Project Android

Messiah Khan · 4 Jun 2006 at 22:48

You may be saying to yourself; "Thats not a case, thats a mannequin!" And you would be right. It is at the moment, but with a bit of work(Read; Loads of work and possibly money), I should have something looking like;

Ive got loads of ideas for it so far, but if you have any suggestions then fire away. The initial plan is to scetch out where the various body segments are going to be. Im then going to cut the thing to pieces with a dremel. Then using strips of steel, im going to mount a motherboard tray in the chest, and make various other frame structures for the hardware. Steel strips, epoxy glue and a few bolts will be used to put the body sections back together again. Im planning on having the motherboard in the chest, the harddrive in the head. Maybe a cheap waterloop, with the pump where the heart would be. Im also ripping a webcam to pieces to mount in the eyes. Microphoes in the ears. All the cables will also comes out of plugsin the spine(Matrix stylee) with the graphics card connector at the back of the head. Once the main structure has been made, im going to sand everything down and paint the outside white gloss, and the inside black satin. Im then going to finish the thing off with; shower hose tubes, loads of cables, bits of metal tubing and epoxy modelling clay.

Messiah Khan · 5 Jun 2006 at 09:09

Hehe, im afraid there will be no glowing nipples

I did consider putting the water rad in the bottom, so that hot air blew out of her ****

Im going to be try to use a full ATX rig. Basically going to be using my current download server, which is a celeron800, 512mb ram, 27gb hdd, passive rage3d gpu. I'll also be sticking an old turtle beach soundcard in. Yeah the thing is hollow, its made out of a strong resin, which is ideal IMO. The design is going ot be mainly based on the Bjork video(The one pictured), but with elements drawn from the matrix, Irobot, and any other sources i can find.

Messiah Khan · 5 Jun 2006 at 10:16

Dr Jones said:
Did you watch Dr. Who, I think it was the 3rd episode of the current series - the one titled "The Girl In The Fireplace"?

How about abit of that crazy clockwork idea in the head? It'll be wicked!

Nope, I havent seen any Dr who since the really old ones. Im afraid I think this is going to be a big enough project without adding clockwork to the head. Having said that though, if i managed to get hold of an old clock that I could take to pieces... hmm ideas.

Messiah Khan · 5 Jun 2006 at 14:48

Mr Mister said:
Where will you put the cd drive? In the mouth? that would be cool!

Did consider a slot loading one in her ****

However im likely not to have one at all, as at the moment I do all the access to the server via gigabit ethernet and remote control, so there is no need for any cd/floppy drives.

Messiah Khan · 7 Jun 2006 at 16:19

Thanks for the comments guys. Don't expect the progress to be quick, but i'll certainly keep this thread open as a work log. Most of the design is going to be stolen directly from the Bjork video. @Dr Jones... I am really considering the clockwork idea now. If I can get hold of some cheap clocks from a charity shop, and strip them down. I'd put them either side of the head, with the hdd inbetween. I think one of the main thigs I need to get right are the eyes. In the Bjork video, the eyes are human. So im going to need to get some human model eyes, and somehow mount the webcam behind the pupil.

Messiah Khan · 7 Jun 2006 at 18:37

Dr Jones said:
An eye infront of a webcam is gonna be hard, coz it might be too large or too small and obstruct the webcam... Damn, this project is gonna be darn good.

Edit: Just noticed that the model has its face turned to the side, wouldn't that defeat the point of having a webcam in the eye when it face away?

I have seen anatomical eyes on ebay, that split into all the component parts of the eye. This would allow me to place the webcam actually inside the eye, with the lens in the pupil hole.

As for the Manakin facing sideways, I have thought about that. Yes it might be pointless, but who cares

I might put her sideways on the desk anyway. I might even detatch her head completely, so that I can reattatch the head at any angle I want.

collisster said:
Put a red HDD led in one eye

I had actually considerd that, kinda like the terminator. That deffinately would be creepy.

Messiah Khan · 8 Jun 2006 at 19:09

LoadsaMoney said:
Just thought id pop in and say BOOBIES!!!.

Would be a cracking case that.

And im going to have to stare at them in the name of art/engineering

Messiah Khan · 9 Jun 2006 at 15:24

Excellent links guys, cheers.

The first ones does look a bit 'adult entertainment' doll like, im not sure I could explain that one to people who saw it. The 'Blair witch' one has given me some ideas of using lighting. The hellraiser one is the most similar one to what im planning. Nice worklog as well, to get some tips and ideas.

Messiah Khan · 10 Jun 2006 at 12:29

Erm, yeah.. it will be once its been delivered and ive done the work one it.

Messiah Khan · 15 Jun 2006 at 16:14

Ok.. she's arrived, and the project has officially started!

If a passing Don could change the thread title to 'Project Android', It would be much appreciated. I'll do as much work each day as possible, but don't expect the project to go fast. Here are some pics of how she looks now.

The first stage of the project is to mark out where the panel cuts are going to go, then cut them out. Im then going to sand off the old paint and make the surface as smooth as possible. Being able to have a close look at the bodyshape, it looks like I might need to use PCI riser cards, so as to get the graphics card, souncard and network card lying paralell with the mobo. Im also pleased to say that my local B&Q stock a large range of Aluminnium tubing and shapes. Ive bought some thin flat Alu to make the basic frame, and some Alu tubing to make the fake hydralics in the neck.

