MiSTer FPGA Forum

I finally got this case finished off after waiting for various bits to arrive.
It's a SilverStone SST-PT13B Thin Mini-ITX case - about 4.3cm in height, a snug fit but I wanted something thin to fit under my TV.
I went for a mini ITX case as they already have hard drive mounts and front USB ports etc.
The back plate is a piece of plastic I cut from the bottom of an old keyboard that I drilled holes in for the ports.
I was planning to use a 3D printed part when I bought a printer, but it turned out better than I thought it would so I may leave it.

To help with space, I soldered the power, front USB ports & DE10 data cables directly to the USB Hub.
I also trimmed some strain relief from the cables and replaced the plastic Sata plug with tape so it would fit.
I replaced the front momentary power button with a latching SPDT switch, I'd originally tried to use the stock button using a few different devices with varying levels of success but ended up just replacing the button.
I prefer the look of this new one anyway, I wish I'd done that in the first place and saved some money.
Also, the hole is 16mm which is fairly standard and easy to find a drop in replacement without cutting.

The front power switch has a 12v LED which I'm running from the 5v/GND pins on the IO board, and the small red LED on the front is connected to the 3.3v/Disk pins with a resistor so it's not too bright.
It's held in place with gorilla/electrical tape as I had to remove the mounting when I replaced the power button.

There's probably enough space to add a VGA port/audio jack/SNAC/SD extension etc, but will think about that if I ever need them.
Same goes for the 3 buttons, I was going to add 3 tiny buttons to the side poking through the vents, but not really needed.

Veln wrote: ↑Sat Jan 23, 2021 4:43 pm Good job, very similar to what I've done, including drilling holes in to a piece of plastic for the rear ports until I get a 3D printer.

Your rear panel looks better than a 3D print would anyway! That's a sleek looking case, kudos.

p60091 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 17, 2020 8:13 pm Here's my stealthish MiSTer Famicom. Bought a broken Famicom a few years ago from Japan and originally wanted to throw a pi in there, but this is much better imho. I love the fact that the 8bitdo fc30 controllers fit directly in the side slots. It integrates a 4A psu, a 3 port usb hub and 2 controller dongles.

The one thing I wanted though was add a hardware reset switch without the IO board, but I don't understand electronics well enough to read the schematics. If anybody here knows of a way, please let me know.

Such a clean install! I'm working on an install inside an old Famicom as well. Planning on using the 8bitdo N30 mod boards in the original controllers so they can still slot in the sides. Can you share the parts list for what you used for this? Especially the rear panel, cartridge slot cover, and front expansion port USB bracket. Are these 3D printed parts? If so, can you share the STL files?

Sorry, no clever build for the MiSTer itself, just a 3d printed case. But a different setup. The Dell CRT is connected to a VGA/USB/audio switch that allows for both the MiSTer and a mini pc to be connected to it. This way I can enjoy ExoDOS, ExoWin, and other emulators on the CRT as well and can share the speakers, mouse and keyboard.

The TFT is connected via HDMI with a DVI adapter to the MiSTer only and used mainly for vertical orientation games that would be rather small on the CRT.

mapf wrote: ↑Thu Feb 04, 2021 12:21 pmThe TFT is connected via HDMI with a DVI adapter to the MiSTer only and used mainly for vertical orientation games that would be rather small on the CRT.

This is a GREAT idea!

I find myself having “vertical weeks” and “horizontal weeks”, moving the monitor in between. But this is cool. You’re ready for anything!

Here is mine, Mostly used for Arcade Games but I have recently made it easier to plug in usb gamepads for some good console gaming using the latest Xbox Controllers. I interface everything with an Ipac-2 and I am able to rotate the monitor either Vertically or Horizontally as needed. Got a little lazy with the labeled picture for the buttons, as you can see that "future button" did in fact get installed. That button provides player 2 with controls when playing Tetris, Joust, Wizard of Wor and Mario Brothers. Keeping an eye on the Mistercade project, once that comes out I plan on getting my mister setup using a CRT that can rotate and playing the arcade games on the screens they were designed for!!

First attempt at a custom case: I used an arduino nano mounted inside to display ambient temp:
Eventually because of shortcomings (like port access) I ditched it for a more basic setup: I'd like to do another custom case some day, just waiting for motivation

Because essential parts of MiSTer devoured all my spare money, I have decided to try to make a case from junk found around my basement. It should not be that hard, right? Wrong! I will never be a carpenter At least it keeps my cats from chewing cables and munching on unprotected PCBs.

