It really takes love to think of this method. A while ago, a Chinese netizen named samyujie3014 shared a picture on Baidu Tieba of how he converted the Xiaomi Air Purifier 2 into an ITX computer host. Not only did the motherboard fit perfectly into the internal space, but even the graphics card and power supply were fine. What’s even better is that the Xiaomi Air Purifier itself has a large fan that can also be used to help dissipate heat. He even described it as “the Xiaomi Air Purifier 2 with ITX is so perfect.”
Chinese netizens modified Xiaomi Air Purifier 2 into an “ITX computer host”
samyujie3014 said that Xiaomi Air Purifier 2 is a product that can transform a perfect ITX host. Many things are ready-made, such as fans and cooling air ducts have been designed, and the on/off button, restart, reset power light, HDD light are also available, and the power cord is also ready-made.
Of course, these things are all connected to the ITX motherboard, so some research and testing are bound to take place.
First, he first solved the problem of using the same button to start the air purifier and the computer. The best way is to hand over the control directly to the motherboard, but this has some risks. He first tried to use Xiaomi’s door-opening shutdown mechanism to control the fan:
But it was a pity that it failed, so I bought a circuit like this from Taobao:
While waiting to receive the goods, he also put the main parts into the air purifier. Unexpectedly, it was perfect:
However, you will need several pieces of aluminum alloy to make the bracket:
Then he started to work, and you can see that he also used a red pen to draw the locations that needed to be modified. This shows that he should have made many similar things in the past:
One after another, all computer hardware is placed and fixed:
However, he encountered some problems with the power supply. He mentioned that “the power cord cannot be plugged in. Instead, use the heat dissipation hole to run 3 flexible wires, pass them through the gap on the left, and then connect to the 220v on the Xiaomi power supply board”:
As shown in the picture below, welding is completed by yourself:
Then I finally received the ordered circuits and tools:
Modified power supply:
According to his explanation, the motor of the air purifier is 24V, 6-wire, and the ATX power supply is 12V, so a boost module is needed to power the motor control board. This can be taken from the front USB interface, and the pwm signal is connected to the pwm signal of the host fan:
After the power supply is solved, install it on the hardware and wiring:
Finally, connect the screen to test and you can boot normally:
The picture below is his original host. He also mentioned that when Xiaomi Air Purifier 2 was first launched, it was scolded because its performance was much worse than that of Xiaomi 1. However, Xiaomi Mi 2 is still better in terms of chassis, much smaller in size, and has almost no sound at night:
From his articles on Baidu Tieba, it can be clearly seen that this is quite difficult. Not only do you need to modify the interior, but you also need to understand welding and circuit design. It is really impressive! Anyone interested canClick me to read all。
Source: KOCPC Chinese