Can't help it -- I have a weakness for geek projects sometimes (keeps me outa trouble!). This geek project involves yet more e-waste, which can be plentiful at the hospital where I work.
As a guy who used to do servers in another life, I have a fondness for all things Sun Microsystems. Most people won't understand this, but some will.
A few months ago, some old Sun 611 boxes were abandoned in the hallway. Cutting edge long ago, these Utrawide 611s have little use these days, except to be shipped overseas and burnt on some polluted beach somewhere. They were empty, no drives -- 2 for HDs, 1 for ROMs. After passing these by for weeks, one day I couldn't help myself, and took 'em home (just HAS to be a use for these...).
One of these boxes I repurposed as a USB box for my music server/backup (another geeky thread here); the ROM box I decided to turn into a CD player after finding a SCSI CD drive with volume, FF, play, stop, and pause functions in a server in the e-waste yesterday. Walked by, said "hmmm" to myself, took it out and took it home. Figured that since I currently didn't have a CD player in my system, this would be a kinda cool nod to my computer past, and have pretty good geek cachet, as well.
Sun 611 boxes were external drive units for enterprise class computers, basically. They were built to last just about forever, made of substantial (read indestructible) plastic and steel -- and made in the US, too! They have nice little power supplies and a small, near silent built in fan that I have never seen fail. Horrendously expensive when new (enclosure & drive ~$1800, Plex drive ~$800), you could drop one of these buggers from a highrise and the box would survive; it's sad to think that these are garbage only 10 years later. Since the drive has built-in controls, no SCSI interface or computer is needed to make it play, or cycle through a CD -- just needs power.
First things first -- took the box apart, cleaned it until it looked brand new. Took out the power supply, took it apart and removed the SCSI controller board from the supply. Tapped into the molex 5v to leech power for the little fan, which had taken its power from the controller board. I tried the 12v supply first, but could hear the little fan whisper just a bit; as this drive will be cruising playing CDs, the lower fan speed will be just fine to keep the supply cool, and is dead silent. Took the drive apart, and cleaned it top to bottom; cleaned and regreased the rails and swabbed the lens -- time to see if it's alive.
Fired up all the parts, plugged in a pair of 'phones, a CD, and...life! Time to plug it into the main system for a whirl. It sounded OK, but not particularly special; this was to be expected from an old ROM drive, even a good old Plex drive. Next step was to bypass the conversion stage of the drive altogether.
Figured out which pins were the SPDIF out, rigged up a plug from spare parts. Found a nasty abandoned and gutted DVD player downstairs in storage, so scavenged the RCA jacks from that. The jack fit handily in the SCSI id selector spot, and screwed them in -- they nicely fit right inside the power supply chassis, so no problems there. Soldered the SPDIF plug to the RCA jack, and presto, we have a straight digital out, the drive now just reduced to a transport for the CD. Put it all back together, screwed it in tight; now it's time to hit the main system again.
Handily, I still have an SPDIF connection to my DAC (was just using the optical for my computer); one connection there, power cord to an isolation transformer (just for kicks, and it has a grounded IEC plug, so no harm done), and we're ready to give her a whirl. CD in, and woohoo, she's a playin'.
Sounds wonderful, is near indestructible, simple, small footprint, and has super retro geek appeal to me. As the drive is just a transport now, with straight digital out, the sound is as sweet as can be! Total cost of this phase of the Computer Geek Repurposing Project: $0.00, and several pieces of e-junk saved from the hazardous waste bins. Bet this Sun box never thought it'd spend its retirement days hooked up to a McIntosh playing tunes!
The silly things I do when the GF is out of town...
Remember: reduce, reuse, and recycle -- oh, and repurpose, as well. :thmbsp:
As a guy who used to do servers in another life, I have a fondness for all things Sun Microsystems. Most people won't understand this, but some will.
A few months ago, some old Sun 611 boxes were abandoned in the hallway. Cutting edge long ago, these Utrawide 611s have little use these days, except to be shipped overseas and burnt on some polluted beach somewhere. They were empty, no drives -- 2 for HDs, 1 for ROMs. After passing these by for weeks, one day I couldn't help myself, and took 'em home (just HAS to be a use for these...).One of these boxes I repurposed as a USB box for my music server/backup (another geeky thread here); the ROM box I decided to turn into a CD player after finding a SCSI CD drive with volume, FF, play, stop, and pause functions in a server in the e-waste yesterday. Walked by, said "hmmm" to myself, took it out and took it home. Figured that since I currently didn't have a CD player in my system, this would be a kinda cool nod to my computer past, and have pretty good geek cachet, as well.
Sun 611 boxes were external drive units for enterprise class computers, basically. They were built to last just about forever, made of substantial (read indestructible) plastic and steel -- and made in the US, too! They have nice little power supplies and a small, near silent built in fan that I have never seen fail. Horrendously expensive when new (enclosure & drive ~$1800, Plex drive ~$800), you could drop one of these buggers from a highrise and the box would survive; it's sad to think that these are garbage only 10 years later. Since the drive has built-in controls, no SCSI interface or computer is needed to make it play, or cycle through a CD -- just needs power.
First things first -- took the box apart, cleaned it until it looked brand new. Took out the power supply, took it apart and removed the SCSI controller board from the supply. Tapped into the molex 5v to leech power for the little fan, which had taken its power from the controller board. I tried the 12v supply first, but could hear the little fan whisper just a bit; as this drive will be cruising playing CDs, the lower fan speed will be just fine to keep the supply cool, and is dead silent. Took the drive apart, and cleaned it top to bottom; cleaned and regreased the rails and swabbed the lens -- time to see if it's alive.
Fired up all the parts, plugged in a pair of 'phones, a CD, and...life! Time to plug it into the main system for a whirl. It sounded OK, but not particularly special; this was to be expected from an old ROM drive, even a good old Plex drive. Next step was to bypass the conversion stage of the drive altogether.
Figured out which pins were the SPDIF out, rigged up a plug from spare parts. Found a nasty abandoned and gutted DVD player downstairs in storage, so scavenged the RCA jacks from that. The jack fit handily in the SCSI id selector spot, and screwed them in -- they nicely fit right inside the power supply chassis, so no problems there. Soldered the SPDIF plug to the RCA jack, and presto, we have a straight digital out, the drive now just reduced to a transport for the CD. Put it all back together, screwed it in tight; now it's time to hit the main system again.
Handily, I still have an SPDIF connection to my DAC (was just using the optical for my computer); one connection there, power cord to an isolation transformer (just for kicks, and it has a grounded IEC plug, so no harm done), and we're ready to give her a whirl. CD in, and woohoo, she's a playin'.
Sounds wonderful, is near indestructible, simple, small footprint, and has super retro geek appeal to me. As the drive is just a transport now, with straight digital out, the sound is as sweet as can be! Total cost of this phase of the Computer Geek Repurposing Project: $0.00, and several pieces of e-junk saved from the hazardous waste bins. Bet this Sun box never thought it'd spend its retirement days hooked up to a McIntosh playing tunes!
The silly things I do when the GF is out of town...Remember: reduce, reuse, and recycle -- oh, and repurpose, as well. :thmbsp:
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