Part Twenty "Mixed Media"




At Winters Bitter End, 2018

Winter is still hanging on around here in Indiana, but that's ok because we are making progress on the Astroliner!

Today we're talking about the Media Center for the camper. It's a combination footboard/TV cabinet with a secret feature!  When I first showed Carrie the new TV, she sort of frowned.  I said, "What's wrong? You don't like the TV?"  She said, "No, that's not it... I just hate having something hanging on the wall that we probably won't use that much anyway.  Can't you make it disappear into the footboard somehow?"  Well, seeing how she doesn't really ask for much, Matt and I set out to figure how to make a TV disappear into the footboard, and here you have it.



We bought a Flat Screen that fit perfectly in the spot on the wall.  But Carrie had other ideas! 



Brother Matt put his engineering mind to work and came up with a plan to raise and lower the TV.  We essentially used two ball-bearing sliders mounted to the wall and a actuator that was originally used for a wheelchair lift.  It was designed to lift 250 lbs, so I'm pretty sure it can lift this 3 lb TV!  

Once we got the TV all worked out and functional, it was time to design a cabinet to hide it all away, and that's exactly what we did. The reason we call this the Media Cabinet is because it not only houses the TV, it also will have a charging center for two phones, a 110V AC outlet, as well as a speaker for the Stereo and TV.  Speaking of, here is all the gear that went into providing the Astroliner with entertainment!



What you are seeing here is, the "SuperSonic" TV, two front "CT Sounds" speakers and two rear "CT Sounds" speakers, the control panel that houses the "Dual Stereo Bluetooth Receiver" (more on the control panel in a future post) a "Rockville" 1600 Watt Amplifier and all the wiring it takes to put this system together.

I want the Media Cabinet to have 60's style sliding doors, because they have a cool, Mid-Century look and a simplistic style.



 


 

I know... so far it doesn't look like much but hang in there!

 









And there it is.  All finished with fresh Lacquer and the speaker
and charging ports installed.  Now for the tricky part.  Installing it into the coach and installing the TV and the rest of the electronics.

I thought it might be best to just show you a short video of the Media Cabinet installed in the Astroliner.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Click the link below to watch the YouTube video of the finished product!




If you like our blog please take a second and shoot us a message! We would love to hear your thoughts, questions and ideas!

As always, Happy Creating!

Michael & Carrie









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