It do look quite good in the last pic, even better if you take 1-2 steps back and take a slightly blurry picture

Enthropy wrote: ↑Mon Feb 08, 2021 7:54 pm Because essential parts of MiSTer devoured all my spare money, I have decided to try to make a case from junk found around my basement. It should not be that hard, right? Wrong! I will never be a carpenter At least it keeps my cats from chewing cables and munching on unprotected PCBs.

Baby steps. Remember, everyone starts somewhere. People that have worked with wood only make beautiful finished creative stuff after probably a decade of practice and 10,000 hours. Most carpenters are just following a design and doing the same thing over and over (a couple friends do carpentry professionally) or doing things that are just functional and not aesthetic.

Got a new case with a custom ioboard/usb combo from taobao (saw it on the Mister Facebook group). They have various colour variants and even an aluminum design.
Very nice and slim design. They replaced the vga port with a sega Saturn one. Which is okay. But I think I would prefer the vga one. I added/fiddled a usbc port for power which cracked a bit of the plastic. Nothing superglue can't fix.

New setup! So beautiful.

Here is my temporary setup, until I get some proper mounts for the Dell.
The Mister is in a plastic case under the Philips Monitor. The CRT is a Philips CM8833 Mk2, the menu-only resolution is slightly too high for the Philips, but any lower and the Dell LCD goes mad. The Dell is a 20" 2001FP LCD, and is only for cores that won't output a 15hz signal such as the PC ao86 core. Arcade stick is a Hori Rap V4, and the keyboard is a nice Razor Blackwidow. Speakers are M-Audio monitor speakers.
This is my favourite gaming corner of my spare room. I love using the Mister late at night, especially on computer cores where the backlit keyboard is perfect for night use.

allyourbasekris wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 9:44 pm New setup! So beautiful.

I recently got the same case in the clear color, it is exactly what I had been looking for!

However the buttons didn't fit, because the buttons of my analog board are too high for some reason. So I found a clear acrylic rod online with a diameter of 8 mm. They did have clear colored rods as well, but they were only 6 mm. I had to sand it down slightly and still need to polish and then cut it to button rods.

To keep those rods from falling out, I found clear 8 mm silicone rings (at an online piercing shop, lol). I think the end result will look great.

Since I started using MiSTer last December, my MiSTer has been a bare DE10-Nano with just heatsink and SDRAM board.
Now I got beautiful clear acrylic case, IO board v6.1 with Noctua fan and USB Hub v2.1 from misterfpga.co.uk

bellwood420 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 8:59 am Since I started using MiSTer last December, my MiSTer has been a bare DE10-Nano with just heatsink and SDRAM board.
Now I got beautiful clear acrylic case, IO board v6.1 with Noctua fan and USB Hub v2.1 from misterfpga.co.uk

I have the exact same case, it is fantastic, I like how it has labels for all connectors. Really cool to be able to see all the lights. Shows off the nice blue-green color of the PCBs as well. Still need to finish creating my acrylic rods to be used as buttons.

new addition to my case

terminator2k2 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 8:00 pm new addition to my case

very neat.
Pi 3 A with a DAC hat ??
is this for MIDI on the AO486 ?

terminator2k2 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 8:00 pm new addition to my case

very very nice.. great work

muthuxmut wrote: ↑Wed Feb 24, 2021 7:20 am is this for MIDI on the AO486 ?

Yes, and for MIDI on Atari ST, Amiga... see here: https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi

Just upgraded my MiSTer from a really crappy 3D print to this one!

Just got my MiSTer set up so it's still rockin' the naked look, but I'm working on designing a custom case for it. Here's the first test cut off the CNC for the front panel. Still a few tweaks to make to the machining and I need to figure out fixturing so I can machine the other side (which will clear out the through-holes). I'm going for a N64-style layout with two USB ports on either side with the power/reset/OSD buttons in the middle.

Components are on the slow boat from AliExpress, but since the USB ports use standard d-style mounts and the buttons are standard 12mm/19mm, I'm hoping all of my measurements are good and I won't have to rebuild anything for the CNC.

It’s pretty crude, but here’s my home made mister case. The basis of it is a pencil box that I noticed was just the right size for the de10 nano. The front panel is made from a divider piece that’s supposed to sit inside the box. Also visible is my old little-used raspberry pi and on the left my daemonbite Genesis controller adapter and 2.4ghz M30 receiver plugged in to it.


Here’s the other side. I only cut holes for four of the USB ports, and I’m only currently using three. I made the holes fairly wide in the hopes of being able to grip my USB dongles through them, but it’s still pretty hard to get them out. Should have gone for taller narrower holes, I think. The bigger hole near the back is for SD card access. I covered it with a piece of foam that I cut to size from the packaging of the de10 nano.


Here’s the back panel. Not much to say about it.


