Difference between pages "My First Casemod" and "WiiCheck"

From nikosapi.org wiki
(Difference between pages)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
 
m (1 revision)
 
Line 1: Line 1:
−
Being as bored as I am I decided to pull out an old Pentium 1 and play with it. I really liked the old P1 cases because they were small and even had an led display to tell you what frequency the processor is running at (ooo 133MHz!!). After tinkering for about half an hour I got bored again because it was just so damn slow! I realized that this was just too awesome of a case to ignore and considering that I just built a P2 machine a couple days before it was the perfect opportunity to do something neat.
+
[[Image:Wii.jpg|right|thumb|200px]]
 +
If you live in Canada, have access to a bash shell and really want a Wii I wrote a script that will facilitate that process. It works by downloading the online availability info from futureshop and bestbuy then it preforms two checks on it. The first (but most effective) is the grep test which uses grep to find the string "in stock" in the downloaded files, the second uses md5sum to see if the availability info has changed (just in case). If the grep test is true it uses mplayer to play a file in the same directory as the script named song1.mp3 and if the md5sum check is false (you'll know what I mean by looking at the script) it plays a file named song2.mp3 in the current directory. If either of the checks are positive it'll open Firefox to the futureshop/bestbuy page that lets you buy a Wii. The script checks for new Wiis every 5 minutes but that can easily be changed.
 +
Download here: [http://nikosapi.org/software/wiicheck/wiicheck-1.1.txt wiicheck-1.1.txt]<br />
 +
Make it executable with:
 +
mv wiicheck-1.1.txt wiicheck-1.1
 +
chmod +x wiicheck-1.1
 +
Then run it:
 +
./wiicheck-1.1
 +
Running the script produces a lot of output so you can always redirect that to a log file by running it like this:
 +
./wiicheck-1.1 >> wiicheck.log
 +
Options are:
 +
--test-fs-grep make sure the grep check works (futureshop)
 +
--test-bb-grep make sure the grep check works (bestbuy)
 +
--test-fs-md5 make sure the md5sum check works (futureshop)
 +
--test-bb-md5 make sure the md5sum check works (bestbuy)
  
−
== The Case ==
+
In the script there are 3 md5s for futureshop and 2 for bestbuy that are known to be used for "out of stock", you can add your own by md5sum'ing the onlineavailability.asp?sku_id=* files and adding your own md5sums. Remember just add a comma to the line of md5s and then add your own (just make one big line).
−
I started by making sure the motherboard fit in the old P1 chassis and luckily it did with about 1cm of extra space on the top. Then came the fun part, cutting off the bracket that held the power supply and the old keyboard hole to the frame with a grinder (50 times faster than a dremel).
 
 
<br /><br />
 
<br /><br />
−
Then I mounted the power supply at the front of the pc because there was no space at the back and I cut off it's mounting bracket. The power supply's input plug was re-located to the back of the pc were it should be, then I ran a wire through the case (the thick black one) to the power supply. If you notice, the metal plate that the power supply's input plug is mounted on is actually from another old, dead supply. A hole was made in that plate to get access to the usb plugs and the ps/2 inputs (they're the only ones I need).
+
Happy Wii hunting!
 
<br /><br />
 
<br /><br />
−
At first I didn't add a fan hoping that it wouldn't overheat, also because the P1 case wasn't made to have a fan and I like quiet PCs. But it ended up getting up to 70 degrees (Celsius) while running a test loop so I ended up installing a fan right above the pci cards and it dropped the temperature on average about 12 degrees!
+
nikosapi
−
In the picture you may notice that black box on top of the case which is my usb sound card made out of an old socom PS2 headset. It has surprisingly good playback and recording capabilities and it was also my only choice as the isa cards I had didn't seem to work.
+
<br /><br />
−
 
+
P.S. This does work, I can prove it ^_^
−
 
 
−
== The Front Panel ==
 
−
 
 
−
The main reason I wanted to keep this case was because of the cool looking front panel. The led display was turned upside down and I made it display 451 which is the actual speed (in MHz reported by dmesg) of the Pentium 2 that's in there now. The turbo button just turns on and off the turbo led, I didn't have much imagination for that one... <br /><br />
 
