Case Demoding

Case Moding is the process of changing the appearance of your computer case by means of transparent panels, neon-lights, and coloured flat-cables. It started with a few people doing this, but nowadays, ready made packages are sold over the counter of computer shops, so that everybody who can install a new card in their PC can do it now. Here, I am giving an example of some alternative way of Case Moding, which I will call Case Demoding, because I am not adding parts but removing parts.

Minimal hardware configuration

This Case Demoding is performed on the first PC I bought, named annabel. It is a DX-66. First I reduced the number of parts needed for it to operate, resulting in the following list: Because this computer runs Linux, it is accessible through a terminal on a COM-port. For this reason the computer can work, although it does not have: One could still replace the hard disk with a floppy drive and boot it from the floppy using a minimal Linux version, such as LOAF.

Software configuration

The Linux configuration files needed to be changed, such that the COM-port on the Super I/O card could work as a terminal, in stead of being used by the mouse driver. I also had to set the BIOS such that it would not halt on a missing keyboard. Note that the BIOS settings can only be changed if the computer has a monitor, graphical card and a keyboard. I first tried out the whole configuration before I could think of a way to put a box around it.

Puting a case around it

I came up with the idea of putting the mother board and graphical card on the side against the power supply, and putting the hard disk on top of the power supply. Down stairs I found a box that came with eight 1.5 liter apple juice cartons. It proofed to be perfect for the purpose I had in mind. As a finishing touch, I arranged the LEDS in an intersting way. The orange drive active LED I put on top of the hard disk, and the green and yellow LED's put on the top. I also disconnected the COM port connector such that the attached NUL-modem cable did not have to stick up in the air.

Final test

So there it was, a carton box with a pile of components and two cables coming out of it. And did it still work? For that purpose, I attached my Toshiba T1900S on the other end of the NUL-modem cable and started a VT100 terminal emulation program, resulting in the following configuration:

It booted without problems and I could log in, as can be seen on the following snapshot of the screen:

My life as a hacker | My computers