Hi, Thought I’d introduce my latest build.
Been thinking about this for a while, had parts to use up,
Scope, to convert a Tonka/Kenner Millennium Falcon to a Retro Windows 98SE PC
I wanted to achieve this sympathetically to the falcon, with minimal adaptions to the exterior, also with minimal cables. Did it with 2, power and monitor. I’ve seen some “messy” attempts on the web, I will try to do better.
My start is the 1995 model Tonka POTF, bought from a certain online auction, mostly complete (Think I'd get lynched if used an original 1970's version).
The board used was a Wyse VX0L board with the 16mb 7000 ATI Graphics module, this did away with trying to house a PSU internally, the board is essentially a Via ITX Motherboard.
Dismantling was easy, just unscrewed the 2 halves, removing the card interior wall, cut away some of the interior plastic work, and relocate the speaker, used some hd rubber foam blocks cut and inserted in the rear landing gear housings to stop the extra weight collapsing the landing gear.
The motherboard fitted neatly between the “landing gear” housings.
Used some aluminium angle to fabricate brackets to mount the motherboard to the main shell, chose to screw them to the rear landing gear housings, and epoxy the “front Bracket” to the lower shell and glued the front landing gear to the bracket (Don’t want it moving).
Installed a battery eliminator to the battery box, so I could use the USB to power the sounds and lights.
Removed the cockpit bulkhead and glass, and installed a small fan (probably not needed but didn’t want to chance it over heating) Fitted the power and HD Leds(3mm) to the cockpit “cup holders” (Nice idea to have cup holders),
Used a USB powered A2DP adaptor to give me Bluetooth sound not otherwise available on Windows 98se (One cable less).
Needed an accessible power switch, so tried to hide in in the exterior design, fitting a small circuit board, side cut away to allow the switch to protrude,
Fitted a power socket to one of the "refueling points" on the underside then connected the fan and motherboard power cables,
Quick tidy of the cables, fitted a CF card adaptor, fitted a wireless keyboard and bouse adaptor, (another 2 more cables saved) nusb36 Windows 98 USB stack supports a wide range of Keyboards etc. then had to cut access for the video cable (Unavoidable just had to keep it tidy)
Reassemble the main shell, I already had the OS setup for this board.
Laser cannons need to be modified and reattached. Used blue reflective tape for the engine exhausts (Looks cool with the right lighting).
everything works (Wahey!!)
This all took me several weeks, when I had some spare time.