A Lego cased A7000
Introduction
Combining two of my hobbies (geeky hardware and Lego) and inspired by many of the other Lego case projects that I'd seen on the web I decided to jump on the bandwagon.
My choice of using an Acorn A7000 as a base machine was based on its very small (comparatively to the rest of the Acorn range) motherboard, its use of standard PC peripherals and the fact that they can be picked up for next to nothing on ebay. This A7000 came from a set of three 'spares or repair' machines that all worked apart from dead hard drives.
Building
First I dismantled the A7000 and cleaned the parts using a vacuum cleaner. Almost all of the A7000 parts were kept for this project, the only major component I missed out was the CDROM drive. To try and keep the footprint of the machine to a minimum I rotated the power supply through 90 degrees and mounted it horizontally above the motherboard, this made things quite tricky as all the motherboard connectors are now under the power supply.
This Lego case measures 32 by 40 studs and uses nearly my entire supply of blue bricks. The only non-Lego or non-Acorn items in the case are 4 blobs of blu-tac that hold the speaker and LEDs against the front of the case.
Hardware Specification
| Acorn A7000 | |
|---|---|
| CPU | ARM 7500 32Mhz |
| OS | RISC OS 3.60 |
| Memory | 4MB onboard |
| Hard Disk | 500MB Conner |
Future Improvements?
I may need to add space on the back wall to allow a network card to be added. I also have a large Lego grille plate that will make an ideal fan cover. The front panel could use a revamp including replacing the front plate of the floppy drive with something made from Lego.
Photos
A view of the front of the case. There are two transparent pieces on the right side that allow the light from the power and hard drive LEDs to show through.
A view of the front, showing the 'hardware' volume control on the speaker set to full volume.
A view of the back, showing the power supply that has been rotated through 90 degrees compared to a normal A7000. Also note the fan pieces on the side that line up with the ventilation grille on the power supply.
Yes there is an A7000 under that. The power supply and drives are suspended above the motherboard by cradles that link into the side of the case.
A very poor photo of the machine running.
No Lego men were (seriously) injured in the making of this case.
The 4th Battalion Blacktron Irish Dance team use the case as a practice area.
