Summary
- 3D-printed Simpsons TV + Raspberry Pi 4B recreates authentic 4:3 set, plays first 11 seasons.
- Four live channels, static animations on channel changes, knob controls with mute/power push.
- Switch flips between TV and Game mode; Pi 4B + SSDs let it double as a retro gaming machine.
I’m starting to believe that the ultimate combo for tinkerers is some kind of computing device and a 3D printer. Once you mash the two together, there’s really no limit on the kind of stuff you can make, and we’ve seen some wild inventions already. However, I think this Simpsons TV powered by a Raspberry Pi 4B is one of my favorite examples of a 3D printed shell getting a digital enhancement in recent memory, and it can even function as a games machine.
This Simpsons TV looks and feels just like the real thing
Well, the fictional real thing. You know what I mean
Over on the Raspberry Pi subreddit, user adrury is showing off what they made. To create it, they took a Simpsons TV project that got posted years ago, and combined it with a gaming mode and a collection of Simpsons TV static animations as a nice touch. The end result is pretty amazing:
The TV has four channels that are always on and playing, simulating a live broadcast. One knob controls volume, with push-to-mute. The other controls the channel, with push to turn the screen off and mute. It’s got a toggle switch on the back which controls whether it’s in Game mode or TV mode.
It’s got a Raspberry Pi 4b inside, with a few SSDs I had lying around. The screen is a cheap HDMI screen that’s designed for car displays. I chose it as I really wanted it to have the classic 4:3 aspect ratio of the earlier seasons.
You can see in the video above how the TV looks and feels. Every time adrury changes the channel, it plays one of the Simpsons TV static animations, which is an excellent touch and prevents breaking the immersion. Plus, gaming on this little device looks like a blast; it has that cool 90s retro vibe to it. Excellent stuff.
- Storage
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MicroSD card slot
- CPU
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Arm Cortex-a72 (quad-core, 1.8GHz)
- Memory
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1GB, 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB of LPDDR4
- Operating System
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Raspberry Pi (Official)
- Ports
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2x USB-A 3.0, 2x USB-A 2.0, 40-pin GPIO, 2x micro-HDMI, 2-lane MIPI DSI display port, 2-lane MIPI CSI camera port, 4-pole stereo audio and composite port, microSD card slot, USB-C (for 5V power), Gigabit Ethernet
- GPU
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VideoCore VI
