$0 COST, 100% E-WASTE, COMPACT IMAC CLONE

Intro: $0 COST, 100% E-WASTE, COMPACT IMAC CLONE

PLEASE KINDLY VOTE FOR MY INSTRUCTABLE IN THE "3RD EPILOG CHALLENGE", THANKS ^_^

In the beginning, this project was conceived after i had watched a documentary about E-wastes being dumped in 3rd world countries and another about the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative and how it contributed to education which in turn ended the poverty cycle, it struck me that if the same children that the OLPC were trying to reach were able to learn how to make their own computers from these E-wastes, then it would be possible to fulfill OLPC's goal as well as solve the problem of E-waste recycling, both at a much faster rate, as information always spreads faster than resources.

STEP 1: POSTER, IMAC, 1YEAR

When going through E-wastes, you will often come across electronics that you've never seen before, simply because they weren't made during your generation, thus i have found the above poster highly useful when sorting through piles of E-wastes (print it out like i did). As i had to salvage all my materials as well as use only hand tools, and i made things even harder still by trying to design an IMAC clone (where the CPU is mounted behind the screen) so that it is at least comparable to OLPC's laptop in terms of portability, keep in mind that it has taken me more than a year of spare time to finish this project, so pls give constructive comments, thanks

STEP 2: HANDTOOLS, SALVAGE, NO INTERNET

In due course, i soon realised that in order for the proof of concept to be credible, i would have to use purely salvaged materials and tools, and how often do you find a junked electrical tool that could be repaired without special parts, never is the answer, so i had to use the above salvaged hand tools to do all the work shown in the next few pages. Some of the salvaged materials came from the freecycler network, and i have personally been in some junkyards hunting for parts, and it has been an experience to say the least. Also, the internet was not used during the project build, as there would be no internet access in the proof of concept scenario.

STEP 3: MOTHERBOARD (MATERIALS 1)

The best motherboard i could salvage that appeared relatively undamaged was a totally unpopulated ASROCK, but it had extensive rusting on all its connectors that needed grinding off using a stone.
Purely using the "computer hardware chart" i gathered that it had
-1 ATX 20pin connector
-1 EPS 12v 4pin connector
-1 LGA775 processor socket,
-2 dual-channel DDR2 ram slots
-1 IDE connector
-1 floppy connector
-4 sata slots
-1 PCI-E X16
-1 PCI-E x4
-3 PCI slots
-4 internal USB ports (printed on circuit board)
-1 internal serial port (printed on circuit board)
-1 set of front panel headers (printed on circuit board)

With the ASROCK motherboard as the base i salvaged the following to populate it
-1 3.0GHz LGA775 processor from under an absolutely corroded heatsink and caked in thermal paste (which probably saved it from being corroded too)
-2 512mb DDR2 kingston value ram from a motherboard that had been broken in two
-1 intel stock heatsink and fan had need some heavy cleaning (you'll be surprised how many of these you can find)

STEP 4: VIDEO CARD AND ACCESSORIES (MATERIALS 2)

After grinding off the rust, the VGA port of the motherboard was beyond repair, so i had to find a video card, while doing so i found some other things that could be added onto the motherboard
-1 asus Geforce 6600GT 128MB with a broken fan that i switched out
-1 PCI linksys wireless-G with a broken antenna connector (still works with short ranges)
-1 internal USB extender

STEP 5: HDD AND FRONT PANEL BUTTONS (MATERIALS 3)

The 3rd item in the previous step was a rounded IDE cable i made using a knife and black electrical tape, for use with a maxtor IDE HDD (found out later it was size 40.1GB and had 20 bad sectors) [It was one of the few E-waste HDD that didn't click when powered up]
The triangle front panel was created from a scrap piece of metal, the indicator leds from an electrical thermos flask (1 red, 1 blue), the 2 red buttons from a broken car dashboard (1 colored black with a permanent marker) and the serial port from an ancient broken PCI card, pls excuse the make-shift splicing with electrical tape. By the way, the metal rail is from a broken sliding keyboard shelf.

STEP 6: LCD PANEL, FIX AND STAND (MATERIALS 4)

The HP 15-inch LCD still works, but it has a broken stand and the CCFL tubes had blown so there is no backlight, so i used the CCFL tubes of an ancient NEC 15-inch which LCD was burnt out, its stand is also unusually large (allowing it to store 2 adapters as seen in a future step),which i used to prop up the HP LCD

STEP 7: MOTHERBOARD MOUNT AND L-FRAME (MATERIALS 5)

The above piece of metal was taken from a discarded mini-itx casing that had a rear inserted motherboard mount, a L-frame was also cut out from the same casing for support of the PSU, what was left after i was done is also shown above

STEP 8: ATX 20PIN PSU (MATERIALS 6)

I found the tiny PSU above in a CPU casing that had no motherboard in it, it is only 150w according to the label, thus cannot power the whole computer but i choose it for its small size anyway, as i had an idea, as seen in the next step.
Notice the sides of the PSU are swiss-cheesed because the L-frame blocks a PSU vent, thus these holes were made to vent the hot air

STEP 9: EPS 12V 4PIN ADAPTERS (MATERIALS 7)

Above are 2 12v 3A adapters without their casings, 1 is from the NEC LCD, the other was originally a printer power supply, but splicing them in parallel to the EPS 12v 4pin connector i can supply 6A of 12v power (72W), though doing so makes the power supplies fluctuate abit.

