There’s building small computers — like the Raspberry Pi — and then there’s building small computers — like this Desktop Viewer from Star Trek.
[Monta Elkins] is using a Beetle for this project; it’s an Arduino clone, hosting the ATMega32U4 microcontroller, with a unique feature that allows you to twist connecting wires to secure them to the board. Instead, [Elkins] went with the logical choice of soldering them. For a display, he used a SPI serial OLED 128 x 64 monochrome screen which he has cycling through a number of iconic Star Trek TOS symbols and animations. The images were converted into PROGMEM — which gets loaded into flash memory — before finally being uploaded to the Beetle.
Following some fine 3D print work in ABS plastic which rendered the Desktop Viewer’s case, [Elkins] used acetone to solvent-weld the pieces together and applied a quick coat of paint to finish it off. This little replica would make a great desktop gadget as it requires a micro-USB to power the device.
While this little display ornaments your workspace, you can further dazzle any visitors with a pneumatic door and your LCARS-inspired home automation system.
LOL, Robot Chicken on HaD!
Wow, it’s a really big nine-year-old! Never grow up!
Only three words to comment this gizmo: NOT A HACK.
It appears he’s leveraging work done by someone else, wheres the link/credit ?
Hahahahaha. Coke and Strippers. True, not a hack but still very fun to watch. It demonstrates to people never exposed to the basic modern method of making an electronic widget. We need more stuff like this. Additionally for those who comment on the demeanor of the gentleman who made it I say this. You make video content and try to compete with the crazy stuff out there. If you don’t explode of the screen people will not listen. Think old time car lot commercials. We are crazy. Come before they haul me away or I will stand on my head to make you a deal. That’s a micro version of what you tube has become. You have to be your own cheer leader.
I really liked it and thought it was awesome. Some people are just sticks in the mud.
Even when filming ToS, Bill had to battle to maintain the physique the producers wanted. I seem to remember stories of heated encounters on the matter. Some people are potentially predisposed towards portliness.
I think a bit of amber cellophane over the OLED display and it’d much closer match the amber display of the screen shown in that still from the Star Trek series.
I actually looked at the video though wondering what this Beetle dev board was… my my, all those GPIO pins and they expose just 6.