Log Project 🐦RoadRunner (Battery Powered Portable PC, in S4M-C #524)

[Choidebu]

Once I succeeded mounting the modded psu I'll measure the remaining depth available for a 5S3P battery.

Currently the spec says 203mm S4M-C width, if the psu takes up 107mm then it's only 95mm (+ 2mm inner frame cutout) left.

Hex/Honeycomb config would net 100x50x65mm.
Straight config would be 90x55x65mm

Unfortunately it'll depend on how much I can safely, structurally safely, widen the front inner frame cutout.

 

[Choidebu]

When trying to confirm my measurement physically, I ran into this flange on the gpu side, extending from the middle of the case to the power inlet area.
To be able to push the modded psu in all the way I cut off half of it with and angle grinder:

The C6 inlet is mounted outside and screwed from inside. My original plan was to use lower profile, square C6 like this

So I can mount it to the psu instead of the case.

But as you can see below here it fits just fine - Looks like it hits the yellow component, but with extra 4 mm from spacer frame and the lid, it should serve for testing purposes.


And while I'm hacking the inner frame, might as well do the battery opening:

70x51mm.

This here is what I've been worrying about:

This left 3mm strip of metal on each side. It still feels sturdy but is hand bendable though so this is as close as I'm willing to cut it. I even only cut one third of the curve so the battery still can't fully enter horizontally, but for the sake of structural integrity tis but small inconvenience.


And here's what space left for THE pack! 96mm.... by 51mm

Honeycomb, without spacers it is... so the bezel would need to have a recessed 70x18mm strip down the middle ~10mm 3mm deep.

Edit: 5x3 cells on honeycomb is 50mm (18√3+2x18) x 99mm (18x5.5) x ~67mm
So the length just needs another 3mm

 

[Choidebu]

I made a smol PSU!


Here we can see the lid spacer I made with white plastic, 1.5mm about a wide as the lid so all in all adding 3mm to each end of the unit.
Also added a mesh to the main exhaust. Ended up superglue-ing my hacked up iec C6 inlet to the lid.


Cute, innit?
Could've gotten away with desoldering the ac input and dc output connector, but decided not to for future ease of repair.


Here's the dc side, also with lid spacer. Two holes for voltage adjustment and power indicator.


Drilled and tapped 3x M4 Mounting holes. Was going for m3 but the 2.2mm drill bit I bought was crap.


And here's how it looks mounted. Flush to the inner frame, well, as flush as frame screws allow.. Plan is for air to be drawn from side panel, then exhausted through the back.

Now on to source some 6mm and 14mm (for the fans - observant eyes might notice I only got 3) countersunk m4 screws.

And now that fitting is done, I'm putting back it together, while preparing to try my hands on some spotwelding! Got my 12V motorcycle battery charging away, hope it'll be enough..

 

[Choidebu]

Due to wife complaints that I left our main PC on top of a piece of cardboard above the printer for far too long,

I put together the PC back again. My HDPLEX 200W AC-DC is now decommissioned, this smol cased up RPS in its place.

Have to say, now the bottom half looked quite spacious! No pic though..

Some notes:

• I made a female to female XT60 pigtail, to connect between the PSU and XT60 male to molex 4 pin that goes to the DC-ATX plugin. But then I found out that regular XT60 female is too tall; it's pushing against the side panel. Managed to bend the cable somewhat for now but I'm ordering XT60U for that extra 4mm leeway.
• Both psu fans are spinning everytime it's plugged in. Need to rewire the original plugs and get fan splitter cable, and connect them to chasis fan header.
• Need to find some thick thermal pads to couple the heatsinks in the psu to its case.
• Motorcycle/Scooter battery is too weak for spotwelding. Will try the car's next time.

Also got some ideas on how I'd do the front bezel + battery cover....

 

[Choidebu]

edit: double post

 

[ignsvn]

No pic though..

I was about to ask for pics

 

[richi-123]

¿Where was the gpu?

 

[Choidebu]

¿Where was the gpu?

Where it usually is. Only LP gpu can fit in this configuration. There's about 2,5mm gap between the psu and the gpu.

Even then I ran into a problem where my pci bracket is ribbed / flanged (for rigidity).

