Well, it’s time to work on our media centre build again! After over a year since our last post, we recently had a look into the project again. So, did we make a breakthrough and have a working media centre build? Or, is it yet another case of returning to the drawing board yet again?
Hello once again to our fellow fixers, and readers! Today, we go over how we went on with the project in the quiet periods since last time.
Another candidate for our media centre build
So far, we tried an external hard drive case, and a small speaker case, for installing the single board computer. Oh, and everything else we need for the project. But it turns out neither worked for our needs. So, perhaps third time’s the charm, as people say?! Well, I noticed another item which could be a good candidate…
This is a Pure Evoke 1S. It’s a digital radio with a handle on the top, which makes it easy to transport it around. The side panels of the radio consist of wood, which give it a nice appearance overall. The electronics inside are dead and so this would otherwise go to landfill at worst, or partial recycling at best.
Taking it apart
As before, I dismantled the radio to determine how useful it will be for our media centre build. As I removed the screws which hold the different components in place, they each come out of the case. When I finished the disassembly, we checked over the components to determine which of these we could reuse. Of these, we decided to reuse the speaker and the LCD display.
Also, we needed a way to actually mount the Pine H64 single-board computer inside the radio case. To this end, Gareth 3D-printed the base part of a Pine H64 case; we found a blueprint model for a Pine H64 model B case here. With it at hand, we can modify and adapt it to fit the base the base plate into the case.
We experimented with where we would mount the single-board computer, especially considering how to make use of any working parts from the radio. The position of the SBC is important, as it determines which ports we have access to from outside the base. But try as we might…
Our media centre build hits another snag…
Coleman’s Law strikes yet again! While at first, it looked like we had more room to play with, it turns out the parts we need for a media centre PC, especially the speaker, takes up a fair amount of space inside the case. This makes it difficult to fit in all of the necessary parts we need to use the SBC to its full potential, even if we carefully planned everything out to maximise space efficiency…
So, surely… surely there’s something we have at hand which makes for a suitable host for our media centre build, right?! Well, thankfully, we do have one other candidate we can try…
Enter the Apple iMac G5!
This Apple iMac G5 is an all-in-one PC from 2004 to 2006. This is the 20″ A1076 model we have here, though Apple also produced a compact 17″ version, as well as versions with a webcam in both sizes. It still works, but is really long in the tooth by 2024 standards, so let’s use it to bring it up to modern standards! All it takes to open it up are three captive screws at the bottom edge of the unit, and the back panel lifts away from the computer.
And here are all the gubbins inside the iMac G5! To really make use of the internal space for our media centre build (and there’s plenty of space inside!), I went ahead and stripped out most of the parts from the iMac. There’s an iFixit page for the A1076 model, where there are guides on how to replace the individual parts inside the machine. In the end, I left in the speakers and fans, because they will come in useful for the build. We would also keep the inverter, as we need it to power the display at the front.
The media centre build at this point
And this is where we are at present! We reckon the iMac G5 case is the one which best fits the project, as there’s a lot of space to work with, and we can add in various parts as we see fit. Particularly, Gareth plans to acquire a step-down converter, which converts high voltage current into low-voltage current which powers the Pine H64 SBC. Fingers crossed we manage to make our media-centre project work this time around! And so, on this note, as always, just keep calm and carry on fixing!