Simple Media Center

Background

We've accumulated a collection of movie DVDs over the years. Some titles get watched so much that the DVDs have become scratched and nearly unplayable. For these favorite titles I've ripped them onto the computer to allow us to continue watching these favorites without the hassle of loading them up and dealing with the skipping issues. Also, it's just nice to have all the movies, music and other digital media located in a single spot.

Once you have this digital library the next challenge is how to access the content. This is a rabbit hole that can quickly swallow and overwhelm even the savviest of techies. And as usual I always make projects more complex by trying to do them as cheaply as possible.

After going through at least ten different designs for a home theater PC I threw my hands up and just wished for something super-simple that almost anyone could use. But I could not find anything. So I just made my own solution.

The Idea

A method for hosting and presenting digital movies (e.g. movies) that is free, easy to use and easy to maintain.

Progress

Method 1: Chrome + Visual Basic Script (VBS)

This is the method I have been using successfully for years. It requires minimal setup and maintenance and is completely free. It takes about 5 minutes to add new movies.

1. Obtain your media in MP4, M4V,  MPG and/or MPEG format. (I use Handbrake)
2. Copy all your media to a single folder.
3. Create a sub-folder called "thumbnails" and add PNG images files for each movie using the same exact name as the movie file.
4. Run a vbs script, "Create_Movie_Page.vbs" that will create an HTML page in the folder.
5. Open the HTML page in Chrome to see all your movies.
6. Click on any movie to watch!

The code and instructions are hosted on my Github page: Simple-Movie-Server-1

Method 2: Raspberry Pi

Okay, this is free and AWESOME, but not easy.

On road trips we used to take DVD players and mount them on the backs of the seats. This was a decent solution, but had issues managing cords, scratched discs, and the video skipping due to the car bouncing.

I discovered the Raspberry Pi a couple years ago and built a "portable media drive". Now my kids use an old phone or tablet to pull up a list of movies to watch. They can each watch their own movies independently, and now we just have to manage battery life.

To give full credit, I discovered this project from gavsworld. But I had to make some changes since I was using a Pi 3, and I relied on other sources for info. I also recommend this post on the Raspberry Pi site.

If you want the awesomeness without the fun of a project, you could just buy one. They are not well known because the industry hasn't agreed on a standard marketing term. Or maybe it's because the terms they use are so generic that they result in lots of cross-over devices. You could look for "wireless hard drive" or "portable media player".

Kids Project: Vibrobots

It's pretty cool what you can do with stuff you already have laying around. Once again, Lewis showed me a book of robotics that had some pictures of vibrobots. These are small robots that move using vibration. All it takes is a "AA" battery, a vibrating motor, some wire and hot glue. We used other junk electronics I had laying to add features to our bots. You could use motors from a pager, cell phone or RC car, but mine came from a pair of defunct Xbox controllers.

Lewis was the traditionalist and went with a vibrating bug. Nate and Corinne went with animals near and dear to their hearts, a dog and cat respectively. Lydia pushed her creativity and came out with a dancing frog. All told this took us the better part of a Saturday morning.

These don't stand up well to abuse, and I've re-glued the precious cat multiple times. I dread the battle that awaits when the battery dies...

Kids Project: Rubber-Band Cars

Here is a project we did several weeks ago that put huge smiles on the kids' faces. One day Lewis brought home a book from the school Library called, "Amazing Rubber Band Cars" by Mike Rigsby. He was very excited about making some of the cars from the book. So one Saturday we sat down and copied a basic template from his book and came up with our own design. Below are the results.

We used hot glue for nearly all of the construction, but found that you needed glue on both sides of the tires to make them durable enough for kid use. We also had to play around with the rubber-band size and spacing since our rubber bands obviously differed from those used in the book. The cars withstood quite a bit of abuse and got used periodically throughout the following weeks. I love projects that keep the kids entertained for more than an hour.

Arduino Decibel Alarm for Noisy Kids

Background

My wife and I are night-owls but our children are early risers. We used to get up with them every morning, but have slowly trained them to do their morning routine by themselves. The only problem with this arrangement is when the kids decide to reenact "Lord of the Flies." They can get very noisy, interrupting my precious sleep. I get really cranky when I haven't had enough sleep. The kids are very responsive when I tell them to be quiet, but they quickly return to their activities and resume their loud volumes before I can drift back to happy land.

If my wife or me sits down with the kids and constantly reminds them to be quiet, then they do pretty well. But then only one of us gets to sleep (usually me). I just wish there was some kind of electronic babysitter that could tend the to the kids' volume during that hour between six and seven in the morning.

The Idea

Use an electret microphone on an Arduino to listen to the kids as they play. When their noise level goes too high then it will trigger a recorded message that will encourage the kids to be quiet.

This could be used in multiple ways. If noise a single, short noise spike is detected (like a shriek) then it could play a nice recording of Dad saying, "Remember to be quiet kiddies." If the volume is steadily rising it could say, "Hey, your getting out of control, time to do something more quiet like reading a book." Finally, if the volume stays steadily loud it could play something truly frightening.

Progress

11/27/2014 - I've got an Arduino, and an SD card kit that can be used to play MP3 files. I just need to find a suitable speaker and microphone. Instead of a speaker I've got an FM transmitter that can be connected to the Arduino and I could turn on the radio to a blank channel. I think a speaker would be easier, and more portable.

TV Screen Protector

I did this project years ago. It's a cheap way to protect your big-screen TV from flying objects (toys specifically). I just recently got the motivation to start sharing past projects, so I wrote an Instructable.
TV-Screen-Protector via Instructables

Update 7/9/14: Yay! I guess they liked my project enough to feature it on the homepage! It's kind of addicting to get positive feedback. Now I'm wondering what else I can make and publish.

A Place for Utility and Fun

Embracing my true Scanner self I followed the homework suggested by Barbara and created my "Living Quarters Map." It's a hand-drawn floor-plan of my house in which I've circled projects that I've either completed, started or conceived. Completed projects are circled in green, unfinished projects in magenta, and projects living only in concept are circled in red.

This is not ALL of my projects. There was a whole list of brainstorms that I must have deleted from my phone because I thought I would never get to them. There are also many completed projects that I didn't think worth adding to the list, because I want to spend the time on another project.

I hope soon to add some pictures of completed projects as well as some concept drawings.