Inspired by I-57

So, we bought a (small) entertainment center, just 39″ wide, exactly as wide as our 42″ diagonal tv. It’s similar to this but less wide.
So, when we set it up, it has enough room for the big AV reciever, and for the Comcast moto 6412 DVR (and the soon-to-be-ours tivo series 3), dvd player, and everything else. It fits in the corner. It’s nice. But it’s very poorly venelated (read: none. Two small holes in back for cables, and not even holes in the center support/divider for cables left to right.

So when we set things up, our awesome (not) Moto DVR, which doesn’t even have a fan, immediately started overheating, which caused it to start mis-digitizing shows. When watching, the output would be screwy, and worse the audio would drop out for 3-5 seconds at a time. Very not cool.
So here’s the fix, and it’s not very expensive. Buy some very quiet 120mm case fans, a dc power adapter, rewire slightly, cut some holes, and you have a super silent but cool entertainment center.

1. Aquire 2 quiet PC case fans. I bought a pair of these nexus 120mm fans (22db) and they are QUIET. The only move about 30CFM, but if you have one blowing in and one blowing out you’re silent and replacing “all” the air in your EC every minute. $28
2. Buy 4 120mm cast fan grills. two for each fan, inside and out. Frys has them or buy them from any pc supply joint, including the above. $10
3. You’ll need bolts and nuts. Make sure they’re at least 2″ long and fit through the fan. Get some washers too. $3 at Lowes.
4. Buy a 12V power supply that puts out at least .6a. I went with this one from radio shack, which already has an adaptaplug end. I picked the adjustable voltage because I was worried about possible noise, but this turned out not to be an issue. Much cheaper online than in the stores. $18
5. 2 Adaptaplug ends, 2 extension cords, and a Y splitter (which I only found on ebay). Actually, buy all of this on ebay you can. Ebay got me parts for $2 ea, as opposed to 7 or 8ea at the store or online. ~~$15 total

Installing

1. When you get all of this, strip the ends off the fan and wire in the adaptaplug ends (you want the red and black wires, ignore the yellow and cut it short). Test that the fan works before you try to install it. Use the Y and the extension cords to run the cable into your entertainment center. Wrap the connections up well with electrical tape or even better, heat shrink tubing.
2. Cut two holes in the back of your entertainment center, up high (or high and low), about 4.2″ in diameter, using a fan cover as a template. Be careful to make sure there’s enough cardboard arround the sides to hold the screws up!
3. Drill holes through the carboard at the four corners using your 120mm fan grill as the guide again. Make sure the bit is larger than your bolts! You’ll need it to work the bolts arround a little to get into the fans.
4. Mounting:

 outside                                 cardboard back        inside
(bolt) (washer) (fan grill)               |                 (fan) (fan grill) (bolt)

5. Tighten everything as tight as possible to prevent noise. Be sure you install one fan to blow in, and one fan to blow out.
6. Then, if you have a partition in your entertainment center, drill 2.5″ holes (using a hole driller) in 4 appropriate places (in mine, 2 up top, 2 below) so that there is airflow left and right without compromising the structural integrity. You can also use these holes for cabling from side to side w/o going out the back. Paint the wood black (or color with a sharpie!) so that the holes aren’t obvious from outside the cabinet.
7. Plug in the fans, they should both spin. You won’t notice a lot of airflow, but there should be some. Some is all you need.
8. Put your entertainment hardware back, close the doors, and enjoy. My entertainment center with doors closed is cool, and the DVR is barely warmer than room temp now.

To give you an idea of how quiet it was, with the tv off, my wife didn’t know I installed the fans until I told her.
Note: I initially tried to buy AC powered fans which supposedly were only 32db. When I got them, they were loud. When I installed them, they were LOUD LOUD, way too loud to keep installed. I think part of the problem was not only that they’re louder than 32db (manufacturer exaggeration?) but also if you’re putting too much air into a small area, the cardboard back on most modern diy furniture will act like a speaker diagphram. And these were 70cfm fans! I’d suggest skipping the AC

Ok, i’ve been bad, and haven’t updated.

Short version is: Cast is off. Kara is ultra happy, crawling and sitting and playing. Parents are still playing catchup on sleep and work.

Everyone, though, is much happier. Thanks to everyone who supported us last for the last month!

Found in a comment on version tracker that will (finally) let you set your delete key on your mac to send backspace (important to me because routers don’t do terminal types as well as they should) and reposting it here to share:

End your delete-should-backspace woes when using Vim remotely with iTerm by adding one simple keyboard mapping. Go to iTerm preferences, Profiles, Keyboard, choose Profile=Global, add this mapping…

Key: delete
Action: send hex code
Hex code: 0×08

Tell your bookmarks to use the Global keyboard setting.