rysz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,554
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Jun 24, 2012 12:58:55 GMT
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Here is my thread for my Raspberry Pi. For those of you that have no idea what it is, please go here: www.raspberrypi.orgEssentially this is a small cheap computer that can do lot's of awesome stuff! After a long wait, mine turned up and that evening, I put the RC2 of RaspBMC onto a 2GB memory card and got it all working. RaspBMC ( www.raspbmc.com) is a version of the most excellent XBMC ( xbmc.org) which has been made for the Pi. Prior to this arriving, I was using XBMC on an old XBOX that had been chipped and this was fine until we started wanting to watch hi def (720p / 1080p) content, so we retired it with the Pi and then I thought of a suitable case for it... Originally, I used Lego while I was waiting for the right case to come up at the right time, sadly no pics of this but it was just a Lego box... I found this on eBay very locally and got it for the princely sum of £2.50 and then proceeded as per the photo's: 1. MegaDrive arrives on desk with no clue as to the butchery that is about to occur:  2. Gut the thing:   3. Added something for phase 2 of the build. This is the guts from a Windows Media Centre IR receiver, You can see where it sits and will be connected when I get round to getting the soldering iron out and shortening the cable. There will be a smoked piece of plastic to go over the old joypad ports.  4. Size up the best position for the Pi. It is amazing that the credit card sized piece of circuitry on the left is a full computer capable of running Hi Def video! The consideration here was to line up the HDMI port of the Pi to the available slot on the back as HDMI cables are not hugely flexy (The ones I have to hand anyway).  5. Mounting the Pi was the next issue but using some Superglue and some spare Lego bits, a solution was found:  6. Then it was time to load the new Release Candidate to an SD card and boot off this. In a reassuringly short amount of time:  I am using the iphone app for the control of the XBMC at the moment, but I want to get a proper remote for it at some stage hence the infra red adaptor going in now. I want to get the red LED on top of the Megadrive to be lit when it is on and also set up a switch on the power button as well! So there you have phase one of my retro console looking modern media player! Thanks. Rysz. |
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ThePollitt
Posted a lot
Fix up, look... at that car on eBay!
Posts: 4,696
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Jun 24, 2012 13:23:38 GMT
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 That said, I applaud your ingenuity. I love the old MD case being employed in such a way. Also, I now find myself reading a about these Raspberry things. A lot. I look forward to seeing, and hopefully understanding more soon! Chris |
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Last Edit: Jun 24, 2012 13:24:19 GMT by ThePollitt
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scruff
Part of things
Posts: 621
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Jun 24, 2012 17:29:47 GMT
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Genious nice work!
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1994 Lotus Esprit - Fragile red turbo with pop up lights.
1980 Porsche 924 - Fragile red turbo with pop up lights.
I spy a trend...
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Jun 25, 2012 10:32:02 GMT
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Great stuff... Contemplating ordering one to run as a media centre in my bedroom but I have nob-all *nix skillz.
*n
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Top grammar tips!
Bought = purchased. Brought = relocated
Lose = misplace/opposite of win. Loose = your mum
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rysz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,554
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Jun 25, 2012 10:42:41 GMT
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Great stuff... Contemplating ordering one to run as a media centre in my bedroom but I have nob-all *nix skillz. *n You need absolutely ZERO 'nix skills for XBMC on these. I would recommend it to anyone that needs a silent media centre for home! Check the link for RaspBMC above for more info! Beware, there is still hell of a waiting list for these bad boys! Rysz. |
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prey
Part of things
Posts: 856
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Jun 25, 2012 14:15:36 GMT
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i have one on order! looking forward to it coming now.
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nutter81
Part of things
I joined facebook so i could talk to the missus
Posts: 928
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Jun 25, 2012 14:52:24 GMT
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just put in an interest to see what all the fuss is about
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Jun 25, 2012 18:53:49 GMT
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Theoretically, mine should arrive this week. I too want it as a media centre, but in the back of the car.
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eBay Rare
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rysz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,554
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Jun 25, 2012 19:18:18 GMT
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Theoretically, mine should arrive this week. I too want it as a media centre, but in the back of the car. I look forward to seeing how that works! How are you controlling it in the car? The XBMC app for the iphone and the android are pretty darned good and eventually, I may invest in a cheap table to control it... Rysz. |
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matto
Part of things
Posts: 222
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Jun 25, 2012 21:11:20 GMT
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Looks like I'll be getting one quite soon too!
