If you use home automation these days, you’re probably used to using smart speakers, your smartphone, or those tabletop touchscreen devices. If you wanted something cooler and more personal, you could try building something like [Rick] did.
A Raspberry Pi 400 is the basis for the machine, and it still uses the original keyboard. It’s paired with a 3D-printed shell with a 7″ Waveshare HDMI touch display in it. The LCD is placed behind a Fresnel lens which provides some magnification. It displays a glowing blue command line which accepts text commands. It’s hooked up to the OpenAI API, so it’s a little smarter than just any old regular terminal. It’s hooked up to [Rick’s] home automation system, so he can use natural language queries to control lighting, music, and all the rest. Think Alexa or Siri, but in text form.
The design of the case, with its rounded edges, vents, and thick bezels gives it a strong retro-futuristic look, reminiscent of something out of Fallout. [Rick’s] neat application of weathering techniques helped a lot, too.
It reminds us of some of the cooler Pip Boy builds we’ve seen. Meanwhile, if you’ve got your own creative terminal build in the works, don’t hesitate to drop us a line!
“If you use home automation these days, you’re probably used to using smart speakers, your smartphone, or those tabletop touchscreen devices.” Well I am not one of ‘those’ people. No ‘smart’ devices (as commonly off-the-shelf devices) allowed unless the ‘smarts’ were cobbled together by me. :)
Cool. I like the ease of use. Simple text commands. A lot like say the old Adventure game concept. I’d change the color to green or amber, but that is a personal thing obviously. Not sure about the ‘AI’ (which isn’t AI) stuff being part of my system if it were mine. Nor have access to the internet (which would probably not be available post-Apocalyptic anyway). That said, good job. Gives me some ideas!
TBF there’s not much use in doing DIY smart devices unless you’re making them interface with a smart speaker, phone, or touchscreen.
Otherwise they’re not very smart. They’re just manual but with microcontrollers in them.
“TBF there’s not much use in doing DIY smart devices” .
Right. Maybe I said it wrong… When I think of so called ‘smart’ devices I think of it as a marketing ‘gimmick’ of just a plug in device (buy at Walmart) and then use the manufacturer’s server, app, and/or internet page to control/monitor. No thank you. Rather use my on relay/input to control monitor the device to a ‘local’ controller.
‘Smart’ and ‘AI’ are two words that really don’t mean what they imply….. But great for public consumption. :)
There’s a lot of value to be had in “automanual” stuff. In most cases, one does not really need “smart”, one just needs something to relieve the tedium of adjusting devices based on changing conditions, when a simple rules-based reactive system would be both suitable and superior.
For my money, that is the proper definition of “smart”, although I admit to not having a massive marketing team to hard-sell my definition to the masses.
The old Fresnel lens trick from the movie Brazil is always fun, I like it (even though it’s not a tube screen)
Great look. If I were to live in an old ICBM silo, this would be my terminal of choice.
> ENTER LOUNGE
It is dark.
> TURN ON LIGHT
Sorry, you can’t do that!
> LIGHT ON
You have been eaten by a grue.
You win the comment section!
The link just goes to an image post on X. Is there a project description anywhere?
Like that frame. Is it a found artifact?
Hi, there is plenty of description on the thread under the post on X.
Everything is 3D printed in PETG on a Bambu A1 and finished/coated with different techniques. The Bezel is coated with Plasti-Dip. The Holder is painted with Iron Paint and oxydized.
Which sadly one cannot see unless one wishes to sign up to Twitter/X/ElonWorld/ToxicSocial/etc :-(
(it was nice at least being able to see the two images – more than what has been allowed on Twitter for a while)
You’re right – I put it on hackaday.io: https://hackaday.io/project/196223-post-apocalyptic-terminal
Thanks for that!
I like the idea of a post apocalyptic home automation, where you have all your smart stuff and the nuke-proof terminal, but nothing is working anymore because the light-bulbs and everything requires some cloud server to be turned on which unfortunately is not available any more ;)
Now also on hackaday.io for accessibility:
https://hackaday.io/project/196223-post-apocalyptic-terminal
Ah. Cool. Thanks for that.
Got sum dirt on there you might wanna clean up :^)
Brings up a question… In the supposed post era, everyone likes ‘dirty’ instead of nice and clean??? Will the fashion of the day be ‘dirty is in’? Just a thought….