Automated Mystery Box Gaming PC With PA-14 Actuator

Gaming PC builders take great pleasure in customizing their systems to enhance functionality, create immersive experiences, and express their creativity. Automating various aspects of a gaming PC can transform it into a themed mystery box, intriguing an audience while doubling in functionality to allow for airflow with the opening motion. If you are looking for inspirational ideas for mystery boxes or modifying your gaming PC, you have come to the right place! We will cover highlights of Nathaniel Croce’s custom Automated Mystery Box Gaming PC with our PA-14 actuator.

Just like Nathaniel, many have a passion for building gaming PCs and may sell them off whenever the desire comes to upgrade to the next level. This time, Nathaniel wanted to try something different besides just using a different case. He really loves the Call of Duty Zombies games developed by Treyarch and thought there would be no better way to play his favorite zombie games than to build around what started it all, the 2008 Call of Duty World at War.

In the game, the player would walk up to the Weapons Box, drop off points, and the box would open, slowly cycling through weapons until it stopped to reveal which one it would give the player. It had two question marks on its lid, which glowed yellow, and would play a jingle tune while active. This was what Nathaniel wanted to replicate when making his version of an automated mystery box gaming PC. The automated process will also help conveniently open the top lid for airflow to cool down with minimal manual labor required.

Nathaniel repurposed his old leather belt to be for the bottom of the case so that it does not scratch his tabletop. He used a Router to engrave the question marks on the top of the crate. These were traced on the pc and then overlayed on the box. The engraving was done entirely free-handed. Then, he filled in the engravement with Glow in the Dark pigment powder and sealed it with epoxy. Once dried, he sanded the whole box. The old CARC paint is toxic when inhaled, so he took off all the old paint and was then able to get a nice brown wooden look. After the sanding was done, he drilled and used the jigsaw to cut out the Motherboard opening and open the back of the box to allow excess hot air to flow out the back.

The Liquid Cooling was the biggest challenge in trying to make the build aesthetically pleasing and practical. Nathaniel wanted the reservoirs to be at the top of the build as the main centerpiece. The problem occurred with filling the loop, he needed to add an extension to the 90-degree terminal knuckle for the fill port to be higher than the rest of the loop. This resulted in the lid not being able to close all the way.

At the end of the build, Nathaniel was able to fill the loop to the fullest, and while having the pump running, he could disconnect the extension he added and close the top lid without hitting any components. Another challenge was the cooling over-top of the main components. Nathaniel initially thought the Liquid Cooling by itself would be enough, however, the system was still running warm. To address this issue, he added two additional cooling fans over the CPU and GPU to blow cool air across all the components.

After doing web searches for linear actuators, he found three companies he could consider to be his suppliers. Between Progressive Automations, Servo City, and Firgelli Automations, he found that we offered the best price point for the given list of specifications he was looking for in an electric linear actuator. At the time of buying his products, Progressive Automations was the most affordable at $109.99 USD for the mini linear actuators category.

The exposed end leads of our PA-14 mini linear actuators made the process of hooking up to the switch module that Nathaniel already had very simple. Nathaniel chose a single PA-14-8-50 actuator which offered an 8 inch stroke for enough travel to open and close the lid. Its force rating of 50 lbs (dynamic and static) had a balance of sufficient force and a good speed (0.83"/sec fully loaded) for the visual mystery box effect during the opening motion. Two BRK-14 mounting brackets were installed to securely attach the front and rear mounting points of our actuator to the top and bottom of the PC build.

Nathaniel uses a Servo City 12 V, 10 A Power Supply that accepts 100 VAC to 240 VAC input voltage from a wall outlet and converts the power to 12 V output voltage. This allows for compatibility with the 12 V brushed DC motors found in most of our standard actuators. Since the PA-14 actuator only draws 5 A of current during the motor start up and in full load conditions, the 10 A current rating of the power supply is more than sufficient. Similar power supplies such as these are also available with ratings to handle higher current draws for larger scale PC builds that may require heavier duty actuators with greater electrical power requirements.  

Between the PA-14 actuator and power source is a Servo City 25A Momentary Forward/Off/Reverse Switch Module wired to allow for reversing the polarity to extend and retract the shaft. Level-lock terminal blocks come included with this switch module for ease of wiring. This switch module has a similar style of operation to the standard momentary DPDT style rocker switches commonly found for controlling 2 wire actuators and can be achieved by following a few steps:

1. The upper-left and lower-right terminals must be connected to the ground of the power supply.
2. The upper-right and lower-left terminals must be connected to the +12 V terminal of the power supply.
3. The middle-right and middle-left terminals must be connected to the 2 inputs from the actuator.

This type of actuator switch wiring allows the operator to change the direction of electrical current flow entering the actuator to change travel direction. For a physical example of an actuator wiring circuit with a rocker switch, this video is a great example.

Nathaniel’s experience with us has been great. He appreciates our team’s fast shipping and simple and easy-to-use products. Shoutout to EKWB for all the Liquid Cooling components and Alpha Cool for the Copper Radiators! To see more cool projects by Nathaniel Croce, feel free to check out his social media platform below!

Facebook: Nathan Croce

https://www.facebook.com/nathan.croce.1?mibextid=ZbWKwL

“Great product, used it to make a Call of Duty style Mystery Box Gaming PC. It opens the top lid for airflow. Works great! Will buy from them again!”

Nathaniel Croce

Our PA-14 Mini Linear Actuators offer versatile specifications and simple operation in a compact design to fit in tight spaces. This makes them very popular for mini-custom projects and work great as mystery boxes that double as a case for a gaming PC.

Thank you, Nathaniel, for sharing your project! We hope the Automated Mystery Box Gaming PC will continue serving you well for many years to come!

We hope you found this as informative and interesting as we did, especially if you were looking for inspirational ideas for mystery boxes or modifying your gaming PC. If you have any queries or wish to discuss our products further, please do not hesitate to contact us! We are experts in what we do and will be happy to assist however we can.