Applefritter - Electricity & Optics

Cinema Display: repairing the DVI connector

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 06:51:48 -0800

I posted a question in the forums about repair of a cinema display 20-inch, whose DVI connector was broken off. I finally have the solution and a working Cinema display again and as promised in the thread I would post the info regarding what color is what pin. So here it is. I used a DVI connector from the VGA to DVI adapter from Apple, I stripped it to the bare essentials so only the black connector is left. Make sure you don't destroy the pins or else all is lost. I needed to remove the Analog RGB part of the DVI connector, cause it is not fitted in the Mini DVI to DVI adapter of Apple. Anyway its not needed except if you want to use it with a VGA card. But think that not the purpose of a Cinema display :) Following are some pictures of the Color coding of the cinema display cable, connected already too the DVI connector. This is also the orientation of the chart below, so take note of that. Otherwise the display doesn't work at all. Also note that the ground cables are not yet connected to the pins, this is just the test phase, so now its working I'm going to strip the wires again and solder them to the pins in a NEAT way :) Here you can see the connector in the Mini DVI to DVI, connected too my MacBook. [img]http://www.applefritter.com/images/dsc03035-19791_640x480.jpg[/img] Other view of the connector [img]http://www.applefritter.com/images/dsc03036-19792_640x480.jpg[/img] And an another with more light. [img]http://www.applefritter.com/images/dsc03036-19792_640x480.jpg[/img] [b]From left to right the upper pins are:[/b] Black, B.White, B.GND Blue, Yellow, Orange [b]Middle pins:[/b] Brown, Br.White, Br.GND Red Brown [b]Lower pins:[/b] Pink, Pnk, White, Pnk.GND, GND, Pnk/Br.White Pinkish/Brown Some more info, the TMDS pairs are the 4 big pairs of 3 wires packed in the foil. Each pack consists of 3 wires: 1 colored 1 white 1 bare wire The 4 packs are colored with a Pink pair, a brown pair, a black pair and a strange pinkish/brownish pair. So in the chart below ( And up) the B.White for example means the white wire of the black package. Same with B.GND. The other 5 pins are separated and without foil, and consist of yellow, brown, red, blue and orange. So the only way you can go wrong is with the brown TMDS pack and the pinkish/brownish TMDS pack. Also note the both are lighter from color then the Brown that is a separate wire, so you can't go wrong there. So here is the chart I made with the color coding. Again please note the orientation of the DVI connector. The chart depicts the orientation like on the above pictures. [size=20] [b] Back view of Cinema display connector [/b] [/size] [img]http://www.applefritter.com/images/picture_2-19794_640x480.png[/img] [pre] 1 TMDS Data 2- Digital Red- (link 1) Pink 2 TMDS Data 2+ Digital Red+ (link 1) White of pink 3 TMDS Data 2/4 Shield GND of Pink 4 Not used on 20 inch 5 Not used on 20 inch 6 DDC Clock GND of pinkish/brown 7 DDC Data White of Pinkish brown 8 Analog Vertical sync Pinkish/brown 9 TMDS Data 1- Digital green- (link 1) Brown 10 TMDS Data 1+ Digital green- (link 1) White of Brown 11 TMDS Data 1/3 Shield GND of Brown 12 Not used on 20 inch 13 Not used on 20 inch 14 +5V Power for display Red 15 GND GND for pin 14/8 Brown 16 Hot-Plug Not used 17 TMDS Data 0- Digital Blue- (link 1) and digital sync Black 18 TMDS Data 0- Digital Blue+(link 1and digital sync White of black 19 TMDS Data 0/5 shield GND of Black 20 Not used 21 Not used 22 TMDS Clock-shield Blue 23 TMDS Clock+ Digital clock+ (links 1 and 2) Yellow 24 TMDS Clock- Digital clock- (links 1 and 2) Orange [/pre]

