Moncaso 932 case

[KA5BBC]

I picked up somebody's abandoned project which came in a Moncaso 932 case.. This is a multimedia PC case which has many front controls and a 7-inch touchscreen display - I already know that the included display will not work however there is a great mounting point for the one that will.
I have stripped out all of the PC guts and I'm left with a USB card reader, power button, rotary encoder and some control buttons, front USB and FireWire ports, a place for a DVD drive, a gap and mounting plate for the 7-in display, two double three and a half inch hard drive bays with fans, and plenty of space for the RF side of things.
I have to come up with some way of securely mounting the RPi behind the display and between the two hard drive bays, thus giving plenty of air flow and easy access to all the peripherals at the front of the case, and then some way to secure the remainder of equipment in the back of the case. Hopefully this will come out as a functional and nice looking as it is in my head already .

Moncaso 932 case front

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Moncaso 932 case interior

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Moncaso 932 case rear

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[g8lce]

Hi Andy,

I like your case and it looks like it could make a nice receiver as well with the tuning knob. Now you have to fill all the space with power amps, band switching etc. That will take some plannng! You could put a handle on the side and have batteries inside for portable use.
The DVD slot could be used for a webcam/PiCam and small speakers (like ones from old laptops )
I look forward to your finished project.

Martin G8LCE

[KA5BBC]

I've come to realize that the buttons and the big knob are actually part of a USB interface system, I don't know if there are any Linux drivers for it, and may have to replace some of it or just break out tracks for rewiring. I do like the idea of putting the Langstone in this box as well but with a case closed it might be a little difficult to swap out SSD or SD card on the fly.
I plan on putting speakers on the side walls as they are open, I would have preferred the front but everything's filled up.
I'm actually going to put a DVD drive in the DVD slot so that I can use it to play files if necessary.. like a demo at a ham club or rally.
I'm considering some kind of vertical mounting system, similar to the original one in there, for all the extra boards.
My current plan is to put the RPi directly behind the screen, on top of the DVD drive enclosure, with a fanless ice tower. I'm undecided if I'm going to use the driving closures for the drive or if I'm going to mount it under the RPi. The hope is I can keep all of the core parts in that front section and all of the RF parts in the back area where the motherboard would have been.
I do like the idea of having a battery rather than the big power supply but I might do that as an external box and have both available to me with some form of switching.
I'm waiting for the last few parts to arrive so that I can get started hopefully middle of next week.

[g8lce]

See viewtopic.php?f=103&t=6915 re USB reader.

Martin G8LCE

[KA5BBC]

First hurdle.. The official Raspberry Pi 7-in screen has a very wide bezel built in whereas, seen upper in the picture, the original has almost no bezel at all. With the case being made of aluminum it is not going to be easy to cleanly modify therefore I will have to mount the screen protruding from the front unless the bezel can be safely and cleanly removed - which I'm not going to try until I have heard that somebody else has done it successfully.

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[KA5BBC]

Screen, DVD, Raspberry Pi 4, and ATX breakout mounted..
Need to flash the SD card for first test next. Then on to mounting the USB hub, SSD, Pluto, LimeSDR, RTL-SDR, Minitouner Express,....
OK, I confess.. I have gone for technological overkill as usual.

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I'm a construct some form of dual layer housing for the back half of the case given me effectively two square feet to work with..

[KA5BBC]

If I want to mount speakers and amp inside the case I may have to forego the cross flow fans inside the hard drive cages, positions shown by the dusty ring. My only concern that is that the magnets may affect the SSDs.

[KA5BBC]

As there is no real use for the firewire connection, despite some availability of USB 3 to firewire adapters, I may consider rewiring this to act as the microphone socket both for when in DATV mode or when switched over to being a Langstone.. assuming that both use the same connections and commands for PTT. (I might borrow the DTMF microphone design from the radioless AllStar node plans so that that facility is also available)

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[KA5BBC]

It's alive!!!
At least it booted and installed. It can't see my LimeSDR but it is a step forward.

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[KA5BBC]

The Langstone side is working correctly but I am still having some issues with devices being detected, I suspect the USB hub is to blame.