It’s been a while, CF-19 MK1 case swap?

My Ultimate CF-19 Project! Haha wow the days when a MK1 could be called "ultimate"! So yeah I originally posted this from my phone and couldn't look up the old threads. Currently, the Orange Beastie, is on the other side of the State.

I have been down this road of questioning before, but can someone please remind me how far up on internals I can swap into my happy orange MK1 case? These are cheap enough now I could probably get a much faster 2.5 or better mainboard into it for almost nothing. I remember there was some gotchas but not what they were.

Sure it’s less effort to just case mod and paint another. But it’s still holding up and I can’t get rid of it. I’ve had it for over ten years and it has actually been given away twice, and come back…. I think it’s still setup with my hidden Linux boot up too. (Edit: Nope I found the Linux drive in my random parts pile...) So yeah I could just use it that way I guess. But swapping in newer internals would amuse me even more.

 

The cases on the Mk1 and Mk2 are the same, the Mk3 and up are a different case. Besides the motherboard on some of the newer marks you need the led screen, harness, and daughter boards that match.

I think your best course of action is to pull the battery and hard drive caddy from your Mk1 and use it in a Mk5 to Mk8 unit.
Then just paint the new one orange. It won’t be just a simple mother board swap.

 

Get a 19 Mk7 and call it a day.

 

I was afraid that would be the case. Haha…. The caddy and battery are worth more out of it, than in in too. I don’t need it for much though, so I might just pull the HDD and caddy and run it off Linux with a thumb drive of the pci wwan port.

It might have a MK1 battery in it still too.

 

If you have a 18 battery laying around that will still work on the 19 as well.

 

Okay there is a nice MK5/6 (?) 2.5ghz in great case shape, but missing all the easy swap parts my Orange beast has.

There is also a MK7 with a destroyed case, but the internals are all there, minus HDD, batt, etc. I would have to case swap it though. I don’t mind tearing it down to the last/smallest screw. If such is even possible. I’ve been into them far enough that doesn’t bother me. I seem to remember there are some external case differences though. Palm rest, lower main shell, and screen front bezel.

The basically complete MK5 2.5 is a simpler/quicker choice. But I will wait until my orange beast is back in my hands before pulling the trigger on anything. It was supposed to come back last Sunday along with a parts delivery, but that got delayed due to ‘vid issues…

I have long contemplated going back to a PC for my main laptop. If so, I would likely go for a CF-31 with the ATI. But my MacBook is dirt simple and has survived for 10 years of abuse now, and is still running almost perfectly. I have an even nicer parts laptop for it too.

But for tuning and any work out in the garage, it is ALWAYS a Toughbook. My normal “daily” one is a MK6 (I believe) CF-19. The 19’s are perfect size sitting in a car, but not so great for doing much typing on.

And with that in mind, I might just try using the Orange Beast on Linux and seeing how that works out. All I need is my tuning software and the ability to do a little surfing.

Has a Linux distro finally been released that actually works with all the buttons????

 

Depends on what is missing on the Mk5, the black plastic trim on the side of the screen doesn’t swap from Mk1/2 to a Mk3 up.

the Mk3 to 8 cases were a total redesign. I do think doors on the side swap. I don’t fully remember but the bottom panel may swap. I think I used one to repair a busy bottom of a Mk3. But to get the panel to fit I had to remove a plastic spacer from the Mk3.

on the case swap I am not sure if the touchscreen would swap over from Mk1/2 to communication wise.

another option may be to get the 7 and put it in a Mk3 as the chassis is the same. Or to get a Mk3 for parts for the Mk5.

 

I gave it a lot of thought, unless I got a CF-19 donor for about $50-60, the effort was more than I wanted to do on a basically spare loaner tuner machine. I have a proven pci/usb drive adapter that lets me put a thumb drive in the wwan slot and boot Linux off that. My orange MK1 is still with my buddy, and not worth the cost of shipping to get it here sooner.

My MK6 2.5ghz CF-19 (the Combat Air Command one) is flawless. It is more than enough for any tuning and log crunching I need to do. The MK1 chokes on big logs, but whatever I can transfer them easily enough.

So instead I scrounged up some more and dropped it on a CF-31. I got a 2.9ghz i7, I think a MK7. It will be more interesting to build up and might get actual use time.

So as for tha MK1, When j do get it back I will put one of my wwan drives back into it, or maybe even install Linux on the main drive. Don’t need tons of space though so the pci drive with a 16 or 32 drive might be enough.

 

I don’t think there is an mk7 CF-31. Likely mk6, but sounds very nice!

 

It is a CF-31WPL1H1M whatever that might be. I have to go looking for the lookup interface dohicky. I couldn’t find it with a on my quickie break lookup.

 

Holy CRAPOLA! I am reading through old threads and my Orange MK1 is 16yrs old! I have had it for 9, WOW! Well I sorta have it, since it hasn't fully made it back to me yet lol. I am just going to leave it alone and put the Linux WWAN PCI slot drive back in it. It looks like the one I had in there, was a 32gb drive.

