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VHS Cassette Video Recorder

VHS Cassette Video Recorder

The VHS cassette was a preferred video recording medium for many years however isn’t used right now. When I wanted a easy composite video participant/recorder for a latest mission, I made a decision to see if I may construct my very own that match contained in the house of a VHS cassette. Using a Raspberry Pi and a handful of components, I used to be capable of make it work.

Since the system was housed in a VHS cassette, I needed it to evoke the texture of Nineteen Eighties VCRs. I used a set of buttons for the varied transport controls (play, cease, quick ahead…) and added an orange-ish alphanumeric LED show. Having the left reel within the cassette rotate when enjoying a video added a nostalgic really feel to the participant.

Assembly

The block diagram and schematic beneath provide you with a reasonably good concept of how all of the components ought to be related collectively.

Although having the rotating reel is a pleasant contact, it does add a little bit of complexity. Since the Pi can’t drive a motor straight, a separate motor driver is required. It additionally makes arranging the gadgets within the cassette tougher, because the rotating reel takes up a variety of house! Note the connections beneath for the motor driver board:

There are seemingly some ways to rearrange the components inside a VHS cassette. I needed to carve out all the ridges and tabs within the cassette to suit all the pieces collectively. It’s fairly simple to drill holes within the cassette shell to mount the Pi, proto board, and RCA jacks. The picture beneath reveals my format:

Here are some factors to notice for development:

  • Use a slim ribbon cable quite than "jumper jerky" to avoid wasting vertical house when connecting to the GPIO pins.
  • I merely used double-sided tape to safe the reel to the highest of the motor spindle.
  • The linked github repo has an stl file to print a bracket for holding the RCA jack assemblies in place.
  • The linked github repo has an stl file to print a bracket for holding the motor in place.
  • You ought to take away the plastic housing from the seize stick, in addition to disconnect the pico blade connector holding the RCA plugs.
  • You can get your individual pico blade connectors (akin to this) to attach the seize keep on with your RCA jacks.
  • Use electrical tape to cowl areas which may contact when re-assembling the cassette to stop shorts.

Software

This mission makes use of the balena platform to simply run containers on the Raspberry Pi. Simply join a free account after which hit the "deploy" button within the linked Github repo that may give you a picture file you’ll be able to burn to a microSD card. Then boot the Pi with that card inserted. If all the pieces is wired up accurately, you must see "VCR" on the LED show and you must see classic Nineteen Eighties camcorder footage when hitting the play button.

How it really works

The video playback and recording makes use of a headless (no UI) model of VLC. A Python script handles studying the management buttons, updating the show and controlling the motor. The identical script additionally makes use of a VLC Python module to regulate VLC. The audio container takes care of routing audio on the Raspberry Pi by working a Pulse audio server.

Vinyl

by way of Explore all initiatives – Page 1 – Hackster.io https://www.hackster.io

January 28, 2024 at 12:04PM

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