Last two days have been like an early Spring after a forever Winter. I have this queue of non-arcade projects I've been looking forward to getting back to. This thread is for those, and for anyone who feels like following along.
First one up will be this new media server I wanted to build. I've made a few home cooked Kodi servers in the past. You can buy cheap media boxes here and there, Fire TV Sticks, Android stuff etc. I like to design and build my own because I can add features to suit my other gear plus make something I like the look of. I got this idea to use modular 3D printed parts along with other materials. Oh yeah, my original plan was to use a Kodi server for streaming, video and music. Then I discovered Volumio and decided to build two matching units, one for video (Kodi player) and the other for music (Volumio player). It's a lot easier to switch a dial between source inputs on my AV amp than it is to fiddle around in Kodi to switch audio settings between digital and analog, but more on that later...
The heart of this is a Raspberry Pi 5. Able to run 4K video at 60fps and paired with a M.2 ssd drive instead of an SD Card. Faster and good for much read/write the NVME SSD seems a good choice.
To start with, some way to connect one of these drives is needed.
It has a fragile ribbon cable connection onto the Pi so needs to be well supported. The media servers are based on 300x300mm sheet aluminum and 3D printed parts. All components can be screwed down onto the base panel.
The Pi 5 will be mildly overclocked to crank the best (reasonable) performance out of the CPU/GPU. That will mean some heat has to be managed with cooling. At the same time I want the enclosure to be as slim as possible.
My plan is take air from underneath using a very quiet 80mm fan and then pass the airflow over the Pi and out the back of the unit.
A 3D printed sort of manifold can do this.
Fitted like this:
The 3D printed parts are made up of corner pieces and edge lengths that slot together. Ultimately these will be painted in the same colors as the plastic.
Each edge has screw fittings for the base plate.
The rear panel has cutouts for connector fittings.
Next, fitting the extra hardware for audio management.