The complete PC is already mounted in the bag. However, it will need a couple of holes for the fans. First I probet with my finger to find the middle of the processor fan and cut a small hole there. That’s not getting me anywhere. I’ll have to get the devider out first. The computer goes back in. To prevent it from falling backwards, I stuff it out with a piece of wood. Now I have carefully enlarged the hole so that the entire fan is exposed.
I did the same with the fan of the graphics card. I also needed a smaller hole in front of the power supply.
I designed covers for the fan holes and printed them with the 3d printer. As always, you will find the files on fluxing.de. The cover in front of the power supply unit has hook attached with which it is hooked into one of the ventilation slots. It is secured with a screw which is also screwed into the ventilation slot.
The covers in front of the fans shall be glued on with hot glue. So that I don’t get any hot glue into the fans, I put a thick foil in between. The hot glue can easily be removed from the bags in which computer parts are delivered.
Now it is time for the 13.3-inch touchscreen monitor, which runs on 12v. A genuine Chinese brand product, On the box it says Mage-Dok, but on screen it is spelled Mega-Dok. By the way, after a short time an unattractive pattern has formed on my monitor, I suspect that the touch foil detaches from the actual monitor. Overall, the thing is stylish, but looks very fragile.
The monitor works with HDMI. However, I would like to put it in the bag with the cables plugged in, but the plug is too long. So I carved it smaller. Now it fits.
For the USB signal, I slaughtered a braided smartphone charging cable. However, the braiding was much harder to remove than I thought. I also reduced the size of the USB connector. And an antique charging cable is used for the 12 power supply. These three cables are pushed through a braided sleeve.
I had cut off the USB plug to help push it it through the sleeve. Now it gets soldered on again, as well as the plug for the power supply.
For the three connectors I designed a common housing and 3d printed it. First, the underside is temporarily fixed with a little hot glue. Then the end of the braided sleeve is cut off smooth and the upper half of the housing is put on and fixed with adhesive tape. And now the cavities are filled with plenty of hot glue. And the multifunctional plug is ready.
Now the monitor needs a sleeve. The colour of this fabric matches the bag quite well. I have drawn the outline around the two sides and a narrow side of the monitor and left a border of about 1cm. This piece of mdf from a broken picture frame is used as reinforcement. I divided it into four segments of about the same size, but I planned the gap between the parts on the front a little bigger.
With my already dead jigsaw blade I cut the parts.
Now I’ve covered the fabric with Pattex. Pattex should always be allowed to dry until it no longer feels moist before pressing the parts together. The edge is folded inwards and pressed down. Oh well, so that the edge in the corners does not become twice as thick, I have to cut off the corners diagonally first. Now the mdf parts are glued on. Pattex should be pressed down briefly but firmly. So hit it with a hammer.
Now I need a second copy of the fabric. The edges are also glued around here.
Before I finally press on the fabric, I try the cover again. And I realize I forgot to take the material thickness into account. The sleeve should have been one number larger. But it’ll work. So the parts are finally pressed together. I glue the monitor with hot glue on the upper half of the backside. This means that it can be removed later without leaving any residue. And now you can even use the sleeve as a monitor stand.
In the computer I have installed a card reader, which is actually intended as an external device. But I connect it directly to the motherboard.
As a power supply I had used a mains-to-12v power supply and a thing called M2-ATX PSU, which generates all the different voltages that the computer needs from the 12V. That should deliver 160 watts. This was even enough for benchmark and endurance tests. But if you want to play games, it’s obviously not enough. In Star Wars Battlefront II, the computer sometimes just rebooted. So I used this pico-atx PSU instead. This is even much smaller and is plugged directly onto the motherboard, but it needs almost exactly 12v at the input. I better don’t use the computer with the on-board power in the car now, which is usually 13V to 15V. But Battlefront II now works fine.
