A child of the hyper-consumerist 80s and 90s, Matt grew up on a steady diet of sugared cereal and UHF television. As such, his sense of nostalgia is driven as much by advertising trends of the era as it is by music or other sociological elements. This leads to an interesting relationship with the winter holiday season, where seasonally-themed television commercials hold as high a place in tradition as any carol, tree, or gift exchange. To celebrate this odd bit of seasonal nostalgia, Matt builds a retro-television-themed ornament from a Raspberry Pi that plays those magical commercials from his youth and is powered by a strand of holiday fairy lights!
Supplemental Content:
- Thrifting: Of Fairy Lights and Guitar Strings
- Fairy Light String Teardown
- How To Add A Speaker To Raspberry Pi
- How To Set Up Adafruit's Raspberry Pi Video Looper
- How To Set Up PiTFT
Bill of Material:
| Product Name | Manufacturer | Quantity | Buy Kit |
|---|---|---|---|
| RPI3-MODAP - Single Board Computer, Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+, BCM2837B0 SoC, Dual-Band WiFi, IoT | Raspberry Pi | 1 | Buy Now |
| T7729DV - AC/DC Power Supply, 1 Output, 15.3 W, 5.1 V, 3 A | Stontronics | 1 | Buy Now |
| WOOD17W1 - 3D Printer Filament, PLA, Wood Effect, 1.75 mm Diameter, 180 mm Spool Diameter, 1kg | MG Chemicals | 1 | Buy Now |
| 2315 - Add-On Board, PiTFT Raspberry Pi HAT, 2.2" TFT Screen, 320 x 240, Non-Touch | Adafruit | 1 | Buy Now |
| 987 - Development Board, Class D Audio Amplifier Module, Stereo, 3.7W, Breadboard Compatible | Adafruit | 1 | Buy Now |
| MYLAR SPEAKER, 36MM DIA, 8OHM, 1W | MULTICOMP | 1 | Buy Now |
Retro TV Ads Holiday Ornament
Top Comments
here is a filament hack, you can use sugarwater to paint on "woodgrain" to the wood filament then shortly hit it with a blowtorch...tada woodgrain look!
Nice build.
If you want a retro challenge, make a set of the old bubble lights.
DAB
I have sugar.
I have paintbrushes.
AND I have a collection of blowtorches....
I may have to attempt this for the inevitable 2.0 revision