Every Boombox Should be Upgraded with a Raspberry Pi and Touchscreen

It’s hard to believe, but there was a time when not every electronic device had a high-resolution, multitouch screen. In fact, there was a…

Cameron Coward
6 years agoMusic

It’s hard to believe, but there was a time when not every electronic device had a high-resolution, multitouch screen. In fact, there was a dark time called “pretty much always before 2000 or so” when virtually all devices just had simple analog controls. Disturbing, right?

But, as barbaric as those devices were, they can still be made useful in the modern age. A vintage boombox, for example, still has speakers and a nice rugged enclosure. And as Reddit user cheech_sp shows us, you can retrofit one with a Raspberry Pi to give it all the bells and whistles of a modern high-end portable stereo, but with a way neater vintage style.

Cheech_sp started with a very clean Panasonic RX-4930 from the mid ’80s. This particular portable stereo doesn’t really stand out for any particular reason, technically speaking. But, it does have a cool boxy ’80s design aesthetic, if you’re into that kind of thing (and you should be). Cheech_sp removed essentially all of the internal electronics except for the speakers, and put a Raspberry Pi 3 inside running Volumio.

A 5" touchscreen was added in the spot where a cassette tape that’s would normally go. For you kids out there, a cassette tape is like a physical MP3 with terrible sound quality. The speakers were connected through a 5V amplifier running from a USB digital-to-analog converter (DAC). A USB battery bank inhabits the original battery compartment, and provides power to the whole thing. The result is a clean, stylish stereo with modern features at a reasonable cost.

Cameron Coward
Writer for Hackster News. Proud husband and dog dad. Maker and serial hobbyist.
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