09.14.06

The rattan computer

Posted in diy, hardware at 1:33 pm by brainstorm

First of all: What is rattan ?

Rattan, called “mimbre” in spanish, is a commonly used material to construct hampers and furniture.

Wasn’t this blog about tech ?

Yep, that’s it’s main theme and I’m not a furniture expert, so why not add a computer to the mix ? Here you are:

All the components are holding by transparent nylon fishing wire. That way the visual impact of the hack is minimum It was not easy to fit all the stuff in such a limited space. For instance, the PSU had to be unmounted outside the furniture, put the parts inside, and mounted again like a ship in a bottle :-P.

The hardware specs are quite minimum: PII 233 with 256 MB RAM, 10GB HDD, a couple of wireless network adapters (one PCI Atheros-based wifi card and the other one is a Senao 200mW PCMCIA card on a PLX PCI adapter). Finally there is also an ethernet card connected to an ATA which is in turn connected to a cheap DECT phone. Now I’m using this computer as a free hotspot+PBX, and it’s working quite good ATM

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