We’re definitely suckers for vintage computers here at Tom’s Hardware, but let’s take a Raspberry pie and we are sure to be excited. Today we have a great retro upgrade project to share from a manufacturer known as Jeremy Cook who decided to upgrade an old Minitel 1B terminal to a Raspberry Pi 3B.
According to Cook, the Minitel was found during a garage sale a few years ago. The idea was to replace the hardware inside with a Pi with a battery for portability. This evolved into the final draft we have today which also includes some improved features.
The biggest physical change you’ll notice is the screen, which has been replaced with a 10.4-inch LCD panel. This required a few 3D printed components to fit properly 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 uses 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 any given time.
We often stress that the best Raspberry Pi projects are the ones you can recreate at home and luckily 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 on Instructables.
