Bodge 101

[botcrusher]

Just a thread to show off your builds should they fall under the correct category
(some images will probably follow when i get home later.)
Note that your build doesn't have to actually be a PC, it could be a frankenstien'ed Home theatre, or that fish tank that is kept at a controlled temp via the use of changing the clock speed of a pentium 4

Categories:
- Master Of the Art Of Sketch
        No, i'm not talking about your inability to cable manage (well, ok, most sketch builds will have none) I'm talking more along the lines of A pc made using questionable parts, or questionable use of good parts. Like a DIY liquid cooler, or using PATA cables as a power bus. This will probably be the best category.

- Past it's first prime
        Do you have your pentium three, once a proud rendering machine, sorting files? Perhaps you're too cheap to buy a new PC so you somehow manage to reuse your ancient rig to "somewhat decently" game on?
- Pointless automation
        There probably won't be as many in this category, some sort of DIY home automation the either does something ridiculous (When you get home, you are greeted by the sound of tesla coils saying your name) Another example that is *somewhat* safer and more possible, your TV remote controls your lights, blender, microwave, quadcopter, PC, doorchime, HVAC, pool, BBQ.

[botcrusher]

Let's begin the show!

Here are my first rig falling under sketchy!

-Desktop
Shipped with a GT 620 OEM (big difference) and a 300W PSU.
Well, it didn't have enough juice to push the HD 7850 i bought, so i stared hard at the spare 300W PSUs i had lying around and a grin crept up on my face.
Yes, that power supply underneath the tower is nonchalantly wired directly to the graphics card. Screw paying for a heftier supply!

[Delta]

Please forgive my rudeness, but what the fuck is this shit?

[botcrusher]

The tower or the whole thread?
Tower: well, heh. I had spare power supplies...
The thread: Possibly sleep deprivation. But I have a taste for DIY stuff that *just* works

[Delta]

The thread.

[Shock]

I think this thread just set a new benchmark for low standards of contribution to the forum. Congrats.

[Delta]

Praise indeed!

[engineer_in_shorts]

I second the thread should be renamed, but i like the idea.

I am posting this under the title of:


Art of Sketch - 3in1 Panini maker adapter.
==========================


I got a panini maker 'cos i love a panini, its made by russell hobs. Turns out it's really crap, because it's '3in1' and can do a steak.  What this means is it gets really hot and doesn't have any temperature control. In fact waaaaayyy too hot for a panini, the bread just burns in a minute. What were they thinking? 

So with a bit of thinking i decided to wire it in series with the kettle to reduce the temperature, and now it makes a great panini. 

Behold the panini mains adapter, maybe i should get a patent on such a device, attached picture panini1b shows it's 'special secret'. Been running for a couple of years but now the cables are starting to fray out of the terminal block 

A couple of the guys at work agree that a variac would actually be quite handy in the kitchen.

[botcrusher]

OP pruned, thread renamed. How's the new title?

[Delta]

Is this some cool new phrase or something?  What on earth is "sketching" outwith the context of drawing?

I do like both a good bodge, and using old equipment purely because its still up to the task.

PS.  A panino, several panini.  At least you didn't write "panini's", like so many poncy "coffee shops" do, creating a redundant plural with a bonus erroneous apostrophe for good measure. 

[botcrusher]

Bodgineering perhaps then?

[engineer_in_shorts]

...What on earth is "sketching" outwith the context of drawing?...

i't better then hack. Fed up of hearing 'hack' applied to everything.

[Delta]

...What on earth is "sketching" outwith the context of drawing?...

i't better then hack. Fed up of hearing 'hack' applied to everything.

I hear you, brother.  "Life hacks" indeed.  Bloody Hipsters.

Sketchwhatever still sounds shit though, what's wrong with bodge?  Not cool enough for the yoof?

[botcrusher]

There, Bodge 101.
Perhaps i should make a rack server out of a pile of laptop motherboards...

[Delta]

That's better!  At least people will now have a fighting chance of guessing what this thread is about...

I'll post some of my efforts, timber and tin foil are my current materials of choice...

[rrinker]

 Oh I wish I could find the picture. Years ago, I had a pair of servers running in my basement. Pentium II class machines, back in the day. The CPU fan on one of them failed, and I didn't have a spare fan. I DID however have a spare power supply. So I laid the server over on its side, took the side cover off, set the spare PSU on top of the existing one, and formed some card stock into an air guide to blow the fan output over the CPU heatsink.
 It kept on working that way for at least 6 months until I started building newer, more powerful servers. It also got wet and kept on ticking - they decided to close off a short stretch of road and divert a small stream to make a new park with baseball and soccer fields, and stuff. In a heavy rainstorm, this backed up the formerly small stream until even the road in front of my house was a small river. My house was set up above the street, but the previous owners had run pipes under the yard so the downspouts discharged in the gutter at the street. At the house end, the downspouts were just set in the ends of the PVC pipe - no seals or anything. So the water backed up those pipes under the yard and, on the corner where the servers were, was one of the basement windows, below grade but with one of those wells allowing light in. I heard a dripping noise in the basement and when I went down to look, that window was a fishbowl, complete with frog swimming around in it. Basement casement windows aren't exactly perfect seals, and the water was dripping in around the edges. Right on the desk and monitor I had hooked up with a KVM on the servers. Luckily the additional outlet I installed specifically for the servers was away from the window (the main electrical box was right next to the window as well!) so I was able to yank the plugs out for everything. The servers managed to not get water in them, I had wisely built an elevated platform to keep them off the basement floor. The monitor I just tossed, I wasn't going to chance turning that on after it had water run right in the ventilation slots (it was a CRT in those days).

[Brumby]

Another computer bodge.... from 10 years ago.

Just visiting a friend - no tools, no meter, nothing in the car to help - and they show me a computer that would work 25% of the time.  One bump and it would freeze.  A quick look inside and I felt uneasy about how loosely the CPU daughter board sat in the motherboard connector.  With slight finger pressure on one side of the top edge of this daughter board, the machine was able to run quite reliably.

Looking around the room, I saw a plastic coated wire coathanger and asked if they were happy to sacrifice it for the cause - which they were.  After a minute of wire wrangling, I had created a rough, but effective, pressure applying coathanger pretzel that rested against the CPU board and the chassis.  A little fine tuning in the design allowed the case to be fitted normally, so nothing untoward was visible.

I believe they got another couple of years out of that machine.

I can't remember if I took a photo of the result - but if I did, I don't like my chances of finding it now.