Building a tactical cube
posted on February 26th, 2012, 12:05 pm
posted on February 26th, 2012, 4:02 pm
posted on February 26th, 2012, 7:26 pm
you could always just buy a cube shaped micro atx case and then put the asthetic stuff on after.
Amazon.com: Antec 350 Watt M-ATX Desktop Case NSK1380 (Black/Silver): Electronics
To make the outside, you simply take the texture and bumpmap out of the FO textures.
Amazon.com: Antec 350 Watt M-ATX Desktop Case NSK1380 (Black/Silver): Electronics
To make the outside, you simply take the texture and bumpmap out of the FO textures.
posted on February 26th, 2012, 8:13 pm
Adm. Zaxxon wrote:you could always just buy a cube shaped micro atx case and then put the asthetic stuff on after.
Amazon.com: Antec 350 Watt M-ATX Desktop Case NSK1380 (Black/Silver): Electronics
To make the outside, you simply take the texture and bumpmap out of the FO textures.
That is a cuboid not a cube.
posted on February 26th, 2012, 9:38 pm
Last edited by Sheva on February 26th, 2012, 9:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
posted on February 26th, 2012, 10:20 pm
posted on February 26th, 2012, 10:34 pm
posted on February 26th, 2012, 10:52 pm
MrXT wrote:That is a cuboid not a cube.
Duh, but it is close and easier to make into a cube than making one from scratch.
Sheva wrote:No, I really want to build a real tac cube. With tactical armor made by a machine. The badass-thing. I started to draw a 2-D plot in Adobe Illustrator with the help of an underlying picture of a tac-cube from drexfiles. Then I made several layers and grouped them together. Now, I set all points to paths and exported it into a .dxf file and imported it into google Sketchup. My first try was a success and I was able to build a 3-D mainframe of the tactical armor. Now I only need to put all layers into the appropriate height and export it via a plugin into machine-code ready to be cut by the drilling machine.
The underlying hull of the tac-cube will be made out of 3 layers of grid filled with black plastic particles - this is not very complicated. The most work is to actually BUILD the tac-armor. The rest is simply taking 12 lines of steel-pipes and bond them together, so that the rest of the hull can hold on them.
When I'm ready, I'll try to upload the machine code so that you may drill your own armor. :-)
But this may take a while.
don't forget the green LED's spread out, underneath the hull.
posted on February 26th, 2012, 10:52 pm
Last edited by Sheva on February 26th, 2012, 11:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I will. The first step is to model all tje tacital armor elements. The reference from Doug Drexler is very good, and I will make a model from every armor-section. The "problem" is, that most aluminium plates are no T-plates (you see, that the armor elements bind over from side to side) I will build them with a cut between them, which provides much more flexible construction of this monster. The only slight disadvantage is, that the borders are not round but rectangular, but I may just rasp them, until they are round as I wish them to be. Between the borders, I will just bond or glue them toghether. (if glued, then I will take industrial grade glue)
I think, there are in total six armor elements I have to model.
The standard-cube hull will, like mentioned above consist of three layers of metal-grid packed with a slight disorder under each other, to get a deep-effect, while at the same time providing the typical borg-frameset. Under those three grids, there will be some kind of texture made out of printed acryl.
Inside the cube, the will be enough room for the motherboard and all components. Things like the DVD-slot and other things, that need an external link will be put with a slight spare on the outside. Many interconnectors are fit to be viewed like the torpedo-launcher, so this will be simply replaced by the ports (USB/Firewire/Power-Connector/HDMI and so on) To get the imagination, such a port is listed here:
http://www.conrad.de/ce/de/product/741505/EINBAUBUCHSE-USB-30-RRJ_USB3_AA/SHOP_AREA_40306&promotionareaSearchDetail=005
Of course, I will try to use a watercooled system. The cube will in the end have exactly one cubic meter ( :whistling: ) of space within, so that he wont need active fans while in "standard" mode. If I overclock my system, then there will be different settings for the fans. The radiator will be this: http://www.caseking.de/shop/catalog/Wasserkuehlung/Radiatoren/Alle-Radiatoren/Watercool-Radiator-MO-RA3-9x140-PRO-black::15832.html
I think about using a combination of koolance systems and aqua-computer-systems (Koolance got good cooling blocks, aqua-computer got good pumps and sensor-systems)
Supported by a two-way-pipeline, one for GPUs and CPU and one for RAM, Chipset and other secondary components.
The best thing comes at last:
I will try to build an organic light-play, that will consist of about 200 LEDs, which will be controlled by some kind of randomizer/control-platine with different modulation-frequencies. (I know an electrical engineer who can build me one) Many different colors (much green,some orange, some red, some white) that will independently flash on, off and fade in between, so the cube will look "alive".
Last thing: This monster will run on Arch Linux when it is ready. I cant comment the hardware that will be within, because when the outer hull is ready, the next gen of hardware will be available.
edit: Typo and ninjad my Adm. Zaxxon.
edit #2:
I will update from time to time my progress. Tomorrow I will have the first armor ready in vectors, approx. one day later in 3D.
Also I will post every data-file for everyones use, that will mainly include the machine-code of the tactical armor and some pictures of the "how-to". I will try to describe it in an allround way, but that may be a bit tricky, because its a special construction. If someone wants to build it, he should have the costs in mind. Here in germany, you pay approx. 100€ per aluminium-plate + 20 to 50€ for the drilling of each plate. This will make about 1500€ just for the armor! The rest of the metal will cost about 200€. The interconnectors will cost about 150€ (with cables and everything) and the LEDs + Control-Board about 100 €. If you add the acryl-painted texture and side-products, you will end up with approx 2000€ (same in dollars) just for the structure. Not a single computer-component is available at this point.
