Hackerspace Jukebox!

Depending on whom you talk to, music can be an integral part of getting work done. At the Hackheim hackerspace in Trondheim, Norway, [Nikolai Ovesen] thought that the previous system of playing music over Bluetooth took away from the collaborative, interactive spirit of the space. Solution: a weekend build of a Raspberry Pi-powered jukebox.

The jukebox is simply laser-cut from plywood and bolted together. Inside, the touchscreen is mounted using double-sided tape, with the Raspberry Pi 3 and buck converter mounted on its rear with motherboard spacers. An IBM ThinkPad power cable was re-purposed and modified so it supplies the amp, as well as the Pi and touchscreen through the buck converter.

Once everything was connected, tested, and fired up, a bit of clever software working around had to be done in order to get Golang working, along with setting up the touchscreen and amp. Hackers interact with the jukebox using the Mopidy music server and its Mopify(Spotify) plugin — but they can also request songs through a bot in the Hackheim Slack channel.

A full repository of the code used is on github, and the files for laser-cutting your own jukebox…. box, are here.

While we’re on the subject — does a LEGO CD-changer qualify as a jukebox?

11 thoughts on “Hackerspace Jukebox!

    1. It’s hard to tell from the photos (the blackening of the edge isn’t helping), but if you look at the svg files for the parts, there is a slim piece of material between the nut and the tab which is then pinned between them.

    1. My wood working skills are no where near good enough to make something similar by hand or with the limited machinery i have (table saw, router table) so i don’t think the laser cutter is bad. I think its pretty cool looking myself. To each his own i guess.

    2. I agree. How deep does the laser char go? Adjust the design files to make the fingers that much longer, laser cut, and do a little bit of sanding, or maybe a quick pass on a router table. That way it wouldn’t have to scream “I WAS CUT WITH A LASER!”

    3. It all depends on the user, their level of expertise, and their attention to detail. I have some wood based projects done on my laser that came out rather beautiful, but I also have anytime access to my laser and have a few gurus to tap into for any questions or tips. Since this is a Hackerspace project, my guess is that expertise in the laser is only at the level of being allowed to use the machine per the Hackerspace’s rules. Also, this person may only get to use it when they are there or can schedule time on it. I have seen some work from Hackerspace near me by people who only know how to download an SVG and send it to the laser. To a degree, you have to cut them some slack as they are not able to experiment more or book additional time, etc.

      Now, I will agree that there are those out there that don’t really care how ugly a project looks and it is becoming more common unfortunately. To me, that is just laziness or lack of a desire to have pride in their work.

      1. We’ve just received our Laser(a FS Muse) in the beginning of May and I together with a few others are currently trying to get to a level where we are proficient enough with the tool ourselves to keep it in good order and teach others how to operate it safely, I spend at least 10 hours a week with the machine currently just ironing out the kinks and experimenting with settings to get the best possible cuts out, and as I mentioned in another comment, I’m not going to hide that I am a function over form kind of guy.

  1. He is ready to design for some overseas fab glitzy Blurtooth box to sell at bodegas and whatever the Pakistani run ones are called. Those bolts are so pimp. Teethie notching for the fear inducing look.

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