Apr 12, 2017 | By Benedict
Looking for a “fresh” 3D printing challenge? YouTuber and 3D printing enthusiast Sudomod has, with the help of some 3D printed parts, turned an Altoids mint tin into a Raspberry Pi game console that fits in your pocket. The mintyPi 2.0 uses WiFi and USB sound.
Environmentally conscious people are always reminding us about the dangers of excessive packaging. Virtually every time we go to the supermarket, we return with mountains of plastic and cardboard—sure, it keeps our food handily wrapped up, but a lot of that packaging ends up in the trash, and eventually in a landfill.
With that in mind, it seems odd that a product as understated as mints would still demand a sturdy metal container, as though the breath-freshening pebbles inside are some dangerous animal being transported from country to country. Yet there they are, just above the chewing gum, shining at you like glistening chrome vehicles in a showroom.
Fortunately, 3D printing enthusiast Sudomod has just 100% validated the elaborate (yet undeniably stylish) Altoids mint tin via one slick Raspberry Pi project: the mintyPi 2.0. With the help of some precisely modeled 3D printed parts, the maker has managed to turn an empty Altoids tin into a fully functioning Raspberry Pi game console, and it’s easily one of the coolest 3D printed Pi mods we’ve ever seen.
“I’ve been working on a much-improved version of the mintyPi project I showed off a while back,” Sudomod says. “It uses 3D printed parts to drastically improve the look and comfort of it, so it’s actually something you wouldn’t mind sticking in your pocket and playing games on.”
As the maker says, this is a new version of the existing mintyPi that introduces 3D printed parts and a few extra neat features that weren’t present in the original. The new console includes an integrated hinge to hold the screen up while you play, a bigger display, USB sound instead of PWM audio, and WiFi provided by the Raspberry Pi Zero W. Like the original, the mintyPi 2.0 runs emulating platform RetroPie.
Sudomod is currently putting together a detailed guide that will instruct makers how to build their own Altoids-contained Raspberry Pi game console. Until then, keen makers must ask themselves one important question: which color tin will I choose?
For more Gameboy-style game consoles that you can build yourself, check out Adafruit’s PiGRRL Zero or the recently Kickstarter-backed MAKERbuino.
Posted in Fun with 3D Printing
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When will the guide come out?
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