Power Button Mod - Change the Stock LED on a G4

Thu, 21 Oct 2004 18:45:01 -0700

As part of a case mod, I wanted to switch out the green/orange LED behind the power button with a white LED on a Sawtooth G4. I looked around but didn't see any guides as to how it's done. It's a realtivly easy mod to do if you have basic soldering skills. This is meant more for the newbie but anyone can use it. Here's what's needed: Soldering Iron (30 watt; I tried a 15 and it didn't work very well) Rosin-Core Solder (I used .032 diameter) Desoldering Braid One 5mm LED of your choice Long flathead screwdriver Needlenose pliers Wire cutters Please note: Any hack and or case mod involves a certain level of risk. There are several sharp edges inside the case which can cut through your fleshy bits quite easily. Additionally, you will be using a soldering iron which also makes a great accidental branding iron, house burning device, and eyebrow remover. So please be careful. Please understand that by undertaking this mod, you accept all risk and liability and understand that you could destroy a key component of your computer which may leave you unable to boot or use it. With that said, let's get started. Read all of the instructions first. Okay, stop laughing, reading the instructions does help especially if you are a newbie. Unplug your Mac and open up the case. Behind the front panel and just below the middle, you will see two covers. The one near the middle is for the speaker and the lower cover is for the power, reset, and programmer's buttons. [image:4981] There is a flat, 10-wire cable that on the far-side of the cover that connects the power button board to the logicboard. Gently pull it out. If you have trouble removing it, you can take the cover off first but BE CAREFUL. Use the long flathead screwdriver to push in on the tabs and move the cover towards the rear of the case. [image:4982] If you were not able to remove the 10-wire cable, you should be able to do it now. So this is the board that houses/controls the three buttons on the front of the case. [image:4980] You will notice in the top right corner a small tab holding the board in place with two similar tabs along the bottom of the cover. Use the screwdriver to push in the tabs so you can pull out the board. Carefully, pull out the board. You may find that pulling out on the side of the cover will help loosen the cover's grip on the board. [image:4983] With the ten wire socket on the left and the single button at the top, flip the board over so that the back is facing you and the ten wire socket is on the right. You should also see a small fuse and holder on the left. [image:979] You should see three solder points just above center on the back, one square and two circles. These are the LED solder points. Why are there three holes? I thought that LEDs had two pins. The LEDs used for the power button have two colors, green for power and orange for sleep mode. The middle pin is a shared pin. Clear your work space of any flammable debris and plug in your soldering iron. Soldering irons get very hot which you won't realize until you're looking at the blister on your finger. Be careful. Unspool some of the desoldering braid and place it over one of the soldering pads. I recommend using the needlenose pliers to hold the braid in place as it heats up quickly. Apply the tip of the soldering iron to the top of the braid and hold for a few seconds. (Try not hold it for too long because you will solder the braid to the board.) The iron will heat up the solder which will collect into the braid. Place a clean portion of braid on the aolder point and repeat until all the solder has been removed. Do the same thing for the remaining solder points. It doesn't really matter which one you start with, just make sure you remove as much solder as possible. Flip the board over and desolder the left and right sodler points. Be careful so you don't damage the traces on the baord. If you can manage it, desolder the center pin. If you're lucky, you should be able to remove the LED with the needlenose pliers easily. If you're not lucky like I was, try and get as much solder off as possible and pull off the LED by gripping the pins and pulling. If you don't really care, just grab the LED with the pliers and yank. You'll most probably pull off the LED and leave a pin or two. You might also damage the board so be careful. Clear out any solder by using the desoldering braid and sodlering iron. [image:4973] Grab your new LED and you will notice that one pin is longer than the other. Insert the long pin into the left hole and the short pin into the center hole. (The right hole is not used.) [image:4975] Optional test: You can plug the ten wire cable into the socket and try powering up the computer. Your new LED should glow. Shut down the computer and remove the ten wire cable. Time to clip the pins. Make note of which pin is the short one and which one is the long one. Adjust the LED so that it sits above the board, not on it, and clip the pins that they stick out just a few millimeters out from the board. Grab your solder and sodlering iron and solder the pins in place. Reattach the cover to the board and connect the ten wire cable. Snap the button assembly into place on the front panel. Reconnect the cables and close the case. Get to a minimum safe distance of 3.5 miles and have a family member turn on the computer. Something will glow, the LED or your brother. If it's your brother, time to troubleshoot on the run. If the LED glows, congrats! [image:4984] Revised 13 October 2004

