Help
First of all, i would like to mention that it is a honour to me, to be able to post my project here. I believe that this will be one of my firsts posts in here.
To begin with, i believe that it is fair enough to say a little bit about me, who i am and what i do, then i will tell you all about the project and so on.
My name is Denis Hildebrand, i was born in Brazil 1984. I came to UK in 2004 to do a volunteer work with special needs in a small community in Carmarthenshire (Wales). I had recently left high school and i was really puzzled on what to do next, so i though that going abroad for a year would help my head organise the thoughts. I stayed in Wales for almost for more then 12 months because i really liked the job and the people who around me. After that i had to go back home as my VISA expired and the home office does not give you more then 14 days to leave the country :eyes:
When back @ home i was still puzzled and still did not know what to study. So i decided to come back to UK, but to Aberdeen in Scotland, where this community movement (CAMPHILL) started back in 1939, in Scotland by Dr. Karl Koenig. I wanted to go to Aberdeen, because i apart of been a volunteer, i could also study B.A. in Curative Education which is a course provided by the University of Aberdeen. I always knew i liked crafts a lot, so i thought i go take the B.A.C.E. course and i could specialise in crafts, so i could be a craft teacher for special need children. During my volunteering in Wales, i done lots of crafts like woodwork, and mainly green woodwork which i taught the children. I really like to be involved in crafts, and for me there is no better feeling then being busy building something with my own hands.
I have been here in Aberdeen since january 2006, doing my volunteer work and studying at the same time. Not easy when i have to work everyday from 7am to 9pm with only saturdays off. Apart of working with very challenging children throughout the whole day, i spend most of my "free-time" (I have no free-time :duh doing lots of other things, like airbrushing skateboards to soldering stuff onto my xbox for example.
Since a year ago i have been quite unhappy with myself and with my own life, and i did not know why. After several talks with my personal tutor, i decided that i want to study industrial design and that i will leave UK in july 2009. After taking this decision my life change from water to wine, everything started to make more sense.
I love designing things on photoshop and recently i have been having a go on sketchup. I have never studied or been taught anything related to computers, i have always used my own interest and motivation in the subject to learn it myself. Goodness, if i really think deep about everything i learned by myself i would have to make a huge list, nevermind. My point is that Internet can be an mazing tool, if you know how to use it. Actually HOW TO is very often typed on my google search
The amount of information you can learn is endless, and i do spend a lot of hours reading project logs, latest hardware and technology reviews, and so on. I really like to be able to be a free student, so i can research about what i am interested or what i need to learn. Recently i have been very busy reading about electronics, how they work, what is what, how to wire leds, in parallel or in series for example.
Now that you all know a little more about me, time to move on to the project log. :stickpoke
End of 2008 i came across a mod made by thexboxexpert and i was fascinated on how this guy managed to watercool the xbox 100% internally, and as all 360's are so hot, i though ...i am going to do that on my xbox as well. Since i had just build my watercooled pc i though that watercooling the xbox would be quite nice. However i wanted to make a complete internal watercooling as it looks much nicer then having an external kit.
After endless searches about xbox modding, in the search for that small rad which i could find nowhere, i decided to talk straight to the source, and i contacted GlobalWin via emails so i could get hold of this radiator. Yes i got two of them!!!!!
Well...having the radiators does not solve the problem itself, i still had to do a lot, i mean really a lot of reading on watercooled 360's, until the day i though:
"Why not make a mod for modders?"
I really don't like the Lian-li replacement case, and it is very ugly and expensive, sorry i think i just hate it a lot. So i thought again:
"I can make a much better case for less the this ugly replacement thingy"
Then i downloaded sketchup and started to try to build something, but as i never got told how to use it, it was not really working, so off i go to google: How to .... / youtube can be handy sometimes too, the problem is that there is too much none-sense in youtube, but still helpful.
Since beginning of April i started to sketch the xbox mobo from scratch, i really sweated a lot, hard work when you are not 100% aware of all features of the program. Takes days to make something that can be made in 5 min. After making the mobo i started the case but then i realised it was all wrong, it was all in inches and i was taking notes in millimetres, you see what happens if not careful
After being so mad with myself i deleted the .skp file and started from scratch again, but different and better, as i got a brand new digital calliper which costed me almost all my pocket money. Yes pocket money, as i said before i am a volunteer and i get pocket money every month, yes i know it sucks but there is nothing i can do, i am always happy when my 160 comes in the beginning of the month :clap:. So with this brand new calliper which enables me to measure stuff with only 0.01mm error and sketchup set for mm instead of inches i started everything from zero.
I have been in holidays since the 3rd of april and i have slept very little since then. There has been several day which i went throughout the night in sketchup until 3pm no stop. I have done this 4 times already, working on the project with all my love, and when the children are back i will not have the time to finish that, so i have to get this design finish soon so i can go to BUILDING TIME!!! :coffee: can't wait!
I actually wanted to have started this log long ago, but i have been really busy and now things are only beginning to get even more busy, as i have to contact manufactures for sponsorships and partnerships. Can you help?
The 3D design is almost complete, at the moment i am trying to see how the water loop will fit best in the space, and one of my bad points is that i have to have everything perfect, so every single detail needs to be PERFECT. I suffer a lot from trying to do everything perfect, but at least the project is coming out nicey!!!!!!!!!
I did not want to publish any images for now but this whole post would not make much of a sense without some pics, so here are some screenshots of the the case design.
FOR THE WIN:
Hope you all enjoy, happy modding!
Denis Hildebrand - Bringing your xbox back to life!
Sponsors:
Big thanks to Andreas Karner and everyone from Coolink for supplying a set of fans 80x80x10mm from the GFX Chilla kit
This post has been edited by denis6902: 15 May 2009 - 04:53 PM
