-- Indiglo Clock Mod
-- 11.10.2002
-- By: AB
Harris
-- Page: 1
2
Being that I am a hardcore gamer, I often find myself involved in
late-night gaming sessions and losing track of time. Almost always I
game in my studio with the lights off and thus can't see the pendulum
clock atop the hutch of my desk. My initial thought was to buy a
digital LED clock and place it nearby, but then I thought, "why not
make this another modding project and install the clock inside of my
case?" I decided to go with Timex Indiglo because the pale-blue LCD
time display would compliment the custom blue paintjob of my case.
Additionally, the Indiglo LCD display is "viewer-friendly" (large
numbers, etc.) and with a mere glance I can easily see the time.
OK, here is the pre-Indiglo PC:
I had painted the case myself just days before. The
topmost bay (AMD sticker) looks a little "plain", so that's where I
set my sights on installing the Indigo.
Let's take a look inside the case:
I was concerned that I wouldn't have enough room for
the Indiglo components, as the top bay space is already tight. (Note
the clean wiring job and mirrored interior).
While I've got the case open, here are the system
specs:
-Processor: AMD Athlon 1800xp
-Motherboard: Asus A7V266-E
-RAM: 512 meg PC2100 DDR
-Graphics: PNY GeForce4 Ti4600
-Monitor: Cornerstone p1600 21-inch CRT
-Sound: Hercules GameTheaterXP
-Speakers: Klipsch ProMedia 4.1
-Power: Antec 400watt PS
-various other upgrades/mods (blowhole, cold cathodes, dust filters, CPU
led fan, etc.)
Now let's check out the Timex Indiglo Alarm Clock:
This picture was actually taken after I had already
started dismantling pieces off of the PCB, but the picture on the box
shows what the clock originally looked like.
My primary goal during this "surgery" was to trim away
everything possible and still have the clock operate. For example, I
knew I didn't want to actually use the radio feature, so I stripped it
off of the PCB. I also stripped off the tuning dial, clipped the
internal speaker, etc., but after each "strip", I plugged the clock
back in to make sure it was still functioning. I'm a Systems Engineer,
not an Electrical Engineer, so my knowledge of what I could remove
without damaging the clock was very limited. Luckily, the thing still
worked after I had removed everything and basically had a barebones
Indiglo LED plate with a stripped-down PCB.
Here is the final product before installation:
As far as cutting the faceplate and drilling the
button holes, it just took some common sense (using the original Timex
faceplate as a template), a lot of patience, and a very steady hand
with the Dremel. The plastic tends to sort of melt away instead of
just cut, so I made sure to cut within my lines and just burr away the
excess plastic globs (again, using the Dremel).
I had wanted to assemble a chassis upon which
everything could be mounted, but the ribbon cables connecting the
faceplate to the PCB didn't allow me enough space to twist it around
to attach onto the PCB. I even considered lengthening the ribbon cable
myself, but as I said, I'm not an Electrical Engineer and didn't want
to ruin this project after already having completed so much (and
cutting ribbon cable, only to solder the cables back individually,
seemed very meticulous).
I decided to just slide it into the empty bay and let
the PCB and power supply rest atop the optical drive below it:
Yeah, it does look sort of sloppy, but once inside,
the wire mess is unnoticeable. Recall that I was very limited on
space. I therefore resulted to using the Dremel to trim off pieces of
the PCB and LED plate so it would seat nicely within the confines of
5.25 inches. I was very careful not to accidentally hit any traces
while cutting!
Another concern I had was how to power the thing? I
wanted to be able to jump power from my Antec PS, but this is DC
current. The Indiglo power is AC, so using the Antec power involves
converting the current and transforming the load (Indiglo uses 15watts
I believe), not to mention modding the Antec such that the clock would
continue to receive current even when the PC is powered down. Things
can get complicated here, so I chose to not explore the current
conversion.
After probing around, I decided to just run the
original power cable from the Indiglo through my case and out the
back. Drilling a hole for this didn't seem to be a good idea since the
hole needs to be large enough for the Indiglo plug, while the actual
power cord itself would be much smaller. I didn't want to bother with
filling in the excess space with putty, nor did I want to remove the
plug and re-attach it (via soldering iron) once I pushed the power
cable through.
So here is what I decided on:
I loosened the Antec screws just enough to slide the
plug and power cable around the side of it, then tightened it back up.
Sure, I could have done something more creative, but no one really
sees the back of my case so I wasn't too concerned.
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