UFO Mouse

Mon, 07 Jun 2004 12:25:46 -0700

by Anonymous [center][thumb:1880][/center] To open the mouse first remove the ball and cover. Then using a small screwdriver pry up the blue plastic trim. Remove both trim pieces and this will reveal two small philips head screws (remove). Now the top and bottom halves can be separated by pulling them apart. This takes a bit of work the first time. Now that you are inside the mouse, solder on a LED to the main board as shown. The voltage here is 5 volts. Radio Shack sells a Blue LED that is designed to run at 5 volts (part # 276-311) This is ideal because no dropping resistor is needed. When connecting the LED, connect the negative side to the pin #4 (right side) and the Positive side to pin #1 (left side). [center][thumb:1881][thumb:1882][/center] [center][thumb:1883][/center] Reassemble mouse and plug into computer, you now have a lighted mouse! A fellow named Kevin wrote the submitter of this page with a slightly different method of adding a light to an iMac mouse. The above picture was taken using this method "I felt the intensity of the LED pointing upward was too concentrated, so I popped the mouse open again and drilled a small hole into the plastic housing where the ball resides... that way I could point the LED straight into the ball chamber. I get more of a diffused lighting effect and you can even see the ball rolling around."

Metamorphosis

Mon, 07 Jun 2004 12:25:25 -0700

by Mad Dog [center][image:1103][/center] This has been my most agressive modifcation to date, as it has included motherboard soldering. Some time ago I purchased a "kit" on Ebay from www.upgradestuff.com (good deal for $49 + shipping) for the following items: - J700 motherboard - floppy - Apollo card (ethernet, printer ports) - 200 MHz 604e card All one needed was a case, video card, powersupply, HD, and cables to get it going. The powersupply I bought from www.smalldog.com, as it is not a standard ATX supply. The case I bought from a local store (ATX style; Enlight 3270 or something like that). Cables, video card, and HD I scrounged from what I had. When I read the specs on the J700, I saw that it had 4 PCI slots, with 2 slots just soldered over (slots E and F). The J700 was the lower cost cousin of the 6 slot S900 motherboard. After investigation I found that: - The J700 seemed to have all the PCI controller chips that the S900 had - The ROMS are the same for the J700 and S900 - One person (M. Isobe, famous hardware hacker) has claimed to have done this - The only differences between the J700 and S900 seemed to be the missing 2 PCI slots and the missing second CPU slot This lead me to believe that you could add the 2 missing PCI slots. Lets get Nasty! [b]Equipment: [/b] You will need the following items: - a 23 Watt (or so) soldering iron with a fine tip. I dont think a 15 Watt iron has enough oooommph to desolder. - Two PCI slot edge connectors. I bought mine from www.digikey.com, part #145154-4 or 145154-8 (some confusion here). - fine, narrow desoldering braid (copper). I bought some at Radio Shack, part #64-2090B. - some solder, preferably lead-free silver containing solder/ I bought some at Radio Shack, catalog #64-025. - A can of light flux(resin) remover. - A clean, well-lit place to do your work, preferably over a non-flammable surface. [b]Step1[/b] Make sure the equipment works before you have a chance to screw it up. [b]Step 2[/b] Flip the motherboard upsidedown, as there is less congestion on the backside. Have the motherboard resting on some bubblewrap or something soft, in order not to damage any of the components (be careful not to touch the hot iron to this). [b]Step 3[/b] Using the solder wick and the iron, gently wick up the solder from each hole in each soldered over PCI slot (120 holes per PCI slot). The