Mini Lunch-ITX Project

I went shopping at Walmart
with my tape measure in-hand
to try to find something that
would be the perfect fit for my new
CL6000E Mini-ITX mainboard.
I found these 7"x 9" lunchboxes
in several different colors. Cool!
I had already experimented with
a cookie/biscuit tin,
but it seemed too large,
and the lid kept falling off.

The board fits perfectly
with the connectors toward
the bottom of the lunchbox.
There is enough space
on the sides for wiring or
even a Compact Flash adapter
if had wanted one.
I put a piece of a mouse pad
under the mainboard to insulate
the circuit, and quiet the system.

I had gotten a good deal
on a Flex-ATX 150 watt power
supply,so that's what I wanted
to use. It has a 5 volt
fan,so it's not too noisy,
and the box needs to be
ventilated anyway because
it does generate some heat.

I made paper templates
for the holes and panels
that I drilled and cut.

I learned from practicing on the
cookie tin that I couldn't do it
by line-of-site. I'm also not sure
that the rotary tool is the best
tool for the job.
When I made radio chassis' as a teenager
I use an angled cutting tool called
a "nibbler" that made nice, clean holes.

I wanted to run it entirely from a pendrive, and that is working beautifully.
It doesn't need a power switch because I use it on a short power strip that has
a switch, and it turns on when it gets power. It turns off in software just fine.
I tried Puppy Linux, and Damn Small Linux. Both worked well,
but I like Damn Small Linux better because it booted up much faster,
and was lighter on the pendrive and RAM.

I learned a lot about chassis layout from this project.
As a result I felt I needed to make some improvements.
Here is a link to my second try.
It's much better, I think. Let me know what you think!

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