Server Cupboard Ventilation

On last week’s episode, we had finally found a way to glue and screw a frame together from the fans and perspex windows.

ck frame surrounds a plastic window. At the top of the window four red LED fans are glowing to blow warm air out, at the bottom of the window four blue fans suck air in.
A black frame surrounds a plastic window. At the top of the window four red LED fans are glowing to blow warm air out, at the bottom of the window four blue fans suck air in.

Having built the window it’s time to cut a hole. You start with a template.

A cupboard with a cardboard frame sellotaped to it.
A cupboard with a cardboard frame sellotaped to it

And then you drill a small hole. But find the drill’s battery is flat so you can’t use it. So you waste an hour waiting for the battery to charge and then drill a hole.

A hole is drilled inside the corner of the frame.
A hole is drilled inside the corner of the frame.

People don’t buy jigsaws, they buy 70cm square holes.

I wonder if I will ever need a jigsaw again. Still. New quest item in the inventory.

Don’t worry, I only came within millimeters of jigsawing through a mains cable to death once.

There is now a roughly square hole in the side of the cupboard. There is sawdust everywhere.
There is now a roughly square hole in the side of the cupboard. There is sawdust everywhere.

It fits.

There is a pane inside the square hole. It has four fans at the top, four at the bottom, and a perspex area in-between. There's a shoddy black frame badly glued around the thing to make it into a kind of window.
There is a pane inside the square hole. It has four fans at the top, four at the bottom, and a perspex area in-between. There’s a shoddy black frame badly glued around the thing to make it into a kind of window

Well sort of

A close-up of the gaps, which has much unevenness. Big holes. Nothing is really a straight line.
A close-up of the gaps, which has much unevenness. Big holes. Nothing is really a straight line.

And the fans and the lights work! They are pretty.

The top row of fans is lit up red, and the bottom row of fans is lit up blue. It illuminates the inside of the cupboard which is all wires and dust.
The top row of fans is lit up red, and the bottom row of fans is lit up blue. It illuminates the inside of the cupboard which is all wires and dust.

Here’s a close-up of the server added back in

Inside the perspex window you can see the window into the inside the the computer case.

A glowing led strip is draped around the motherboard inside the tower. You can see the graphics card "RTX 2020" and the circuits and wires and also more fans lit up red and blue on the top and sides of the case.
Inside the perspex window you can see the window into the inside the the computer case. A glowing led strip is draped around the motherboard inside the tower. You can see the graphics card \”RTX 2020\” and the circuits and wires and also more fans lit up red and blue on the top and sides of the case.

Zoom Out

The fans surround the box viewed inside the cupboard. The whole thing is glowing in many bright colours.
The fans surround the box viewed inside the cupboard. The whole thing is glowing in many bright colours.

Zoom Out

The cupboard is under a desk with keyboard and mouse and ridiculous snakes of cables.
The cupboard is under a desk with keyboard and mouse and ridiculous snakes of cables.
Under the monitor between the screen and the keyboard is a baby-laptop, screen showing a tunnel of yellow light. The main monitor shows the first few frames of my latest film.

Above the monitor, on a mirror box, in front of a double-mirrored corner, sits the raspbery-pi  controling the lava lamps and plasma ball and more led strip lights.

There's a microphone on an angle-poise and also a magnifiying glass on another.
Under the monitor between the screen and the keyboard is a baby-laptop, it’s screen showing a tunnel of yellow light. The main monitor shows the first few frames of my latest film. Above the monitor, on a mirror box, in front of a double-mirrored corner, sits the Raspbery-pi controlling the lava lamps and plasma ball and more led strip lights. There’s a microphone on an angle-poise and also a magnifying glass on another.

Zoom out

To the right of the angle-poise, a monitor at standing height mirroring the content of the first. Another computer keyboard at standing height blelow that. There's another laptop on the shelf with the standing-monitor. A podcast is playing on it's screen.
To the right of the angle-poise, a monitor at standing height mirroring the content of the first. Another computer keyboard at standing height below that. There’s another laptop on the shelf with the standing-monitor. A podcast is playing on it’s screen.

Don’t forget the piano

Zoom out more to see a electronic piano. There's a also a printer. 

Three chests are on the floor below the sitting-desk-height shelf under the standing desk. They are close so we don't know which one is full of chocolate and crisps and which is full of old cables.
Zoom out more to see a electronic piano. There’s a also a printer. Three chests are on the floor below the sitting-desk-height shelf, under the standing desk. They are closed so we don’t know which one is full of chocolate and crisps and which is full of old cables.

I don’t think the glue/cement I got is going to be up to the job of sealing the frame into the hole. It’s not in danger of falling out right now but it might as the spring stretches the wood or whatever makes these things creak.

I guess some kind of window-putty is probably a thing. I can embed more LED strips in it to frame the window.

I have confirmed that a lower voltage will make the fans spin slower and less noisily so a variable-voltage power supply is in the list.

Doubt I’d get around to wiring the fans into individual switches.

Viewed from above at an angle, deep into the guts of the machine.
I think this is the best angle. You can see the lights reflected in each window in a faint infinite-mirror effect.