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Jun 26, 2012 17:46:15 GMT
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Mine arrived to day, been stuggling with Debian Squeeze for the past couple of hours.... :-D Going to hit the RaspPI forums to see which one is best, as I'd like to at least function as a baby computer......although it stikes me it would be cool to have it in the car as a media player..  |
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MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,961
Club RR Member Number: 29
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Jun 26, 2012 18:47:57 GMT
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Looks like I'll be getting one quite soon too! and me! |
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1990 Mazda MX-52012 BMW 118i (170bhp) - white appliance 2011 Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4 2003 Land Rover Discovery II TD52007 Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon JTDm
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Jun 27, 2012 12:22:10 GMT
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....I may invest in a cheap table to control it... I have a cool 1960's coffee table I could lend you? It's light enough to easily lift and poke at things so should be quite usable, whilst also looking nice and retro at the same time.  Good work there Dude, like Pollitt and others, I don't understand these things either. If I were to get one it would just end up as a scary electrical component staring ominously at me while I stare back in utter confusion of how to feed all my tunes/photos/whatever into the thing. Before knowing how to swtich the thing on. Or even get any kind of life out of it....let alone making it work properly! I'll sit back and leave it to capable people like yourself who undertand this wierd electrickery stuff and know how to tame all the html/dos/bios/java/vbscript/scarystuff into something that works and doesn't create sparks or smoke. Looking forward to more updates. ;D |
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rysz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,554
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Jun 27, 2012 12:36:50 GMT
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....I may invest in a cheap table to control it... I have a cool 1960's coffee table I could lend you? It's light enough to easily lift and poke at things so should be quite usable, whilst also looking nice and retro at the same time. Done deal! ;D I am at the moment having silly thoughts about modding an old nes or mega drive joypad into an infrared remote for it... No updates at the moment, time is just against me at the moment and we are just enjoying using it! Thanks y'all! Rysz. |
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Jun 27, 2012 13:53:04 GMT
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Megadrive makes soopahfly sad  Couldn't you have killed a Snes instead  |
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Last Edit: Jun 27, 2012 13:53:33 GMT by Soopahfly
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rysz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,554
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Jun 27, 2012 14:12:14 GMT
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Megadrive makes soopahfly sad Couldn't you have killed a Snes instead It was the wrong colour, it was hard enough getting the Megadrive past SWMBO anyway! I missed out on a JDM Y0! Megadrive from the same seller for 20p as well which would have drastically improved my geek / retro credentials! Rysz. |
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Jun 28, 2012 12:18:54 GMT
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Theoretically, mine should arrive this week. I too want it as a media centre, but in the back of the car. I look forward to seeing how that works! How are you controlling it in the car? I'm thinking a small bluetooth keyboard or pad. Power from a cigarette USB adapter, I have a 80Gb HDD and then buy a cheap supermarket 16" LCD TV. My Altea has a rear passenger 12V out and a roomy armrest between the front seats. We'll see though. I also want to try and run a games console emulator on it, but lack the necessary brain power. But isn't that the point of it, to learn?!? |
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eBay Rare
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Nathan
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,626
Club RR Member Number: 1
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Raspberry Pi Media Centre.Nathan
@bgtmidget7476
Club Retro Rides Member 1
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Jun 28, 2012 12:45:46 GMT
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May as well add mine to this: Had it for quite a while now and pretty much using this to replace my PopcornHour.....Unlike Rysz I found issues with the default build of RASPBMC so had to strip it back a bit and add some extra tweeks. However this was more due to me having odd files I wanted to run (Alas these would run on the PopcornHour which is also Linux based). Anyway I looked at different case ideas from, Megadrive Carts, Nindendo Carts and controllers, Super8 boxes even a double Din removable facia. All seemed fine until you fire a highdef movie at it as the heat created gets a little too high........So being an IT Geek I decided on this: Iomega ZIP drive  Perfect spacing and enough room for heat etc, also the plastic is very soft so cutting was easy. At first I made sure the device was running correctly:  Then made sure it can speak to my server and read the YAMJ Catalogue for Box Art (My little addition as I found it got too many wrong and changing at least 500 video files to what they want it to be named is annoying!).  Then its onto the box:    Playing HighDef to the TV via Ethernet from the server in my garage   Inside  In the dark, HAL look  Also as Rysz said the off the shelf Remotes are excellent, its all IP control so you need to have them connected via Wifi etc and very simple to setup. If you have a tablet you can also do some funky things like look at the Catalogue of Video Art and select what to play etc. I stripped down the Android version and added a delay feature that sets when the movie starts, also added some extras to the Linux Distro like TV source switch and power on etc. Here is the Tablet view.  Web Portal, this you will get as standard via browsing to the device on any computer  Also like Rysz said this stuff is VERY VERY simple, RASPBMC have everything you need however it is still in BETA so some bugs could crop up...Its only when asking it to do a little more will you get issues. However there are a few on here who can help, I can offer my build if you get issues like I did etc. I'm unsure if the Standard RASPBMC also allows you to drop back to Linux Desktop mode, pretty sure OpenELEC does which is as added bonus if you still want the computer aspect. |
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Last Edit: Jun 28, 2012 12:47:12 GMT by Nathan
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Nathan
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,626
Club RR Member Number: 1
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Raspberry Pi Media Centre.Nathan
@bgtmidget7476
Club Retro Rides Member 1
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Jun 28, 2012 12:51:57 GMT
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Forgot to say, these things are limited power so power hungry K/Boards and mouse will give you issues and USB powered HDDs are a No No.
Powering the Unit, I heard mixed info about different chargers. TBH I tried a few that did not work but then used a Samsung Galaxy S charger and it did.
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rysz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,554
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Jun 28, 2012 14:08:45 GMT
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Forgot to say, these things are limited power so power hungry K/Boards and mouse will give you issues and USB powered HDDs are a No No. Powering the Unit, I heard mixed info about different chargers. TBH I tried a few that did not work but then used a Samsung Galaxy S charger and it did. This is true, I use a spare iphone charger that I had kicking around, really you want something that will push out 5V @ 1A. Rysz. |
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