Tangential post

This is a tangential post.

So I know I said in my last post how I was probably going to relaunch the E.D.D.I.E. project under Raspberry Pi instead of Arduino, and well.....I did.

So let's run this down, old-school-style:

Hardware:

1) Raspberry Pi Zero WH ( I specifically selected this so I could have the glasses not be bulky with an oversized board mounted on it.)

2) There's no other hardware.....except for one SPECIAL thing, but I'll introduce that later.

Software:

1) Nothing special, just the standard Raspbian image download thingy. (I'm super duper professional, trust me, you guys.)

Also, if this post sounds kinda unpolished, its because I'm typing this late at night and I really don't feel like staying up longer. I don't know why I'm doing this, no one is forcing me to do this, but I'm doing it anyway. 

Well, I guess I can just edit stuff later if I want to.

So now, we get into the meat of this post. 

You know how the Raspberry Pi requires a display and stuff. Most people just use a spare monitor, but I don't have those kinda peripherals lying around. 

So I had this flash of brilliance. I've seen many videos where people pick apart old electronics and repurpose the screens for other uses. So I could probably do the same thing and create my very own display module.

So there began my quest to create this fabled display module. I found this old Sansui Portable DVD Player that still worked. So I thought I could pick apart the thing and use the LCD screen inside to make the display module.

Now, you guys need a bit of backstory to understand this next part. This DVD Player was a gift from my parents. It was like something they bought for me to play my cartoon DVDs in. (Remember those?)

If you guys are wondering, I owned a couple of cartoon DVDs including Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Tom and Jerry, Charlie Chaplin, and Pink Panther. I wish I could go back now.

So , obviously, this thing held a special place in my heart. I was sentimentally attached to it:

I cri evrytiem......

You know what's the best part?

If you don't notice it already, the LCD Display is lacking a cable.

So yeah, not only did I break open this childhood gift, but I also broke the cable attached to the LCD, so now all of that effort had gone to waste and that LCD Display was completely useless.

I guess that would never have worked anyway. To use the salvaged LCD screen, I need to get an LCD controller board specific to the model of LCD Display I have. And God knows I searched hours and hours for something to correlate to this LCD screen, but apparently, this particular model is so old that I couldn't find any LCD controller boards. Any controller board I would've bought would've been a gamble anyway, because there was no guarantee that the LCD Display would work with that particular LCD controller board.

While I was stuck in this dilemma, I kept tinkering with the LCD screen to keep checking if it still worked. And I noticed how I had somehow ended up cutting the ribbon cable while removing it from the chassis. When I fired up the display, it only showed a white screen. And after so much investigation, I finally noticed this tiny tear in the ribbon cable that kept getting bigger every time I connected the LCD display to a power source. At some point, it started smoking and fuming and I decided it was time to get rid of the LCD cable completely. But what I didn't realize is that the cable wasn't detachable and I ended up tearing off the cable completely. So there was no use in it anymore.

But I didn't stop there. Like the horrible child I was, I  made my parents buy a specific NEW LCD display that came with its own controller board and was specifically made for Raspberry Pi boards.

eBay was the only place where I could buy this thing. I'd never bought from eBay before, and this was sure to be a remembered experience.

The product was scheduled to be delivered from Jul 7 - Aug 6 ( a pretty huge range), but they delivered it in mid-June.

When the product got delivered to me, I wasn't expecting it at all. It got delivered on this small box and on the top of the box, the receipt for the purchase was taped on. And right there, next to my name, in big, bold letters, were the words: 

'Item purchased  - Cigarette Boxes '

So naturally, I got a mini heart-attack. I got really confused, because not only was I not expecting anything to be delivered to me,  I also hadn't purchased any cigarette boxes.

I was scared because this meant someone had gotten ahold of my account and was making purchases. After a few stressful calls with the deliveryman, I was quickly informed that websites do this thing where they write something else on the box, but ship something else.

So I opened up the box and found the LCD screen inside. Now I have no idea WHY eBay did that, or why anyone in the shipment process would think that was a good idea.  Look, I'm not an idiot. If I wanted to smoke and commit slow suicide, I would just get a pack from the local store or something. 

That was a huge tangent.

Anyway, after I received that, I got to work on creating the display module.

You guys know this thing called the PiTop? It's like a laptop but without the brain. The PiTop is used to program Raspberry Pi boards. But it's real pricey. So I decided to build my own PiTop.

Using the LCD screen and another purchased keyboard-and-touchpad device, I created a case where I can connect my boards and program them. The case itself is not Raspberry Pi reliant. It's an independent display module:

The display module works!

This is a top-view. That's where the ports are located. Ideally, I'd like them to be on the side, but due to the board placements, I had to make them stand out on the top.

This is a view of the Raspberry Pi board

This is what the case looks like after mounting the display module and keyboard inside it.
The case is an old DVD case that I repurposed.

Launching the Pi Zero after mounting it

Raspbian OS startup screen

Raspbian home screen

This is a view of the keyboard. It was pretty cheap tbh.

Raspbian start menu

Ports on top of the case

A little personal branding never hurt anyone

The End. What a wonderful story.