−
I added one of those cool airplane switches with the plastic cover on the front (it's from a real airplane, and it's made by Korry). When you press it, it disconnects the power and reset switches so no one messes with the computer while it's on.<br /><br />
 
−
Lastly, I added a thermometer. It was originally there to monitor the processor's temperature when I didn't have the fan but now it's just there for kicks. I even added some green leds to make the back of the display glow in the dark. It's not the most accurate way to messure temperature because the sensor is mounted on the heatsink but it still gives an idea of what's going on in the case.
 
−
 
 
−
== The Specs ==
 
−
 
 
−
{| border="1"
 
−
!Hardware
 
−
|-
 
−
|Pentium 2 450MHz Processor
 
−
|-
 
−
|192MB of RAM
 
−
|-
 
−
|Unknown motherboard with Intel Chipset
 
−
|-
 
−
|250W ATX power supply
 
−
|-
 
−
|4.3GB (samsung) and a 3.8GB (maxtor) hard drives
 
−
|-
 
−
|52x CD-ROM drive
 
−
|-
 
−
|4MB ATI Rage video card
 
−
|-
 
−
|$9 walmart thermometer
 
−
|-
 
−
!Software
 
−
|-
 
−
|Vector GNU/Linux 5.0
 
−
|-
 
−
|XFCE, OpenOffice.org, etc...
 
−
|}
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
== Pictures ==
 
−
 
 
−
[[Image:Casemod-front.jpg|center|thumb|300px|Front of the case.]]
 
−
[[Image:Casemod-back.jpg|center|thumb|300px|Back. Notice the the metal plate.]]
 
−
[[Image:Casemod-inside.jpg|center|thumb|450px|Ain't it cool.]]
 
−
[[Image:Casemod-power.jpg|center|thumb|450px|The input mounted on the back plate.]]
 
−
[[Image:Casemod-thermo.jpg|center|thumb|450px|That black wire jammed in the heatsink is the thermometer's "outside" sensor.]]
 

Latest revision as of 02:16, 14 September 2013

Wii.jpg

If you live in Canada, have access to a bash shell and really want a Wii I wrote a script that will facilitate that process. It works by downloading the online availability info from futureshop and bestbuy then it preforms two checks on it. The first (but most effective) is the grep test which uses grep to find the string "in stock" in the downloaded files, the second uses md5sum to see if the availability info has changed (just in case). If the grep test is true it uses mplayer to play a file in the same directory as the script named song1.mp3 and if the md5sum check is false (you'll know what I mean by looking at the script) it plays a file named song2.mp3 in the current directory. If either of the checks are positive it'll open Firefox to the futureshop/bestbuy page that lets you buy a Wii. The script checks for new Wiis every 5 minutes but that can easily be changed. Download here: wiicheck-1.1.txt
Make it executable with: 

mv wiicheck-1.1.txt wiicheck-1.1
chmod +x wiicheck-1.1

Then run it: 

./wiicheck-1.1

Running the script produces a lot of output so you can always redirect that to a log file by running it like this: 

./wiicheck-1.1 >> wiicheck.log

Options are: 

--test-fs-grep make sure the grep check works (futureshop)
--test-bb-grep make sure the grep check works (bestbuy)
--test-fs-md5 make sure the md5sum check works (futureshop)
--test-bb-md5 make sure the md5sum check works (bestbuy)

In the script there are 3 md5s for futureshop and 2 for bestbuy that are known to be used for "out of stock", you can add your own by md5sum'ing the onlineavailability.asp?sku_id=* files and adding your own md5sums. Remember just add a comma to the line of md5s and then add your own (just make one big line).

Happy Wii hunting!

nikosapi

P.S. This does work, I can prove it ^_^

Retrieved from "http://nikosapi.org/w/index.php?title=My_First_Casemod&oldid=17"