trick here is not to hold the iron too long on any one spot and overheat the board. For me and my iron, if I put the iron and wick on a soldered over hole just right, it takes about a 3-count to wick up all the solder. Be very careful not to knock off any SMT resistors or other parts. Also be careful not to scratch any traces or lift any of the green leads from the motherboard. Careful, steady work should take a couple of hours. Remember not to overheat the board so I suggest doing a hole one one side of the slot, then another hole on the opposite side. You will likely notice that after removing solder, a brown-black residue is left over near the holes. This is normal, and is solder resin. This resin can be removed with the flux-remover spray (after the board has cooled). After removing the solder from one of the PCI slots (sorry its a little dark): [b]Step 4[/b] Using the solder wick and the iron, gently wick up the solder from each hole in each soldered over PCI slot (120 holes per PCI slot). The trick here is not to hold the iron too long on any one spot and overheat the board. For me and my iron, if I put the iron and wick on a soldered over hole just right, it takes about a 3-count to wick up all the solder. Be very careful not to knock off any SMT resistors or other parts. Also be careful not to scratch any traces or lift any of the green leads from the motherboard. Careful, steady work should take a couple of hours. Remember not to overheat the board so I suggest doing a hole one one side of the slot, then another hole on the opposite side. You will likely notice that after removing solder, a brown-black residue is left over near the holes. This is normal, and is solder resin. This resin can be removed with the flux-remover spray (after the board has cooled). After removing the solder from one of the PCI slots (sorry its a little dark): [center][image:1112][/center] I would suggest taking a break after doing one slot, letting the board cool, and using the flux removal spray to clean the resin off. After removing the solder and resin from the second slot: [center][image:1113][/center] After allowing the flux remover to evaporate away, I took the board into my workshop, hooked it up, and: [center][image:1107][/center] It boots ! Wahoo ! Looks like I havn't screwed up yet, so this still may work ! OK, I just got 2 sets of edge connectors from www.digikey.com (part # 145154-4 and 145154-8, these are AMP parts if it matters). It turns out these 2 parts differ only in the length of the tails on the bottom of the connector, so either should work. One pic of a connector: [center][image:1110][/center] M. Isobe (see: bbs.xlr8yourmac.com/ubb/Forum11/HTML/000143.html) thought I should use AMP part #11299-4, but I could never find anyone who would sell me this part (Digikey didnt stock them). As far as I can tell Isobe's parts or my parts should work; all the documentation seems to indicate all of them should work. Anyway, the part looks like a duck, reads like a duck , so it must be a duck ! (I hope) So Let's get Nasty ! Taking one of the connectors (I decided to use the -8 part first), I carefully put it into the Slot E holes which I desoldered earlier. I made sure all of the pins were through the holes and sticking out the other end; if you make a mistake here, you will most likely have to clip the partially soldered-on connecter off and de-solder the pins out (UGLY !). One the pins are through, make sure the connector body is flush with the motherboard; you dont want a PCI socket soldered on an angle which would make using it very difficult. I should also mention the connector only fits in one direction, so it is impossible to put it on backwards (although I had nightmares of doing just that). Solder the 4 corner pins on first and check to make