Today I sat down at the project table and cut some more foam for the mockup/mold for the all-in-one case. I love foam board and hot glue as a build medium. It's cheap, It's light weight and hot glue loves it. I cut a rectangular piece and tore the paper off covering one side. This allows me to roll the piece over the side of the table giving it a curve. I taped that piece into place on the back so it acted like a hinge, then I laid down some hot glue. Next I made some more poster board templates for the sides of the mold. After cutting them out I glued them on in a fin-like arrangement. Here's a time-lapse of the entire session. The next thing I'll need to do is fill in the spaces between the fins and shape it over. I'm thinking about using a foam material like pink insulation foam or maybe something like Great Stuff spray foam. Both would be rigid and able to be sanded.
Before I can order a controller board I need to find out the model of the LCD panel. So it's time to take apart a laptop. Actually it's not too hard to pull a LCD screen, unscrew a few screws and some unsnapping.
I wanted to keep some of the mounting hardware but that meant getting serious. The mounting bracket was riveted to the lid hinge so I took some drastic measures.
I didn't mind doing irreversible damage, This laptop was never going to be used again in it's present form.
The Dremmel cut through the hinges like butter and the LCD was free with mounting points included.
Next I decided to put together a mock up of what I'd like this all-in-one to look like. I started by sketching the face onto foam board.
Next I made some templates and cut out a few pieces.
I love hot glue. It works spectacularly with foam board and I started to assemble the parts to give my PiMac an skeleton.
The next thing to do is fill in the ends so they round over. This will give the shape for the back shell of the computer.
It was my second year of college when Apple launched their very stylish all-in-one G3 iMac computer. Higher education loves Apple. It was easily the computing solution of choice among graphic design and media students as well as snooty tenured faculty. Windows 98 was brand new and not much of an improvement over '95. The iMac on the other hand always worked, didn't need to be rebooted every day, was incredibly cute/hip/stylin' and most of all it was contained in a lovely portable all-in-one package. It even had a handle to make moving in and out of the dorm a mere effortless task.
I remember at the time thinking that the iMac looked like some of those space age TVs of the 60s & 70s.
The JVC Videoshpere
Britain's Keracolor TVs
Panasonic's Orbitel This got me thinking about making a Raspberry Pi based all-in-one computer in the style of one of these retro TV's. My daughter has been bugging me about getting her a Raspberry Pi computer. This could be something she could have in her room. I can have the advantage of having a swapable OS, free office apps and retro gaming all in a cute package. The first step is to round up the parts I'll need. I've got a short stack of non-working laptops (I call them craptops) that I can harvest the LCD screens out of.
I already have a Raspberry PI 2 B model that can be the brain. I'll let her pick out a keyboard and mouse when the computer is closer to being done or maybe I'll try to find an old iMac mouse/keyboard pair. I will need to get a LCD controller board and check the second hand stores for a pair of cheap computer speakers. Time to do some shopping.
