A Simpsons superfan has successfully 3D printed a working television modeled after the one from the hit animated series, and it even plays the first eleven seasons. 3D printing has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years as a means of rapidly producing prototypes, art, and other items. The 3D printing subreddit, for example, has 773,000 subscribers sharing designs, projects, and inventions. A high-quality 3D printer can cost less than $200, making this new way to share design ideas easily accessible for hobbyists.
The Simpsons have had many creative superfans in the past undergoing arduous projects as a labor of love for the legendary sitcom. Last year, for example, one fan fully recreated the in-universe game Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge which appears in the eleventh season episode "Marge Be Not Proud". Other fan projects include a modern remake of the PS2 game 'Simpsons Hit and Run' for modern platforms.
The creator of this incredibly accurate miniature, Reddit user 'buba477', expanded on the technological aspect of his creation in a thread. The palm-sized TV works just as you'd expect, with the top knob turning the set on and off, and the bottom knob is used to adjust the volume. Upon turning the tiny TV set on you'll be greeted by any random episode from The Simpsons' first 11 seasons. The video files were reformated to fit the small-scale display perfectly, and a speaker on the bottom of the TV set produces some impressive sound. The model is powered by a Raspberry Pi Zero with a 32GB card. The Pi is connected to a 640x480 TFT display.
Why Doesn't Mine Look Like That?
The Pi is running a program called Jesse Lite, a UI-less version of the standard Raspberry Pi system meaning it is much smaller than a standard Raspberry Pi. This allows it to fit inside the tiny model television with ease. The episodes on the device are all then specially compressed for the smaller screen and loaded onto an SD card. After you turn on the TV with the USB port on its back it plays the episodes in no particular order. Once an episode is finished, another is selected at random. All parts are designed on the 3D modeler Fusion 360 and printed on an Ender 3 Pro.
The post blew up on the 3D printing subreddit, gaining 106,000 upvotes in less than 24 hours. User suggestions include adding a CRT filter, having the screen fuzz like at the start of each Simpsons episode, and a Futurama version in the shape of the what-if machine. Buba477 has said that you can expect a building guide for his labor of love soon. The Simpsons is the longest-running TV show ever, with 32 seasons under its belt. The first 11 seasons are often considered to be the best, so it's only fitting that the tiny 3D-printed television plays those until the end of time.
Source: Reddit