Now my attention turns to a miniature PC for the Workbench. A while back I kickstarted a X86 miniPC board by Udoo. I had kickstarted it as an Advanced with 4GB of DDR and a 32GB emmc. At the time I outfitted it with an 80mm Transcend 256GB SSD using a 3D printed bracket I created. I also outfitted the PC with a Intel Dual Band AC 8260 WIFI NGFF card and a set of Wifi Antenna’s (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01E29566W) to connect to the AC 8260 card. At the time I didn't have any real uses for the board; but knew it would come in handy... Since Intel discontinued the Arduino 101 on the board; I didn't see much point In trying to use it for a maker project.
The purpose of this PC is mainly to look up Datasheets, view Schematics/PCB files, and to run a Windows XP 32 Virtual machine to run my laser cutter's 32bit drivers.
I decided I wanted to create a small acrylic case for the PC and mount it under the new desktop. I did a search on Udoo's forums and found a opensource case by WalkingRobot. I imported his files; but knew I'd have to modify them for several reasons.
- I had an 80mm SSD instead of the stock 60mm
- I didn't want the complete cut outs for the Arduino 101.
- I wanted to add some WIFI Antenna mounts.
I pulled out QCAD and re-engineered the case for my needs. This was my final CorelDraw file I sent to my Laser cutter:
PC Case
I actually went thru an intermediate step when I printed the center top... but quickly realized that I need the wifi antennas during final testing.
I laser cut the acrylic case out of some scrap 1/8" smoke acrylic I had laying around from my computer mod days. Here's the finished case mounted together with some #6-32 standoffs, some nuts, and scome screws:
Finished Udoo Case
I mounted it to the side of the drawer so it'd be out of the way from my knees and what not.
Mounted PC
The PC is mounted to drawer with some #6 woodscrews.
Next; I turned my attention to how I was going to work with the PC. I need a monitor, hdmi preferably. Turns out I had a monitor arm right there... so use it. I had picked up a small "10 inch test monitor" off of Amazon in Feb of last year. It's intention was to be small so I could debug computers on the work bench... but honestly; the monitor has several killer issues which makes it difficult to use. 1) it's bezel is too big; so things like the windows start button get cut off. 2) it doesn't like the early boot mode of the udooX86. It's really can't be used in bios settings; only when the system is booting and when the resolution has been "shrunk" to fit within the bezel. But it was cheap-ish... so might as well use it. If I were buying a new monitor for this rig; I'd probably go with something like this:
11.6 1920x1080 display with 10point touch.
I wanted to mount to my scope's new monitor arm; so I created a right angle 75mm bracket in QCAD and laser cut it:
75mm RA bracket
Using a heat gun and some clamps; I bent the bracket at the dotted line:
A Right-ish Angle
and mounted it with the leftover amazon hardware and some spare 4mm nuts I had on hand:
Bracket installed
I then mounted the monitor to the bracket using some additional 4mm hardware:
Monitor Mounted
I didn't want wires on my desk; so I ordered an hdmi cable and fed it thru monitor arm. I had an older Logitech Bluetooth keyboard and a Logitech BT mouse that I acquired over the years. Both paired perfectly with the Intel AC8260 card's Bluetooth radio:
A bluetooth desktop
Finally; I paired the PC w/ a bluetooth speaker so I can stream some music while working on projects.
The PC runs pretty good for only 4GB of DDR. I do want to upgrade the monitor to the one I pointed to above... but I've been spending way too much cash on this project to date.
This weekend I hope to make progress on the drawer faces. Please stay tuned.