ATCS monitoring in a Box

    Here is how I made an ATCS Monitor setup that is designed to be un-appealing and less likely to be messed with by occupants of a remote site.  A casual look shows an old fashioned big tower computer that has little appeal to people looking for modern computers.   This seemingly obsolete tower computer is a really a disguise for what is inside:
 I started with a empty shell of an old PC from a trash bin.  It was an empty shell with a burned out power supply still inside.  I drilled some 1/4 inch holes and put some threaded bolts in.  The pattern of the bolts would form a structure that would hold the scanner and computer inside the box.  Click on the images to see bigger images.


Here is the inside view


Here is the inside view from above.


I sawed the exsiting computer power supply apart and saved the back metal plate with the opening for a fan and the standard looking 120v power connectors.  Here is what the "inside" of the remains of the mutilated power supply looks like.  I solderd a short 120v power plug to the inside of the thing.  This way I can connect devices inside the empty computer shell to power.


From the outside, the emains of the mutilated power supply looks like looks like this
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When the fake power supply is screwed back onto the computer case, the back panel looks normal.


The inside view with the fake power supply where it belongs.


Here is the scanner, a Pro2006 secured by the 1/4 inch bolts and aluminum plates inside the big old computer case.


I purchased a fan that fits into a computer case.  This fan runs on 120 volts.  Here it is, before being mounted.


Here is the fan, mounted in the corner space where the old power supply would  have lived.


I made another layer of framework with the bolts and aluminum plates, being careful to leave spacing for ventilation.  On this second framework layer, I mounted the Dell D630 laptop.  A Griffin iMic is stuffed in there as well.
    I like the Dell D630's.  They are fairly cheap on E-Bay, happily run WinXP, and most importanly, have a BIOS with an automatic power on feature.  With this feature, I have my remote ATCS Monitor computers fully shutdown daily, at about 4:25am using the Windows "shutdown.exe" command via task scheduler.  And then after a few minutes, I have the BIOS wake the computer up daily at 4:30am.  This way, the computer is gets refreshed everyday and the USB WiFi card gets a fresh start.  Sometime the USB WiFi stops working, and this nightly reboot process bring it back to life.


Here is a view of the finished project.   It looks like an old junky computer.  I made a hole in the back and lined it with a rubber grommet, and threaded the antenna cable through it.


Here is another view of the finished project.


And here is the device in action, on the 13th floor of my place of employment.  The place is a hot filthy room used for clothing donations.  The people who work there were kind enough to let me use the space.  The "computer + radio" is on the floor, the antenna is on the window sill.  The USB WiFi stick is also on the window sill.



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Basic instructions of setting up ATCS Monitoring