Since the bracket needs to go in before the psu, I had to take the bracket off the gpu first. This is easy on my R9 670 (a stopgap gpu for now) since it is fastened by its dvi port's screw, but for modern gpu with hdmi/dp only ports I can only hope the screw holes on the board is accessible with fan shroud on...

After the bracket is fastened to the case, psu goes in. If it's ribbed, psu can't slide all the way in. I had to bend the rib to be able to mount my psu flush.

 

[Choidebu]

Heya... long time no see.

I've got one very good news.

Sometime ago I stumbled upon a blog post in arduino project hub.
It's a GPL3 hid ups implementation!

This is the github project, by Alex Bratchik.

If only I have the time... my pro micro is there, current sensing breakout is there.. got my replacement ups board...

Since I got back to my home country, power loss is, while not frequent, inevitable - but just months before the pandemic, our neighbourhood got a power line upgrade which has been awesome. I no longer need our big household voltage stabilizer, and as a bonus fiber also came around (had to use 4G router with roof antenna before) since it piggybacks on the new utility pole they install in the smack dab center of our area.

So we went on without power loss for months, making me forget about this project as its importance wa dwindling, only occasionally missed when I moved the pc around to watch a movie in the bedroom and whatnot..

But then the power losses started happening again, since March I believe, must have been at least once a month and 50-50 chance of happening during a heavy downpour.

I get my wifi back in such times with a powerbank connected to a usb-to-barrell-jack 5vdc to 12vdc step-up converter cable, which runs my router for about 6-8 hours. But everytime it happened you bet my PC was on. Forget using it on power loss event - too busy for that, my wife uses it more often than me - I just wished it can shutdown safely. Just wished RoadRunner is alive and functioning.

 

[ignsvn]

Heya... long time no see.

I've got one very good news.

Sometime ago I stumbled upon a blog post in arduino project hub.
It's a GPL3 hid ups implementation!

This is the github project, by Alex Bratchik.

If only I have the time... my pro micro is there, current sensing breakout is there.. got my replacement ups board...

Since I got back to my home country, power loss is, while not frequent, inevitable - but just months before the pandemic, our neighbourhood got a power line upgrade which has been awesome. I no longer need our big household voltage stabilizer, and as a bonus fiber also came around (had to use 4G router with roof antenna before) since it piggybacks on the new utility pole they install in the smack dab center of our area.

So we went on without power loss for months, making me forget about this project as its importance wa dwindling, only occasionally missed when I moved the pc around to watch a movie in the bedroom and whatnot..

But then the power losses started happening again, since March I believe, must have been at least once a month and 50-50 chance of happening during a heavy downpour.

I get my wifi back in such times with a powerbank connected to a usb-to-barrell-jack 5vdc to 12vdc step-up converter cable, which runs my router for about 6-8 hours. But everytime it happened you bet my PC was on. Forget using it on power loss event - too busy for that, my wife uses it more often than me - I just wished it can shutdown safely. Just wished RoadRunner is alive and functioning.

You're one of the few pioneers who work on dry-cell powered PC in this forum, so hang on there, I hope you will get your time to continue working on the project.

Oh, I wonder when did you get back to your home country? If I remember correctly, travel restrictions are currently everywhere.

 

[Choidebu]

You're one of the few pioneers who work on dry-cell powered PC in this forum, so hang on there, I hope you will get your time to continue working on the project.

Oh, I wonder when did you get back to your home country? If I remember correctly, travel restrictions are currently everywhere.

Thanks @ignsvn !

But I'm afraid by the time I do, my pc spec would already be fossilized in tech burial site lol. God I wish I can at least upgrade to r5 3600

I got back home mid 2019, just half a year before the pandemic started, with the intention of renewing my work visa. But then it hits, borders closed and no more visa.

 

[ignsvn]

Thanks @ignsvn !

But I'm afraid by the time I do, my pc spec would already be fossilized in tech burial site lol. God I wish I can at least upgrade to r5 3600

I got back home mid 2019, just half a year before the pandemic started, with the intention of renewing my work visa. But then it hits, borders closed and no more visa.

I believe there's no need to be disheartened. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the current silicone shortage & pandemic cause many PCs to be "fossilized". You're not the only one affected. I believe, in general, PC master "race" (pardon the pun) is currently slowing down, if not fully halted depending on regions.

You need to go back to your home country in order to renew your work visa in the foreign country? That's weird. I was on work visa before but I can renew it on the country I work at.