick first to see if it does what I need.

 

What a wally. I've been using VLC, which is incredibly basic and old fashioned as a front end.

 

 

Took me literally two minutes to access my server and be playing music. And, it does not have the audio issues that VLC does on high res flac. Obviously that will be less of an issue on a PC with a better sound device, but still. Apparently if you have a drive installed (DVD BR etc) a disc icon appears on the side and yeah, it will play DVDs too.

 

Sorted.

[AlienALX]

Long story short.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RollinLower]

this is stupid amounts of cool. following!

[AlienALX]

Thanks dude.

 

The main aim was to keep it looking as untouched as possible. TBH? that is why it has been so horribly difficult.

 

I've seen many, many people turn things into computers that were never computers, but they always seem to look like they have been modded afterwards.

 

Oddly (and I have never really been into upcycling) I seem to get the biggest kick every time I save something on it from the trash. Like, modding that light board so it can be reused was one of the most satisfying parts yet.

 

Sadly my friend is very busy with life at the moment. His mother suffers from Alzheimers and she is really not well. As such I have had to forego the 3d printed light box. It's fine, I would rather him not get wound up doing things for me right now. As such I am going to make one using what I have.

 

 

That is white 5mm. I am going to machine three hollow frames, and a solid back. Then plastic weld them together. The LED board will go in at the top, so replacing blown LEDs will be easy. Tag Mclaren put them in the bottom, making it almost impossible.

 

I also had to come up with a way to hold the motherboard in. Sadly you can't  put anything through the floor, as it will stop the original bottom panel going back on. So I bought some M3 10mm long counter sunk bolts.

 

 

These will be drilled and tapped to go through the bottom upward into the inside. I will then drop the board onto them and use small nuts to hold the board down. It's things like this that have taken all of the brain power tbh. Like, figuring out ways to do things without getting out the Dremel and hacking lumps out of everything. 

[AlienALX]

First machining fail in an absolute age. The funny part is this was the first piece I ever machined, and it too was a failure LOL. Ah well. Lemondade.... Lemonade...

 

 

I really don't know why it let go. I didn't skimp on double sided tape either. Oh well, it happens. Problem is I don't have any more 5mm in any colour. That said I think the root of  the problem was using a 2mm bit. God knows why I did that. I guess I thought bigger meant best, and it would go faster. Which is daft, given it absolutely will not.

 

So, I had to design it as I would a speaker box.

 

 

And am cutting it from 3mm now.

[AlienALX]

I bought some things. Cheap things !

 

First up I have lost all but one of my USB sticks. The remaining one is a bit dodgy, so I got a new pair for £6.

 

 

I also got these. These will hold things like the digital coaxial cable and so on to the sides and back for tidy routing.

 

 

I then had a thought. The PCIE slot is going to be empty. There isn't much you can do with it tbh. It is a full sized X16, but has only two lanes. Hmm. What can I put in there?

 

I don't want to host the OS on the 1tb SATA SSD really. It will use a tiny bit of space, but will inevitably be slower to boot. I then had a thought ! Optane. These are hella reliable, and too small to be of any use for anything now (apart from this lmao) and they are cheap as chips. £9 got me the Optane and the adapter board.

 

[AlienALX]

OK well that was really annoying LOL. IDK what got lost in translation, but it was totally too big. So after cutting it down I realised it would not fit under the 6mm DVD holder. This is what happens when you measure up a job before another is done haha. So I erm, "Adjusted" it

 

 

Wrapped the inside with white 3M.

 

 

Give it some of the sticky stuffs.

 

 

 

 

 

I am very glad that is over.

[AlienALX]

Things now done.

 

PSU cover label has been laminated with 3M helicopter tape.

SSD fitted (look behind the DVD drive)

Antenna cable fitted.

Optical digital cable fitted and soldered. The white goo is liquid tape.

SATA cables fitted. Forgot to say, I got braided ones with my Z590 Aorus Tachyon. Nice.

HDMI cable fitted.

The molex spare connector has been stuck to the rear. That isn't just floating around.

Cable clips fitted. Power cables to the drives has been tidied, along with the digital coaxial cable.

