We’d Like, Totally Carry This Retro Boombox Cyberdeck On Our Shoulder

Cyberdeck. For those of a certain age, the ‘deck’ part conjures visions of tape decks, be they cassette, 8-track, or quarter-inch, and we seriously have to wonder why haven’t seen this type of build before. But here we are, thanks to [bongoplayingmonkey]’s Sanyo Cyberdeck, a truly retro machine built into a cool old boombox.

According to [bongoplayingmonkey], this was a unicorn of a build wherein everything more or less came together, soup to nuts. Right now, [bongoplayingmonkey] is cracking the nuts of a few remaining issues, like calibrating the analog VU meter that inspired the build in the first place. The plan is to use that to indicate various analog things such as battery power and the WiFi signal.

Luckily, everything survived the teardown, parts-wise. That huge knob has a new life has a rotary encoder for scrolling and middle click. And the VU meter made it too, thank Zod. This baby has full mouse controls thanks to a PS/2 joystick and a pair of vintage momentary buttons are likely chrome and bakelite to round out the look.

So apparently [bongoplayingmonkey]’s personal jury is still out on whether this is a blasphemous build or a divine ‘deck, but we say one thing is for sure: this is definitely art.

Unfortunately, the cassette deck didn’t survive. Otherwise, we might have to question its categorization — is it still a boombox if the tape deck works? This, however, is definitely a laptop that grew up to be a cyberdeck.

Thanks for the tip, [Blasto]!

Nixie Clock Turns Boombox

With all the Nixie Clock projects out there, it is truly difficult to come up with something new and unique. Nevertheless, [TheJBW] managed to do so with his Ultimate Nixie Internet Alarm Clock (UNIAC) which definitely does not skimp on cool features.

Although the device does tell time, it is actually a portable boombox that streams music from Spotify using a Raspberry Pi Zero running Mopidy. The housing made from smoked acrylic, together with the IN-12A Nixie Tubes, an IN-13 VU meter, and illuminated pushbuttons give this boombox kind of a 70s/90s mashup retro look. The acrylic housing is special since it consists of only two plates which were bent into shape, resulting in smooth edges in contrast to the often used finger or T-slot design.

For his project [TheJBW] designed a general-purpose Nixie display that can not only show time and date but also the elapsed or remaining track time. He also came up with a Python generated artificial voice that reads you the current playlist. The only problem [TheJBW] has run into was when trying to design a suitable battery system for the device, as the high current draw during start-up can easily cause brownouts. Due to time constraints, he ended up with a MacGyver-style solution by taping a 12 V battery pack from Amazon to the back of the unit.

Among the large variety of Nixie projects we don’t think we have ever seen them in an audio player before except for some attempts of using them as an amplifier. However, it is known that IN-13 tubes make a great VU meter.

Continue reading “Nixie Clock Turns Boombox”

Boombox made from a shelf speaker

Transforming A Bookshelf Speaker Into A Portable Boombox

There’s a lot of fun to be had in modernizing an old boombox but what about turning one of those ubiquitous shelf speakers into a portable boombox, complete with a handle for carrying? That’s what [GreatScott] did when a friend gave him a just such a shelf speaker.

These days you’d very likely use your phone as the audio source so he included a 20 watt stereo class D amplifier which could be disconnected at the throw of a switch if not needed. To power the amplifier he used 16 18650 lithium-ion batteries which were leftover from previous projects. He estimates they should give him around 100 hours of enjoyable tunes. And to make further use of the batteries, he also added a USB charger so that he could charge up his phone from it, something else which is nice to be able to do when on the road.

A battery management system (BMS), an XT60 connector for charging the batteries, his battery level indicator circuit which we talked about before, a new passive audio crossover, and some rather nice work on that case all round out the boombox. Check out his full construction in the video below and make sure to stay until the end when he gives a taste of its awesome sound (you may even swear your desk is vibrating from the bass despite wearing earbuds, like we did).

And on the subject of speaker-to-boombox conversions, here’s one from a few years ago which makes use of a car MP3 player module giving it FM, USB, and SD card support.

Continue reading “Transforming A Bookshelf Speaker Into A Portable Boombox”

GhettoLED boombox with LED strips lighting up speakers

This Boombox Hack Is Lit

Old boomboxes make great hacks. Their design is iconic; yes they look dated but that really just builds on the nostalgic urge to have one hanging around. Plus their big cases simply invite adding things inside in a way impossible with contemporary electronics.

