🗄️ A mysterious Google server Part 4 - Final part
Abstract
Completing the Google server
The back panel
In my last post, I showed that I had cut away the back panel due to it being proprietary. This meant that I had to design my own from scratch. For this design needed to incorporate the following: - A motherboard tray (and IO cutout) - Hold 2 powerbricks - Have some fans for cooling.
Using Tinkercad and some precise measurements, a back panel model was created.
And ofcourse with designing something new, some prototyping was needed to get to a result that I was satisfied with.
Using my Bambu P1S, I printed the final part in PLA yellow (PETG would have been the better choice, but I didn't have yellow laying around)
Server parts
My idea of this build, is to create a server that can replace (some of) the Google services that I use.
| Google Service | Self-hosted alternative |
|---|---|
| Google Drive | Nextcloud |
| Google Docs | OnlyOffice |
| Google Photos | Immich |
| Youtube | Jellyfin |
When it comes to picking out components for my homelab, I have layed a couple of rules upon myself. One of them is that it has to be power efficiënt. A general rule of thumb is 'small things use less energy'. Therefor I chose a Mini-STX motherboard form factor.
The components: | Motherboard | ASRock H310M-STX | | CPU | i3-8100 | | RAM | 16Gb DDR4 SODIMM | | Storage | 6x 2TB HDD |
As the motherboard does not use a standard PSU, I had to be creative. Using an external PSU board that costs around €20, I was able to provide the necessary power for the drives.
The connector
I chose to challenge myself and attempt to re-use the existing proprietary powerbutton and LED light. This started with measuring out the connector of the original front panel motherboard and attempting to figure out what is what. After some fiddeling around I had found the pins for the power button, but could not find the pins for the LED light.
The pins that I managed to identify:
| Led+ | GND | PWR | GND | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| B | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 |
| GND | GND | GND | GND | GND | GND | GND |
As this board had its own processing chip, I assumed this to be a blocking factor. Rather than spending more time on it, I decided to just simply solder 2 wires directly to the anode and cathode of the LED light.
Please do not pay any attention to my aweful soldering job... But hey, it works!
The conclusion
For me this was a fun little project where I could learn some new skills (and sharpen some old ones)
