Hello fellow readers and fixers! We have been working on a project that uses an external hard drive case as a media centre PC. But while it has been on the back burner lately, we’re still looking to finish the project! So let’s recap on where we’re up to at this time.
How it all started
I had a Lacie external hard drive that was not being used for data backups or playing media through a TV. It is a 750 GB model from around 2008 or 2009, and that’s a lot of storage space back then! External hard drives usually connect to computers with a USB cable, though some larger drives also need an AC adapter to stay powered on.
It was a shame to throw away an otherwise perfectly usable external hard drive. Especially one that I can re-purpose for something else. And so I thought, “Why not turn it into a media centre PC?”
Starting the project
So one day, I brought my external hard drive into our repair cafes, and began taking it apart. A pair of plastic panels held the casing together, and they needed a screwdriver to slide them open. However, doing so scuffed the base of the case, where the opening is for inserting the screwdriver…
After that, the metal cover slided off, revealing a thin metal cover and the SATA hard drive. The metal cover was easy to remove by pulling it out, while four screws held the hard drive in place. The circuit board for the SATA and USB connectors and power jack was removed by removing four screws holding it in place. The bottom metal plate had plastic rivets securing it in place, and a firm pull freed it from the case.
Choosing our desired parts
There are various single-board computers that are compact enough for use as part of a media centre PC. We opted for the Pine H64, as it was readily available at the time as a good alternative to a Raspberry Pi. When we tried it out, we noticed that video playback was choppy with no heat sink applied. Therefore, we knew that we will need some form of cooling solution for our build.
In our store room, I salvaged some chipset heat sinks from old desktop PC motherboards. But when I placed each of them on top of the system on chip, they turned out to be impractical. Because they were touching other components on the board, using them as is could cause short circuits. Thus, we could not risk ruining the Pine H64 board in that way, so we bought some small heat sinks to use instead.
I also salvaged some air blower fans from some old laptops. These expel heat from laptops by drawing cool air from underneath, and pushing that air through the heat sink fins and out of the laptop. Active cooling is an option that we’re considering for our build, since airflow will be an important factor.
Where we’re at now
One of our main challenges is to position the Pine H64 in a way that makes best use of the built-in ports we want to use. We recently bought various short cables to use as pass through cables for other desired connectors. There’s also a removable eMMC module that we’ll use for the operating system.
Gareth is making a new front panel that also serves as a circuit board for adding more features. It will help make it easier for us to use the infrared sensor on the Pine H64 as well. Anyway, one day he tried to install a power switch to the existing front panel. Unfortunately, the panel sustained a large crack while he made a hole for the switch. It can still be used, but it will need some glue to repair the crack.
Despite some hiccups along the way, we’re hopeful that we can finish the media centre project. And of course, show it off in full working glory! So in the meantime, keep calm and just keep on fixing!