Out with the old, in with the new

[Thoros]

After a thorough session of cleaning up the attic, I stumbled upon one of my old Powerbooks. In the same box laid several of the original floppy drives that came with the machine, each with its own problems. So I decided to gut one of them to house my new Raspberry Pi B.

Opening up the drive proved to be a real challenge. There were no screws nor hinges to be seen so, of course, I tried brute force. A few minutes later, I was left with a nice crack in the case. Luckily enough, there was a manual floating around on the internet with instructions to open these things. If anyone is interested, you can find it here: http://tim.id.au/laptops/apple/misc/hdi20_1.4_drive.pdf. Removing the innards from the case wasn't very difficult and after cutting an extra hole in the back for all of the cables, my Pi rested comfortably in its new case.

As you can see, it sits really nice next to the tv.


The floppy slot provides a way to release some of the heat.


And a close-up. I'm still thinking of cutting out the Apple logo and reroute some of the status leds, but I'll leave it like this for the time being.


All in all, I'm quite happy with the way this turned out. It didn't cost me a thing and it has a nice retro vibe to it.

[Mortimer]

I had an idea for creating a flexible light pipe for the status LEDs.

Get a cheap TOSlink cable, e.g one of these:


The cable tends to be quite thin, but the actual optical part is about a millimetre across.

Chop the cable into several pieces, which isn't a problem as TOSlink cables are usually plastic.

In your casing drill a row of holes roughly the diameter of the optical cable and glue one of the each of the pieces flush with the surface of the casing.

The other end is the problem, which I haven't quite thought of an easy answer. I'm guessing a piece of plastic with a line of holes spaced to match the spacing of the LEDs on the RPi board. This plastic piece then needs to be held so that the ends of the optical cables are directly above the LEDs. It is holding it securely that I haven't been able to answer.

[jrt_ms1995]

After a thorough session of cleaning up the attic, I stumbled upon one of my old Powerbooks.

What did you do with the Powerbook? Was it one of the good ones with the trackball , or the later model with the trackpad ?

John

[Thoros]

What did you do with the Powerbook? Was it one of the good ones with the trackball , or the later model with the trackpad ?

John

Got one of both: a 540 which I've put a colour screen in (trackpad) and a 280 (trackball). That particular 280 was the first Mac I've ever used, now more than fifteen years ago. It recently came into my possession as the previous owner, the father of a childhood friend, wanted to get rid of it. Given the sentimental value that particular laptop has, I saved it from the dumpster. I presumably will never use it but it's something that I just can't let go.

And @Mortimer: that's a great idea. I'll look into it over the weekend.

[Mortimer]

I've got a 140 and a 5300 stashed away somewhere.

[MadHorseman]

I had an idea for creating a flexible light pipe for the status LEDs.

Get a cheap TOSlink cable, e.g one of these:


The cable tends to be quite thin, but the actual optical part is about a millimetre across.

Chop the cable into several pieces, which isn't a problem as TOSlink cables are usually plastic.

In your casing drill a row of holes roughly the diameter of the optical cable and glue one of the each of the pieces flush with the surface of the casing.

The other end is the problem, which I haven't quite thought of an easy answer. I'm guessing a piece of plastic with a line of holes spaced to match the spacing of the LEDs on the RPi board. This plastic piece then needs to be held so that the ends of the optical cables are directly above the LEDs. It is holding it securely that I haven't been able to answer.

Would gentle heat apply a permanent bend? Trying to think of a small tube that would work...