Build a Tiny TV This Weekend

Modern flat-panel TVs and digital media streaming services beat the pants off old tube TVs, antennas, and VCRs in every way imaginable. The picture quality and volume of content available aren't even in the same ballpark. Even so, people have fond memories of the TV watching experience of yesterday. So much so, that CRT TVs — which used to be seen mainly sitting on the curb for garbage collection — are fetching some high prices on secondary markets these days.

With less and less of these TVs around, and at higher and higher prices, many hobbyists have started to build their own faux CRT TVs to relive the analog experience. Redditor ptno, for instance, has just built a tiny, adorable little faux TV called the Tinytron. Aside from making it cute, the primary goals were to make Tinytron quick to assemble and as beginner friendly as possible. That goal was achieved, so you should easily be able to make your own this weekend.

Tinytron consists of only three components: a Waveshare ESP32-S3 1.69-inch Touch Display Development Board, a microSD breakout board, and a battery. With an ESP32-S3 microcontroller and built-in display, the Waveshare development board handles almost everything itself, from reading media stored on the SD card, to decoding it and displaying it on the screen. No worries if you are newer to electronics — the assembly only takes six solder joints to complete.

The hardware fits into a small, 3D-printed case that can be printed in about 30 minutes. It is neither complex nor large, so you don’t need a fancy printer to produce it.

The design files, circuit diagram, and source code have not been posted yet, but the build is so simple that it hardly matters. Following a few tutorials should be enough to help you get your own mini TV up and running in a matter of hours.