To counter Borg’s recent incursion into PC building, YouTuber TimeTravelingTech aka James has designed and built his own. Starfleet-themed rigHowever, we don’t know how well one shuttle matches the Borg Cube. However, the structure is beautiful. So I will take it to the test flight.
James is no stranger with experience building a series of 3D printable cases for the Raspberry Pi. These include a convenient print-in-place foldable Raspberry Pi case.There is also a case modeled after the Raspberry Pi Ghostbusters fire station. James’ latest project coincides with the release of Star Trek: Picard Season 3, building a Shuttle PC. It’s a Star Trek Shuttle, not the Shuttle brand.
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The case itself type 6 shuttlecraft, commonly used from Season 5 of Star Trek: The Next Generation (also reused in Season 5, Episode 2 “Darmok”, and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier). But this is not a ready-made case. James spent a good deal of time designing the case on his AutoDesk Fusion 360, then printed many of the parts on his one of the best 3D printers, the Prusa MK3S+. A screengrab of the video shows that James preferred his PETG over his PLA. I hope he used his Best 3D filament. The choice is easy. PETG is a much stronger material than PLA and can be used for a long time. However, PETG is difficult to print and requires a hot end of about 240°C and a bed of about 90°C.
Enough with Star Trek and 3D printing. Inside the shuttle is a 2014 spec PC. At its heart is an i5 4460, 16 GB of DDR3, a 512 GB SSD, and an Nvidia GT650 GPU. As James says in the video, this is just a test. If all goes well, a much higher spec machine will take its place. The PC is housed in a 3D printed tray and the entire unit slides in and out of the case. If you need access to USB ports, there are a few hidden in the Warp Engine (inside the Bassard collector at the front of the nacelle). Keeping your PC cool is a plethora of Noctua fans. NF-A8 (80mm PWM fan) and he found two NF-A4x10 (40 x 10mm FLX fans). The fan’s airflow is done through cleverly 3D printed cockpit windows and air intakes on the sides of the shuttle, giving it a completely “space” look. Just behind the cockpit are two gray greebles that hide the power and reset buttons.
The nacelle houses a Wemos D1 Mini (an ESP8266-based board) and strips of high-density (“four lights per inch”) NeoPixels controlled via clever software, and James turns old LEDs into You can control the LEDs via Windows tablet. Wemos D1 Mini and his NeoPixels with WLEDs were used to create a light show for the holiday season.
James completes the build with an LCARS-themed keyboard, 1990s phaser mouse, Galaxy-class master system display, and System 47 screensaver.
The build process and final product are excellent and a credit to James’ Star Trek fandom and maker ethics.
