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.
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.
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)
