Vintage Internet Connected Radio

This retro radio project brings back old to meet the new. A trendy old radio that plays any music you want, not just the boring stuff that you can get through the radio waves!

Using the credit card sized computer, Raspberry Pi–the sky is the limit. To get the best streaming music experience for this project once you have the Raspberry Pi, use the free Linux distribution, Pi MusicBox. Pi MusicBox offers the cream of the crop:

• Spotify, Google Music and Sound Cloud
• Remote control it with a nice browser-interface, or with an MPD-client
• Web Radio
• AirTunes/AirPlay streaming
• Last.FM scrobbling
• Play music files from the SD, USB, Network
• and more!

Select any old Radio of choice. These can be found everywhere; eBay, garage sales or your grandma’s basement. Don’t worry, they don’t have to be in working condition because all of what is inside them will be thrown out!

Follow the creator’s instructions for disassembly, installation and reassembly:

Two old Radios found on eBay. Used the best parts of both for this project.

A lot useless non-working stuff inside.

Everything out and cleaned.

I had to measure the electrical resistance to estimate its impedance (multiply with 1,25)

Small amplifier (9 euro) that can be powered by USB (5V) and was even able to use the volume control of the old radio! Just soldered together provisionally.

Putting it all together!

Attached amplifier.

Mount for the Raspberry Pi! Two pieces of wood, two thread-inserts and two mainboard spacers.

Mounted Raspberry Pi.

Mounts are glued in.

Overview- everything is working!

Poweron/reset-switch just has to be connected to the Paspberry’s P6-port, but for the power-off-switch you have to use a pull-up-resistor and write a small bash-script (inotify) to respond to that switch.

Power-connector!

To show if the device is switched on or to indicate triggered buttons. It’s controlled by a bash-script via the GPIO ports.

GPIO connections to LED and power-off switch.

Volume-control on the left, the power-off switch is the one with the circle and the power-on the one with the notes on it – the rest is not in use.

Now you can have the best house cleaning day of your life with your own retro radio!