Project:- Liquid Skeleton

Cheers Guys

Always admired your work, so praise from you both is praise indeed.

I agree re the coolant, having seen the water in it for leak testing I quite like the look of it as is anyway, that balanced with all the concerns re gunking up have pretty much swayed me to keep with water. I have deionised in it at present for leak testing but will replace with distilled as soon as I can find a place that sells it for less than the price of the equivalent amount of 15 year old single malt whisky

All that aside I actually have a more pressing problem in that 2 hours into leak testing the pump has failed. It's just stopped working!!! i've tried a different powersupply, infact bought a new bench power supply but no joy.

I wouldn't have thought there was much inside to go wrong but this one seems to have.
 
The Laing DDC can be problematic if there is even a small leak when you put the custom top on because there are two breather holes that let the moisture down onto the PCB and short it out.

Check the pcb on the pump carefully for any burn/short marks. It might be that or it was just faulty.
 
Are you sure it has failed? Might just be the impellor is stuck. Only way to solve it I'm afraid is to take the pump apart (easy job but means draining). Remove the magnetic impeller, give the whole thing a wipe down and rinse with water (including the holder).

Iirc there were a few dodgy batches of the DDC pumps flying around that needed a little 'knock' to get them going.
 
Thing is with a pump this popular you do get the odd problem and it gets blown out of proportion on t'internet :P

That being said nothing more annoying than a failed component in your build esp one as important as the pump!
 
Cheers for the support guys. i drained down this afternoon. It was actually quite easy as it wasn't in the case, although I have resolved that when I re-assemble to put a drain T piece in to make even easier. The Impeller seemed ok but a little stiff, I should add I have no idea how freely it should rotate. If I tried to spin it like a conventional fan there was a fair bit of magnetic resistance and it would stop as soon as removed the force from my hand. Don't know if this is how it should be.

there did appear to be a little marking on the PCB around the solder of the power and sensing terminals but this could have been at manufacture i guess.

having informed the retailer I got it from it is now on it's way back with the promise of a replacement on it's way back to me by return of post. No argument no quible just a "very sorry and send it back and we'll sort it for you" I can't mention the place as I'm sure you'll understand but I have been delighted with the service I have experienced.

The whole thing is a learning experience for me, Ok it's a bit frustrating but I've learned a few things I wouldn't have if things had gone smoothly.

On the plus side NO LEAKS!!!!

EDIT

Just realised I've passed the 1000 posts mark. I've been watching that counter creep up for ages and wanted to do a big "Ta Dah" at 1000 but went and missed it

Not having a good week
 
Many apologies for severe lack of updates over the last week or so, i've been off on my hols.

The water pump has been tested by the retailer (no lengthy RTM process which was great). it appears the pump is actually fine as it has been run in another loop for over 40 hours with no problem, so problem must be at this end. All I can think is that the PSUs i've been using, which are the multi voltage sort you can get from a retail park shop that can't be mentioned must be at fault. Certainly I suspected this when the pump first failed but thought simple enough to solve so bought another as it had actually powered the loop for a few hours. The second one when attached would not power the pump at all so it was that which led me to think the pump must have failed.

Meanwhile a few pics of the leak testing before it was cut short. You can actually see the vortex currents in the res!!

20100915_033.jpg



20100915_031.jpg



20100915_026.jpg



20100915_028.jpg



On the plus side, having to drain down taught me a valuable lesson in that I really do need to put a drain T piece in. It wasn't actually that hard to drain down, but could have been much easier, and will certainly be nowhere near as easy or "relaxed" once it's all installed
 
Got the pump back yesterday afternoon and fitted the loop back together yesterday and all appears to be sorted. looks like I actually had a power supply problem, or something related to that end as the pump performed fine when it went back to the shop and is now back with me.

I have to say the service I have received from the retailer I bought it from has been absolutely fantastic.

This time round i've used a molex from an old PC I have to power the pump so as to totally rule out any PSU issues.

Everything is now all plumbed back together and leak testing "take II" has commenced.

So far so good, and only a few thousand micro bubbles to get rid of

20100926_001.jpg



20100926_006.jpg



20100926_002.jpg
 
Last edited:
I hate leak testing. But after dumping half a loop of distilled over my 4 GTX470s and 1500W PSU recently I've gone back to being less cocky about it :eek:
 
Yeah it all survived, it was leaking out of the multi gpu bridge that I managed to fit upside down :DOH:

Lots of kitchen roll and a few days of drying out in the airing cupboard and it all booted.

Luckily there was no power running through the motherboard or GPU's, I had at least had enough brains to remember to unplug everything before starting the test. The PSU was what I was worried about most but seems fine.
 
that happend with my dads pc it all leaked over the mobo and gpu was just a little leak and went of for week only realised because the gpu was gettin a few errors every now and then lol lucky he checked it and works fine still to this day just looks a bit greener now lol :D
 
You can pretty much do what you like with a computer when it is powered off and away from static. You could chuck it in the bath, but as long as it has no electricity or static going through it, it is impossible to damage it!
 
Straz said:
Love this build, well done - loving the industrial look to it
Click to expand...

Cheers Straz

Been really busy at work this last week so not much time to play, which means not much activity on the build.

Still, it's meant to be peeing it down all weekend so won't have to be outside mowing lawn etc and as a result can crack on with the Skelly.

still have drain leg to put in, but waiting for parts. meantime a bit of wiring and braiding of fans and control wires etc. Might even mod up a switch box fan controller.
 
Last edited:
Unfortunately nice weather here today so spent a bit of time repairing the roof on the workshop as it was leaking quite a bit.

Also started work on making a box for the Zalman fan controller i will be using.

I plan to use it not only for the rad fans, but also the 3 other fans on the Skeleton build which are currently independently controlled.

Why make a box? Well the skelly only has 2 bays and they're both full, but also, it's in keeping with the modular theme of this project.

I've done a ROM drive mod like this a few times so hopefully this one should go smoothly

First off, get a real cheap old or dead ROM drive and take it apart (takes about 45 seconds once you've done a few.

20101002_002.jpg


20101002_003.jpg


The Zalman ZM-MFC1 plus. it's cheap, simple and good looking (bit like the wife)

20101002_004.jpg


20101002_005.jpg



Unscrew and remove the side tabs. The tabs are designed to fit directly into a drive bay so by definition will not fit inside a ROM drive case as this also is designed to fit into a drive bay.

20101002_009.jpg


This flap will need to be ground off

20101002_010.jpg



I'm planning to have the controller as a stand alone box on small feet (like a mini HiFi separate). Thinking of all black, but do you guys think a bit of yellow in there will work or not???
 
An external fan controller.....now where have I seen that before?

If it's external to your rig then I'd say it needs to be plain so as not to take attention away from the Skelly.
 
Tealc said:
An external fan controller.....now where have I seen that before?

If it's external to your rig then I'd say it needs to be plain so as not to take attention away from the Skelly.
Click to expand...

Not with you matey re seeing it before, think i must be being dim.

Done the dvd drive mod before though as you know if that's what you mean.

Agree re the plain thing though. think I'll go all matt black on this
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom