As of yesterday, I made this forum post explaining how this project began. This morning Frank came in with his... machine? This barely qualifies as a computer in my opinion, but here is the part list so far.
- emachine T1140 mobo and case - we are going to recycle the heavy metal and plastic case at the recycling center.
- 450 watt PSU - looks newer than the machine itself.
- 3.5 inch floopy drive - remember those eh?
- 48x ReWrite CDROM
- 56k fax modem - tossing it, putting in an ethernet card.
- AGP 2x - Integrated Graphics.
I am going to assume the CPU and RAM are standard for this dinobot. Intel Celeron 1.1 GHz and 128 MB according to most website info specifications. Although it looks to me like it could have been upgraded to 512 MB. There are some needed materials for this project to take off and over the days ahead Frank and I are planning on hitting some sales. He picked this up for only a couple of loonies! That is about $2 to you in the states. The front panel says it came with a 20 GB HDD. I have an old IDE 60 GB HDD somewhere in my storage.
This is our needed parts list;
- 5 to 10 gallon acrylic aquarium - our new case
- 5 to 10 gallons of mineral oil - coolant
- Ethernet Card
- Keyboard, Monitor, and Mouse
- Miscellaneous hardware items, silicone caulk, fasteners, and beer.
I am assuming this hulk may not even will power up, which I plan to test tomorrow after I have a chance to clean it.
Day 2 - Sunday, May 26th, 2013
I cleaned it up and fired it up without a HDD to see what is what. The machine actually runs, it has only 256 MB of RAM so now I need to rethink what Linux distribution to place on this fossil. Since the graphics is shared memory, I am thinking about getting him a small card from the used computer shop. I would buy a new one but there is no PCIe slots, just 3 PCI. Graphics card for PCI are getting expensive with age.
Meanwhile Frank is out shopping for his tank, but looking about the yard and rummage sales. He plans to set it up with some LEDs and plastic fish. I am stopping by the Home Depot to check on the price of mineral oil. At this rate we might get the whole project done for under $50, less monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
Day 3 - Thursday, May 30th, 2013
A little more unexpected movement today, as Frank found a used 128 MB Nvidia PCI card. I don't know what chipset, but it should be good enough for his machine. Frank was at an indoor junk sale (which he seems to find more time to attend) and found this as he put it, "just there". So assuming it works he got this for less than $2. Now I have to make a trip to my storage unit and dig out the 60 GB HDD. Since it is just laying around I am going be a sport and not charge Frank since he said he will buy the beer this weekend.
Day 4 - Sunday, June 9th, 2013
Frank purchased the mineral oil for this project and I got the computer installed with a Debian Gnome (Frank's choice) The machine is running but still inside the metal case. We are looking for a 5 to 10 gallon plastic fish tank to place the guts inside. My problems; I have to place a power switch on the outside of the tank I don't want to chop holes in the tank. So the mobo will be "mounted" on a sheet of plexi-glass and slid into the tank for a tight fit. I don't want the mobo to fall over and hit the PSU in there.
Day 5 - Friday, June 14th, 2013
Today was a good day, I was out for a walk looking over various yard sales. I found my sheet of plexi-glass I need to mount the mobo... so I am marking the holes. However Frank is still looking for a used tank (new cost $50 to $80) so I can't shape my plastic until we get a tank to size it. He and I discussed a glass tank but the idea is this could shatter and be a mess. It could be a mess if it gets knocked over but adding shards of broken glass to the mess is not an option. Meanwhile I have the PC apart again and took the case to the recycle center after removing the front switch and some needed wiring.
Day 6 - Sunday, June 23rd, 2013
Frank ordered a 5 gallon fish tank off the internet for $15. Now we wait for that to arrive. Meanwhile I was out at a rummage sale and found a floating tank thermometer which should give us an idea of what temp the oil is running at a glance.
Day 7 - Wednesday, July 17th, 2013
Yesterday Frank's tank arrived for the second time. The first tank had a huge crack in it and was returned. So on the hottest week I can remember... we are going to place the mobo on the plastic mount I made and fill the tank with oil. I hope our Frank n' Simon monster works. That is what Frank has dubbed the beast. We are not going to use any floating items. We talked about plastic fish as a joke but with the unknown currents in the oil we don't need a plastic fish banging into something. I am still using the thermo but it has a suction cup mount. So place your bets, I am thinking it won't last the night. Frank is more optimistic about it. I purchased a small automotive fire extinguisher from the local auto store. Although we have been informed that mineral oil is non-flammable. I will get back to you after we have it up and running for 24 hours or more.
Day 8 - Friday, July 19th, 2013
The Frank n' Simon machine has been running for well over 24 hours. For the lack of sensors or the lack of access to the sensors, I don't know which, I can only tell you the temperature of the oil in the tank. It is running at exactly 39 °C or 102 °F. The fish thermo got replaced with a candy thermo when we quickly realized it tops out at 50 °C / 120 °F.
Our apartment is air-conditioned even so with the heatwave running 25° to 32° outside we have maintained an indoor temp around 23°. Sorry got tired of converting my temps. LoL. The machine is very quiet with nothing but the PSU and CPU fan pushing oil over the parts. We don't have any pumps internal or external. There was a smell of the oil as soon as we filled the tank but even that seems to be going away... or I am getting use to it. The machine has some issues but none due to the fact it is bathing in mineral oil. I have yet to wire in a proper on/off switch. Instead there are two wires dangling outside the tank. It looks pretty scary, but after all... I am a geneticist and Frank is hematologist. This sure was a fun summer project.