STEP 10: LCD BASE PLATE AND L-FRAME (ASSEMBLE 1)

Saw out the L-frame shape from the mini-itx casing while leaving space where the PSU exhaust fan goes
Using a rock as a hammer and a screwdriver, puncture holes wherever bolts need to be used to fasten the L-frame to the LCD base plate, taking care to avoid the areas where the adapters are gonna be located (next step), then bolt them together

STEP 11: LCD BASE AND 12V ADAPTERS (ASSEMBLE 2)

Insert and attach the 12v adapters inside the plastic portion of the LCD base using screws and superglue as needed, notice the cable goes through the center of the swivel assembly, later on more will be added, the rectangle cut-out at the top right hand side is for the 40pin ATX connector (see next step), as the cable for it is too short to be routed through!

STEP 12: PSU AND LCD BASE UNIT (ASSEMBLE 3)

Bolt the 150W PSU onto the L-frame and the plastic portion of the LCD base onto the LCD base plate, then thread the cables through their respective holes to complete the LCD base unit
Notice the swivel assembly is attached to a metal-L, it is described in the next step

STEP 13: SWIVEL ASSEMBLY AND METAL-L (ASSEMBLE 4)

This is made by bending out the hinges of what's left of the broken HP LCD stand and bolting them onto the metal-L of the NEC LCD stand as seen above, the thickness of the metal-L made puncturing holes impossible, so elongated semi-circles were made by grinding away the metal from the left and right edges using a stone.

STEP 14: LCD PANEL AND METAL-L (ASSEMBLE 5)

Attach the LCD panel to the metal-L using the 3 screw mounting that originally existed on the broken HP LCD stand, as seen above

STEP 15: MINI-ITX MOUNT AND LCD PANEL (ASSEMBLE 6)

Puncture 4 holes in the mini-itx mount that correspond to the 4 holes that are normally used for attaching the LCD to wall fixtures, then bolt it onto the LCD panel

STEP 16: CUSTOM POWER CORD (ASSEMBLE 7)

I spliced both 2pin power cords for the power adapters to a 3pin plug so that they can be fuse protected, but didn't add an earth wire as the entire LCD base unit (adapters included) are attached to the earth wire of the 150W PSU.

STEP 17: MOUNT EVERYTHING (ASSEMBLE 8)

Finally mount the motherboard, HDD, video card and all the other accessories
Plug everything in, do some cable management and double check the connections

STEP 18: FULLY ASSEMBLED

Here are the front and back pics of the fully assembled unit.

STEP 19: OMG IT WORKS

After formatting the HDD in NTFS and installing windows XP, i boot it up and OMG IT WORKS! YEA! ^_^ VOTE FOR ME!

The last time i visited my local hackerspace, i was shocked to see that it had become a cultural center, besides the occasional arduino lecture by overseas visitors, almost nothing electronic or mechanical was being planned or built, when asked about it, members explained that they didn't have the tools required to do so, and the Epilog Laser could potentially change all that, allowing people like me to finally build to our hearts content! (By the way if shipping of the prize is an issue, i would gladly pay for it, thanks)

Comments

[ironsmiter]

Given a complete lack of OSX, hackintoshness, PearPC, nor even a mac skin for linux...

I'll have to give this a renaming.
I dub thee the iBm


The final product is pretty neat.
but OMFG!
"it had extensive rusting on all its connectors"
I replace caps all the time to revive motherboards.
Even modded a few power regulators, but grinding rust from the connectors, and adding power? You, sir, are a brave, brave person.

I'd also be wary of adding power in parallel, from the PSU.
"EPS 12v 4pin connector" ???
Sure, use that secondary power supply to power fans, maybe even hard drives. but I think I'll stick to powering motherboards with their intended power supplies.


Love the concept of this 'ible.
I am of the "full load to the e-cycler, 1/2 a load back" school.
Every single time i take a load of crt's to the e-cycler, I end up with a half dozen lcd's on the ride back. a little testing, and sometimes a few capacitors later, and they're good to go to new homes.

[quickshadow_2]

Thanks for your comment.

The IMAC reference is only meant to refer to the concept of the CPU being mounted behind the screen (IMAC is the most well known for this), and not bare any other resemblance.

