I wanted to have my personlal, nice looking Mediabox with a big display and remote control. I’ ve been playing around with the Raspberry for a while so I decided this would be the platform of choice for this project. I’ m actually a fan of Steampunk so I decided to use a Steampunkish style for the box.
Features:
- Raspbmc user interface accessible via a 7″ inbuilt display
- control via any IR remote
- control via web interface
- control via smartphone / tablett app
- audio output via Cinch
- Samba, FTP support
Step 1: Needed Parts and Tools
Parts
Here is a list of the basic parts I used for building the MediaBox:
- Raspberry Pi Model B: 30..35€
- a small SD card (256MB or so)
- USB stick for the operating system (2GB)
- USB hub with power supply
- 7″ Display set from Pollin 39,95€
- Edimax WLAN stick: 7,99€
- Flirc IR remote control USB dongle: 19,00€
- Speedlink Vigo USB soundcard: 11,95
- wooden box from the art supply store (W240mm x H180mm x D145mm)
- small wooden bar (about 100mm x 5mm x 5mm)
- brass spray
- junction box with 3 spaces
- Velcro tape
All together the whole thing will cost you about 130€.
Tools
For cutting the holes in the wooden box I used a Dremel. If you don’ t have one you can use a coping saw. Also you will need:
- sandpaper for smoothing the edges
- wood glue for the wooden bars holding the display in place
- wood drills for the supply cable
Step 2: Mounting the display
The display set comes in three parts: the actual display, the main board and the control panel. All three parts of are connected quite easily by plugging the flat cables in the appropriate plugs according to the manual.
For mounting the display to the wooden box you have to cut a rectangle. I used a Dremel with a straight edge guide (Dremel 678) here. Surely one can also use a coping saw. Don’ t cut the rectangle to big because you have to smoothen the edges with sandpaper afterwards.
For more detail: Raspbmc Mediabox Steampunk style
