If you’ve ever seen the televised cartoon series The Simpsons, you’ve seen their famous purple TV set featured right in the introduction to each episode. This Raspberry Pi project, designed by a maker known on Reddit as Buba447, brings that iconic hardware to life with the help of a 3D printer, a Raspberry Pi and a love for classic cartoons.
Not only does the replica look like the original TV, it also functions as a television. A Raspberry Pi Zero is used to play episodes from the first 11 seasons at random. The media is stored locally and doesn’t require an internet connection to function. It features audio output with a built-in speaker and even has working knobs on the front.
According to Buba447, the Pi Zero is fitted with a 32GB microSD card and outputs to a 640px x 480px TFT display. The housing was designed in Fusion 360 and 3D-printed using an Ender 3 Pro. The best Raspberry Pi projects are ones you can create yourself and Buba447 confirmed there are plans in place to create a tutorial in the future for interested parties.
In the meantime, Buba447 shared a brief overview of the software setup. The Pi is running Jessie Lite and automatically plays The Simpsons episodes in full-screen mode once booted. A Python script is used to randomly select an episode and doesn’t repeat any until all of them have been played at least once. The knobs are wired to the GPIO on the Pi Zero and also function as buttons that can both mute the volume as well as toggle the display.
If you want a closer look, check out the original thread at Reddit and follow Buba447 for the complete tutorial to make one of your own.
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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.
