The creative exuberance of the Raspberry Pi community never ceases to amaze us. Today, we’ve got a Pi project created by a maker known as Pa55w0rd over at Reddit, which exhibits not only that creative spark but also the beauty that works in tandem with a functional design. Pa55w0rd created a retro-style TV box intended for playing media, gaming and, of course, emulation. The end product is a well-designed unit with an impressive and versatile housing.
At first glance, we see a small TV featuring a wide screen inside a curious 3D-printed shell with sides connected using box joints. Two metal knobs on the front can be pulled to open a drawer. Inside, Pa55w0rd stores a wireless touchpad/keyboard combo device for input. With it, you can navigate the OS and open the media files or programs you want to run.
Pa55w0rd was kind enough to share a breakdown of the hardware used inside. The main board is a Raspberry Pi 4 8 GB model. A Freenove 5-inch screen is used for the display, which has the benefit of being a touchscreen and connecting using IPS. Adafruit Stereo Speakers are used alongside the Adafruit Stereo Speaker Bonnet for audio output. It also uses a SunFounder UPS battery backup for power.
The software used in this project is Raspberry Pi OS—specifically the 32-bit version. To navigate the various programs, Pa55w0rd opted to use Kodi. That said, this configuration would work with other systems as well. For example, you could easily make it an exclusive gaming rig with RetroPie or a dedicated media server with something like Plex or HiFiBerry.
(Image credit: Pa55w0rd/reddit)
Perhaps the most visually striking aspect of this project's design is the case. It's absolutely gorgeous and, according to Pa55w0rd, was designed from scratch just for this project. Pa55w0rd explains that it was designed using Fusion 360. The files were 3D-printed on an Ender 3 Pro using iSanmate brand wood filament.
If you'd like to learn more about this project and get a closer look at how it goes together, check out the original project thread shared to Reddit and be sure to follow Pa55w0rd for future updates.
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Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.
