Set top box

[IKK]

Hey everyone, I am wondering if anyone has made any cool set top boxes with there SageTV. Looking for low profile. If so, can you post your pics. The reason I am asking is I have built many computers in my time and my brothers DVD player just broke. So I was thinking of converting the DVD player using a EIPA 9000 mini-itx, maybe replace the DVD player with a computer one and a fanless 70 watt powersupply so I can use it in the bedroom with XP OS and Power DVD for Playback. I would run a client on it so it wouldnt need the capture card in it . Any thoughts are welcome and please post some pics. Also what remote might I since I am not putting in a capture card.

[mandrake]

take a look at this http://home1.gte.net/downing7/

[IKK]

Is that a fanless power supply if so what brand is it.

[mandrake]

No but the creator of the mod talked about trying a dc to dc powersupply on his next attempt. Problem is I have only seen 70 watts max in these. That may power an EPIA and hd but might struggle if you add a dvd.

[rrussell]

Speaking of DC/DC fanless PSU's, here is a 120W fanless board:

On Ebay, of course.

I picked one up and have popped it into my casetronics 2699 itty bitty case. It was a tight fit (the wires on it are, ahem, not optimal for this case) but after a day, it seems to be working ok.

The only drawback is that it (of course) draws more power - more than the adapter brick that came with the case can supply. For now, it's working alright, but I'm anxious to find one that'll put out 12V with 7 amps instead of 4.8.

This is running an M9000, Maxtor 120G 7200RPM drive, and a samsung dvd/cdrw drive. It was the HD that was killing the 55W that came with the case.

Fanless - silent. Tragically, the fans I had to ADD to keep the HD from dying kinda trumped that, but oh well

R

[rrussell]

Speaking of power supplies, can anyone comment on the pitfalls of continuing to use a 4.8A converter brick with a unit that has the potential to pull 7 amps?

It's currently working fine, the brick isn't too hot, but I'm leery of leaving it running indefinitely because, well, it's not within the power converter's specs.

I'm not electrically experienced, so I don't know what sort of consequences I'd be looking at - if it's just the PC shutting down, that's fine for now. If it might be an electrical fire in the stereo cabinet, well, I'd just as soon avoid that...

Anyone?

[Xleon]

Hard to say without checking the specs of the PSU. It might have over voltage, over current, over-heat protection in which case it will probably cut-out until you reset the unit by removing it from the mains and plugging it back in again.

If it doesn't then the peak current will be when it switches on and when the CPU is working flat out. This might be way it's running fine now as the PC is not using it's maximum current.

You will notice PSU problems as intermittent resets and power-offs and strange BSOD. The HDD might fail to respond sometimes etc. The symptoms can be many.

If it's not getting too hot and it's been running for some time, then chances are you'll get away with it!

[rrussell]

Xleon - thanks for the info.

Yeah, uptime is about 3 days straight now. I'm prooooobably alright.

I'm playing it "safe" and ordering a 12V/13A transformer from some guy on ebay. I'll just sleep better knowing that I'm not in danger of overloading the thing.