Messiah Khan · 24 Jun 2006 at 23:08

Ive now sanded her down and cut her into the commponent panels. The sanding took way longer than I had hoped, and I only found out half way through that my dad has got a detail sander which as it turned out is perfect for the job. Still took me a good 4-5 hours with the detail sander to do half the body.

I did most of the cutting with a dremel cutting wheel. I did try using a dremel tungsten carbide tip as I thought this would be better for corners, but the results with this were terrible. Some of the cutting was quite tough, as the resin thickness varies quite a lot throughout the body.

The next job now is to stitch the panels back together, using some alu strips and glue. The chest panel is going to be hinged, so as to give access to the motherboard, and the skull panel is also going to be hinged, giving access to the harddrive and also the powerswitch etc. Another problem area that I have noticed is right at thew bottom, where the PSU is going to go, as there is a metal rod there. I might have to either try and attempt to remove it, or if there is enough space I might build a 'platform' on it and place the PSU ontop.

Messiah Khan · 25 Jun 2006 at 01:09

benjo said:
This is looking really good

Cheers.

Dr Jones said:
You "detail sand" off her nipples! oh noes...!!

Looking good there~

She didn't have 'nips' to start with :eek:

Drazic said:
Top tip for ya

use the cheap dark yellow epoxy primer putty to prime her for spraying. Best resin spray pain going. I use it on all my rockets and have fantastic results

Keeps us going dude. i might have a few bit you'd want for this like the backing bif for the mobo and pci cards

Thanks for that tip. So is the epoxy primer putty just like an epoxy modelling putty? Im going to need to use some of this anyway to fill in a few holes where there were air bubbles in the resin, and also for general detail modelling. Thanks for the offer of donations. I might take you up on the offer(Email in trust if you want to chat

). I was going to hack an old atx case to pices for the motherboard tray. What sort of pci cards? At the moment I have a passivly cooled GPU, souncard and 2x NICs which need to go in. My fingers are crosse that the height of the pci cards will fit, as its going to be tight. If they don't im going to need pci riser cards, or half height pci cards.

Messiah Khan · 25 Jun 2006 at 16:13

Cheers

Unfortunately I can't do much more work today, as I need some epoxy modelling putty to make flat surfaces inside, so i can attach the alu strips. At the moment im just making and attatching as many alu strips as I can, and doing general planning. Im pleased to say that the mobo and pci cards fill fit nicely, although im possibly going to have to shorten the pci brackets on the two NICs.

Messiah Khan · 27 Jun 2006 at 18:48

It will have mics in the ears and a speaker behind the mouth. And I already have a finger print scanner

Messiah Khan · 27 Jun 2006 at 20:19

No, its just going to be one speaker. I don't have a 5.1 system, as I do all my music listening on my Sennheiser headphones. Its just going to be so that I can have the windows startup sounds etc, replaced with a voice.

Messiah Khan · 27 Jun 2006 at 21:27

Lol, thanks for the suggestion Yewen, but I think im going to stick with a standard momentary switch, which will be placed in the head.

Messiah Khan · 28 Jun 2006 at 10:52

Yewen said:
Lets keep it remotely on topic.

(I don't beleive I have just said that. )

When is the next time you will put any time into it?

Also, are you planning on a full project log for it as I would like to be able to add it to the sticky?

Im still working on it most days, but im waiting until ive made some decent visible progress until I add more pics etc(Ath the moment im just doing monotonous structural work). So, yes I will be doing a full progress log. I'll just post my progress in this thread for the moment, but I can neaten it up etc once im finished, so that you can put it in the sticky(Thanks for the offer, that would be ace

).

Edit; And no guys, im sorry, but her nipples are not going to be switches, LEDs, Cold cathodes, fans or anything else

Messiah Khan · 1 Jul 2006 at 12:30

I have now reattatched the lower torso to the upper torso. The initial plan was to use alluminium strips and epoxy glue. But after the first attempt wit the glue collapsed as soon as I removed the clamps, I deceided I needed something stronger, so I went out and bought a riveter. I love rivets! The structure is now rock solid and was really easy to do.

The next step was making some small 'platforms' to mount the motherboard tray on. For this I used epoxy putty. This stuff is great, its easy to mix and takes only 10 minutes to set rock solid. I needed these platforms, as nothing in this 'case' is at rightangles or flat.

Messiah Khan · 1 Jul 2006 at 12:31

Once the motherboard platforms were set, I cut the motherboard tray out of a sheet of steel. I did consider using a sheet of alluminium, but this turned out to be too flexible. Ive now drilled holes in the corners of the mobo tray to mount it to the case. I still have to drill holes to fit the standoffs into. I can't get hold of the correct tap for the thread used, so im probably going to have to use a nut on the other side to hold the standoffs instead. Im also going to rivet some aluminium angle section on the back of the mobo tray to give it some more rigidity.

And here's a final picture for now, showing what the thing looks like with the chest plate in place. The chest plate is going to be hinged from the top, with a magnetic clasp holding it shut at the bottom.

Messiah Khan · 1 Jul 2006 at 22:43

Thanks for the comments guys.

Herminator said:
I like the idea of the chest hinging upwards but how about using a piston thing from a car boot to lift it up, and use a one of those door latches you push to release then push again and it latches on. That way you can push her chest and it will lift up of it's own.
You could even rig up a fridge like switch to turn on a light in the chest cavity when you open it up.

I had actually considered the piston idea. I have no idea where to get a suitable piston or how to mount it though. I like the 'fridge light' idea, thanks for that. I might end up using that.