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Hack an Analog TV into a Geek TV
- rubatuga 5y agoPlease don't do this if you care about saving energy. Try getting an eink display instead.
- ddingus 5y agoThe TV shown has modest power requirements. And CRT displays are fun. Whether anyone does this or not will have basically zero impact on energy concerns.
- nwiswell 5y agoThere's something to be said for not sending the TV to the landfill, and I imagine these use less power than a typical incandescent bulb. But more importantly, there's some je ne sais quoi that you just can't get from an e-ink display. Hacking old things and giving them new lives is a pleasure in itself, I suppose.
- IrishJourno 5y agoAuthor of the OC here: yes, the TV consumes 850 mA at 12 V DC, plus the extra dollop needed for the Pi, so it's drawing about 11 Watts — less than a typical CFC, let alone an incandescent :).
- njharman 5y agoNeat, electronic art.
- anthk 5y agoOr download the public domain movies from Peertube (ajroach42) and schedule a playlist. Or maybe run xscreensaver with sfeed and some RSS news feeds. Or maybe as a shitty terminal (good fonts for small displays exists, Unifont should adapt to the worst displays ever).
- IrishJourno 5y agoAuthor of the original article here: I thought about that, but I really wanted to try pulling in live content in the spirit of an original receiver, and it was a little bit of an exercise to figure out the different ways I needed to scrape. But now it's done for Spectrum, I might go back an add it, along with an upgrade to a compute module to handle the demand.
- hakfoo 5y agoI recall going to a restaurant (now defunct) in LA which was trying to be aesthetic and clever in like 2008. One of the decor items was a stack of analogue televisions, tuned to static so they'd glow and flicker, but papier-mache style covered in pages from novels to diffuse the light. I wonder if he put any effort into ensuring ventilation so the sets wouldn't fail, but it was about the time where even thrift shops were beginning to reject tube TVs, so he probably just hit up the free part of Craigslist every time one died.
- tyingq 5y agoFeels like it should have a warning somewhere about the anode circuitry, flyback, and high voltage. If you're planning on doing something like this, you could also look at old CRT Macs, Kaypros, Compaq luggables, etc. There's usually some on eBay that you could gut and put an Rpi in, and other things to play with, like converting the keyboard signals to something the pi could read.
- wazoox 5y agoPlease don't. Don't destroy a repairable old computer to make a novelty item. Generally, don't destroy a piece of original old tech for the sake of it. Would you gut an old Patek Philippe to put a quartz movement inside?
- refactor_master 5y agoIf it retained the aesthetic, why not? After all, that’s what most people are after. An expensive watch is different though. It has little intrinsic value and most people can’t outright tell if it’s “good” or “bad” because it requires knowing the story, and not the technical capabilities. Sort of like diamonds.
- numpad0 5y agoIf you don’t retain the whole deal you’re not retaining the aesthetic, in my opinion.
- shalmanese 5y ago> Would you gut an old Patek Philippe to put a quartz movement inside? Sure, if old Patek Philippes were routinely offered for free on craigslist because the alternative is that they become e-waste.
- tyingq 5y agoGutting them generally doesn't destroy anything. They could list anything they pull out on eBay, which would help anyone trying to get another one working. For the ones I've listed, there's plenty that keep being relisted on eBay, so the demand for them seems low.
- kfarr 5y agoFor me the biggest innovation here is the super clever repurposing of the tuner dial. Also love the static between channels
- IrishJourno 5y agothanks!
- deivid 5y agoI did something similar as a gift for my dad, sadly documented it after the fact (which means missing high quality pics / videos of the process) https://blog.davidv.dev/revamping-an-old-tv-as-a-gift.html https://blog.davidv.dev/revamping-an-old-tv-as-a-gift.html