NeXTStation

I'm cleaning out a disused work area in my office and I've pulled out a dead NeXTStation slab. I love my old NeXTs to bits and I'd love to have an everyday reason to clackle that classic keyboard.

There's about 370 x 320 available for the computer by about 50mm tall (the top surface of the existing board is 46.6mm below the top of the power supply and it's about 6mm from the top of the board to the bottom of the case.

The original power supply sits on a heatsink-plinth that's integral with the case. It is 220 x 75 x 30mm.

Of course, a decent HaCKStation (a HaCKStation TurboColor at that) would have to use an original keyboard and mouse and use the NeXT sound box for connectivity. A nice black 24" Dell or iiyama monitor would finish it off nicely.


(Photographs later. My camera is flat.)

What I have to work with...



For those of you unfamiliar with the NeXT, the casing is a die-cast magnesium alloy.

That certainly looks like a challenging project, one to follow. Have you any specific goals/design in mind or are you looking for people idea's. Obviously height is going to be you biggest issue, but again that may depend on what you want to fit in there. The desktop PSU will be a challenge to fit in the original location. But there are solutions to many of these problems.

With a build like this keeping as much of the original feel will be critical to success. Look forward to your progress.

kiwisincebirth said:

That certainly looks like a challenging project, one to follow. Have you any specific goals/design in mind or are you looking for people idea's.

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I'm still thinking in very general terms. This was a very expensive machine when it was new and I think the finished Hack should reflect that. Having said that, I don't need it to be a very powerful machine. Finish will be paramount and I want to keep my options open for further rebuilds.

kiwisincebirth said:

Obviously height is going to be you biggest issue, but again that may depend on what you want to fit in there. The desktop PSU will be a challenge to fit in the original location. But there are solutions to many of these problems.

Click to expand...

Yes. Power, heat and graphics.
One way to go would be an external power supply. Another would be something like the FSP180 that alancury used http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F4O155Q/ here. It's 170 x 85 x 42.5mm and could sit where the floppy drive is. There's plenty of room up on the heatsink-plinth for 2.5" discs.
I'd still have room for a thin mini-ITX and might manage a graphics processor beside it on a riser.

kiwisincebirth said:

With a build like this keeping as much of the original feel will be critical to success.

Click to expand...

Absolutely.

Here's an item on getting the NeXT keyboard onto USB.
https://learn.adafruit.com/usb-next-keyboard-with-arduino-micro