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Build Images

Build log in pictures and prose. Click each picture to see the caption about what’s going on. The far right and left of each image in the popup will move to the next or previous image, respectively.

  • The very first version - just a cheap, old Linux box and six VMs running on it. The large screens are terminals open to the different boxes while the far left screen of the laptop are VNC sessions open to all six consoles of the running VMs.
  • This was the initial poke at the relayinator. The bottom row of barrel connectors are wired to a few ATX extension connectors. This would need to be revisited later to just hardwire power all the time.
  • In progress view of the relayinator with about half of the relay terminals soldered.
  • The (first version) of the relayinator is finished! This version would control whether power was available on the barrel connectors.
  • Printing the large base of the relayinator cover. For production mode, the infill was cranked up pretty high to keep the parts strong and relatively rigid.
  • A sketchup view of the relayinator model showing the first version with only one row of barrel connectors.
  • Test fitting the relayinator to real power provided by the ATX PSU. Notice the Mini USB connector attached to the off-screen PC. This was during testing of the firmware for relayinator to confirm that individual relays were toggleable.
  • There's always so much junk left after stripping wires and soldering! In the far background of the image you can see the custom circuit board attempted for the relayinator screen and USB holder. For some reason or another, it didn't work, so I cut my losses and moved on.
  • A freshly finished print of a computer holster with screen. Using tree supports really reduced the amount of wasted material on the print... even though it looked kind of gnarly.
  • In Sketchup, designing the holster with screen.
  • Piling them up. Here are all six... with an extra one or two to be sure!
  • Ripping all those supports off sure does leave a bunch of waste material! Six holster's worth of supports right into the trashcan.
  • With the holsters printed up and the power supply in hand, it's time to start bench fitting the parts to see how much space we actually have to work with. Notice the cardboard cutouts used as placeholders - whatever works works!
  • With the holsters printed up and the power supply in hand, it's time to start bench fitting the parts to see how much space we actually have to work with. Notice the cardboard cutouts used as placeholders - whatever works works!
  • We have the relayinator and the ATX power supply all set, so it's time to start designing the power wire cover.
  • LOOK AT THAT BRIDGE! This is a prototype of the switch mount, printed without support because I didn't plan to let it finish. This test print was to confirm height/width and power wire placement only.
  • More parts in hand and more models done, so it's time for another test fit. This time the LCD touch screens and the power wire cover (with awesome voltmeters) are added to the mix. Notice the status messages scrolling on the relayinator at bottom center. Looking good!
  • Enough test fitting - time to cut a real board and start getting it ready. This is cabinet grade plywood that was hanging out in inventory. This picture was taken just after the board was stained with True Black from Minwax but before tossing on two layers of poly for protection. Looks AWESOME!
  • Now that the board is in hand and cut to size, it's time to start designing and printing up some feet for the board.
  • In-flight test fitting and drilling of the printed holsters. Using painter's tape during assembly and drilling reduces the amount of splintering on the surface of the wood. No making fun of using a random tile piece for a straight edge!
  • More test fitting and drilling out of the way. Notice in this picture and the previous picture the spacer blocks I printed up to keep the holsters a consistent distence apart.
  • As I worked, the boxes of parts and pieces just kept piling up. This is a nice, long workbench... but is totally covered with stuff for this project and I've just about run out of room. Maybe it's time for spring cleaning?
  • Tutorial - How to solder on a remote power button relay - first remove the rubber feet and unscrew the hidden screws beneath.
  • Tutorial - How to solder on a remote power button relay - inside you will find three screws holding the motherboard to the plastic case. The first two are obvious (you can see them immediately in the above image) while the third is hidden beneath an antistatic plastic piece under the SSD.
  • Tutorial - How to solder on a remote power button relay - the bottom view of the motherboard. Looking at this picture, the two pins to bridge to simulate a button press are in the bottom right corner.
  • Tutorial - How to solder on a remote power button relay - with the weight of a wire stripper or something and a small bend in the wire, this picture shows how to position the wire that will be connected to a relay to simulate a button press.
  • Tutorial - How to solder on a remote power button relay - add a little heat and a small dab of solder and now the pins and wire are one. It's not the most beautiful of work, but it gets the job done! Be careful not to overdo the solder application!
  • Tutorial - How to solder on a remote power button relay - six worker nodes, all done. Routing the wire out of the case turned out to be easy... just use the hole cut out for the VGA port!
  • Finally - all of the holsters are printed and fitted. This is the last picture taken down on the workbench before final assembly started. The new two-row relayinator is in place.
  • Final fitment of all holsters with cable combs - glamor shot!
  • Final fitment of all holsters with cable combs - glamor shot!
  • Final fitment of all holsters with cable combs - glamor shot!
  • Final fitment of all holsters with cable combs - glamor shot!
  • Final fitment of all holsters with cable combs - glamor shot!
  • Final fitment of all holsters with cable combs - glamor shot!
  • Final fitment of all holsters with cable combs - glamor shot!
  • Final fitment of all holsters with cable combs - glamor shot!
  • Final fitment of all holsters with cable combs - glamor shot!
  • Final assmebly has begun! Start by running all of the relay-controlled power button wires since they are the smallest and sit the lowest in the cable comb.
  • Another shot of the final assembly beginning. Notice how much space is avaialble in the upper left corner of the board. It's deceptive! After including the USB to TTL adapter and USB-C to 5.5x2.1mm barrel adapter, there isn't all that much space left over!