I won't be letting it go again.... I might need to remove the option to use W7 and force myself to just use it on Linux. Meh. We will see.

I am possibly playing Toughbook musical computers too. A good friend is getting into tuning, and needs a decent setup. I offered him my complete mint MK6 in trade for an incomplete MK8. It will cost him about $230-50.

He wants to go cheaper, and he can probably could too with a MK1-MK3. I crunched the numbers though, and the only way to beat the $200 mark is an earlier machine on Linux without a HDD and caddy. Or to give up on having a genuine Panasonic power adapter. The $200 mark is where you can start finding MK5s maybe needing a drive or power adapter. But those are still falling short of a complete package deal.

So yeah, my complete MK6 package is a "good friend" price for him too!

I used to keep a couple spare machines on hand ready to go. But these days I don't do much tuning, and I think my last full install was almost ten years ago... I am in process of MegaSquirting my RV, but I currently don't even have a car on 'squirt! Ironically though, I have another friend also looking to get into a setup. So after a pretty long spell of not doing any, I have two in progress, and another waiting.

Well I may do a small refresh when the MK1 gets back. If so, I will post up a new thread on it, if anything exciting happens. It is old reliable though, so it will likely go flawlessly. And I have at least one more build about to start on the CF-31! These newer ones are much easier to get up and going though.

 

Another option for your Mk1 could also be

turn it back to XP and use steady state

do a custom iso and use software to cut out what you don’t want on one of the newer OS’s 7,8,10,11. I have a custom 7 that will fit on a single CD. Only problem is just a tad too much was taken out and one time I boot touch screen works, next time it won’t.

 

Ador, I have that beat to hell and back MK5 on the way from eBay I snagged for $81! A little more than I wanted to spend, but I have the MK6 sold.

The MK1 still isn't back in my hands yet... I might just have my buddy ship it back to me. It is actually fully setup and stable, but slow, on W7 with a legit (somehow) Windows 7 activation.

Anyways, when I have them both in my hands, I will asses it all and go from there. A case swap might still be the plan. Most of the painted parts seem to be relatively quick swaps anyways. The lid should be straightforward. The hinge cover and lock, easy. If I swapped the palmrest, doable with small mods.

The main frame, not painted Orange, but in bad shape on the MK5. My biggest concern really is the LCD assembly. I want the newer screen (obviously). If I can get that into the older lid, I am 90% of the way there. It sounds like there is nothing in the bottom case that can't be sorted out.

But this is a back burner project now until I have everything in my hands to inspect and decide. I have everything I need on hand already to at least get the MK5 working, except a battery. I can get it operational without that and either grab a battery or wait for the MK1.

From a sentimental perspective, if I can make the MK5 parts mostly swap in (with some obvious effort) then I probably will just for the fun of it. I have bought time with the CF-31 and the MK6 CF-19 would still be available to me if I really needed to use it. Anyways it seems the MK1 to MK5 upgrade is mostly a bottom case issue. I can hardware hack like a mo-fo so I think I can pull it off.

Does it make sense? Nope. But I really love the old Orange Beastie. So we will "LS Swap" it LOL!

 

That is what they make the Dremel for.

 

Oh those I have a plenty! I have an original Moto Tool, because everyone needs a Dremel from the 1930s. Pretty weak/useless and only single speed, but nostalgic fun. One of my hobbies is building "vintage" RC sailboats. This adds to the charm of building them.

I have owned more than I can count, but my favorite was a digital 398 from, I believe, the '90s. I had mine forever and when it died it was still available so I did't think anything of it and when I couldn't get the mainboard, I tossed it. Fast forward to needing another Dremel, and it was out of production and hard to find. Not knowing the model number didn't help. Took me a long time to find another one and figure out what model number it was. And I paid more for it than I would have going and buying a new one...

I am also heavily invested in Milwaukee tools. Their cordless M12 "dremel" is SUPER nice and very powerful. I grab that the most often unless I am going to be stationary and using it for a while, then I grab the 398.

Anyways, playing the waiting game right now and baby-sitting the laptops while stuff downloads/transfers/installs/reboots/ etc etc...

 

The MK5 arrived a day earlier than expected. It is pretty rough, and oddly, actually smells bad... It powers up into bios. Running diagnostics utility on it. I am not liking what I see though. The screen protector is ick. Whatever that's manageable but the LCD or backlight is burnt. I see yellowish areas in the upper corners and whiter vertical bands on the edges. With some white/dark banding across the whole screen. It only has 6330 hours though. Seems low for the screen to be this badly cooked.

Ugh. Well I am powering that back down and giving it a good clean before I mess with it any more. It feels, ick. Time for the Industrial Simple Green Crystal spray to come out. Or dunk it in a vat of bleach...

Yeah the screen damage is subtle on this MK5 until you look at it a couple minutes. And I can see a HUGE difference on the MK6 screen right after staring at the 5... I should have spent a wee bit more I guess lol. Crap.

Oh well it will still work well enough for tuning with the crappy screen, if I can't make the MK1 lcd work.

 

Well focus on the smell then the rest will sort it’s self.

 

LOL good times!