Some advice on my S4 Frankenstein job?
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Some advice on my S4 Frankenstein job? Posted on: 25.07.2011 by Wallace Disharoon The justification:After mixing trance, electro, and progressive for the past year, I've finally moved on to the champagne of electronic music: Tech House. I now find that I have the brain power to mix four decks and use four fx decks. After forgetting my laptop across the state, I used my big tower rig with a 1080p monitor to play with the s4 a little. Instant addiction to the screen real estate. Came across a little money after selling a part of off my open wheel race car and decided it was time to upgrade from my pos 13" windows laptop. I decided I wanted to run osx due to the random issues I had with my windows rig..... I was soon to find that to get a 1080p or higher Macbook I had to get a current generation 17" pro.... Came to find that most of these current gens 17's are at least $1600 used... F that shit... I decided I'd rather build something odd... I needed to brush up on my solidworks anyways. Decided to build some kind of a hybrid between an s4, hackintosh, flight case, and big ass 22" led monitor. The chassis will be made of 3x3in t6061 aluminum angle and flat stock welded together. I ordered a bunch of brackets, hardware, and corner covers from fastenal... including a nice locking hinge for the monitor. Also managed to find a bunch of electronics bulkhead fittings to replicate the back of the s4 on the outside of the chassis. I decided to control the computer with a magic touchpad/keyboard connected by a "magic wand". I have some nylon round stock that I'll notch to allow the assembly to slide in and out of the front of the chassis. .....Alright that was a little long... the actual point of this post is to crowd source some ideas before I actually weld the thing together and finish it up in the next few weeks. You can see in the last photo I had another iteration in which the chassis included my kontrol x1... I decided it would be better to ax that idea and just use a smaller psu to keep the footprint down. In this final form the monitor will actually fit inside the footprint when folded down. | |
| Faustino Stringfellow 03.09.2011 |
Originally Posted by ffrgtm
PROTECT YOUR SCREEN !!! In the short time i was using my rig, i broke a 19" monitor, 19" touchscreen, replacement 19" touchscreen and a 17" monitor. The screen was protected (not enough as the evidence shows) and the whole unit was built into a road ready flightcase ... the slightest knock whilst in the boot of your car, etc. could cause you a really big headache as you open it up ready for the gig ... i did one gig with only half a screen once ....not my best moment i can add! good luck with project completion, it looks interesting |
| Wallace Disharoon 02.09.2011 |
Originally Posted by Zaniac
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| Faustino Stringfellow 03.09.2011 |
Originally Posted by ffrgtm
PROTECT YOUR SCREEN !!! In the short time i was using my rig, i broke a 19" monitor, 19" touchscreen, replacement 19" touchscreen and a 17" monitor. The screen was protected (not enough as the evidence shows) and the whole unit was built into a road ready flightcase ... the slightest knock whilst in the boot of your car, etc. could cause you a really big headache as you open it up ready for the gig ... i did one gig with only half a screen once ....not my best moment i can add! good luck with project completion, it looks interesting |
| Kathleen Schlicht 02.09.2011 | maan im impressed!! thats Fknn AWESOME DUDE!! |
| Random X 02.09.2011 | Nice build! |
| Carlee Roarke 02.09.2011 | Very cool project! Definitely not my cup of tea, I hate the screen in front feel... People seem to instantly believe of a laptop, and will just assume you're hitting buttons on your laptop keyboard all evening . Projects like this always seem like they're selling themselves short... because people don't appreciate what it is, they just equate it to a laptop. Good job though dude, this is awesome! Have you thought about putting the screen on a sliding rail, and putting a swivel on it? That would let you close it up normally, but when you set it up, you could slide the monitor over to the left or right, then pivot it, so you have a 45 degree angle... much better for the performance feel. |
| Wallace Disharoon 02.09.2011 |
Originally Posted by Zaniac
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| Wallace Disharoon 02.09.2011 | Thank you guys, so far no issues with heat.. the 2x92mm fans provide quite a bit of airflow through there, although it could be managed a little better. The only issue I've had so far is related to the graphics card coming up out of the slot, I completely forgot to fix it in there as I wanted on board graphics first (not supported by hackintosh software yet). Gave me quite a scare when I wasn't getting video the other day after transporting it in my trunk. The last issue I have involves the magic trackpad/keyboard combo... if you lose bluetooth connectivity on the keyboard it's a bitch to get at the "discoverable" with them silicone together on piece of steel. Anyways I'm really happy with how it turned out, if anyone wants to buy it I'd be happy to have an excuse to design Monster Masher mk II |
| Neville Blackinton 01.09.2011 | That looks great! Congrats |
| Hanna Ridenbaugh 01.09.2011 | wow sweet as! you got skillz dude! |
| Luke Imtiaz 01.09.2011 | Oh Wow. You completed it. Well done. Congrats!!! Any overheating issues? |
| Wallace Disharoon 31.08.2011 | |
| Neil Malia 26.08.2011 | this is freakin sweet man! awesome idead and good job! |
| Deeann Cheron 25.08.2011 | Great work with the mod mate. i have a question. do you have a protecting cover that sits between the screen and over the cover when its packed away for transportation? I could see this as the week point? |
| Wallace Disharoon 25.08.2011 | Unfortunately I don't have a build log, I'd be happy to answer any specific questions though. Weight? ... pretty beefcake. I'd say 30-40 lbs. The x1 will probably just be set next to it (at deck height), I don't quite have my x1 mapped the way I want it yet so it's on standby. Thanks for the kind words! |
| Shalon Jaranilla 23.08.2011 | congrats man, that looks very cool. So what your gonna do with the x1? and how heavy is the total unit? Anyhow enjoy the ride. |
