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The upcycle lab / two projects

Old kit. New purpose.

A USB monitor becomes a useful Raspberry Pi dashboard. A tiny MP3 player gets a fresh interface experiment. Both started with the same question: what could this hardware do next?

01 / Pi monitor02 / Sansa Clip+
01 / ASUS MB169B+

A second screen for the server rack.

The MB169B+ was built as a portable USB monitor. On a Raspberry Pi, it can become a compact display for server health, dashboards and AI workload monitoring.

The practical bit

Our Raspberry Pi 5 detects the monitor as DisplayLink USB ID 17e9:ff0b. We shared the X11 setup helper that attaches the DisplayLink output and enables its 1920 × 1080 mode.

The project includes installation checks, diagnostics, and a removal script. It links to the upstream EVDI and Synaptics components that make the display work.

Where it fits

  • Home server status and uptime
  • Local AI job or model monitoring
  • Network, storage or energy dashboards
Get the Pi setup on GitHub ↗
02 / SanDisk Sansa Clip+

A tiny player with more to give.

The Clip+ is a pocket MP3 player with physical controls and a 128 × 64 monochrome screen. I’m exploring a custom interface that respects those limits.

Black SanDisk Sansa Clip+ MP3 player with wired earphones
SanDisk Sansa Clip+ photograph by Hinrik / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. The displayed image was resized by Wikimedia Commons.
Custom monochrome Music menu from the ClipPlus desktop simulator
A 128 × 64 menu prototype generated by the project’s desktop simulator.
Prototype · not flashable

What exists today

The public repository has a buildable UI core and desktop simulator. It models button navigation and renders monochrome screens, including the Music menu shown here.

The hardware port is still in progress. Audio playback and update packaging are not implemented, and no physical player has been flashed with this build. The repository documents the recovery-first plan and the work still needed.

Why revisit it?

A dedicated player with buttons and no notifications still has an appeal. This is a careful software experiment in keeping that kind of device useful for longer.

Explore the firmware project ↗