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/ 

NES Computer (The Software)

So we last left off with an all but finished HTPC built into an original NES game console case. The next step is to load up the software you want to run. A few things to take into consideration are what you want to do with the PC. For me I wanted to be able to at least do the following:

• Have a "media center" program to launch any/all movies
• Be able to play emulators
• Be able to add further video content to the box
• Not pay a fortune for all of the software

Operating System:
So what does that leave me with. Well for the OS the main choices are between Windows and Linux, or there are a couple of minimal install media center programs. I chose Linux Ubuntu for my OS because it is free and easy to install. One thing to consider before jumping into Linux is that it does require a healthy amount of command line operation, but there are a lot of support forums out on the net.

Media Center:
It could also run a media center program called XBMC which can be booted right into with Linux bypassing the need to log in and start the program. Yet I can still log into the Linux desktop to easily re-organize files or perform other maintenance. One of the other nice things about XBMC is that you can add plug-ins that provide further function like getting music videos or even running apps in Linux. This was another feature I liked because it meant I could launch Firefox or the emulators without leaving XBMC. Another bonus is that the good folks over at XBMC have developed a phone app for Android phones that allow you to control the videos played and what have you.

Emulators:
I wanted this PC to be a retro gaming machine specially NES. There are emulators for about every game console for Linux although the PC itself can not handle some of the higher end ones, I was able to get what I wanted.

Adding Future Video:
I was also able to use a program called MakeMKV to add additional video files. There are other rippers for Linux or you can install WINE and use most rippers made for windows.

Polishing and accessorizing:
It will take some time to tweak XBMC and the other programs you have to function the way that you want. There is a lot of good information out there for Ubuntu and XBMC. Once you get it working though you then can sit back and enjoy your hard work. One of the last things to think about is a wireless way to work a keyboard and mouse. (I do suggest a regular keyboard and mouse to do basic setup just for speed and ease of use) To do this there are various options you can use. You can use a full keyboard and mouse, you can use a keyboard with a mouse built in, or you can go the route I went which was a device about the size of a blackberry phone that has a full keyboard and a track pad mouse and it lights up. The device also has a rechargeable battery that charges with a USB cable, but since I use my phone 90% of the time to run the device I don't have to use it much.