Mononymous maker Andus has turned the chassis from a long-deceased Blu-ray participant into one thing just a little extra helpful than scrap metallic: a Raspberry Pi-powered media participant, dubbed the PioneerPi.
“I had a damaged Pioneer Blu-ray participant mendacity round, simply taking over area,” Andus explains of the mission’s origins. “As an alternative of tossing it, I assumed it could be enjoyable to tear out the insides and see if I might squeeze one thing extra helpful inside. The thought: hold the case, however swap out the heart for contemporary {hardware}. Whereas the Blu-Ray Participant itself was not good for a lot anymore, the case was stable and nonetheless appeared 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 an alternative is a Raspberry Pi 3 Mannequin B single-board laptop — 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 saved the Raspberry Pi and cables steady contained in the case as a substitute of simply flying round. This was really the primary time I ever designed fashions myself, so it was a reasonably 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 rigorously drilling by the highest a part of the opening to make it larger.”
A substitute 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 fashionable streaming providers like Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and YouTube. Whereas there is no 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.
The total mission write-up is out there on Andus’s weblog.