If you are looking for some retro BBC science fiction goodness, it’s worth taking a look at Quatermass. I’m talking about the 1950s version, not the recent (2005) remake.

I found out about the set of shows from a mention on a Doctor Who extra (on a Pertwee disc, of course), so I went searching. There are four serials:

• The Quatermass Experiment (1953)
• Quatermass II (1955)
• Quatermass and the Pit (1958)
• Quatermass (IV) (1979)

Unfortunately, trying to find legal copies of the shows has been difficult. The 1979 version is supposed to be on DVD or VHS. The 1950′s stuff, which is what I really want, is harder to come buy. I wonder if some of them met the fate of much of early Doctor Who–video tape reuse. Much of the Troughton era was lost because tapes were recycled, due the the high cost of video tape at the time.

Quatermass II is available on the Internet archive, which is a big win. You can download the 6 individual parts, or the whole thing in one file. I’d recommend watching in parts, with a little break in between each episode, to keep with the “feel” of the original broadcast. It was designed to be a serial, with clifhangers. (Something we forget when we watch the Chicago broadcasts of Doctor Who in the 1980s–since they were all grouped into one program.)

Here’s a link to the Internet Archive results: Quatermass II on the Internet Archive

To make your search more interesting, the serial “Quatermass and the Pit” was also made into a 1967 movie. It’s also titled “Five Million Years To Earth” in the US release, to make things less clear. Unknowningly, the movie was the first Quatermass we saw. It’s in color and the effects are really very good. You’ll also spot a couple of actors you may know, if you are a fan of 1960s BBC TV and movies.

On the bright side, “The Pit” was one of the more popular serials, so it’s easier to find. You can see the whole 1967 movie (and download it, too) on the Google Video site. It’s an excellent copy. It also looks like the original version, in black & white episodes, is out there too. I need to check that out.

Here is the Google Video link: Quatermass and The Pit (The Movie)

The problem with looking for the series is that there are a lot of bits an pieces out there, and a lot is out of order. The Internet is a disorganized thing. If I find good complete copies of the rest of the serials I’ll let you know. For now, if you just have time for one, watch “The Pit” movie version. It’s classic 1950′s-1960′s BBC science fiction.

Update 1: Looks like you can watch “The Pit” (original) on GUBA. Doesn’t look like it can be downloaded, though. I’ll keep searching.

For the last couple of days I’ve been working on the PC that will go inside the cabinet. I was dealing with two major restrictions:

• First, the space inside is small. Only about 5″ between the monitor and the back of the cabinet. This sounds like a lot, until you start measuring the height of most motherboards with cards, power supplies, and so on. It would fit a small formfactor PC just fine, or a motherboard with onboard video, but that brings me to point #2….
• I had to do it with parts on-hand. I’m out of work, so I can’t be spending money on a new computer, no matter how cheap. Especially since I have a garage full of old PCs just sitting on shelves. Make do! Besides, it exercises the mind more to have to retrofit, then to just drop some pre-built PC in there.

So, I pulled out an old 800 Mhz Duron PC, a spare video card, some memory, and a hard disk. I basically stripped down an old PC I was using for a Linux cluster (now long gone). Luckily, I had one of these machines with XP on it, so I didn’t need to bother re-installing an OS (or including a CD-ROM drive).

After a lot of playing around, measuring, more playing around, drilling, checking, measuring, and installing I came up with this design:

What you see is an assortment of PC parts screwed to a piece of 1/4″ plywood. A “single board computer” as it were.

Going clockwise from upper left, you have:

• Power Supply. Pretty wimpy, but it’s small, and fine for this project.
• Motherboard, running 768 M of RAM and a 800 Mhz AMD Duron. Uses a Radeon 7000 video card I had (motherboard has no onboard video). Motherboard is mounted on standoffs, so it’s held about 1/4″ off the plywood.
• USB Wireless ‘card’. Was used on Evelyn’s old computer, until we upgraded it. I mounted this near the power supply.
• Hard disk, with USB hub sitting on it. Since the motherboard only has 2 USB ports, I needed a hub. I had this one on hand.

