Anyway, this Raspberry Pi (first generation) was my best friend's and he stuffed it away since it was underwhelming for him (I don't know what he was trying to do with it), so I decided to take it off of his hands to tinker around with. Sometime last year, I decided to turn it into a stratum 1 time server and got it all put together in the latter half of April, with the fine tuning being finished in May.
I started with removing the RCA video and the stereo jacks, since I was going to mount the antenna connection there. I also removed the ribbon cable connector for the camera (marked as S2 on the board), since I didn't need it and it might've been in the way of the GPS breakout board (it might not have, but I didn't want to take chances). I got frustrated with trying to de-solder the parts, so I ended up destroying the jacks to get to make it easier. The ribbon cable connector I ended up using the cutters to break the legs away from the board, almost damaging the capacitor at C1 in the process (I think it made it out alive). I did the work during lunch at work, since work was better equipped (or at least I thought I would've been better off doing it at work).
The newly-modified board in the lower-half of the unmodified case.
Instead of using the SD card protector add-on (that I would've had to buy), I decided to use a micro SD card adaptor that fits entirely within the case, which allows me to make a cover with a flat piece of plastic instead to cover the hole.
View of the micro SD card in the adaptor in the SD card slot of the Raspberry Pi.
I also decided to use some flat-black paint stuff to paint the stems of the light pipes, so that there'd be less bleeding, and once that was dry, I put the case together (without the screws) before setting it aside for the night.
The painted light pipes, holes where the jacks are supposed to be, and the outside view of the adaptor.
I then modified the case by cutting away the plastic between the holes meant for the RCA and stereo jacks to allow for the GPS antenna connector. Drilling an appropriately-sized hole wouldn't have worked well, so it's why I decided against it.
Though it didn't matter, I did spend a small amount of time to make it look decent.
Out of an old project box from Radio Shack (which was for my electronics correspondence course final back in high school, which became the first version of the soundcard switchbox), I cut an appropriately-shaped (and sized) piece to cover the massive hole and to mount the antenna connector to. I also cut a piece of thinner plastic to make up for the extra space.
It was turning out better than I was expecting.
Then, I cut another piece for the SD card slot, using the leftover piece of the panel I cut off of the box (the picture was taken after I cut both pieces from that panel), and also another piece of the thin plastic to fill the remaining space. While I wanted it to be completely flat, I didn't feel like cutting into the box any more than I already had, so I just took the more efficient route instead. The cover is tight enough to where it is fairly difficult to slide, but it wouldn't matter much with the micro USB cable plugged in.
Inside and outside view of the SD slot cover.
Afterwards, I drilled the holes to mount the GPS breakout unit, and the hole for the antenna connector. As you can see, I also cut a hole in the thin plastic (also labelling the orientation so that the hole lines up properly), so that the connector would mount against the thick plastic. I used some wires from motherboard harnesses along with an appropriate plug, which I had to drill a hole to allow it to be plugged into the GPIO header.
The drilled hole, GPS breakout mounted to the case, inside view, and outside views.
I finished it up by securing the antenna connector and testing it out. Eventually I got a hold of some leftover parts from work and redid the wire harness from the GPS to the GPIO so that the wires would be at a right angle from the pins. Unfortunately, the IDC connector that I used was 3-pin (two of them) and not 6-pin, but it didn't matter, since it was going to stay plugged in. While using the crimper, I didn't squeeze/release properly, which misaligns the plug, and ended up smashing the last in the crimp series (red wire). I crimped the connection properly, so it works just fine, but just doesn't look that pretty.
The connectors, close-up of the "bite mark", height of the pins compared to the wire exit, height of the plug compared with the GPIO pins, and the GPS end of the cable with orange wire cut.
Unfortunately, while reassembling the NTPi after taking pictures, I accidentally sandwiched the antenna cable between the spacer and the case, and luckily I caught it before it became a major problem. While it looks bad, I made sure that the cable wasn't shorted, and carefully reattached the GPS unit (the picture above was before disassembly for pictures). I also scraped the solder mask of the GPS a bit when I was using pliers to hold the nut to loosen the screw, but since it was just the ground pad, I wasn't too worried about it.
Top and bottom of where the cable was sandwiched, and the scrape on the GPS.
Well, needless to say, I put the case back together, and got it back up for testing. At some point I put in the coin-cell battery for the RTC before putting the NTPi into service. I played around with the offset amounts some, and at some point just left it alone when I was okay with it.
Inside picture to mimic a previous image taken, better inside shot, NTPi assembled with screws painted.
While the NTPi isn't at the location where I was planning on having it, I find it actually better than the planned location, since the GPS unit gets quite warm, and the magnetic antenna is able to stick to the metal drywall cover where the window is.
It used to be the time server for all of my computers, but since I've switched to Manjaro, it now just serves the time for my old smartphones (which are being used as clocks). I might modify the NTP config file and start using the NTPi again, but, that's for another time...
The case I used is the Cyntech case for those wondering.
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