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.
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.
