Mod of the Month - January 2008

Casdon 379 mod

by jhanlon303
Worklog

Remember when you were a little kid, and playing house was fun? Everyone here who is living on his or her own is probably now saying "yeah, if only real life turned out as entertaining."

Well, maybe it could. The idea of "bigger boys, bigger toys" reaches almost a meta state with jhanlon303's first project on our forums – cramming a functional media centre computer into a child's toy washing machine. It's time to put the new toy in the old – and have something completely unique in the process.

The toy in this case is a Casdon 379 toy washing machine, which should be just odd enough to whet anyone's appetite for unusual mods. Those of you in the States may not know what this is, as the toy was exclusively sold in the UK. When you open it, the barrel actually spins round and the machine makes noises – great for kids to have a laugh before they learn to despise doing laundry like the rest of us.


As with most mods in unusual objects, jhanlon303 wants to keep this Casdon 379 looking just like it did before he started the project. It just also now has to house his media centre PC. Some good MTML (Masking Tape Markup Language, per jhanlon303) provides a good layout for the upcoming butchery... err, addition.



First things first, it's time for dissection! The unit is disassembled to see the inner workings of the tumbler mechanism (triggered by the switch on the front door) and size up the interior space. jhanlon303 wants to keep the switch functional – the tumbler will be switched out with a working fan for cooling, which will turn on when you open the door.



The computer won't be the most powerful thing on earth, but it won't be this P3 system – he's actually gutting a C7 powered Everex system that you can buy for $200. However, these are the old parts on hand, and they fit the bill when it comes to sizing up I/O plates and the like. And with a bit of basic hack and slash to get the arrangement, the motherboard and PSU fit perfectly.



The hard drive is mounted on the floor of the machine, and the DVD drive is a half-height that jhanlon303 picked up for a trade along the way. The layout may be a little cramped, but far from dire. In fact, there just might be enough room to add a bit of water to this washing machine... but we'll find that out soon enough.

Be sure to check out jhanlon303's worklog to see how this project cleans up. Okay, I promise I'm done with the bad puns now.

Anyhow, if the washing machine computer is just the absurdity you wanted to see, why not vote for it as January's Mod of the Month?