Doctor Who Tardis - Who Box Wrap Up (Part 3)

Well this post is a bit late as I have had the "Who Box" as I call it completed for a while. It was recently asked if I was going to finish and/or post the final project. I was pretty happy with how it came out only a few minor things that I wish I could have done slightly different or cleaner but what can you do.

To pick up where the last post left off. I decided to mount the Pi on the bottom plate because it fit was out of the way. There were a couple of challenges with that one of which was that I had to buy & make some right angle connections due to the size of cable plugs. I had to right angle the audio cable as well as a USB connection for the hub.

The next challenge left was how to mount the hard drive and the hub. The hub was really easy as it came with stick pads right on it so I just used them. It ended up facing the wrong way but you don't really need to play with it much so it works. The hard drive took some thought as I wanted something that not only held it steady to prolong the life of the drive but that also kept it removable for adding content or for access to the box. I ended up using something that looks like a plastic Velcro strip. (Dual Lock I think it's called) It grips to itself extremely well, while staying removable.

(Left - Regular Velcro/Right - Plastic Velcro)

(Drive mounted as well as the hub. It's a bit packed but not too tight. Remote can be stored inside)

The last thing to figure out was out the placement of the IR receiver for the remote control. My first thought was an out of site approach. I figured since the windows on the box were just a light flimsy plastic the signal would pass though pretty easy. While the signal did pass though the windows the range it allowed was all of about 3-4 feet. Not enough if you ask me. So I had an idea of putting it in the window but infront of the plastic window film. Since both the window and IR receiver are dark in color they blended pretty well and while not visible it blends in well if you ask me. It also allows a full room range for the remote to work. 

The only last minor mod I had to make was a slight cut by the lid to allow the power cable from the hub to run out to an outlet while letting the lid close completely. The light on the top still works great when pressed and makes the Tardis sounds. The Who Box was completed in April 2014 and has run error free I am told since handing it over. I think this project could be done a lot cleaner if you geared it to run videos off a server instead of an internal drive and if your just wanted to run HDMI instead of RCA. But all in all I think it came together well. The Who Box is running OpenELEC which is a great to the point XBMC build.

(Left - Back / Right - Front)

Doctor Who Tardis - More Parts (Part 2)

Well I have more parts for building the Tardis now. Could have enough to finish the build if everything goes to plan. We now have a wall plate with RCA & HDMI. Although the primary use will be RCA it was brought to my attention to "future proof" it and add an HDMI connection now during the initial build. So the plan to attach the new wall plate was at first to cut the top and bottom plastic off and then glue it from the inside. Instead I think I am going to still attach it from the inside but use the 2 screws instead of glue.

So I set about cutting 4 holes in the back of the Tardis using the ole' cordless Dremel. The RCAs came out great and HDMI ended up only slight off but nothing horrible. Only thing left is to find a blue that matches the Tardis so I can paint the screw heads and then screw it in place. Until then though here is the out come so far. I think it will work out nicely.

The next post/part of the build will be finding a way to fit the Raspberry Pi and Hard Drive in the box. I have a few custom parts to hopefully accomplish that. I got some plastic wall hooks I cut the screw end off of and some metal L brackets I tweaked for trying on the Hard Drive. I also got my hands on some plastic stand offs I hope to use to attach the Pi.

Doctor Who Tardis - A Media Center (Part 1)

So I have become very interested in Raspberry Pi's as of late and have a few projects I want to do lined up. The first of which is a media center built into a Doctor Who Tardis for a family member who likes Doctor Who. I personally do not know much about the show other than it has this police box and I assume there is a character named Doctor Who. I started the project off searching for the right sized Tardis box. There was a novelty USB hub but is too small to house the parts needed. I narrowed it down to 2 items. One being a cookie jar and one being an ice tray. What swayed me is that while both of them had removable trays inside the cookie jar had a working light on the top and when closed it makes Tardis sounds. On top of that it was all housed in the lid and could be left on its own.

Here are a few shots of the Tardis with its various features, also here are the dimensions:
W-5.6" x H-10.8" x D-5.6"

Planned Parts
Here are the parts I plan to use for this project. They may change as I go along but here is the initial thought.

• Doctor Who Tardis Cookie Jar (good size with some extras)
• Raspberry Pi Model B (It is a small fan-less all in one board that can handle HD video)
• Xbox 360 IR Media Remote (Has most buttons needed for media player plus may be able to control a TV as well as the media player)
• 4 Port USB Hub with built in power switch and outlet powered. (Powered hub is needed to provide the power needed to run any accessories as the Raspberry Pi is very low powered)
• 1 TB Western Digital Passport USB drive (powers off of USB hub and is small in size)
• 38kHz IR Receiver (Used to allow reception of IR commands from remote controls)
• Head phone to RCA audio cable. (Plan is for use of RCA audio & video to accommodate current TV setup. Probably not needed if using HDMI cable for video & audio)
• Micro USB WiFi adapter (optional but needed for setup because it allows SSH connection to modify code as needed. Can also use the wired Ethernet port on the Raspberry Pi) 
• GPIO cables (For easy connection of IR receiver to Raspberry Pi)
• Wireless USB Keyboard/Touch pad (used for typing and any setup needed)
• 16 GB SD Card (Used as OS drive in Raspberry Pi
• OpenELEC for Raspberry Pi (Provides XBMC media center software and is bare bones to allow for decent boot and running speed)

I will post updates as I progress along. As of this first writing I am working to get the IR receiver working and the Xbox remote working properly as well as setting up the OpenELEC XBMC software. Once that is accomplished the parts can be configured in the Tardis. Thoughts on that is Pi towards the bottom mounted so it doesn't move with the hard drive towards the top for removal to modify files via desktop PC. (Another choice based on current setup. If network connected files and be FTP on and off.)

Feel free to leave comments/questions and I will try to respond to any I can if I know the answer.

Flirc Media Remote

So in an effort to find a way to run XBMC on my NES Media PC box, without a keyboard and mouse. I came across Flirc. It's not an actual remote but a USB IR receiver device. The device is about the size of a thumb and is pretty easy to setup. I had a little trouble setting it up in Linux but since you can set it up on any PC I set it up on my Windows 7 PC. Then just plug it into the Linux box and it was good to go as the programming is on the chip and not the PC.

It has a custom menu that has some basic presets you can use or go as in depth with as many keys as you want to program. It works like a Harmony remote. You tell the program you want to program key X then press the key on the remote you want to perform X. I used an old Tivo remote for my setup as it has enough buttons to perform the basics in XBMC but also has a few extras. I also like the button layout on it.

Overall I would rate this little device pretty good. Allows you options in picking any IR remote. Allows you to customize the buttons the way you want and seems to have good range for operation. I do believe you want to have the device pointing out to the remote user. If your interested check out their website. http://www.flirc.tv/