  • In final assembly mode, the amount of parts, tools, and hardware sitting around to get the job done right seems to really increase. Here are various tools needed to get the job done The Right Way. Some key tools in the picture are the soldering iron, soldering iron hot tips for brass gromets, scissors for cutting velcro bands, velcro bands themselves, flush-cut snips, automatic wire strippers, spacing blocks for fitment, needle nose pliers for reaching into tight spaces, drill bits, and of course some soldering iron cleaning copper for all the junk that gets on the tip.
  • Final assembly? Maybe not. Power on tests showed several devices were getting intermittent power. This meant it was time to break out the soldering iron and multimeter to figure out what was busted. Spoiler alert... it was the cheapo barrel connectors.
  • After some disassembly and troubleshooting, all devices are now getting power consistently. The problem turned out to be strain put on those cheap barrel connectors weakinging the joint. In this image you can see how the relayinator had to be mostly disassembled as well as the leads going into it. At this point, I still have yet to test the top row of the relayinator making simulated power button presses through those cheapo barrel connectors. Fingers crossed!
  • Everything has power and is booting up! These cheap mini PCs came preloaded with Windows 11. Five machines booted to Windows 11 final setup init screens while one booted into some kind of "demo mode" for initial install. No matter - they'll all be wiped before ever getting on a network!
  • This is a better shot of the power feed going to the screens. The screens are all fed from a single power feed from relayinator. This is to make it easy to power the screens off/on through software.
  • More post-wiring havoc. Most of the sheaths seen in the photo came from Cat6 cable used to provide network to all the devces. After each major milestone I airdust and brush off the workbench. Give it a few more hours of work and it's right back to looking like this.
  • The models all had great fitment while testing things out at my desk but sometimes reality jumps in and surprises ya! When test fitting the 180* HDMI adapter on the larger screens, it looped so far under the display that it was hitting the support leg. No problem - just outline the area to be removed with a pencil and take Mr. Dremel to it. A word of warning - rotary tools grinding on PLA 3D prints usually means the material is going to melt due to the friction. That can be managed, but go slow!
  • We are getting so close. The network is now wired up and nestled in the cable looms. I seriously underestimated how many wires there would be in this lab!
  • This is the main raceway of all the wires including power, network, relays, and even a USB cable to feed the screen atop the switch. So. Many. Wires.
  • Speaking of wires... look at all this junk going to each device! 7 total connection points coming, going, or between the computer and the screen.
  • Cable management is a thing. A not very fun thing. Lots of wires and lots of trying to route them/tie them off cleanly
  • It's all put together now! Glamor shot!
  • It's all put together now! Glamor shot!
  • Closer look at the PSU and top/bottom touch screens. Notice the voltmeters on the 12v and 5v rails to be sure that we don't run low on power for the nodes (which would be almost impossible for a beefy power supply like this one!)
  • A running lab with six bare metal Talos nodes after cluster formation.
  • Another image of the running lab with six baremetal nodes.
  • Cheeky boot messages coming from the Statusinator. It spins on some random messages like this until Labwatch comes up.
  • These are the same cheeky boot messages that Statusinator delivers, but instead on the Relayinator screen during boot up. After boot up, Labwatch will actively monitor the ports for up/down.
  • Closer look at the PSU. Notice the voltmeters on the 12v and 5v rails to be sure that we don't run low on power for the nodes (which would be almost impossible for a beefy power supply like this one!)
  • Overview shot
  • Side shot of Boss (on the right) and Wally (on the left behind the USB hub) hidden under the two touch screens. The wire management under these screens is crazy!
  • Side shot of Wally (on the right under the screen) and Node1. Notice the available WAN port for Wally - if you want to get into labinator remotely, plug it into a DHCP-ready network and you're good to go!
  • More top-side shots of the nodes and cable management needed to go to each. Each node has three wires coming to it: network, power for the node, power for the monitor, and a relay-activated switch to turn the node on or off.
  • A better view of the port-side of the lab nodes. The HDMI connection snakes under the monitor because the wire is a little long. The power is converted from 5.5mm barrel connector to microUSB via an adapter as well.
  • A look down the main cable raceway including ethernet, device power, monitor power, and switched power buttons.
  • A higher view of the main cable raceway and running labs as hypervisors are booting.
  • A quick look at Statusinator (right) and Relayinator (left). Notice how Statusinator is sharing tidbits about the various stuff going on including log levels.
  • A direct view of the main cable raceway showing the monitor power coming from a singular 5v drop, the relay-switched power buttons, the power drop coming from the bottom row of Relayinator, and cat6 cables sitting atop all of it on the way to the switch.
  • The cable raceway sure gets much cleaner after all the wires veer off to go to the lab nodes. This view shows that only a handful of wires need to make it to Boss and Wally (plus a USB cable from Boss to Relayinator and Statusinator to control them).
  • Another overall view showing the bootup of hypervisors.
  • The original design called for switching all of the monitors off at once, so I put all of the lab machine monitors on a single power drop meant for port 8 of Relayinator. I ran out of time before adjusting the wiring to make the monitor power controlled by that port, but the guts are all there.
  • A closer view of Statusinator showing stats for power, network requests, nodes running, etc. The running lab and the current step are displayed along the LAB line.
  • While Statusinator provides high level stats, the same information is presented via a status page (available at any time under the Observe menu item).
  • A glamor shot of a completed initialization of the two VM lab with six running hypervisors and twelve VMs atop. Notice the done state on the right side of the LAB line.
  • The backside of Labinator showing the hidden screw points and fasteners that attach each piece of gear to the board.
  • With the added supports, Labinator can also stand up and show off its goodness.
  • Labinator has finally graduated from the workshop bench to my proper desktop. It was a long, frustrating, but educational journey to get here! Now to take the show on the road!