Android Mini PC Box by Riz

A complete powerful Android TV box. The idea is to host the device inside a box with extra power adapters for bigger capacity hard drives, and get rid of the mess created by wires and adapters hanging from the device. A lot of people have broken either their TV's HDMI port or USB port by accidentally putting pressure to the ports costing up to 300 dollars for repairs. I have damaged an LCD TV in the past by frequent plugging and removing HDDs to its USB ports frequently, which I used for watching movies. I wanted to make a robust remedy to the 'port damage' problem, after seeing even more real world cases of people who have damaged their USB/HDMI ports by equipment falling or moving, or by yanking the cable out.

The design is very simple if you want a long-lasting and hassle-free experience with android TV device. .I am using a very popular RikoMagic Android mini device. Its a quad-core with 2GB ram 1080p Hdmi with Bluetooth,Wifi, Xbmc and Dlna support. The device is truly a complete powerful computer which can run any app you throw to it. Streaming and multimedia results are far superior compared to any Smart LCD/LED TV's built-in feature.

Good thing is that you can even connect your laptop/desktop/mobile without any wire (wireless display).

Since the power is delivered separately for the USB hub, you can connect several HDDs,Webcams, Mic (Skype or CCTV usage), and DVD ROMs. This way you are safe not to overload the TV's internal USB port circuitry, since you won't be using that port anymore.

A wireless mouse is built-in to control all the Android device features. You have to select 'on screen keyboard' in 'settings' tab.

Wifi range is much increased by extending the internal antenna, by removing it carefully from the android device and sticking it to the metal box with some tape.

Two power adapters each with at least 2 Amps can be used. One to power the android device and other to power the USB hub. I have tried old and new IDE and SATA hard drives with various capacities and they all work well.

A 2-way HDMI coupler / plug is used and it is stick out in such a way that half of it remains inside the box (for android device's HDMI port) and the other half for HDMI cable which connects to TV. So the original HDMI port of the android device remains safe.(Picture 3). Used generous amount of hot glue around the HDMI plug to make it strong, both at the front side and the rear side.

A 5v fan is fixed on top of the android device. This is compulsory as I have seen many customers at Amazon.com complains of an earlier failure of android device due to the lack of a proper cooling system. The fan has to be placed in such a way that it can suck air from inside, leaving all the components cool inside. Put a heat sink over the main CPU with some glue, drill some holes for vents and place the fan on top of it.

The design is fairly simple, and I've done stress testing for continuous 3 days (72+ hrs) on HD video content without any problem. The android device remained remarkably cool. All the parts used in this project are available at Amazon.com. If you need any help, do let me know.

M.Rizwan