| Celina Alabed 23.08.2011 | This is really cool! Sounds like a cool alternative to bringing a laptop. Cool to see it all put together. |
| Charline Dye 22.08.2011 | Nice work! That is executed very well. I love the pull out keyboard and the all in one solution. |
| Karolis Petrauskas 22.08.2011 | Do you have a build log...cool idea. I'd like to do something similar in a flight case. |
| Wallace Disharoon 22.08.2011 | Finished it just in time to play my first show. Some how got the 115 timeslot so the club was absolutely packed. Was extremely nervous... thought that I would either trainwreck or my little creation would start on fire, or at the very least shut off randomly. The stage in front of the booth was also completely packed, I had someone fall into the table that my s4 frankenstein job (which has been since named the "Monster Masher").... thank god I have an ssd or the show could have stopped right there. |
| Wallace Disharoon 07.08.2011 | Update... Have everything ready to go in. The aluminum was handed off to my machinist buddy (we cant use the mills at my school for personal projects). After he is done with it I'll have a few pieces welded an a local performance auto shop (I don't want to buy a spool gun for my mig welder... usually required for doing aluminum). After that it will be assembled... I'll put some pics up, play with it for a while, and then disassemble and have it anodized black. |
| Wallace Disharoon 27.07.2011 | I like the drawer idea, unfortunately there isn't enough space down there. I believe I've decided to just get an x1 case... it brings it pretty close to the correct level. I was having second thoughts about the monitor position the other day... as of now I have really hacked it up to get it to attach to the hinge. Going to have to put a bit of thought into that. |
| Shalon Jaranilla 27.07.2011 |
Originally Posted by ffrgtm
And you might wanna believe about if you really want your screen in front of you or have at least an option to put it aside of you. |
| Tatum Ansaldo 26.07.2011 | subscribing. |
| Shanae Blackshear 26.07.2011 | following this one! |
| Wallace Disharoon 26.07.2011 | I believe thunderbolt is awesome.... would be a bit hard to transfer data faster than the speed of light. But like all format/standard wars, the better of the two seems to always lose.... Anyways I'm getting off track... and I've still got no idea what to do with my x1 An exploded image to try and help explain how I plan on constructing this |
| Shalon Jaranilla 26.07.2011 | Keep following your project, You know thunderbolt is no firewire? Anyhow it's not that important usb 3 will be fine for years. |
| Wallace Disharoon 26.07.2011 | Do you guys have any ideas on what I should do with my x1? I was believeing that I could use some kind of quick releases on it to attach it (deck level) on the left or right of the enclosure... carrying it separately in a bag with my headphones and cables.... I feel like there's a much more clever solution to integrating my x1 with all of this but I just can't come up with it. |
| Wallace Disharoon 26.07.2011 | Thanks souldancer, I will for sure keep you guys updated. I totally agree with you on the firewire vs usb all over again sentiment... however If I move away from traktor it will be to cdj's... so I believe I'll be within NI's realm for quite some time. Looking at NI's product lineup i don't see many if any firewire devices, so I feel like they'll probably default to usb3. Just a gut feeling of course... the real reason for my usb3 affinity is the fact that I already have some usb3 devices |
| Shalon Jaranilla 25.07.2011 |
Originally Posted by ffrgtm
some info from the net. Thunderbolt vs USB 3.0 vs eSATA: Availability Right now, only one firm makes Thunderbolt-enabled computers - Apple - and Thunderbolt-enabled peripherals such as hard disks are just starting to be announced. USB 3.0 devices - largely, but not exclusively, hard disks - are already available, and there are plenty of eSATA hard disks out there too. Thunderbolt is largely an Intel technology and Intel clearly favours it over USB 3.0, so we'd expect Thunderbolt's profile to change quickly as Intel chucks its considerable weight behind the technology. LaCie and Western Digital are already on board, and as Thunderbolt is fairly simple to engineer - if firms are already making PCIe or DisplayPort devices, it's relatively easy to make them into Thunderbolt devices - we'd expect to see lots of firms follow suit. Is that bad news for USB 3.0? Not necessarily. The ubiquity of USB 2.0 means there are lots of USB devices out there, and USB 3.0 is turning up in everything from laptops to tablets. There are already stacks of USB 3.0 devices on sale, and the presence of LaCie and Western Digital in the USB 3.0 market as well as the Thunderbolt one suggests we're looking at USB and FireWire all over again, with consumer devices going for USB and pro kit using the faster, less common standard. And eSATA? Its advantages over USB 2.0 are obvious, but even if it matched internal SATA's move to 6Gbps speeds it'd still be significantly slower than Thunderbolt and only slightly speedier than USB 3.0. It's starting to look like a technology whose time is almost up. Anyhow seems like a fun project and, hope you keep us up to date with some pictures. |
| Wallace Disharoon 25.07.2011 | Not a bad suggestion, and something I had considered. However I decided to go with my hackintosh route as I could build a faster computer for $400 less than a mac mini.. plus I would have usb 3.0 support in osx. Usb3 is important to me as I transfer my files between comps this way... saves me a lot of time. Plus I assume future NI gear is going to be usb3 to cut down on latency. I do plan on throwing two 92mm's in the back... something not shown in the model. Thx for the input! edit: might not be totally obvious in my model, but the blue thing is the entire assembly running osx, you can see I actually got osx installed on my windows hardware in the picture with my led display in my laundry basket (for some reason). |
| Leeanna Ayla 25.07.2011 | You could probably put a mac mini in there. Make sure you install cooling fans though to suck the heat out. |
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