Connection Machine II Case Mod.

[looney]

 

 
The Original:
My favorite case of all time is that of the Connection Machine II (CM-2).
This is a supercomputer from 1987 it takes the form of a cube 1.5 meters on a side, divided equally into eight smaller cubes.
In each of these cubes you would find 16 PCB holding 32 CPU's each.
And all of those CPU's had their own activity LED on the front of the case giving you this amazing matrix of flickering LED's:
 
 

 
 
The LED's:
Sadly my computer wont have a 4096 core CPU, so I needed to think of another way to have the LED's.
I ended up going fot 64 8x8 LED matrix boards that will be controlled by 4 Arduino UNO micro controllers.
The LED's will still be influenced by the PC as I will use the HDD activity pin change the LED's as randomly as possible.
 
 
The Case:
I will construct my case out of MDF and it will be 60CM x 60CM.
It will take a while for me to start working on the case as I want to make the LED panels first.
I have however made a rough design in SketchUp:
 
 

Front of the case with its glorious 4096 LED's
 
 

Closeup on the I/O, 2 of the knobs will be for power and reset and 2 will be for the LED's.
 
 

Another awesome feature of the case is the grill between all cubes.
 
 

The top of the case will also be ventilated.
 
 

I don't really care about the PC hardware (its all about the case), so I will have a section that can slide out on rails which should offer enough place for all the PC hardware.
 
 
Planning:
Again, this build will take a while, I just ordered some of the LED panels and a Arduino so I can start on that soon.
Once I'm happy with the LED panels and the design I will start on the actual case.
I'm also constantly getting new ideas, my most recent one was to use a RFID receiver to start the PC by simply dropping my key-chain (containing a RFID) on my desk where the reader will be

[RatedBlam]

Oh my lord, and I'm at the moment struggling with putting text on a video Good luck with the build, looks awesome already

[upliftsleet1974]

That is going to be epic!!

[ERSCreeper]

Sign me up for a truck load of awesome.

[Guest]

Wohoha! Build Logs of the Week are comming!!!

[looney]

I posted in the wrong section.

o0 the irony

[Vampire2.0]

build of the week incoming!!! @LinusTech and @Slick

[Samdb]

I'll take two please.

[looney]

I like it. What is the time scale of this mod going to be?

 

Wohoha! Build Logs of the Week are comming!!!

 

build of the week incoming!!! @LinusTech and @Slick

 

Best time-frame estimate I could give would be "months"  

So think along the lines of LinusTech's build. 

 

 

Sign me up for a truck load of awesome.

 

That is going to be epic!!

 

Oh my lord, and I'm at the moment struggling with putting text on a video Good luck with the build, looks awesome already

Thanks guys

 

I'll take two please.

Build one yourself

Ill put the design online when they are done

[alpenwasser]

*insert strong language emphasizing enthusiasm*

Dammit, now I want a 4096 core CPU.

[Anult]

This case mod is a nice way of looking at the past while also hinting at the future.

 

Can't wait to see how this comes along, best of luck!

[juretrn]

Sweet Jesus, it's epic! Can't wait to see more.

[megadarkwood]

You said that you would give me the plans  :wub:

[TheSLSAMG]

 

Oh god, it shall be beautiful.

[Glenwing]

Moved to Build Logs section

[Liam-McShane]

[hiyayhi]

Alright! Insta follow.

[CyBaNeTiiKz]

Loving the idea of this! Cant wait for it!

[AxelPeeters]

If that case works out well , then you have the best , coolest , most stylish , awesome and most original case  B)

[HCP]

 

 

The Original:

My favorite case of all time is that of the Connection Machine II (CM-2).

This is a supercomputer from 1987 it takes the form of a cube 1.5 meters on a side, divided equally into eight smaller cubes.

In each of these cubes you would find 16 PCB holding 32 CPU's each.