Still, you have a one cubic-meter tac-cube, that may be worth the money, if you like it. This thing will be a better eye-catcher than every car on the street for just a fraction of the costs - so if you see it that way...
And no, I'm not rich. I saved one and a half year for this. Its kind of a dream I have.
I think, there are in total six armor elements I have to model.
The standard-cube hull will, like mentioned above consist of three layers of metal-grid packed with a slight disorder under each other, to get a deep-effect, while at the same time providing the typical borg-frameset. Under those three grids, there will be some kind of texture made out of printed acryl.
Inside the cube, the will be enough room for the motherboard and all components. Things like the DVD-slot and other things, that need an external link will be put with a slight spare on the outside. Many interconnectors are fit to be viewed like the torpedo-launcher, so this will be simply replaced by the ports (USB/Firewire/Power-Connector/HDMI and so on) To get the imagination, such a port is listed here:
http://www.conrad.de/ce/de/product/741505/EINBAUBUCHSE-USB-30-RRJ_USB3_AA/SHOP_AREA_40306&promotionareaSearchDetail=005
Of course, I will try to use a watercooled system. The cube will in the end have exactly one cubic meter ( :whistling: ) of space within, so that he wont need active fans while in "standard" mode. If I overclock my system, then there will be different settings for the fans. The radiator will be this: http://www.caseking.de/shop/catalog/Wasserkuehlung/Radiatoren/Alle-Radiatoren/Watercool-Radiator-MO-RA3-9x140-PRO-black::15832.html
I think about using a combination of koolance systems and aqua-computer-systems (Koolance got good cooling blocks, aqua-computer got good pumps and sensor-systems)
Supported by a two-way-pipeline, one for GPUs and CPU and one for RAM, Chipset and other secondary components.
The best thing comes at last:
I will try to build an organic light-play, that will consist of about 200 LEDs, which will be controlled by some kind of randomizer/control-platine with different modulation-frequencies. (I know an electrical engineer who can build me one) Many different colors (much green,some orange, some red, some white) that will independently flash on, off and fade in between, so the cube will look "alive".
Last thing: This monster will run on Arch Linux when it is ready. I cant comment the hardware that will be within, because when the outer hull is ready, the next gen of hardware will be available.
edit: Typo and ninjad my Adm. Zaxxon.
edit #2:
I will update from time to time my progress. Tomorrow I will have the first armor ready in vectors, approx. one day later in 3D.
Also I will post every data-file for everyones use, that will mainly include the machine-code of the tactical armor and some pictures of the "how-to". I will try to describe it in an allround way, but that may be a bit tricky, because its a special construction. If someone wants to build it, he should have the costs in mind. Here in germany, you pay approx. 100€ per aluminium-plate + 20 to 50€ for the drilling of each plate. This will make about 1500€ just for the armor! The rest of the metal will cost about 200€. The interconnectors will cost about 150€ (with cables and everything) and the LEDs + Control-Board about 100 €. If you add the acryl-painted texture and side-products, you will end up with approx 2000€ (same in dollars) just for the structure. Not a single computer-component is available at this point.
Still, you have a one cubic-meter tac-cube, that may be worth the money, if you like it. This thing will be a better eye-catcher than every car on the street for just a fraction of the costs - so if you see it that way...
And no, I'm not rich. I saved one and a half year for this. Its kind of a dream I have.
posted on February 27th, 2012, 11:29 am
First screen of the workflow: The first step is to make a vector-graphic in Adobe Illustrator with all elements you want to have, then connect all paths together and export the whole thing as .dwg
Now, you import it into Google Sketchup, use the "make faces" plugin and execute the tiny little help script on every object in your drawing (each object is meant to be an area - so if you have 100 possible objects like triangles, rectangulars and so on, you have 100 objects that each can have a "face")
After converting each object into a face, it is a good idea to group objects of the same "height" together, so that you manually create pseudo-layers. Bear in mind, that the highest position of all your layers will have the z-position zero, all other layers are negative in value, because the drilling machine will cut INTO the material. So you dont push your layers up to the maximum height, you do the opposite: Define the highest value and put the rest relative to it into the negative z-plane.
You do this for every layer you might have.
One thing that is undefined is the outer-line of the whole section. I erase this line (but you can put it back very simply). Maybe the drilling machine needs the info of the whole material, but as far as I'm concerned, this will be made in the final step.
Here is a screenshot of the workflow:
Now, you import it into Google Sketchup, use the "make faces" plugin and execute the tiny little help script on every object in your drawing (each object is meant to be an area - so if you have 100 possible objects like triangles, rectangulars and so on, you have 100 objects that each can have a "face")
After converting each object into a face, it is a good idea to group objects of the same "height" together, so that you manually create pseudo-layers. Bear in mind, that the highest position of all your layers will have the z-position zero, all other layers are negative in value, because the drilling machine will cut INTO the material. So you dont push your layers up to the maximum height, you do the opposite: Define the highest value and put the rest relative to it into the negative z-plane.
You do this for every layer you might have.
One thing that is undefined is the outer-line of the whole section. I erase this line (but you can put it back very simply). Maybe the drilling machine needs the info of the whole material, but as far as I'm concerned, this will be made in the final step.
Here is a screenshot of the workflow:
ketchup_chips
posted on April 14th, 2012, 1:44 am
Wow, this is pretty ambitious and pretty awesome! A cubic metre sounds massive for a computer to me, that thing's gonna be huge! Tell us how the build goes, and take some pictures too! 
posted on April 14th, 2012, 2:56 am
posted on April 14th, 2012, 12:27 pm
posted on April 14th, 2012, 12:32 pm
Once finshed you need to photoshop it destroying some fed laptops 
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