Information Stage is a term I pinched from S/F writer Sherri S. Tepper. I believe the first usage was in her book Raising the Stones and subsequent usage in the set-in-the-same-universe-but-thousands-of-years-later Sideshow (the first book in this universe, Grass, is too close to contemporary times to have such technology). It is basically a media/comms/data appliance, the 'stage' referring to the output device where information is displayed (or dramatised, even). While it is not explicitly stated anywhere in the books, the use of the word stage seems to indicate that the output is in 3D (rather than a 2D screen). In fact, what an information stage actually looks like is not mentioned beyond vague references indicating the size (which varies from desktop-size models to large-entertainment-system-size ones -- well, huge public-display ones too, but I am talking private stages here), leaving me with a lot of freedom for interpretation.
This is a long-term project, so don't expect continuous updates or a completed system in the immediate future. I am adding stuff as I get/buy/find it.
Being a bit of a passive-cooling fan (hater of fans, so fan might not be the word :-X ), I wanted a nice big block of aluminium to sink heat into. I happened to see a couple of cracked Auto-transmission shells down the side of an auto-repair shop and they were kind enough to sell me one for the scrap value. Several $2 cans of magic degreaser later... (A)
I am presently looking at putting the server mainboard under the big bulgy part at the base and a HDD mounting bracket in the central column -- ideally I would like some sort of industrial CompactPCIe 4-slot rack in that section, but that is rather pricey! Then the bulgy base would be for UPS batteries. USB ports, reset buttons and the like will be around the outside of the central part. A frame for the monitor will extend from the top (see 3D concept art below).
As you can see in the above image, I worked out what to use the aluminium BBQ plate (B) for - I need a 5-6mm plate between the bottom- and mid-sections. I assume there used to be a steel bracket for internal shafts/gears/etc. acting as a spacer here anyway. Some of the ribbing had to be filed back to make a flush seal, but most of it remains on the inside of the unit. Outside, I will eventually cut the squareness back to a more hexagonal/round shape but not until I am sure where I will be bolting further stuff on as this plate will also be a major mounting bracket for external components. For now it holds my drinking-water tank ;-).
The place for an aluminium base plate is presently held by a metallic-painted 5-ply board cut to shape (C). The board was rescued off a scrap pile, of course ;-). Eventually I hope to acquire a same-sized piece of aluminium to replace this, but the wooden board is fine for now as I don't have the mainboard I really want to go inside the unit yet anyway. Likely I will have to purchase this piece new, but I will keep looking through scrap offerings for something suitable until I actually have need for the real piece.
Here is a mock-up done in SecondLife. That cap on top of the transmission is a 40cm aluminium frying pan that isn't quite worn-out enough to be cutting holes in yet, and the immaginary cylinder from the floor up to the edges of this defines the outer-bounds for bolted-on peripherals for the most part.
I just found a 2.5GHz Celeron D mainboard that will actually fit (barely) in the bottom of the transmission shell. Needed several capacitors replaced, which was a PITA but I managed it eventually without causing serious damage (a de-soldering station would have made things much easier, but I am not buying a $200 DS to fix a board worth less that $10). This will make an adequate 'server' for a while, at least until the end of winter when heat starts to become an issue again.
I mounted the ATX PSU over the useless PCI slots and the HDD behind (under that mess of power cabling). The AGP slot is left available for the graphics card since this board has no onboard video (need to see if I can get away with completely headless on such a system). Will bootstrap it with an old CD-ROM drive that will then be disconnected.
This is really only a temporary hack-together, so I am bolting it all to the wooden place-holder base and retaining the air cooling rather than have copper heat-channels made up for this board and then need to have them re-made for the next one. I am also hoping my next mainboard can run off a single (high current, obviously) 12V supply. I am adding ¼" spacers between the base and the transmission shell-bottom for air intake (and will probably put some gauze tape around it to try and keep dust intake down) and a case fan on a hole I drilled near the top of the transmission-shell base.
