We’ve seen many inventive enclosures for single board computers over the years: some are decorative, others utilitarian, and yet more tailored to an application. This one from [Daniel Hepper] manages to be all three: a practical enclosure for an OrangePi Zero LTS running the PiHole web spam filter, enclosed in a seemingly unopened Spam tin.
The inspiration came from an out-of-date tin of Spam, a souvenir that had lain around for a decade. It had a paper label that could be carefully removed, after which a Dremel was used to cut an aperture in the reverse of the tin. The tasty-but-expired luncheon meat could then be scooped out, and a 3D-printed carrier for the OrangePi slid in. The label reattached, it looks for all the world like an unopened tin of Spam with a PoE cable emerging from its behind.
The constant war on spam has seen many creative attempts at a solution from within our community, and it’s certain that PiHole is one of the better ways to deal with its web-borne variants. It is however not unknown for a Hackaday scribe to play a part in delivering it.
In Korea you can buy SPAM with a plastic lid. I got 2 cans just for the lids. In Korea SPAM is a big deal. You can also get a SPAM gift set.
Yes! And you can buy single slices of Spam in a plastic pouch! Om nom nom.
Yes, brilliant. Replace recyclable metal and paper with single-use plastic and then charge more for less product.
Couldn’t this have been battery powered with Qi charger to make it wireless?
What would be the point of that?
You’d need a wire for the Q charger, no? ;)
The metal can would block the coil. This is why phones with wireless charging have to have plastic or glass backs, rather than, say, aluminum.
Almost certainly not – metal tin and wireless charging don’t really work, if they work at all.
Cut out the bottom of the tin and replace with the plastic then it becomes somewhat possible, but you would still want that laser or Ethernet network connection – so a cable. radio wireless networking is a bad idea in general, especially for always on fixed devices.
I have a Pi Hole that uses a Pi Zero over wifi, so I guess I’ll have to go to Korea and get a plastic lid to let the RF through.
Maybe they have them in Hawai’i. Spam is popular there for some reason. So is poi. Not a fan of either.
At least poi can be brought in to the 21st century: https://pyroterra.com/visual-poi/
Spam is popular because of WW2, poi is just a traditional Hawaiian food.
10 years and the Spam had expired?
nonsense!
B^)
You can tell it’s still good by the bulging can.
So, what _is_ the terminal use by date of a fully laden tin of spam?
What do you mean? a Korean or an European tin of Spam?
googling says stored in pantry … 3-5 years. I thought it was longer than that….
Neat idea! Spam killer inside :) .
My Pi-Hole is running on a RPI-4 which is also running the PDP 11/70 simulator by Obsolescene Guaranteed, an rdis.io server, time server, and other services for my home network.
Spam in spam? It’s Spamception!
As a child, we used to have Spam and fried Spam by times, particularily when camping. So when I took my friend’s kids to a cottage, I got a number of treats from my childhood, including Spam.
Their reaction? HE’S TRYING TO FEED US CAT FOOD!!!
I have my GPS & Pi based time server in a tea tin from the U.K., with Big Ben on it. I’ve been meaning to get a nice print of the scene from Peter Pan of them flying around Big Ben to put on the tin.
… as a wholesome contrast to icons of the Lady Heather time disciplining software running on the Pi.