sure the connector is still flush with the motherboard. If everything still looks ok, solder each pin in, careful not to use too much solder, but enough to make a good connection. Try not to heat any one part of the motherboard too much for too long, so I suggest alternating different parts of the socket. I soldered in Slot E first in case I made a mistake. I then took the board back to my laboratory, hooked it up, but in not using the new slot. It booted and I then shut down and placed the video card in Slot E: [center][image:1104][/center] I hit the power button...... and... IT WORKED ! It booted ! [center][image:1115][/center] Slot E functions with a video card in it ! Tattletech sees the J700 (mutant, now) as a 9500/9600, and reports the card to be in Slot C (for some reason if I put the card in slot D (originally present) E, or F (see below) TattleTech sees the card as being in Slot C. Is this normal ? Ok, this was the big test, since the video card worked in Slot E, I have few doubts we cant do Slot F. So, a-solderin' we go ! Using the same procedure as before, I soldered Slot F on to give: [center][image:1106][/center] I connected it up with the video card in Slot F... and..... It WORKED !: [center][image:1105][/center] The video card works in Slot F. I think this pretty much concludes that all the PCI curcuitry from the S900 is there on the motherboard. After disconnecting the board, I used some flux remover to clean up the resin. it pays to be tidy ! I need to do some sort of test to make sure the slots are all 100% perfect. While the video card works I wonder if there is a better way to stress the slots, just to be sure. Oh, I almost forgot, while soldering, I added a jumper to J38 which is the manual dsiable jumper for the L2 cache, which should allow for better overclocking results. Evidently some J700/S900 boards have the jumper while some don't. WAHOO ! [b]J700 motherboard in a ATX case.[/b] OK, half our work is done. Now that we have sucessfully modified the motherboard we need to find a home for it. I bought an Enlight 3723 case, as it has good reviews on the PC sites. It cost me about $80 at a local shop, but that includes the ATX powersupply that we dont need for this project. The J700 motherboard has mounting holes that fit a ATX case, so that is not problem. When putting the board on the mounting plate, make sure that the motherboard is flexed as little as possible. The first hitch I ran into was finding that the motherboard is so wide, part of it bumps into the lower 5.25" bay ! Other cases may not have this problem as the Enlight case has extra bays. Im sure a full tower case would not pose this problem. However, You can remove part of the bay using some tin snips and a dremel tool. After removing part of the bay: [center][image:1109][/center] Not terribly pretty, but no one will see it. After doing this , it may not be possible to use the lower bay for a hard drive. Smaller drives may fit or you could use the bay for cooling. A cooling and temperature gauge plate: http://www.jameco.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prmenbr=91&prrfnbr=4070&cgrfnbr=501&ctgys= may be a good way to utilize the space. After fitting the motherboard into the hacked case, the next problem shows itself: [center][image:1108][/center] The ports on the backplane dont match up to an ATX form, so either you will have to leave it open (yuck !), or manufacture a cover plate yourself. At the moment, I am trying to see if I can make a cover plate from plexiglass. Taking another look inside the case: [center][image:1111][/center] We can see that the CPU card also needs some sort of support, just to be safe. The CPU card sticks out a bit to the front, so I dont think it is possible to use any of the 3.5" bays, other than the floppy bay.

