Pi 4 Emulator In A Durable, Dumpstered Cabinet

We must be looking in the wrong Dumpsters, because we never find anything as cool as [Queen_Combat] did. It’s one of those Kidzspace kid-proof waiting room game systems, complete with the original TV and an XBOX 360 that hasn’t been updated since 2009. When life hands you a sturdy game console box, it’s almost your duty to turn it into an all-in-one Raspberry Pi 4 emulation station.

[Queen_Combat] relocated the speakers from the top to the inside, just behind the vent holes on the sides, and printed a couple of mountable custom enclosures to hold them there. These are driven with a little 5W amplifier board, and everything is run from the XBOX’s power supply.

We particularly like the use of extenders in cigarette-lighter form factor, because we hadn’t seen those before. [Queen_Combat] printed a couple of adapters to make them fit nicely into the large holes on the front where the XBOX controllers were once attached — one has a volume knob, and the other has a USB3 port and a 3.5mm audio jack. [Queen_Combat] wanted to have HDMI audio out as well, so there’s an HDMI audio extractor in the mix, too, and another extender around back. Only thing missing is a paint job and some sweet vinyl graphics.

Yes, vinyl graphics would be sweet, but how? Not on the laser cutter, if that’s what you’re thinking. Don’t dismiss vinyl cutters out of hand, because they can do a whole lot more than that.

Via r/raspberry_pi

9 thoughts on “Pi 4 Emulator In A Durable, Dumpstered Cabinet

    1. What? It was an XBox in a box. I don’t see any mention of what he did with the XBox other than I can see he definitely removed it from it’s box. Did I miss something? Where does he say he destroyed it?

      Or are you saying there are collectors of old hospital waiting room game boxes that would have wanted that whole assembly intact? Is that really a thing? I didn’t even know waiting rooms ever had these until I read it here.

  1. “I cleaned it up with a bunch of spray bleach and simple green,”

    Ok. I went to the article looking for this. If something came from a hospital waiting room I really don’t think the importance of this step can be over-estimated. If I had a cauldron I’d boil the sucker. Not having access to that I’d probably chlorinate the bathtub and soak it for a long time.

  2. Explaining for our newer readers, this type of hack is especially difficult where you have to get something as small as a Pi 4 to take up as much room as an Xbox360. It requires a technique called the reverse shoehorn, where you take a standard shoehorn, and making sure no narcs are around that will call the cops, reverse it, so the fat end is in your hand, you then use this in the backward motion to ease the space around the Pi 4 into a tighter fit.

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