PSU is now stuck down.

 

I *think* that is all of it, but I did have a marathon sesh so feel free to ogle the pic and see if you can spot anything else

 

[AlienALX]

I just repaired the power button wire that had come off. I also found my 2mm solder wire which was why it was crap to begin with... With that fixed I shortened down the molex cable to the light box, and stuck that inside the front. I also glued the light box down, and tidied its cable.

 

I then realised that the digital coaxial cable was going to be a pain. It is thick, and doesn't like to be bent around. The digital audio interface will be sideways on, so I got these.

 

 

I tested the cheapo remote I bought last night. It works very well, but there is nowhere to fit the sensor. I don't know anything about IR, so I don't know if I could have used the original. The biggest problem is the drive covers it completely. I also wasn't sure if it would work with Linux. So, I grabbed this for a tenner, which is 2.4ghz and does work with Linux.

 

 

I will need the keyboard too for signing into wifi.

[AlienALX]

OK so I didn't do an awful lot today, but what I did was very important. The first job of the day of course was to fix the broken power button wire. I know why it failed, too. The solder wire I have is so stupidly thin that it is almost impossible to tin anything properly. You end up having to shove about a foot of it onto the iron. I then found my 2mm, so that was awesome. I then cut off the molex run and shortened it down to one connector for the light box. Which was then tucked and tidied to make room at the front.

 

 

 

 

The "half an EPS" needs to go too. I then got out the bottom panel. It had four of the feet you see at the back on. Not original. Thankfully when I bought one of my amps the guy who sold it to me sent me two spare feet. They are not original either, but are the original colours and made from the same stuff (sorbethane). So that was cool. I had to fit countersunk bolts to those, to stop it not going down flat.

 

 

 

Two screws no longer fit, but I can "adjust" that later. I just wanted it fitted back on.

Last week I made up the power cable, to match all of the others in the system.

 

 

 

So that was another job ticked off.

[AlienALX]

Just a brief one for today. Obviously I am now waiting on more stuffs to arrive. But good news ! a friend of a friend over that way is coming over tomorrow, and will deliver the board etc for me. Orsum.

 

I did do a couple of tiny bits though. The first thing worrying me was the incredibly stiff HDMI cable. So I bought a specialty flexible one yesterday.

 

 

Cost very little, but will make life much easier for sure. I then found an assortment of the correct type of screw in the scrap box from when I stripped it and then proceeded to cut them all down so they don't bow the acrylic floor. This took some doing, but after a bit of that and some drilling to make the missing ones go in it was done.

 

 

BTW that misty crap all over it? bah. I didn't realise what that was until it refused to go away after the alchol I used to clean it had evaporated. It is paint. Silver over spray from when Mr Dingus got out 'is penz innit. So I will need to clean that about 4 times now, like the front, to get off every bit and stop it smearing. Thankfully there is none on the top (I hope !).

 

I also bought the cable that will connect it to the AV32. I realised last night that in my experiments I hacked up the only other digital cable I had lmao.

 

 

Got a posh one, 'cause why not (well when I say posh I paid £25 for it, about the same as I spent on the other analogue ones).

[AlienALX]

So sound solution still to be done it is almost there. I thought I was going to have to redo the ATX connector to shorten it but it seems it was the perfect length.

 

 

Set it up.

 

 

 

One very quick installation later.

 

English DVD (Region 2?)

 

 

US DVD (Region 1)

 

 

Oooo really?

 

 

*grin*

 

[AlienALX]

Realised I had an issue shortly after. When I tried to install a weather add on it was coming up with an error. Rebooting it? same errors. I then installed a video add on, same. Just errors. Eventually I realised it was the USB WIFI. Even though it installs, and shows up, and lets you pick a connection and put in the password for the WIFI? it doesn't work any further.

 

Had a dig in an old build of mine and pulled out the Asus WIFI card.

 

 

And *now* it works.

[AlienALX]

 

 

This will have screw posts mounted into it for the sound device.

 

 

I wanted it off the floor so it wouldn't get covered in wires and tangled etc.