Blue Smoke Squared

Fri, 11 Jun 2004 11:57:10 -0700

[center][image:591][/center] I admit I cannot take credit for thinking this one up, but after seeing the original by Flemming Kokio, I just couldn't resist. I decided to improve the design a bit and learn from his mistakes. I now have the fastest cube on the planet. Step 1. Take your cube all apart (again). Remove the video card, modem and all the ram. Unscrew and remove the motherboard. Unclip and remove the processor, and pry off the copper heat spreader plate. It should pop off with little effort. Set the boards aside in a static safe place. Push the handle back in and remove all the screws holding it and the shiny bars around it. Should be 9 screws if I remember right. The handle will now drop out the bottom, and the large black heatsink should slide out the top. There are 2 screws which hold each linear slide to the heatsink. Step 2. The biggest problem with this hack is what to do about the large inductor coil (marked in blue below) on the dual processor card. The inductor is an essential part of the regulator for the processors. The original coil was much smaller and mounted flat to the board. The new one will hit the large black heatsink. The inductor must either be moved, or room must be made for it. This is where my design takes a left turn from that of Flemming Kokio's. He simply moved the inductor. On my system I wasn't able to satisfactorily resolve the conflict between it and my ethernet card. If you move it more than 1" away, the system becomes unstable. Also, if you can, try to find a card that uses the 7410 G4 as it uses about 25% less power than the cards based on the 7400. The 7410 has a noticeably smaller die. [center][image:592][/center] The red oval denotes a capacitor that should be watched carefully during reassembly. It can interfere with the heatsink. This will cause one of the CPU's to overheat. Step 3. Remove the linear slides and disassemble the one under the area you wish to cut. It is necessary to cut away part of the metal guide rail, and almost all of one side of the plastic runner. This picture below shows how much material should be removed. Cut along the red lines. This plastic is brittle, so use a dremel tool, not wire cutters. This will cause the loss of the guide tabs on this side. That's OK though, the metal handle will hold it all together when you are done. [center][image:598][/center] Step 4. Using a top end mill, I cut out enough of the heatsink to make room for the inductor. You can also see the end of the latch groove that I had to cut off. [center][image:601][/center] Step 5. When putting the slide back together, take care to reinstall this shiny spring clip, shown in yellow. You will be unable to unlatch your cube's core without it. [center][image:603][/center] Step 6. The copper heat spreader plate should be rotated 90 degrees so that the raised area contacts both CPU dies. This means drilling new holes in it. The image below shows the original holes circled in red, and the new holes circled in green. Make the new holes larger if you are as bad at locating hole centers as I am. You will also have to drill out the standoffs that aligned this plate with the old CPU card. [center][image:602][/center] Step 7. Start putting the system back together in the reverse order of disassembly. Pay special attention to your cable routing. The picture below should help. [center][image:596][/center] Step 8. I noticed that the heat spreader does not sit flat on my heatsink. It actually only touches about 25% of the area. My heatsink is warped a little bit. I compared this to another cube and saw the same thing. I tried to straighten it, but it just bent right back. So I filled that gap with thermal interface goop. I hate this stuff. It's nasty and messy. But it works real well and I had no choice. Only apply the goo after you are 100% certain everything fits together properly. [center][image:597][/center] Step 9. Before final reassembly, put some thermal interface goop on each CPU die. Under normal circumstances, the goop should be applied as thinly as possible. It's only to fill the gaps in the surface. Actual metal on silicon contact has far better thermal conductivity. Here is a picture of the right amount to use. [center][image:600][/center] Step 10. Reassembly. After step 9, attach the CPU card to its socket on the MLB making sure to include the barrel standoffs between them. You will not be able to use the clip that held the CPU to the heat spreader anymore. [center][image:599][/center] Reattach the cables and screw everything back in place. Reinstall your ram and video card making certain to plug in the 3 cables that had to be disconnected from the video card area. Slide the case back on and fire it up. The Apple System Profiler will confirm that you are now running 2 CPU's. As will the CPU monitor in OS X. Have fun with your new toy. [center][image:590][/center] [h1]The Fan Upgrade:[/h1] Every G4 cube has a bracket in its bottom for a 60X60x15mm fan. Every cube also has a 12V output on it's power supply board to drive that fan. This is an upgrade that every cube owner should perform. Even on single CPU systems, the difference in operational temperature in nothing short of amazing. It doesn't have to be a noisy or high powered fan either. Simply moving 10cfm will make all the difference in the world. If the fan is too noisy, install a resistor inline to slow it down a bit. This upgrade is MANDATORY for those installing a dual CPU card. Your system WILL overheat without it. Below is a picture showing where the fan should go. [center][image:594][/center] This 12V connector, circled in red, should be used to power the fan. [center][image:595][/center] Here is a closeup of the fan's label if you want to get this exact part. I can't hear my fan over the noise of the hard drive. [center][image:593][/center] For people with hot video cards, I'd also suggest attaching one fo these nifty little fans to the end of the card. It's a squirrel cage fan (sort of) and blows to the side, instead of down. It is about as thick as the vent above the video card. This fan is noisy above 2-2.5V, so include a potentiometer with your installation. [center][image:604][/center]