And all of those CPU's had their own activity LED on the front of the case giving you this amazing matrix of flickering LED's:

 

 

 

The LED's:

Sadly my computer wont have a 4096 core CPU, so I needed to think of another way to have the LED's.

I ended up going fot 64 8x8 LED matrix boards that will be controlled by 4 Arduino UNO micro controllers.

The LED's will still be influenced by the PC as I will use the HDD activity pin change the LED's as randomly as possible.

 

 

The Case:

I will construct my case out of MDF and it will be 60CM x 60CM.

It will take a while for me to start working on the case as I want to make the LED panels first.

I have however made a rough design in SketchUp:

 

 

Front of the case with its glorious 4096 LED's

 

 

Closeup on the I/O, 2 of the knobs will be for power and reset and 2 will be for the LED's.

 

 

Another awesome feature of the case is the grill between all cubes.

 

 

The top of the case will also be ventilated.

 

 

I don't really care about the PC hardware (its all about the case), so I will have a section that can slide out on rails which should offer enough place for all the PC hardware.

 

 

Planning:

Again, this build will take a while, I just ordered some of the LED panels and a Arduino so I can start on that soon.

Once I'm happy with the LED panels and the design I will start on the actual case.

I'm also constantly getting new ideas, my most recent one was to use a RFID receiver to start the PC by simply dropping my key-chain (containing a RFID) on my desk where the reader will be

Let me tell ya, you have alot of work ahead of you

I started my CM2 in May and only had the panels cut yet, programming the lights and making the panels to hold them takes... yeah, hours

Looking forward to your creation, you probably end up finished before me, i do mine in acrylic and smaller, about 45x45cm.

Let me know if you need any information about the CM2, i had contact with the creators of it and have alot of specs if you need anything to complete your project!

A quick hint, you have too much space between each cube in relation to scale. Insert a image on a CM2 and scale the image to get better spacing and the end result will get better too!

I may have scale skp files if they are any help for you.

Have a good trip, will watch your build log!

[WunderWuffle]

Let me tell ya, you have alot of work ahead of you

I started my CM2 in May and only had the panels cut yet, programming the lights and making the panels to hold them takes... yeah, hours

Looking forward to your creation, you probably end up finished before me, i do mine in acrylic and smaller, about 45x45cm.

Let me know if you need any information about the CM2, i had contact with the creators of it and have alot of specs if you need anything to complete your project!

A quick hint, you have too much space between each cube in relation to scale. Insert a image on a CM2 and scale the image to get better spacing and the end result will get better too!

I may have scale skp files if they are any help for you.

Have a good trip, will watch your build log!

Dont quote pics!

[HCP]

Dont quote pics!

I quoted the pics i was talking about, not all pics as you can see.

I removed two more to keep it smaller.

[WunderWuffle]

I quoted the pics i was talking about, not all pics as you can see.I removed two more to keep it smaller.

Oh, I am completely sorry. I thought you just quoted the pics. My bad.

[Dev.]

10/10 would use. Probably one of the most interesting cases I've seen in a while. Can't wait to see this thing finished.

[looney]

Let me tell ya, you have alot of work ahead of you

I started my CM2 in May and only had the panels cut yet, programming the lights and making the panels to hold them takes... yeah, hours

Looking forward to your creation, you probably end up finished before me, i do mine in acrylic and smaller, about 45x45cm.

Let me know if you need any information about the CM2, i had contact with the creators of it and have alot of specs if you need anything to complete your project!

A quick hint, you have too much space between each cube in relation to scale. Insert a image on a CM2 and scale the image to get better spacing and the end result will get better too!

I may have scale skp files if they are any help for you.

Have a good trip, will watch your build log!

Cool, nice to see a second one.

the dimensions of my case largely rely on the size of my LED pannels, I will still make the grill smaller but I probably cant make them the same ratio as the original because of the thinness of the wood and the needed space in the case.

But like I said, main focus for now will be the electronics.

Also, feel free to PM me with as much information as possible