If you are a maker and if you have been crazy about the satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the “Simpson family”, then you would probably love the fact that someone has imagined a Simpsons TV Build Guide. The maker & software engineer behind this idea is Brandon Withrow who lives by the mantra “Build things that make life better, not easier.”
Anyway, Withrow has imagined a working desktop TV that plays the Simpsons on loop. “This project was born from a childhood spent in front of a TV, playing with Legos. I wanted to recreate the ‘always on’ random nature of television, in a tiny desktop format. The videos are always ‘playing’, even when the screen is off. Like the television in the ancient days before the internet, you just turn it on and watch whatever it gives ya”, he explains.
By combining 3D printing and Raspberry Pi, he successfully creates a 3D printed mini TV which can play the first 11 seasons of The Simpsons. As you may see on the picture below, the mini TV features two buttons which serve to switch on/off the TV and to adjust the volume.
If you are familiar with projects achieved in the maker community, then you have certainly already realized that some interesting projects released out there, have required the combination of 3D printing and Raspberry Pi.
In this specific case, the creator guides you through each step of the manufacturing process: list of parts, tools required, 3D printing, video encoding, hardware Setup, installing the OS, LCD drivers and audio, soldering the power and audio circuit, mounting the components and potential upgrades.
From a manufacturing standpoint, Withrow connects the device to a TFT screen with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. He designs the parts and creates the 3D models using Autodesk Fusion 360 software and for the fabrication, printed them on a Creality Ender 3 Pro 3D printer.
Oh and yes, after compressing the episodes so that they fit the screen measurements, he copied them a USB drive so that whenever the Raspberry Pi is alight via the USB port located on the back, the mini TV starts playing an episode randomly.
You may read the entire building process here.
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