G4 Cube Inspired Self Build

[kiwisincebirth]

Those antennas are terrific Kiwi. Much cleaner than an exterior setup, which is ok on something like a Cube where its out of sight, but would take away from a build like this one. Great work...

I had a plan a while back for external (rear mounted) antennas but changed my mind. BTW I have been testing the WIFI for a few days, and it is a bit flakey so have order some different ones to try out.

 

[kiwisincebirth]

Nice work Kiwi!

This really looks amazing!

keep going!

Rick,

Dont worry I can see the finish line now so picking up the pace, most of the hard work is done, just little small things left to do.

Front and Rear Panels

So did a little more work today and finished (filing and cleaning) the front and rear panels of the case.

The dark piece is 3mm thick, light grey tinted acrylic that will fill the gap in the aluminium panel (rear in picture). The acrylic is essential to allow the G4 Cube Power Switch to be seen, and allow WIFI signals out of the case

The acrylic was cut slightly larger than the hole, and a lip cut along the edge. The lip was first cut with a dremel cutting disk, then filed down for a reasonably tight fit.

Assembly is simply by putting the aluminium panel over the acrylic. The acrylic is almost flush and the lip is hidden from view.

Front and back panels are completely identical.

HELP: Need any suggestions (?) on the type of adhesive to use to bond these pieces together. Something that dries clear so won't be seen. Needs be plastic friendly, i.e. no dissolving. The lip isn't perfectly flat so needs to fill in these gaps. Lastly should be easy to wipe off if any oozes out the front.

 

[eelhead]

HELP: Need any suggestions (?) on the type of adhesive to use to bond these pieces together. Something that dries clear so won't be seen. Needs be plastic friendly, i.e. no dissolving. The lip isn't perfectly flat so needs to fill in these gaps. Lastly should be easy to wipe off if any oozes out the front.

Locktite Quicktite

http://www.henkelna.com/loctite-quicktite-instant-adhesive-gel-super-glue-6234.htm

I use this alot, home and work and have used it on my builds, works great thus far.

 

[kiwisincebirth]

Locktite Quicktite

http://www.henkelna.com/loctite-quicktite-instant-adhesive-gel-super-glue-6234.htm

I use this alot, home and work and have used it on my builds, works great thus far.

Thanks for the suggestion, will try this out. Been a bit busy this weekend but did manage to start gluing the side panels together.

 

[kiwisincebirth]

Panel Assembly

Over the weekend I glued the four main panels together. First four corner brackets on the top and bottom panels.

Then glued the top panel to the side panels. I choose to do this actually on the computer itself, it seemed the simpler option than trying to construct a rig specifically for the purpose, and my clamp just fitted.

The I did the same for the lower panel (containing IO ports).

While this was drying I took a good picture showing how one of the corners fits together with the top frame

Here is the final result showing the frame separated from the computer.

Now the next major task is to paint the frame. A bit over three hundred holes on top to be filed out (for best result), in retrospect should have done this before I glued it.

 

[ersterhernd]

Wow! You're putting a pile of work into this, I'm really looking forward to see what is ends up like at the end!


Great job so far...

 

[kiwisincebirth]

Wow! You're putting a pile of work into this, I'm really looking forward to see what is ends up like at the end! Great job so far...

Thanks. It may be a couple of weeks before next update (some painting todo) so I exported the animation out of Sketchup and uploaded to Youtube. Enjoy.

[video=youtube_share;9zQLPgDFBiE]http://youtu.be/9zQLPgDFBiE[/video]

 

[iCubeFan]

The Final Result

<Will be inserted at the end of the project>

The Parts List

• IO Gear Bluetooth 4.0 adapter, from recommended build

Hi Kiwi

How is this adapter working for you? It worked fine for me but after a reboot I'm having all kind of issues (lagging, gesture not recognized..)

Cheers

 

[kiwisincebirth]

[/LIST]

Hi Kiwi

How is this adapter working for you? It worked fine for me but after a reboot I'm having all kind of issues (lagging, gesture not recognized..)

Cheers

the only time i have had any issues is when batteries in devices are getting low, or when devices arnt close enough to the usb dongle i.e. range is not great.

 

[iCubeFan]

Thanks Kiwi. I had two bluetooth receivers installed, the external iogear dongle and an internal wifi-BT card ( with BT not working 100%). The dongle works fantastically but MacOSX defaults to the internal BT after rebooting.