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Installing the computer in the case

The computer is now ready to be inserted into the case. The easiest way to do this is to first unscrew the metal plate at the back of the case (two screws, facing the outside of the case, are removed) which has the slots for the boards (otherwise it is very difficult to get the boards in), take it out, put it on back of the board stack, and then insert the entire stack in. The plate is then screwed back on. The board stack may be held in place by using other screws to screw into the nylon standoffs (or two more standoffs themselves may be used as screws).

The rig is now (as depicted in Fig 9) ready for

  figure609
Figure 9: Connect hard drive cable to hard drive on bottom of case, connect other end in board stack (to CoreModule), and insert the board stack into the enclosure. Plug in the power connector. You are now ready to connect the serial cables, parallel cable, keyboard, speaker, etc..

attachement of the rest of the connectors, speaker, power indicator LED, etc., and then put the front plate on. Shorten serial and parallel cables when possible.

The beeping speaker is annoying to others (e.g. in meetings, etc.), so consider using an earphone jack instead. Alternatively, I use a step-up transformer (e.g. to generate a mild electric shock to enable me to ``feel'' the beep), or a vibrotactile device. This ``telelectric'' principle, something I first explored around 1974-1975, has found uses in a variety of different ways beyond just indicating the presence of a beep. Some of these are described in http://genesis.eecg.toronto.edu/isea_abstract.html and some of my recent performances (such as ``painful disconnect'' and ``Live'' have raised some controversy regarding the use of these output modalities. You may want to experiment with multiple such devices instead of just one for the error condition. (For example, ``painful disconnect'' indicates connectivity, so that one is aware of this, as well as damage to components, such as the antenna which then becomes a ``feeler'' so that one feels pain if it is squished, as though it were part of the body.)


next up previous
Next: Case closed! Up: Specific details about how Previous: Assembling the computer

Steve Mann
Wed Dec 24 05:46:06 EST 1997