Mononymous maker Andus has turned the chassis from a long-deceased Blu-ray participant into one thing a little bit extra helpful than scrap steel: a Raspberry Pi-powered media participant, dubbed the PioneerPi.
“I had a damaged Pioneer Blu-ray participant mendacity round, simply taking over house,” Andus explains of the mission’s origins. “As an alternative of tossing it, I believed it could be enjoyable to tear out the insides and see if I may squeeze one thing extra helpful inside. The concept: preserve the case, however swap out the center for contemporary {hardware}. Whereas the Blu-Ray Participant itself was not good for a lot anymore, the case was stable and nonetheless seemed good alongside the TV.”
The housing from a useless Blu-ray participant wants solely a little bit of “mild” modification and a few 3D-printed brackets to accommodate a Raspberry Pi. (📷: Andus)
Andus’ work on the mission was sped by the choice to drop the entire authentic electronics, together with the Blu-ray drive. As a replacement is a Raspberry Pi 3 Mannequin B single-board pc — a few generations behind the newest Raspberry Pi 5, however having {hardware} video codecs lacking from the newer mannequin to make up for its poorer-performing CPU and GPU — and a slimline DVD drive, tailored to USB with a low-cost off-the-shelf converter.
“To make all of it match, I 3D-printed some customized mounts. These stored the Raspberry Pi and cables steady contained in the case as a substitute of simply flying round. This was truly the primary time I ever designed fashions myself, so it was a fairly new however enjoyable expertise. As soon as the mounts have been in place, the Raspberry Pi sat neatly inside. The DVD drive didn’t fairly match the present slot at first, so I made it match by fastidiously drilling by means of the highest a part of the opening to make it larger.”
A alternative optical drive means the brand new system can nonetheless play DVDs, however not Blu-rays. (📷: Andus)
The Raspberry Pi contained in the reclaimed housing runs LibreELEC, which offers a big-screen interface for media streaming and optical disc playback — together with help for in style streaming companies like Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and YouTube. Whereas there isn’t any bodily distant, an app on the telephone offers an equal — and a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse offers a strategy to work together instantly, and even to play emulated retro video games on the large display screen.
The total mission write-up is on the market on Andus’s weblog.