The illuminatedMac

Mon, 07 Jun 2004 12:31:31 -0700

[b]History : [color=blue]Mmmmm Applefritter...[/color][/b] Even before I bought my first Mac (My Summer 2000 DV400) I discovered Applefritter and the hardware hacks there certainly made my jaw drop. Ever since I've checked back regularly, but found they had one thing missing - and illuminated iMac! And I was determined to be the first person to have an illuminated iMac hosted on Applefritter... A while back I came across some [url=http://www.beingseen.com/]electroluminescent 'string' lighting[/url] designed for sprucing up car interiors (and made by the people who supplied the light sabers for the Star Wars films). As it runs of 12V DC then there'd be no reason why it couldn't be run using a standard PSU and a molex connector. After much hunting I found a UK stockist. They didn't know how the 120+degF heat inside my iMac would effect the 'string' but they said that if it failed they'd replace it free of charge. This didn't sound to bad... Before I ordered some I set about checking how much 'string' I'd need and where would be the best place to run it. After a lot of thought I decided that to start off with I'd do nothing more than run it around the translucent bottom half of my Mac. This shielded the hard disk from any ill effects the string might have. I ordered an 8ft run of 'string' which gave plenty of room for mistakes. [b]Part I - Getting Started : [color=blue]String (and lots of it)[/color][/b] Fours days after I placed the order it arrived; One 12V inverter - connected to a 4 foot length of EL string, and a further seperate 4 foot length of string (I'm sure I asked them to join them before shipping???). [thumb:410] [thumb:411] Now I could begin the delicate process of taking apart my iMac. A simple task really, flip the iMac onto it's screen (with a soft surface underneath) and remove the two screws near the flip-foot. Then remove the VGA port cover and remove the two outermost screws, then lift the bottom cover beginning at the rear and lifting it towards the front where three clips hold it in place. To remove the EMI shield undo the 5 screws around its edges and the two on the lower half. This then lifts from the front of the iMac towards the back. [b]Part II - Fitting the String : [color=blue]Easy[/color][/b] The next job was to find a place to mount the inverter and decide which way to run the string. After little consideration I decided it best to mount it in the Airport slot (Who needs it when you've got Ethernet?). Next to find the best way to run the cable to get it outside the EMI shield, neatly. This I eventually ran out through a gap in the harddrive enclosure. The only other alternative was through one of the holes drilled in the shield to allow heat to dissipate from the heatsink, shown below, but this might have not been to good for the string. [thumb:412] The hole at the top provides access from underneath the shield. The small gap in the bottom (where the wires run from) provides sufficient room to get the string out into the case. [thumb:413] Now came the tedious job of securing the string along my planned 'illumination' route. This was done using clear adhesive tape. Easy BitI began at the end of the string and worked my way back to the inverter, any slack could be hidden inside next the hard disk. To run the string along the path took about 15 minutes, securing it every 2" to keep it looking neat. Once secured it was lit up to see how it looked so far (I'm using the PSU on an old 486 PC to provide test power). [thumb:414] [thumb:415] Not bad, not bad at all. Next to mount the inverter... [b]Part III - Fitting the Inverter : [color=blue]Relatively Easy[/color][/b] As I decided to mount the inverter in the Airport slot, it would need a a plate to sit on that would slide into the Airport mounting slots. This was done with a piece of [url=http://www.curvonline.com]Curv[/url] polypropylene sheet. This was then attached to the inverter with some double-sided sticky pads (also to replace later). [thumb:416] Now the inverter was mounted I could work on masking the section of string that I didn't need. A bit (6") of Electrician's tape solved this problem. Some more tape was needed to cover up the plug which joined the string to the inverter. I think a later modification will be to shrink-wrap it. [thumb:417] All that was left to do was to replace the EMI shield, bottom half of the shell, and power it up. [thumb:418] [b]Part IV - Powered Up : [color=blue]Cool![/color][/b] [thumb:420] Admittedly the photo above doesn't really do the string much justice. In daylight it glows a bit, enough to make it visible, but once its dark then it really comes to life! Strong sunlight blots it out entirely. [thumb:421] [thumb:422] So, job done and it looks rather good, if I do say so myself. The only downsides to the string are 1) the inverter makes a constant high pitched whine, and 2) it stays illuminated when sent to sleep, which would be fine except it currently lights up half the room! Other than that it's fine. When I get round to it I'll fit the other length of string I ordered and illuminate the top half of my iMac, the reason I didn't do it this time is the small diameter of the wires involved and the necessity of a very, very, good magnifying glass to do the job. Total cost of this hack was just under £40. Hope you enjoyed it and remember I did it first! [thumb:423] With thanks to CoolCaseMods.com for the only UK stockist of EL string, and to the guys on the Applefritter forums for their most beneficial (and amusing) advice.