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A suggestion that might help you avoid bending, and also printing in some semi-exotic material: cut out the plastic above(/below?) the motherboard from the print, and replace it with something like an aluminium plate. This should be relatively simple to implement (just remove a square area from the print, leave a small ledge around it for support, glue/epoxy in a cut-to-size alu plate) and cheap, and would avoid having lots of plastic near the hottest components. It might even aid internal temperatures through some passive dissipation? And unless you have giant hands I don't think it would be a problem comfort-wise.
Or a plaster/sand mold and cast it from aluminium
I've seen people use PLA 3D prints for alu casting with great results, as the molten metal just burns it away as you pour.
@robbee Is PETG rather fussy to set up for good prints? I've only used PLA so far and I know some better heat-resistant materials need more precise tuning in the printer and also lower tolerance in environment temps while printing.
@Valantar I have been toying with the idea of making the case with a combination of aluminum and plastic. The aluminum would be bent sheet metal though, and wrap around the top, bottom and sides. It would look more "pro" and could be done, although cost a lot more which is just the bigger obstacle here.
On a side note I have ordered a PC stick with Intel Atom to try my hand at what can be done with a smaller, less powerful handheld PC. It should arrive tomorrow, and I'll be testing the capabilities of that.
@Valantar I have been toying with the idea of making the case with a combination of aluminum and plastic. The aluminum would be bent sheet metal though, and wrap around the top, bottom and sides. It would look more "pro" and could be done, although cost a lot more which is just the bigger obstacle here.
On a side note I have ordered a PC stick with Intel Atom to try my hand at what can be done with a smaller, less powerful handheld PC. It should arrive tomorrow, and I'll be testing the capabilities of that.
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Sounds cool! If you're looking at just a simple 2d bend profile (with 3D printed end pieces for the ports, vents etc.), that could probably be done by hand with reasonable precision for such a small part. Something like this plus some clamps and supporting materials could probably do the job. Wouldn't be that expensive either
That tool could work. A vise grip that's at least 3 in. wide and 1 in. deep is enough to make the bends I need for this project. I still need to have the sheet laser cut for the screen and button openings, but doing bends myself can save me more in costs in the long run.Sounds cool! If you're looking at just a simple 2d bend profile (with 3D printed end pieces for the ports, vents etc.), that could probably be done by hand with reasonable precision for such a small part. Something like this plus some clamps and supporting materials could probably do the job. Wouldn't be that expensive either
I also received my PC stick today (along with a Flex ATX PSU for my home PC) so I'm gonna have my hands full with PC build projects. Gonna install Steam on that and try some games and if it's promising enough I will cover that project as well. I guess I should make a different thread for that though, or would it be better in this one?
Spending some limited time on using the unbranded PC stick with the Atom Z8350 processor, it was a bit underwhelming. I didn't expect much, but having watched some reference videos of PC games running on the iGPU, HD 400, my performance seems worse. It's strange when the CPU bottlenecks its own integrated graphics, but such is the case with the tiny Atom.
I was hoping to play a few PC ports from the early PS3 era but it was not quite at 30 FPS with Burnout Paradise, and even Rayman Origins had some trouble, with every frame rendered but being slowed down (there is no frame skip). Granted, I did not try many games yet. Maybe the first Portal would run better. It could be a decent emulation PC, though. I would use this in a smaller handheld with a 5 inch screen. Being X86 would at least stand out from the hundreds of Pi-based SoC handhelds out there.
I was hoping to play a few PC ports from the early PS3 era but it was not quite at 30 FPS with Burnout Paradise, and even Rayman Origins had some trouble, with every frame rendered but being slowed down (there is no frame skip). Granted, I did not try many games yet. Maybe the first Portal would run better. It could be a decent emulation PC, though. I would use this in a smaller handheld with a 5 inch screen. Being X86 would at least stand out from the hundreds of Pi-based SoC handhelds out there.
By the way here is how the PLA printed enclosure looks with some of the parts installed. It held up mostly well but still felt a bit flimsy, possibly because the entire thing was not printed out.
I've decided I won't use the PC stick for the mini version of the handheld and instead use a Chuwi Larkbox. It's simply more powerful, still noticeably smaller than a NUC and YouTuber Taki Udon did a review that covers its gaming capabilities nicely. Guess I now have an addiction for buying mini PCs!
I've figured out that I could use the PC stick for a "side" handheld because it is surprisingly capable of emulating some consoles from the late 90s to early 2000s, with the added bonus of also playing some Steam games. With the smaller screen the 480p resolution makes normally unplayable games more playable on the HD 600 graphics. My Atom PC stick is this unbranded version with 64GB of eMMC and TF card slot.