No CD-ROM drive, but if I need one I have an old laptop drive with a full size IDE adaptor to plug it in. It would fit fine on top of the hard disk. (I had it there originally, until I decided I didn’t really need it.)

The biggest pain was probably the video card, since it’s the “tallest” item in there. You can kind of see in the photo that Evelyn cutout the middle bottom of the board so that it would slip over part of the LCD base. That gained us an extra inch of headroom. I also bent the bottom of the video card’s mounting bracket so that I could drill a hole and screw it to the board. This gives it more support. I’d recommend good onboard video if you are going to do this project–a lot easier to deal with.

The hard drive is screwed to a bracket that came out of the old PC case, so that was easy to mount. The power supply is mounted with a couple of scraps of metal bent and drilled.

As you can see, this Frankenstein actually runs fine:

One of my big concerns with the tight space, and thick cabinet, is heat. I was running the machine for a while and it was at around 115 F. Hot, but considering it was in a 100 degree garage in Texas, not too bad. I need to see what the temps are indoors. (Up to now, all assembly has been in the garage. Or, our sauna. Take your pick. Thank goodness for the big fan we have in there.)

To solve the cooling problem (a little), and to get power into the case cleanly, I created a couple of openings in the back:

I did the “blow hole” in the top (the one with the mesh covering) first. That fan exhausts all the hot air that gathers toward the top of the cabinet. By luck, it’s positioned so that it grabs heat from the monitor and the computer area.

In the back, I cut out a square for the power input and an intake fan. As you can see, I salvaged the back of an old PC power supply. It’s not an actual supply, just the back plug connector and the fan. This fan sucks air into the case, near the hard disk and CPU. I also put another fan in the case pointing toward the video card (since it has an awful onboard cooling setup). I might need one more fan in there, right on the hard disk, but I need to take indoor temps first.

That plug in the back accepts a standard “PC power cord”. I soldered it to a hacked up power strip so that I have 6 outlets inside. It’s a bit of a hack, and not UL listed, but it’s mostly safe. The setup actually takes only 2 110V outlets — the computer and the monitor.

With most of the cabinet built out, I decided to move the unit into my office, so that I can work on the software and user interface components. Here it is on one of Evelyn’s antique desks. It’s a beast, at least 40 pounds. Most of the weight is in the 3/4″ MDF. If you have 1/2″ on hand, that would probably be lighter.

My final design will not have a keyboard or a mouse. They keyboard is only temporary, and will be replaced with the proper control panel, which I’m starting the design on. It will probably be an arcade joystick, some arcade buttons, and RFID reader, and other gizmos. More to come.

Oh, and yes, I will be painting and/or laminating the case. I’m not going to do that until I figure out how I’m going to finish up the front. In the end, I’ll be putting black plastic laminate on the case, to give it an arcade like feel (though it’s not going to be an arcade machine).

We’re running short on space in the shop, and there wasn’t enough room for the miter saw. You can purchase a stand for these, but they run about $100 or more. Instead, we decided to use a kitchen-type cart that we had bought in Puerto Rico. It’s a very sturdy rolling cart, with ~19″ x ~25″ shelves — the pefect size, and height, for a miter saw! Plus, it’s on wheels, so can be easily moved around (good for a miter saw, when cutting longer pieces of lumber).

Because of the shelf design, the saw can’t just be plopped on the top level. So, I grabbed some scrap 2x4s, some 1x3s, and a left over piece of MDF. Here’s the result:

I created six 6″ long 2×4 legs. They are screwed to 25″ long 2x4s. These make the front and back of the leg assembly. I then tied those together with 1x3s on the outside and inside (not visible). In the end, I had a 6″ tall platform that was pretty strong.

On top of it I plopped my scrap piece of MDF. Would you believe that it EXACTLY fit my base! I didn’t measure it at all beforehand (I thought I would have to cut it back). Talk about a lucky break! The 3/4″ MDF was screwed to the base assembly (into the 2x4s) and then the miter saw was bolted in four places with 1/4″ bolts and washers. Since I sized the leg assembly to fit in the cart, it doesn’t move around at all.

