Parts you'll need

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To make a MortiSafe Pro you'll need to buy Magic parts (which you buy from me) and Muggle parts (which you buy from somewhere else).

Muggle parts you'll need to buy

There are two parts you will need to buy (which are too heavy or specific for me to supply) as well as buying the magic MortiSafe parts from me:

  • A digital safe. Just about any digital safe will do, with the following conditions:
    • Must be battery powered
    • Must have small holes at the back (usually for screwing to wall) for running a cable through
    • Must have a screw panel on the back of the door which gives access to the controls inside
  • A USB power adapter. This plugs into your wall socket (obviously, one appropriate to the country you're in!) and should have a USB socket (type 'A', the standard rectangular one) and should deliver at least 1A (1000mA) power. If you have a candidate power adapter you can tell if it's suitable by plugging it into the MortiSafe Pro hardware

You can get a suitable safe on EBay, in UK see http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400881079271 for £19 or in USA see http://www.ebay.com/itm/380740659062 for $28

I've not tried these specific products but I have an identical looking one to the 'small' in the link above which works fine. If those auctions aren't available, search ebay for 'digital safe' and you'll see many others.

The MortiSafe Pro core unit, which goes inside the safe, is 21cm long and the 'small' safe above is 23cm wide so it just about fits okay. But the core unit is two parts plugged together with a USB plug/socket between them so if you used a USB extension cable you could fold it down to about 14x10x7cm at its very smallest.

Or you can purchase a similar safe at a local store that sells home goods.

Use of wifi

The MortiSafe Pro core unit makes connections to the internet through your home wifi system. You need to have a system in place, and need to know the password to access it (which would be the same as you would need for connecting a phone or tablet to your home wifi). If you have hidden your SSID you will need to know how to temporarily enable it while configuring MortiSafe Pro's connection.

Parts you'll need for setup

There are a few parts that you'll only need for about 10 minutes while you're configuring the system, and aren't required for the day-to-day use.

They are:

  • A monitor which will take an HDMI or VGA signal. All computer monitors and most TVs will do this
  • A suitable cable for connecting the HDMI connector on the Raspberry Pi to your monitor
  • If your monitor only takes VGA, you can get an HDMI-to-VGA converter on ebay for a few £/$
  • A USB keyboard

It's possible in future you might need an SD reader for your PC, if you need to download an update to the software and burn it onto the core unit's SD card.

Magic parts you get from me

You can buy the Magic parts for a MortiSafe from me for £70 (around US$110) which includes shipping, paypal charges etc. You will get:

  • The MortiSafe Pro core processing unit, which consists of a Raspberry Pi, a wifi unit and a relay unit with cable to connect to the safe
  • A cut-and-reattached USB power cable which can be fed through the hole in the back of the safe and reconnected
  • An adapter for fitting a micro-SD card into an SD slot, supplied just in case you need to download and rewrite the micro-SD supplied in the Raspberry Pi

You can assemble all these parts together by following the details on Build your own from parts.

Disclaimer: Magic parts may not actually be magic. Supernatural forces not supplied.