And here’s the inside. The four holes around the edges are because I was planning to mount the front panel with screws, but when I tried to drill the holes in the panel the wood split (fortunately it came with two). So I used stick on velcro, which also has the advantage of creating a few millimetres gap, which the USB board’s connector needs. I was hoping not to cut a hole for the network cable, but I couldn’t get wifi to work. The board is held in place by screws which go through rubber feet and the wood into the board standoffs. The fan is mounted to the roof with silicon spacers. Because the wood is thicker than what fans are usually mounted on I had to pull them through from above rather than below, and the fan wound up sitting a bit low. I stuck some adhesive backed foam to the roof with a hole cut in it for the fan to bridge the gap and also hopefully dampen resonance in the wood from the fan, which seems to have worked pretty well. This is my second fan, a noctua. The first one was all but silent out of the case but quite loud when mounted, I assume from resonance. The noctua is still audible, but much less so.

DerGali wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 1:08 am
16130053833451.jpg

Where did you get the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth dongle from?

I have one with an antenna which works. I purchased a smaller one which doesn't work with MiSTer.

Would be neat to have a 2-in-1 dongle like this that works with MiSTer.

Do you know which Wi-Fi chipset it uses?

Enthropy wrote: ↑Mon Feb 08, 2021 7:54 pm Because essential parts of MiSTer devoured all my spare money, I have decided to try to make a case from junk found around my basement. It should not be that hard, right? Wrong! I will never be a carpenter At least it keeps my cats from chewing cables and munching on unprotected PCBs.

This is an absolutely wonderful use of the materials you already had around AND your creativity, and while there are always opportunities to make anything like this more beautiful, this is a fantastic, useful case with all of the features that YOU want for your own use. You had an idea and a desire to build something, so you just went ahead and did it. You made this happen, and we are celebrating that!

Great job, and enjoy your accomplishment!

P.S. As someone who has been unable to safely go to any stores to buy building materials for the past year, I know all too well the creativity that’s required to make these things happen with whatever is lying around. My daughter and I built a “sled” out of scraps of wood for the recent Texas snow storm. It was a little heavy, and not too pretty, but it worked great! We will likely never have another chance to sled here where we live, so this was pretty awesome.

Eiji wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 9:48 pm

DerGali wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 1:08 am
16130053833451.jpg

Where did you get the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth dongle from?

I have one with an antenna which works. I purchased a smaller one which doesn't work with MiSTer.

Would be neat to have a 2-in-1 dongle like this that works with MiSTer.

Do you know which Wi-Fi chipset it uses?

I looked for the smallest and cheapest one on aliexpress
https://a.aliexpress.com/_uQZeBf
Warning it's not plug and play. I compiled a driver with all necessary firmware files
From here
https://github.com/SonelSA/rtl8723bu_realtek
I will post all compiled stuff I made. There is a driver in the kernel which is garbage, there are a lot of kernel patches for it(default using the wrong antenna etc) but I don't want to compile my own kernel.
I made a script which loads the new driver and but you need to replug the Dongle because of the bad kernel driver I think, which is maybe blockable but I didn't look into the boot kernel options yet. Bluetooth and wifi works in parallel but you have to be honest though that wifi performance isnt great when using in parallel in Bluetooth. But it's more than enough what I need.

really enjoyed several of the past MiSTer cases in this thread,
there are some super creative people here on the boards !

heres my quick attempt at an all-in-one (bartop cabinet with a mister, bluetooth speakers/amp, monitor stand).
i threw this together with some scrap wood and leftover t-molding.

those 3 USB ports in the front are 2 USB and 1 SNAC.
the monitor TATEs in both directions, and everything powers ON/OFF with a 20A inline power switch on an extension cord.

as an added feature i didnt anticipate, i can use the bluetooth amp to play music off my phone along with the MiSTer core at the same time.

A fun little one-off from https://retrofrog.net, color matched to the Amiga 500:
Night time:

limi wrote: ↑Thu Mar 18, 2021 8:24 am A fun little one-off from https://retrofrog.net, color matched to the Amiga 500:

AMiSTer.jpeg

Night time:

AMiSTer-Night.jpg

That is really cool! The logo instantly gives it an Amiga vibe.

I couldn't help myself and ordered the Looking Glass colored acrylic case from misterfpga.co.uk. (I already have the clear one). I think it looks fantastic, like real glass, matching my blue-green PCBs and still clearly showing the colors of the MiSTer.

Nat super kindly helped me out with the proper switches (thinner ones), so the case buttons will fit. As well as LEDs (green LED I got was too dim).

Here’s mine. It’s a big “case”, but it is a lot of fun!