BenchoffHey, I made a bunch of weird, quarter-scale retrocomputers. This is a thread, so feel free to share.
Or check out the documentation in non-mastodon form:
First up, and probably the best: the eMachines 'Never Obsolete'. The circa 2001 computer (with anachronistic Y2K sticker) sold in Circut City and Best Buy.
Inside is a Raspberry Pi 4. The outside is loaded up with stickers. Zoom in!
Those are waterslide decals, or the best way to put white text on something. it was done on an Alps dye-sub printer with waterslide decal paper. 75x50mm.
The interior of the eMachines is built on a chassis, with the front panel and outer shell just snap-fit on.
The other decals on the sticker sheet? Yeah, that's an SGI Indy. Raspberry Pi 4 again, with a right-angle HDMI adapter board.
Again, 3D printed, and again a Raspi 4. The tricky bit is the front panel, with integrated square LEDs. These are controlled by the raspi through an I2C GPIO expander.
How about something weirder than a BeBox? Here's an x68000. This is actually a kit, or model, for a Pi 2/3. I got this in Japan, just needed paint.
curious@violenceworks these are all lovely - as I’m not much for fabricating my own stuff these days, do you remember where you picked this kit up from? Thanks for sharing your builds!
https://www.hlj.com/1-4-scale-raspberry-pi-case-x68000-1st-hmt64203-2
Got it in a used video game store in Osaka. Out of stock on the website, but you might be able to find it elsewhere.
Raspberry Pi Case X68000 1st | HLJ.com
Helmets brings to you this highly detailed 1/4 scale plastic model kit of the X68000 Raspberry Pi Case as shown in the photos. The Raspberry PI is a learning minicomputer developed in the UK. It is an excellent computer that can be used practically while being very inexpensive. Order today!Contents: ABS runner x1, waterslide decal x1, acrylic button x1, instruction manualApplicable model: Raspberry Pi 2/3 model B / B +Scale: about 1/4Package dimensions: 270mm x 150mm x 35mm
@violenceworks Thanks! After a bit of fishing around, it does seem they're still in stock at Beep!
But what about a monitor? Sure thing. Here's a tiny Viewsonic monitor. The panel and HDMI board came from AliExpress, the resolution is 1440x1600, which is crazy for a 3.5" display.
Anyway, yeah. Tiny retrocomputers. I have all the STLs and stuff you need to build your own. You can find links to those on the project page: https://bbenchoff.github.io/pages/BeBox.html
Feel free to share
Some people have suggest what computer I'm going to do next, and, duh, the answer is a Thinking Machine CM-5, with 8x78 LED display.
I think the micro CM-5 would be about 260mm by 65mm on the front. This is from some quick layout of what the LED matrix would look like.
That's a lot of space, and I don't know what I'd do with it. Put hard drives in the case? Make it a supercomputer NAS? No idea what to do with something this big.
Oh sweet it would be about as wide as a 2.5" SSD.
So there we go. CM-5 RAID NAS
Quick but of modelling and printing, made something to serve as a size comparison.
Yeah. It's big.
Anthony Sorace@violenceworks As soon as I saw your stuff, I thought about this, which I’d love to see your take on: http://www.clustered-pi.com/blog/clustered-pi-zero.html
Eli the Bearded@violenceworks These are great. Now someone needs to make scale inputs like keyboard / mouse / trackball for a full micro experience
@elithebearded I have the stuff for a scale keyboard, and I think the mouse is possible.
Tim of the Cade@violenceworks This is fucking AWESOME. I just got a 3D printer, so I may give this a go when I get it set up.
Michael K Johnson@trevorflowers these would look right at home next to one of your 1:6 memex builds. 😁
Trevor Flowers@mcdanlj Well, those are adorable. I particularly like that they added the blinkenlights.
Pete Wright@violenceworks that looked like a lot of fun to put together!
Mike [SEC=OFFICIAL]@violenceworks do you do commissions because holy shit it has been a dream of mine to have a VAX 11/780 case for a raspberry pi for a long time now!
This? Yeah, that can be done on a filament printer. It's just paint and decals.
To do this I'd need an Alps dye-sub printer, but if you want I can model it up for you. Probably with the Pi ports coming out the side instead of the back.
@violenceworks in going to bookmark this and start a conversation about this when I'm not on my phone at a bar. 😁 I'm totally clueless about printing stuff but I've never really considered it possible until now.