[Danc0rp] hacked his JVC M70 boombox to make the speakers glow with animated light, bumping VU meters, and a pulsing horizontal bar above the tape deck. The effect is superb. The cones of the speakers act like a projection surface and the grilles hide the LEDs until they activate, and enhance the effects once unleashed. It is one of the best LED speaker hacks we’ve ever seen.

Custom board with Arduino UNO
Custom board with Arduino UNO

The light effects are provided by LED strips, which for the speakers are attached just inside the outer rim. The brains behind it all is an Arduino UNO. To connect to it, he soldered components to a blank Arduino prototyping board. That board takes input from the boombox’s line-out and does some filtering (an attempt to address some ground noise) before passing the signal on to the Arduino. That board also interfaces between the Arduino and the LED strips. The schematic is available on his GitHub page. He’d like to replace the board with a custom PCB instead and is looking for design help.

The result is not only beautiful but professional looking too. This makes us wonder why boomboxes don’t come this way. See it for yourself in the video below.

Continue reading “This Boombox Hack Is Lit”

Payphone Boombox Straight Out Of The 1990’s.

Due largely to the overwhelming dominance of mobile phones, payphones are a sometimes overlooked relic from the 90’s and earlier eras. While seldom seen out in the wild these days, they can however still be acquired for a moderate fee — how many of you knew that? Setting out to prove the lasting usefulness of the payphone, Instructables user [Fuzzy-Wobble] has dialed the retro spirit way past eleven to his ’90 from the ’90s’ payphone boombox.

Conspicuously mounted in the corner of his office, a rangefinder sets the phone to ringing when somebody walks by — a fantastic trap for luring the curious into a nostalgia trip. Anyone who picks up will be prompted to punch in a code from the attached mini-phone book and those who do will be treated to one of ninety hits from — well —  the 1990’s. All of the songs have been specifically downgraded to 128kbps for that authentic 90’s sound — complete with audio artifacts. There’s even a little easter egg wherein hitting the coin-return lever triggers the payphone to shout “Get a job!”

Continue reading “Payphone Boombox Straight Out Of The 1990’s.”

Bluetooth Boombox For That 80s Nostalgia

Sure, anyone can go buy a bluetooth speaker for their portable music needs. But for something a little more unique, at least in this decade, [Daniel] aka [speedfox] went with an 80s-style boombox and outfitted it with a bluetooth module.

The retro boombox was delivered with a few scratches and a broken radio, but the tape decks were still in decent shape so it was ready to be hacked. [speedfox] tied the Bluetooth audio output to the tape reader on one of the boombox’s tape decks, but this revealed a problem: the bass was overwhelming the rest of the sound. [speedfox] fixed this by adding a filter which worked until the power was tied in to the Bluetooth module and produced a lot of RF noise in the audio output. THIS problem was finally resolved with an audio transformer on both sides of the stereo signal. Finally!

After putting all of the new electronics in the case (and safely out of the way of the 120V AC input!) [speedfox] now has a classy stereo that’s ready to rock some Run-D.M.C. or Heavy D. He notes that the audio filter could use a little tweaking, and he’d also like to restore the functionality of the original buttons on the boombox, but it’s a great start with more functionality than he’d get from something off-the-shelf!

DIY Bluetooth Boombox Can Take A Beating!

FZZ4CJXHRWNH8KT.MEDIUM

Looking for a nice portable audio solution that can take a beating outdoors? This RaveBOX (v1.0) might be what you’re looking for!

[Angelo] is a 15 year old high school student from the Philippines who loves making things — in fact, he has a collection over 40 Instructables that he’s written himself to share with the world. He wrote his first when he was only 10 years old.

He was inspired to build this boombox when he stumbled upon a Pelican-like rugged case at the mall, so he bought it and started planning the build around it. He’s using a pair of 2-channel audio amplifiers hooked up to a Bluetooth/FM/USB/SD card player module which has a nice face-plate for external mounting. It drives a 4″ woofer, and 4 full range speakers. To modify the case, he used a Dremel and pocket knife, and we must say, he did a great job! The 12V 2.2aH lithium polymer battery provides a surprising 18 hours of playback. Continue reading “DIY Bluetooth Boombox Can Take A Beating!”