Here is an old PSU fan with some sponge rubber glued to the output side so it will fit snugly against the concave inside of the transmission-shell base (the cotton buds are just to stop the rubber band around the outside collapsing the foam while the glue dries). I will later replace it with a 3-wire case fan and better-made foam, but this will do for now!
The exhaust hole is cut so an old vacuum cleaner hose I have can clip into it and take the warm air to a nearby window in summer, and to my feet in winter ;-).
I recently made a switchable power distribution board for my system so I can switch out completely (ie, no standby power wastage) peripherals that I am not using at the time. I likely could have bought an off-the-shelf switched power board for considerably less effort than I put into this, but mine looks nicer ;-)
It has a 10-amp circuit breaker and 4 toggle switches, the switch that feeds the computer has a 'missile switch' safety cover for obvious reasons. I managed to get a grey cover rather than a red one as red would look a bit cheesy, I felt. The back of the unit has 4 corresponding IEC female sockets and an Australian male plug which feeds from a watt meter, then a surge protector and finally a power lead.
I did the front panel in InkScape and had it printed off to plastic sticker sheet at a local on-demand printer. Eventually this part will be bolted off the side of the transmission shell.
Presently switches are used for:
If you are doing such things yourself with mains voltages, make sure you KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING - I have electronics trade qualifications AND I had my electrician brother-in-law double-check my wiring. If in doubt, buy a ready-made switched power board.
More power distribution - this time 12/5 volts which I am far more comfortable working with. Using a connector block off an old IDE hard drive, I have a connection to 4x 12V, 9x 5V and 10x 5V jumpers for connecting in LEDs and other flashy lighty things as I like. I added switches so I can turn off this power drain when I am not in the mood for being impressed with flashy lights - I even lucked out and the store switches came with red caps while I had a spare yellow cap in my components box, so the switch caps match the standard MOLEX PC-cable colours for 12V and 5V. This too will end up bolted in some discrete-but-accessible part of the transmission shell.
Here is a lot of scrap aluminium for me to use. Mainly heatsinks and (under them, not visible) three-dozen assorted HDD shells with interesting cast shapes. Plus a few angle-grinder cases and assorted bits of other machines.
Is this a heat sink or what!! Well, it was an aluminium electric grill from the recycling center for $2 -- it was actually in a pile of steel BBQ grill plates, but so covered in grime that no-one had noticed it was aluminium :-D. I have stripped off the broken electrics and applied 4 cans of oven-cleaner and a big wire brush. Oven-cleaner isn't supposed to be used on aluminium - it makes it go black, but nothing a bit of wire brushing can't fix. The Bakelite handles will go eventually too.
| Found/salvaged | Bought as scrap | Bought new |
| base (5-ply wood) Mainboard, PSU, HDD, GPU USB, SATA, IDE, board cabling |
transmission shell BBQ plate BBQ grill |
12mm stainless steel bolts x8 |
| aluminium case aluminium front panel IEC sockets (female) Australian 3-pin plug (male) wire screws |
4 toggle switches "Missile Switch" cap circuit breaker panel art printing |
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| IDE socket perspex plate wire 1 toggle switch |
2 toggle switches epoxy glue |
These are the likely functions of my infostage:
Initially, I will run this all off one physical device but later I will likely separate client/server functions to different hardware. The main issue with the all-on-one approach is that the VR client-side functions need a high-end graphics card which will waste a lot of power even in idle when the system is only being a server (such as while I am out or asleep). Server hardware will likely be a bought-new PC104 board installed in the mid-section of the transmission shell (in the 5" diameter cylinder part).
I'm not intending to use any special virtualisation, just rely on Linux permissions/access system to lock down the user-level tasks from interfering with each other (as is a real operating system's job). The slight security risks added by this approach are offset by the fact that this is not a critical server (and I back up regularly).
Whole thing will be connected upstream by a business-class ADSL2+ line (business class simply allows you to run your own servers with my present ISP - even the costs are not that much more than residential. And you can (optionally) get 5 usable static IPv4 addresses with a business-class connection. Then I will also need to get a Domain name of my own, now I have finally thought of something to call it (not "Impact" - that is, of course, long taken, but I can munge it into something unique that I am happy with :-)