@mike Cool. But just warning you, for a vax it's basically _just a box_ and a painting and decal project.
@violenceworks I have a photo saved somewhere I'm sure that had the main unit with a tape drive on one side and my thought was "oh that'd be neat".
But yeah, when I'm not at the pub I might go down this rabbit hole. 😁
Gary@violenceworks @mike +1 here for a VAX to put a raspi in. In it would look lovely sat on the desk next to my real microvax 3100, all clustered up. A VAX 4000/500 would look even better (I had a real one but it died on me)
HarmonicOcelot!@violenceworks that is so cute! 
DDR@violenceworks, it's so cute!
Tim Aidley@violenceworks BeBox...
mtillman@violenceworks want this bad. Also, I’m convinced that your O2 case if it existed would be easier to keep in one piece than a real one.
Jumar Macato@violenceworks hope you can make an Octane as well! 😇
AaronXR@violenceworks These are adorable!
Dan Wearsch 🏳️⚧️@violenceworks OMG such an amazing job. I had a sysadmin job in the early 2000s and I had to support dozens of those mini towers and they were terrible. My greatest achievement in that role was the day I retired the last one.
Bluefox Longtail ΘΔ@violenceworks My first computer was of the same series and appearance, a 1999-ish model with a respectively older processor, and it still sits under my desk. It's awesome to see this quarter scale model of it. I might be tempted to make one myself. Awesome work.
Gen X-Wing@violenceworks Looking awesome! The Indy, X68000, and BeBox are all such cool computers.
Feels like you are missing a fancy Power Mac in there:)
Lawrence@violenceworks @408nate would like this
archlentil@violenceworks so this is why it's impossible to get a raspberry pi right now...
mr_daemon@violenceworks
This is the coolest thing I have seen in a while, once rpis become available again I'm definitely trying my hand at this, thank you so much for sharing the details!
This is the coolest thing I have seen in a while, once rpis become available again I'm definitely trying my hand at this, thank you so much for sharing the details!
Gus@violenceworks haha you're insane! (-ly good!)
Jeff Eckman 🥁@violenceworks UMAX J700 Mac Clone. Go! 😂
ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ@violenceworks Totaly in love. Great work.
Tanja Wawuschel
leyrer@violenceworks AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW <3
SHODAN 
@violenceworks Emachines with a Pi in it is a really neat idea for a retro style case.
Andrew@violenceworks Hey @aurynn this might be a much cheaper way for you to get the Indy vibe going.
Aurynn Shaw
Gallen@violenceworks
That is so cute! Do you have an O2 in the works?
That is so cute! Do you have an O2 in the works?
malducin@violenceworks OMG, that Indy is so awesome, might have to print and move a Pi 4 to that one. If there could be more SGI stuff it would be awesome, but that CM-5 would be great or any Cray stuff.
Matt Richardson 🏳️🌈@violenceworks Love the BeBox!
Pete Prodoehl 🍕@violenceworks These are just straight up awesome and fun. Well done! 👏
Ricardo B�nffy@violenceworks Someone (I'd suggest someone in a reputable museum) should 3D scan classic computers and their parts so that we could 3D print part replacements (and little adorable computers as well).
@rbanffy Okay, first thing you need to realize is that these *are not scale models*. They _look like_ scale models. Directly scaling them down would mean the details are too fine; take a look at the BeBox -- there should be three 5.25" drive bays instead of the logo, but instead I made the logo huge.
It's more impressionistic than a 'scale model'. This is due to simply not being able to get the detail from a 3D printer, or the scaled-down features that would be too small to see.
@violenceworks Oh I know. A scale model wouldn't work well - details would be too small to implement (mostly). And they look better as "kawai" versions of the desktops of yore.
Still, having those 3D scans would, besides the preservation aspect, be a nice starting point for any such work with cartoonish adorable little machines.
@rbanffy I've done something like this -- the CDROM bezel on a Mac Quadra 950, specifically.
The resolution / precision / accuracy of 3D scanning just wasn't there. When I recreated that part, I had to go in with calipers and whatnot. An optical comparator would be even better.
If you want to preserve something, you need multiple museums each having a few copies of the machines you want to preserve. That's the best option right now, until we get Star Trek-level scanning abilities.
@violenceworks I was thinking of industrial-grade scanners for that kind of job. Artec has a couple that can do up to .1mm scans. Of course, these things only get better (if not cheaper - the Artecs have been in the $10-20K range for a couple years now). It is something that museums could get with good museum budgets.