Now I have my miter saw on a cart, which I can move around to wherever I need it. And I gain some workbench space in the process.

On Friday I began fitting the Kiosk with the monitor we’re going to use. It’s a cheap 19″ widescreen, which should be perfect for our application. It was important that I fitted the screen first, so that I could determine sightlines, etc.

After a 1/2 day of cutting and fitting and testing, I now have an (almost) fully enclosed cabinet.

I’ve left the front top open for now, since I need to mount speakers and a camera.

I really like how the back and top came together. That one angled piece is the only one with more complicated cuts, as the edges are cut on a 45 degree angle. I don’t have a table saw, so this was done with my 7 1/4″ Bosch circular saw. (The piece is too big to cut on the miter saw, since the angle cut is along the 19″ width of the MDF.)

Here is a front view of the unit. Below the screen, on the angled part, is where the controls will be installed. Possibly a joystick and some arcade buttons. Maybe more. Maybe less.

If you are thinking of making your own, for video games, I’d highly recommend going with the larger measurements of the original plan. Even with an LCD screen, I am VERY tight on space in the back — less than 5 inches. This is okay for me, since I was going to do a small formfactor PC (or a PC in parts more likely), but there is NOT enough room for a regular PC in here. Also, my space for joysticks and buttons is VERY tight. You want to give yourself more space to work with. For me, I needed this unit as compact as possible, so had to make trade offs.

Here is a photo with the front lower panels off. As you can see, I put a shelf of MDF on top of the 2×4 supports, and then the monitor sits on that shelf. It’s very stable, but I lose more interior space. However, it is the perfect height for the monitor.

I took the above photo before I mounted the LCD in place. I drilled two holes through the “V” feet of the monitor (there is a steel plate in there, under the plastic) and mounted it with 2 1/4 inch bolts. It’s pretty stable, and it is easy to unclick and remove the monitor for transport (without having to unbolt the feet).

It was only by luck that my monitor was exactly the right height for the base. Somethings things just work out that way. And mounting from underneath with the bolts is FAR easier than trying to use the tiny mounting holes on the back on the monitor itself. Might as well use what you have!

I’ve always like the idea of creating a spooky / haunted house. I’m not talking about one of those Halloween scream fests, but something more subtle. Voices coming from nowhere. Thumps in the night. Cool breezes. Creaking chairs. That kind of thing.

I’ve been thinking about a couple of ideas for this, and one of them was the haunted bookshelf. You hear weird noises coming from somewhere, but you are not quite sure where. It’s almost like the sounds are coming from the bookshelf, but there is nothing there.

To implement this, I started with a pile of old textbooks:

Oh, how exciting! Algebra and Sociology. But inside lays a secret:

I first used construction adhesive to glue the two books around the edges, so that they are bound together. Then I applied a couple of layers of watered down white glue along the outside pages–this gets everything stuck together like a block. Then out came the sharp knife and about an hour of time to carve out the inside.

Normally you’d do this with one book, but I wanted to try two, mainly because I possibly need more space to stuff some spooky electronics. I now have a space about 4″ by 6″ by 2″ deep, ready for an Arduino, a Wave Shield, and a ZigBee module. Let the hauting begin.

After (almost) finishing my first cigar box guitar, I decided to try an alternate design. This was one that I’ve seen on a couple of sites. Unlike the simplier Mark I, which has the neck glued to the top/outside of the box, this Mark II version mounts the neck inside/through the cigar box. This requires you to trim out a space for the neck, so it’s a bit more complicated.

I first carefully measured where the hole would be. The neck (long wood) needs to be up against the front of the body of the guitar. So you notch out the little bit of wood on the lid, and then cut away a larger area in the “body” of the box.  The picture makes this much clearer. The left is the new Mark II design. The right is my original guitar.

