T.B.I.Y Diary

Hello, hello! Welcome to the Tech Beever It Yourself Diary!
Remember the iDevice Speaker Dock we were making? Well, that sadly has been pushed to the back of the workbench. Yes, we know, sad times.

However, we will be planning two, yes two, very special peices of TBIY.

Though production (we use the word 'production' loosely, as there will on be one of each) of these majestical pieces of tech won't start just yet, both are nearly out of the planning stage.

Want a sneaky peak? Then keep reading, you gorgeous information craving lot. For the rebel few out there, all the ideas are patented, so no stealing!

iPhone Laptop:
"An iPhone laptop? The heck is that!?" you may well ask. Well, it's basically an iPhone dock, but one with a difference. Quite a few differences.

As you can see from the blue prints, the dock itself looks very much like a laptop.
That folding screen up top, the keyboard, it's all there.
The main difference, is the trackpad. Yep, it's an iPhone.
Utilising a crafted dock, the iPhone slides into the dock connector, placing it on it's back.
With a VGA adapter, the iPhone is sent to the LCD display, although only videos and photos are a le to be mirrored. Seems pointless then? Well, no, for with the 59p app Perfect Browser, we can use the app to surf the web on a bigger screen.

The keyboard in the middle is a Bluetooth Apple keyboard (but nearly any Bluetooth keyboard will do) that allows us to use the chicklet keyboard to type, instead of the onscreen keyboard on the iPhone.

Which then leaves the iPhone to be used as a mouse/trackpad for surfing the web.

The case itself is home crafted, with a mix between wood, metal and White plastic. The screen itself is an LCD, that's been stripped and housed to the new built plastic case.
The screen is connected to the dock via a VGA adapter. The dock also charges your iPhone.

The keyboard has been slightly modded, with the power button on an extender stick, which is found on the side of the dock, for easy access.

You might also notice, there's an additional dock connector on the side. This is a standard dock that allows you to charge additional iPhones or ipods.


The Tech Beever N64/SNES/Mega Drive/Gameboy Advance Arcade Cabinet:
This mammoth piece of tech, is our grandaddy of gaming:
The Tech Beever N64/SNES/Mega Drive/Gameboy Advance Arcade Cabinet.
Yes, with this serious bit of kit, you can relive some of those classic games from a time before the likes of Halo and CoD.

Made from hand cut, sanded and crafted wood, the Tech Beever Games Capsule as we're calling it at the moment, is something we are very proud of.

If you're going to build this (we'll release a guide) then you're going to need the room, because this beast is pretty big.

As you can see, the LCD display sits snug in the top middle, with four N64 controllers taking place underneath. Four? Yes, multiplayer Goldenye is truely welcomed.

If you're thinking, well, theres just an N64 in there, then you're very much mistaken.
Upon flipping the front panel where the controllers are, you'll find a keyboard and a mouse. Yep, the whole things rigged by a pc. Emulation is the name of the game, so if you're gonna need original BIOS for this kids (no illegal gaming here!).
The pc's been wiped, leaving just the programs we need for emulation, an a custom OS to make it all look spiffy.
Using the mouse, we can select the various emulators depending on what we want to play, for us, it's a choice between N64, SNES, Gameboy Advance or Mega Drive.

The N64 controllers are all configured and mapped out for all emulators (although only all 4 are used for the N64, the rest use 2, with the exception of the GBA which uses just 1).

The setup is relatively simple, two specialised adapters are hooked up via USB, each adapter housing two controllers. They are then mapped out to the emulators.

The monitor is a 19" LCD HD display, although not required, I've modded the n64 emulator to upscale the games, so they look a little richer than normal, but that's just personal preference.

Using a HD screen though, means you could add a PS3 and/or Xbox 360, just like we have in the image below.

This ones pretty simple, place a ps3 and/or xbox 360 inside (onto the handy shelves we made), hook up via hdmi, and voila!