I understand why you feel that i didn't do enough work on the motherboard, but i was trying to keep to the proof of concept scenario and the sad reality is that alot of the e-wastes nowadays are either superficially damaged or purely discarded during an upgrade (not damaged at all) [i personally have repaired more highly damaged motherboards, my favorite being a motherboard that had been broken in 2 right down the middle, after 100m of magnet wire and countless hours of soldering to join every connection of the 2 halves, it actually worked, WOW!]

As i mentioned the parallel 12v adapters had power fluctuations and isn't ideal, but it works, and since it does i'm not complaining about anything else, however if you really want, you could add a capacitor bank in parallel to the 12v adapter (car capacitors work fine) to smooth out the fluctuations.

i like your motto ("full load to the e-cycler, 1/2 a load back"), lucky for you in your country it is that simple, in my country though the e-cycle companies will only deal with large business so people like me get side-lined though we are trying to do some good, sigh.

PLEASE KINDLY VOTE FOR MY INSTRUCTABLE IN THE "3RD EPILOG CHALLENGE", THANKS ^_^

[nliwilson]

By "CPU" you actually mean the "PC" CPU stands for Central Processing Unit and refers to the processor chip, not the PC.

This is nothing like an iMac, the iMac is an all in one machene like a laptop but without the hinge. What you have here is a PC stuck to the back of a monitor that won't cool properly because there's no casing on it.

I'm all for reusing e-waste and well doen for that but your description is nonsense and if you think you've made an iMac you don't understand the value of OS X.

[ironsmiter]

Old labels, and shifting definitions.

Let us just call it "The Computer"

When you denounce this creation as being nothing like an iMac, and missing the value of OSX... YOU miss a fair bit of HISTORY.

Have a look at the guts of a G3 imac. Put a colorful plastic shell on the back, and the differences nearly disappear. Slap Linux on this frankenstein, with an OSX skin, and to those not familiar with Macintoshes, you may fool them into thinking it was a prototype! A filling of Hackintosh, and the illusion becomes fact! The resemblance is so close in fact, that my 233mhz G3 even uses a vga cable to connect the monitor to the motherboard(internal to the case, but it is still there!)

We can further confuse things by looking at some of the g4 iMacs which put the computer in the screen base, and the G5 line which basically WAS a macbook with it's screen flipped, and put on a stand.

As a proud owner of 2 fully functional G3(OS9/osx10.3, and OSX 10.4respectively) a G4 iMac(Debian/OSX10.5.8), and a "G3" blueberry(mini-itx gut replacement running win7/Ubuntu/Hackintosh 10.6) I THINK I understand the value of OSX. Not that I use it OFTEN, or by personal preference, but I do see the appeal to some, and enjoy toying around in a polished Linux based operating system(or sco, bsd, unix, or whatever codebase they are currently working with) But I am not sure where exactly the value of osx comes into play, when discussing a computers physical form factor.

As to the cooling factor... it probably cools BETTER than if it were in a case :-)
Instead of blowing around hot case air(or using massive fans to move in ambient air) It just sits in room temperature all day long, cooling only the pieces that need cooling(CPU, GPU, Power supply, maybe ram?)


Sorry, That may have come off a bit combative, and I apologize.
Last comment, I promise(I do tend to rant sometimes).
I also have a (no longer working) eOne(eMachine that formerly ran Win98 and an OS7 emulator). Now if THAT isn't an iMac clone...
then call me Bill, and smack my microsoft.

[pmn9393]

This is extremely incomplete as it has no covering for the back, it would be very simple to get the back half of a crt monitor and use it. you could probably just take off the front bezel, gut it out and stuff everything inside. Try to find something around 19 or 20 in.

[zack247]

i can safely say that i have repaired burnt fan traces on motherboards, but never have i had the guts to try and use one that was corroded, or snapped in half, that sir, requires some courage that i just dont have, you have earned my respect in this field because you just do the stuff some of us are (whether we admit it or not) afraid to do, i mean, actually using those extra power supplies to power the motherboard? you are brave, i would never try that for fear that it would blow up in my face.

Instructables should add a "Respect bar" on each users profile, but you, would already have it filled up.

[quickshadow_2]

Many thanks for your "respect", i am truly honored.

The thing is, electricity was invented by man, as such we shouldn't fear to harness it to the fullest, in any possible way. People fear that which they don't understand, so learn the characteristics of electricity (it always takes the path of least resistance etc) and take the necessary precautions (noticed i added an extra step for "custom power cord" which has an added fused plug etc).

Personally after a while you kinda get used to the "inherent dangers", and just want to get the job done, just like how a soldier or a bomb disposal expert isn't bothered by the prospect of dying in his line of duty

PLEASE KINDLY VOTE FOR MY INSTRUCTABLE IN THE "3RD EPILOG CHALLENGE", THANKS ^_^

[shawnlogan]

Um, mankind did not invent electricity, we just discovered how to harness and control it to some degree.