We’re definitely suckers for vintage computers here at Tom’s Hardware but throw in a Raspberry Pi and we’re guaranteed to be excited. Today we’ve got an awesome retro upgrade project to share from a maker known as Jeremy Cook who has decided to upgrade an old Minitel 1B terminal with a Raspberry Pi 3B.
According to Cook, the Minitel was found at a garage sale a few years ago. The idea was to replace the hardware inside with a Pi alongside a battery for portability. This evolved into the final project we have today which also includes a few upgraded features.
The biggest physical change you’ll notice is the screen, which was replaced with a 10.4-inch LCD panel. This required a few 3D-printed components to properly mount inside the original Minitel shell. The keyboard is original but uses an Arduino Pro Micro to simulate a USB HID keyboard for the Pi.
To add portability, Cook is using a 12V Lithium-Ion battery. This battery can be recharged via external USB access. There’s even a battery-shaped LED indicator to see how much power is available at a given moment.
We often insist that the best Raspberry Pi projects are the ones you can recreate at home and, thankfully, this project is 100% open source. If you want to see how to upgrade a Minitel yourself, check out the full guide created by Jeremy Cook at Instructables.
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