Redream plays well will all the Dreamcast games I've tried. Some very few stutters in Dead or Alive 2 and Soul Calibur but still very playable. PPSSPP works great too with PSP game emulation after some tweaks and locking to 30 fps. I find the limits of its capabilities with GameCube emulation. Games stutter too much and it's simply powerful enough for that. That's with PC stick though, the Chuwi Larkbox should work better in theory.
With a USB hub, it can power on the touch screen and a gamepad peripheral on the same AC adapter, in heavy CPU loads the entire setup uses just 7 to 8 watts at the wall. It's a 5V adapter so it's quite easy to adapt lithium batteries too with many 5V power boards available.
I bought a 10 amp hour battery which should provide it with 5 hours of continuous use of play. This connects with a charger board with a load connector to the PC.
The Larkbox uses a 12V 2A adapter so it will require a step-up board for a more drastic boost from 3.7V to 12V DC if I were to use the same type of battery.
Redream plays well will all the Dreamcast games I've tried. Some very few stutters in Dead or Alive 2 and Soul Calibur but still very playable. PPSSPP works great too with PSP game emulation after some tweaks and locking to 30 fps. I find the limits of its capabilities with GameCube emulation. Games stutter too much and it's simply powerful enough for that. That's with PC stick though, the Chuwi Larkbox should work better in theory.
With a USB hub, it can power on the touch screen and a gamepad peripheral on the same AC adapter, in heavy CPU loads the entire setup uses just 7 to 8 watts at the wall. It's a 5V adapter so it's quite easy to adapt lithium batteries too with many 5V power boards available.
I bought a 10 amp hour battery which should provide it with 5 hours of continuous use of play. This connects with a charger board with a load connector to the PC.
The Larkbox uses a 12V 2A adapter so it will require a step-up board for a more drastic boost from 3.7V to 12V DC if I were to use the same type of battery.
I use this stuff on my motorcycle for reflecting heat away from plastic parts. I'm pretty sure this is used in laptops as well.
Got the Chuwi LarkBox and did a quick testing. I had just installed Batocera on an SD card and compared to the PC stick, the Larkbox handles emulation a lot better in the higher end consoles. GameCube and PSP games play with rarely a stutter, (only tested Luigi's Mansion and Mario Kart Double Dash for now). Haven't yet tried any PC games to see how it will handle all those pixels on the screen.
The J4415 is a good step from the Atom 8350 (as well as the extra RAM) but I'm on the fence with the cooling fan and seems a lot of LarkBox owners are, too. But I will wait until I push it with PC gaming to see if the fan sound will get annoying in the long run or not.
The J4415 is a good step from the Atom 8350 (as well as the extra RAM) but I'm on the fence with the cooling fan and seems a lot of LarkBox owners are, too. But I will wait until I push it with PC gaming to see if the fan sound will get annoying in the long run or not.
Yeah, that could be useful in the future. The heat mainly was coming from the RAM and warping the thinnest parts of the base. I would just have to cover the entire base where the NUC standoffs are.
Is that link going to something? I have trouble with it, doesn't take me to another page.
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I see it now. So this is a way to get a HID power status readout and leave it open for a program in the host computer to interpret and display data, I take it. This does occupy a few I/O pins and will crowd an already crowded setup which I expect 20 buttons for the controls... I'll think about it the more I progress.
Right now I got one of the Adafruit LiPo charger boards that has breakout pads for charging, battery, and DC power LEDs. It's simple enough for now before I can delve in with more complex ways to read charging status.
I have been able to successfully power the Atom PC stick with just the battery, as it usually does not draw more than 2A of current. I have some doubts whether it's capable of powering the LarkBox which needs more current.
The battery is 10000mAh and discharge is 1C. If I'm correct about C rates, it means it can discharge at 1 hour and 10A are available. However, the manufacturer (MakerFocus) specifies the max working current is 3A. They're mainly designed for lower-powered PCs like the Pis.
The Chuwi Larkbox can draw up to 16W in workloads, which, with a 3.7V battery, is over 4A. So is it still safe to draw more than 3A current as long as it's still much less than the 10A discharge rating?
I have thought about two possible setups for wiring with 3.7V batteries. One uses a step-up converter between the DC jack and computer, to send 12V only to the computer, and the other uses the step-up converter to go from 3.7V to 12V to both the DC jack and the computer. The former requires a 5V charger/adapter and the latter requires the 12V charger as included with the LarkBox. Trying to see if one is better than the other in terms of power efficiency. The second won't need the 3.7V to 5V lipo charger board so I believe that one might be more efficient.
