OMNIBOT XP - Mini ITX case mod/hack

Pinter75 · 20 Oct 2008 at 01:44

OmniBot XP - Case mod

Turn one of these Tomy Omnibots (not this one it is a mint one from my collection) from 1984 into a solid state PC running XP. I managed to get a Omnibot minus remote and in a slightly tatty state from eBay for £12.

Here are the components that i need to fit inside.

A VIA Mini ITX board. Totally fanless and at 600odd Mhz. Also to be fitted are a LCD, Compact Flash to ATA drive adapter, 12v Pico PSU and USB/Card reader module. As all these bits contain no moving parts, it makes the PC solid state :-)

Here is the 12v pico PSU. It is no higher than the heat sink on the C3 processor.

Now to start modding.

1st thing to do was take out the original drive gear and electronics. Then it got a good clean and all the stickers were removed. Primed and painted in satin black acrylic.

The base of the bot was cut to allow the board to fit, with the ports accesssed from the rear.

Here is the board, PSU and CF ATA module installed.

A panel was made from clear acrylic for the LCD. This will go in the space created from the removal of the original LCD module. The lettering is vinyl and cut using my Craft Robo cutter.

To fill the hole left by taking out the cassette player and controls, I made up a panel out of plastic. This will hold the USB card reader and buttons for power/reset and HDD led.

You can see on the back the mount for the USB card reader.

Here is the card reader installed.

Painted black, buttons, LED and vinyl decals added.

Pinter75 · 20 Oct 2008 at 01:45

How the LCD module is fixed. I used the original mounting holes with a piece of plastic to hold the LCD in place.

Next to mod is the top of the bot. The old LEDs were removed and some orange ones installed. These light up when the PC is ruuning. The top was painted and decals applied.

Dome fitted.

I had an el-cheapo rechargeable mouse to hand so that got affixed to one of the hands. The arms were painted and more decals applied. The other hand has a gripper and I wanted to retain that function. The hand with the mouse added was a simple cup holder.

I added a push button switch and wired the PicPSU into the existing charger socket on the back.

Fix it all back together and this is how it looks. I need to get a large CF card and a Ram stick to get it running properly, but I have tested it with a 2.5" drive and it works nicely :-)

Here you can see the comparision of original and modded.

God knows what I am going to do with it now. I only built it because I had the bits lying about. Suppose I will stick it on eBay or strip it down and put it in the loft :-(

LeJosh · 20 Oct 2008 at 01:59

You sir, rock ones casbaw! (is that how you spell it? )

zootfloot · 20 Oct 2008 at 06:41

Top job, your version looks better than the original.

orderoftheflame · 20 Oct 2008 at 07:20

Fantastic.

N19h7m4r3 · 20 Oct 2008 at 08:30

That's amazing! I've been thinking of a small PC mod, but I completely forgot about ITX :/

misterPK · 20 Oct 2008 at 09:33

Brilliant work, I love things like this!

As you've said it's a shame it doesn't have a practical use at the moment. A card reader on a system where the internal storage is also a flash card could cause issues, but when it looks like a robot who really cares?

PK!

DampCat · 20 Oct 2008 at 12:39

Dude, that's brilliant!

WILD9 · 20 Oct 2008 at 14:14

Absolutely brilliant ! but get some plastic polish on that dome.

waso_dude · 20 Oct 2008 at 14:27

Thats amazing!

Absolutely love it!

Pinter75 · 20 Oct 2008 at 15:06

WILD9 said:
Absolutely brilliant ! but get some plastic polish on that dome.

Yup, that is still in progress. I had to lightly sand it down as it was really badly scratched. So far I have put loads of t-cut and brasso on it. Needs a load more work till it is super clear.

I have ordered an 8GB CF card and 512MB stick, so I will soon see how well XP runs on it. The CF is ATA 33 only, but it is only designed to be used as a web surfing machine.

MikeHunt79 · 20 Oct 2008 at 15:08

Awesome, great idea and nicely executed.

As for what to do with it, just use it or use it as a download/filesharing box.

Pinter75 · 20 Oct 2008 at 15:11

MikeHunt79 said:
Awesome, great idea and nicely executed.

As for what to do with it, just use it or use it as a download/filesharing box.

I already run servers and stuff here, I may strip the components out and stick it on a shelf, it does look uber cool :-)

Wayne~ · 21 Oct 2008 at 11:40

Nice job! Makes a change from standard projects