If you own a house that was built in the 1970’s, you might still have the remnants of a home intercom system on the walls of each room. They were consider the end-all-be-all of “home automation” back in the day. Now, they look dated and out of place (but still kind of retro-cool at the same time). [Cpostier] decided that he wanted to keep his old intercom system, but give it an update with a Rasperry Pi and a 7 inch touch screen, and the results are totally groovy, man.
The original unit served two functions, as an intercom system, and also as a whole house music player. [Cpostier] wasn’t interested in the intercom feature, and so he started with the traditional gutting of the 70’s dried up electronics. Each room received a new $7 speaker (from Amazon), and the main control panel was fitted with a Pi, TFT touch screen, and new amplifier. The Pi is running Kodi (formerly know as XBMC) and along with it being a great media player, it can also show weather data, or what ever else you would like.
Something magical happens when you blend new tech with old tech – we totally dig it.
We have that exact intercom system in our house. I should totally do this!
So as the King asked about the harem eunuchs, “Do the knobs still work?”
No, I basically killed all the knobs, they are glued on in fact, but the left switches still control if the speakers are on or off.
We have an intercom system at home and this article made me realize it hasn’t been used since the last kid moved out.
My first thought on looking at the bloom-y blue-white screen in the preview picture here was that the intercom happened to have a CRT, and that he reused the CRT with the Pi’s composite output.
I’m certain this is better quality, but I kinda wish it did have an original CRT.
i’m not to up on my crt designs but it’s probably hard to fit a crt screen in a 2×4 deep wall like these are usually installed in
I hooked up my talking caller-ID to my intercom system. The intercom uses VOX so when the caller-ID speaks it transmits all throughout the house. Very cool when screening calls. Never have to roll-over in bed to look at the caller-ID display on the end table.
You should do a write up, and send it in to the HAD tip line. Sounds cool. VOX usually wasn’t until the 80’s – so that would be cool to see.
Why gut the original amp? Freshen the capacitors and it would be perfectly usable — it even has a tape input. We have great FM radio in Cleveland and I couldn’t do without my NuTone intercom broadcasting in every room.
Super cool job, but it might be cooler to preserve some functionality in the original buttons and knobs, or find new purposes for them. I had friends who had these intercom systems. I’ve also seen a few houses that have the relay-based lighting system with all low-voltage switches and master control panel. Those are great too, if you can find them.
I am really interested in what you did, I have an intercom system throughout a house we are remodling and would like to use the intercom but instead have 10″ LCD displays, but utilize the existing wiring for the speaker system throughout the house. I would really appreciate it if you could please help me accomplish this!