The battery is 10000mAh and discharge is 1C. If I'm correct about C rates, it means it can discharge at 1 hour and 10A are available. However, the manufacturer (MakerFocus) specifies the max working current is 3A. They're mainly designed for lower-powered PCs like the Pis.
The Chuwi Larkbox can draw up to 16W in workloads, which, with a 3.7V battery, is over 4A. So is it still safe to draw more than 3A current as long as it's still much less than the 10A discharge rating?
I have thought about two possible setups for wiring with 3.7V batteries. One uses a step-up converter between the DC jack and computer, to send 12V only to the computer, and the other uses the step-up converter to go from 3.7V to 12V to both the DC jack and the computer. The former requires a 5V charger/adapter and the latter requires the 12V charger as included with the LarkBox. Trying to see if one is better than the other in terms of power efficiency. The second won't need the 3.7V to 5V lipo charger board so I believe that one might be more efficient.
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[ PC ] [ PC ]
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[ step-up 5V to 12V ] [ 12V+ in ]---- DC plug
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[ 5V+ in ]---- DC plug [ step-up 3.7V to 12V ]
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[3.7V to 5V charger] [ battery ]
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[ battery ]
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Been a long time coming with updates but I think this is going to break of into at least 1 more project. I have a Chuwi LarkBox in my possession and it's an interesting tiny PC (even if the fan gets annoying with being either fully on or off with no in-between). It's a very capable PC for its size.
Emulating games is fine all the way up to PSP and GameCube. PS2 probably would not do so well.
But I can emulate on any Android or other ARM based chipset, so let's take full advantage of x86... Time to fire up Steam.
It's possible to play most Steam games that are at least 10 years old. It can handle Devil May Cry 4 with ease, and in some scenes getting a steady 60 FPS.
I took it apart and was able to get a hold of what goes where inside the case. The boards are stacked like a sandwich inside the case with its own custom flexible cables. They can be sprawled out flat against the monitor and conveniently hook up with minimal excess cables.
But I ripped the fan cable connector from the board while I was re-assembling it. It is extremely small and fragile. I managed to solder on other wires that are a fair bit bigger, directly to the motherboard and to the fan, and it works again.
Also, the plastic around the threaded standoffs breaks easily. Some of them don't even screw in properly anymore although the PC can still be put back together.
At this point I'll probably post updates for the LarkBox in a different thread. It's going to be part of a portable system that'll be even smaller than the one for the NUC and something that would actually be easier to assemble because wiring everything up is simpler.
Emulating games is fine all the way up to PSP and GameCube. PS2 probably would not do so well.
But I can emulate on any Android or other ARM based chipset, so let's take full advantage of x86... Time to fire up Steam.
It's possible to play most Steam games that are at least 10 years old. It can handle Devil May Cry 4 with ease, and in some scenes getting a steady 60 FPS.
I took it apart and was able to get a hold of what goes where inside the case. The boards are stacked like a sandwich inside the case with its own custom flexible cables. They can be sprawled out flat against the monitor and conveniently hook up with minimal excess cables.
But I ripped the fan cable connector from the board while I was re-assembling it. It is extremely small and fragile. I managed to solder on other wires that are a fair bit bigger, directly to the motherboard and to the fan, and it works again.
Also, the plastic around the threaded standoffs breaks easily. Some of them don't even screw in properly anymore although the PC can still be put back together.
At this point I'll probably post updates for the LarkBox in a different thread. It's going to be part of a portable system that'll be even smaller than the one for the NUC and something that would actually be easier to assemble because wiring everything up is simpler.
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Another update in a long while- I decided with the imminent launch of the Steam Deck, this kind of project might not make much sense anymore, but I already have all these parts on hand that it will not really cost me much in anything to just build my own. And in the spirit of Valve's openness that should make some sense, right? This guy beat me to making one, but that just inspired me to keep going and wrap this one up.
I will also opt for a 3rd party controller, perhaps the same Ipega used in that link I posted. It will mean the batteries and NUC will all go within that roughly 7 inch by 4 inch space and be rather tall for what it is. But I know it's possible and already have 3D printable designs that I can modify and use.
I will also opt for a 3rd party controller, perhaps the same Ipega used in that link I posted. It will mean the batteries and NUC will all go within that roughly 7 inch by 4 inch space and be rather tall for what it is. But I know it's possible and already have 3D printable designs that I can modify and use.
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