[sdiy] 19" rack mounted & modified Atari Mega STe

[m.bareille at free.fr]

Hi ,

I did the same thing almost 10 years ago with a boosted Falcon 030 re-housed
into a 19" 3U rack case. It was a lot of work but the unit still work fine today
:) event if it is a little bit obsolete computer... I have also integrated many
peripheric device into the rack and made a separated ST keyboards with 16 MIDI
fader CC included boxed into an old ST520 plastic case ( the first ST with the
external psu )

So to answer your questions:

> 1) the main board is too wide to fit the 19" rack standard, therefore
> need to mount it sideways, making the enclosure very deep.
> Where can I get hold of rack enclosures with a depth of at least 50cm?
> gather it'll have to be around 55cm give or take.

Exact , the ST/STe/falcon boards are too wide ... so i have cleanly unsoldered
all the sockeds on the left side of the board ( joystick DB9,  Midi , Cardridge
socket ,etc..)and removed approx 1cm of pcb (the border gnd track ) with a
Dremel saw ... All the removed plugs and sockets have been moved to the rear
panel with wires...


> 2) The front and rear panel will have lots of LEDs, connectors, knobs
> and switches. I believe there are companies that laser-cut this sort of thing
as opposed to trying to drill holes and file away excessive metal, *trying* to
make it nice myself. Any experiences with laser cutting? Is it expensive?


Leaser cutting on demand is a very expensive service . You also will need to
provide a dxf file for the cuttings ... Do not expect to do that with a small
engraving laser ( <100W) . Those devices do not cut steel, just thin wood
,plastics  or paper...

It is perfectly possible to do that with your two hands a good metal saw , limes
, and a pair of drillers ( dremel and a bigger one ) . That's what i did . It
was a very hard work and it took me many days to achieve it.  But very cheap
too...

I have mounted some old pictures i had of this unit on my site at
http://m.bareille.free.fr/falcon030/mb_falcon.html

I let ATARI specialists to identify the add-ons ;)


4) Mecanorma transfert letters on my Falcon , with a thin layer of transparent
acrylic varnish spray ... After more than 10 years the thing is still clean :)


Well i hope my pictures will inspire you :) Good luck !

Cheers

Marc B.




Selon Hallvard Tangeraas <my_list_address at yahoo.no>:

> Hello everybody,
>  I've just joined the list, and have several music related DIY projects
> going.
>
> The one I'm working on now is an Atari Mega STe computer which I plan to
> modify and recase (19" rack module) ending up (for me) as the ultimate
> MIDI computer. I run Notator SL on it, which works very well for me.
> I hope that this won't be too off-topic for the list, but being music
> and DIY related I thought I'd ask here for some pointers.
>
> I need some help designing some simple MIDI related circuitry for it
> later on, but for now I have the following questions relating to the 19"
> rack enclosure which will house the computer and all the additional
> circuitry which I'll be building and adding to it:
>
> 1) the main board is too wide to fit the 19" rack standard, therefore I
> need to mount it sideways, making the enclosure very deep.
> Where can I get hold of rack enclosures with a depth of at least 50cm? I
> gather it'll have to be around 55cm give or take.
>
> 2) The front and rear panel will have lots of LEDs, connectors, knobs
> and switches. I believe there are companies that laser-cut this sort of
> thing as opposed to trying to drill holes and file away excessive metal,
> *trying* to make it nice myself.
> Any experiences with laser cutting? Is it expensive?
>
> 3) Any good tips for mounting all the switches, connectors, LEDs and so
> on *without* drilling mounting holes for every PCB?
> I will build a lot of small PCBs where one board will carry all the
> video output connectors as well as the mode switch, another board will
> carry the printer output connector with a buffer on the same PCB, yet
> another board will carry all of the MIDI in connectors, and a separate
> board for the MIDI out connectors etc.
> They will have to be mounted to the front and rear panels somehow, but
> screw-holes for every board will make the project look very "home made".
> Alternatives to this?
>
> 4) To give the whole project a finishing touch I would like to label
> every connector, switch, LED etc. just like professional ready-made rack
> mounted gear. I believe silk-screen printing is what they use, though I
> have no experience with that sort of thing. Anyone who's used a suitable
> method to get white text painted on to the black front and rear panels?
>
>
> Kind regards,
> Hallvard
>