The cigar box wood is very soft, so you do NOT need a saw to make these cuts. In fact, I’d recommend NOT using a saw at all. I used a very sharp (new) X-acto blade in a good holder. I very carefully scored a line, carved a bit of material out, and repeated. Every once in a while I fitted the piece of wood to see how much futher I needed to cut. For the lid, I went right up to the flat part (the sheet that makes the lid). Take your time. It’s VERY easy wood to cut, meaning if you rush you might crack your cigar box.

Once the box is cut out, I used my Liquid Nails again to glue to neck to the body. This time it gets glued inside the box, so make sure the nut and bridge are facing the correct way. Here’s what it looked like clamped up.

The box is laying upside down, with a book underneath to give the nut and bridge some spacing (I had already glued them to the neck). You can also see that I glued a piezo element on the inside of the box. This means that my pickup will be on the front face of the guitar.

Here is how the 1/4″ audio jack is installed. This is the inside of the box:

And here is the outside. As you can see, the box is pretty thick, and your jack may not have enough threads to hold it in place. I very carefully carved out a countersink so that the nut would fit, and then spun the plastic body of the jack to tighten it (from inside). A bit of a pain, but it worked.

Also, because of the placement of the jack and piezo, I wired 8″ long wires to the jack, so it could be soldered to the piezo. Otherwise you won’t have long enough leads to open the box and solder everything. I used short leads on my first box, and it was a little hard to put together. The longer leads, though eventually “wasted”, make assembly easier. You could also put the piezo on the same side as the jack, as the original instructions indicated. I decided to be different.

In the above photos you can also see the notch I cut for the neck.

Finally, here is a comparison between my original Mark I (in back), and the new Mark II (in front).

I like the way the integrated neck/body looks. Haven’t strung it yet (waiting for glue to dry), so I don’t know if they sound different. I think that my future designs will use the notched box idea.

While Evelyn was out looking for chicken coop books (a whole other story) she stopped by Top Drawer Thrift to see if they had anything new. And, as luck would have it, two cigar boxes had just come into the store. Horray! The project can continue.

The first thing I added was a hole to the box, so that I could add a 1/4″ jack. Why the jack? Well, this is going to be an electric cigar box guitar. Once that was in place, I soldered and glued in a piezo pickup element.

The piezo element is used to pickup the sounds so they can be amplified. Piezos, like speakers, can either be used as a pickup (like a microphone) or as an emitter (speaker). Many mechanical electromagnetic things do this sort of double duty. A motor can spin and act as a motor, or you can spin it and it acts like a generator. A speaker can emit sound, but it can also be used as a microphone.

Once the pickup and jack were in place, I glued the box shut with some super glue. Next, I carefully measured and glued the neck to the top of the box. The original instructions used epoxy, but I was too lazy to mix some up. I keep Liquid Nails (clear) on hand, and used that. It stinks like model airplane glue, but it dries pretty quickly and holds well.

Here’s a shot of the guitar glued up, with string installation in progress:

Here’s a closeup of the head. As you can see, the strings come across the nut, down the hole, and then get tied on the other side to the eyebolts. You use an eyebolt because that’s what you tune with (either by hand, or with a screwdriver). The wingnuts on the top side lock it down once the string is tuned. What are the strings made of? Mason’s twine. Size #18 for the bass, and #15 for the other two strings. (It’s a 3 string guitar.)

Toward the bridge of the guitar, you thread the other end of the string into one of the bottom holes. It then gets looped around a (static) screw with a washer head (or screw and washer) and held in place. That end is not adjustable. However, screws are used throughout, so it’s easy to replace the strings when necessary.

Here I was in the process of threading the strings at the bridge end:

Once I had the strings in place, I used a small triangular file to make little slots for the strings at the nut and the bridge. The instructions didn’t say to do this, but I noticed that technique on regular guitars. Keeps the strings from moving laterally.

The guitar was now strung, except for the bass (I need to get #18 twine). This last part came together pretty quickly, and I had another box (thanks, Evelyn!) so I decided to start on Version 2. Coming soon!