Hallsy
Established Member
Well, a little while back I was all set to sort out my TV and get it up on the wall, but after a few discussions with SWMBO it never happened:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/home-cinema-diy/856417-my-little-project-starts-weekend-advice.html
Anyway, apart from that, I needed to do a little bit of modding to my AV cabinet.
So, a while ago I switched from an open, glass AV rack to an enclosed one, mainly for aesthetics, wanted my kit hidden, wires hidden, etc.
Anyway, with that in mind, cooling and IR extension was something I had to sort. Up until yesterday, the back was always off, and the doors open when in use.
Here's what I started with:
To take care of the cooling I decided to mount a pair of 120mm exhaust fans, controlled by a temp controller. I already had the temp controller and PT100, so I just needed a couple of fans. Looked around and got a pair of Xilence Red Wing's fairly cheap from ebay. | XILENCE |
First off was to remove the shelves and 'perforate' them
Not the neatest of jobs, but hey, it won't be seen.
Then I had to mod the back panels to take the fans, allow for cable exits, and also, as my amp is fairly deep, I had to cut out a section for that to get to the rear connections. So a little while later, and a bit of sawing, I had this:
Then I needed to mount the temp controller & PT100, and wire them up. The controller I used could be powered from 12V, so I bought a cheap 230/12V 1.0A adaptor and used this to power the controller, and supply the fans via the relay out. You'll also noticed the white temperature probe on the left, more on that later:
So, after a bit of hoovering & cleaning, I put all my kit back inside. Also added the little IR 'eyes' onto the DVD player & amp. I have one more but I'd forgotten to drill a hole through to pass it onto the 360. Not a great deal anyway as I'll just use the RF. I need to save it for the forthcoming HTPC anyway
I used this extender kit from ebay, nice & cheap, does the job: Infra Red Remote Control Extender for TV/VCR/DVD NEW on eBay, also, Remote Controls, TV Accessories, Consumer Electronics (end time 26-Jun-09 15:04:30 BST)
And with the doors all shut up:
All in all, not a bad job - if a little anal & geeky (as the missus said!!), but it needed to be done, it gets fairly toasty in there with all the kit on!
Back to the white temp probe, this was something my other half was given one year by a sales rep. It's a clock with room temperature, and has an external temperature probe & display. So I use this one on the amp side of the rack, and the controllers PT100 is on the 360's side.
So I've always got the cabinet temp in front of me
I haven't had chance to fully test it yet as I just put all the stuff back last night, watched a bit of cliffhanger and went to bed!!
Main issue I can see so far is that the amp side gets very hot, but I'm not sure how qucikly this will soak across to the PT100, to kick the fans in, I may have to drill some holes throught the centre section, either that or mount the PT100 across both sides.
Second issue, is that the fans aren't quite so quiet now they are mounted. Not as loud as the xbox, but I can still hear them. I might experiement running them slower.
Main thing now is deciding what temp to try to keep the cabinet at. Obviosuly trying to keep it at 20'C won't happen with just circulation, I'm thinking maybe 30'C?
Anyway, onto the next job today (hopefully), and that's getting the screen on the wall. Now we're happy, it's the re-locating of the radiator that puts the missus off It needs doing as since I've had this unit the centre has been made redundant. As soon as the TV is wall mounted, the centre can go back in
Sorry if this post is a little geeky, but I know there's a few on here who will appreciate it :thumbs:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/home-cinema-diy/856417-my-little-project-starts-weekend-advice.html
Anyway, apart from that, I needed to do a little bit of modding to my AV cabinet.
So, a while ago I switched from an open, glass AV rack to an enclosed one, mainly for aesthetics, wanted my kit hidden, wires hidden, etc.
Anyway, with that in mind, cooling and IR extension was something I had to sort. Up until yesterday, the back was always off, and the doors open when in use.
Here's what I started with:
To take care of the cooling I decided to mount a pair of 120mm exhaust fans, controlled by a temp controller. I already had the temp controller and PT100, so I just needed a couple of fans. Looked around and got a pair of Xilence Red Wing's fairly cheap from ebay. | XILENCE |
First off was to remove the shelves and 'perforate' them
Not the neatest of jobs, but hey, it won't be seen.
Then I had to mod the back panels to take the fans, allow for cable exits, and also, as my amp is fairly deep, I had to cut out a section for that to get to the rear connections. So a little while later, and a bit of sawing, I had this:
Then I needed to mount the temp controller & PT100, and wire them up. The controller I used could be powered from 12V, so I bought a cheap 230/12V 1.0A adaptor and used this to power the controller, and supply the fans via the relay out. You'll also noticed the white temperature probe on the left, more on that later:
So, after a bit of hoovering & cleaning, I put all my kit back inside. Also added the little IR 'eyes' onto the DVD player & amp. I have one more but I'd forgotten to drill a hole through to pass it onto the 360. Not a great deal anyway as I'll just use the RF. I need to save it for the forthcoming HTPC anyway
I used this extender kit from ebay, nice & cheap, does the job: Infra Red Remote Control Extender for TV/VCR/DVD NEW on eBay, also, Remote Controls, TV Accessories, Consumer Electronics (end time 26-Jun-09 15:04:30 BST)
And with the doors all shut up:
All in all, not a bad job - if a little anal & geeky (as the missus said!!), but it needed to be done, it gets fairly toasty in there with all the kit on!
Back to the white temp probe, this was something my other half was given one year by a sales rep. It's a clock with room temperature, and has an external temperature probe & display. So I use this one on the amp side of the rack, and the controllers PT100 is on the 360's side.
So I've always got the cabinet temp in front of me
I haven't had chance to fully test it yet as I just put all the stuff back last night, watched a bit of cliffhanger and went to bed!!
Main issue I can see so far is that the amp side gets very hot, but I'm not sure how qucikly this will soak across to the PT100, to kick the fans in, I may have to drill some holes throught the centre section, either that or mount the PT100 across both sides.
Second issue, is that the fans aren't quite so quiet now they are mounted. Not as loud as the xbox, but I can still hear them. I might experiement running them slower.
Main thing now is deciding what temp to try to keep the cabinet at. Obviosuly trying to keep it at 20'C won't happen with just circulation, I'm thinking maybe 30'C?
Anyway, onto the next job today (hopefully), and that's getting the screen on the wall. Now we're happy, it's the re-locating of the radiator that puts the missus off It needs doing as since I've had this unit the centre has been made redundant. As soon as the TV is wall mounted, the centre can go back in
Sorry if this post is a little geeky, but I know there's a few on here who will appreciate it :thumbs:
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