Bluetooth Boombox

3 minute(s) of a 6 minute read

Wanted to start a little project, something different than normal. Thought it would be cool to take an old boombox and make it Bluetooth compatible. Would run on a battery pack. Would be fun to take to festivals or the beach. Maybe add a USB charge port on the side to charge up your phone. Was watching the Netflix special on video games and I think the 80s footage inspired me.

Was surprised how expensive some of these retro boomboxes are! Some of the Ones in good shape are several thousands of dollars!

I didn’t need a mint one or one that was 100% working so that made it much cheaper. Found one that had an inoperable tape player for cheap on FB. Looks the part!

Has a lot of different inputs and outputs on the side which should make it easier to hook things up.

Got a raspberry pi 3 which has the Bluetooth module for about $40. This will run the software 

The audio output isn’t great in these so I got a sound blaster dac for under $20.

Since the boombox has a 12v DC input it should make it easy to hook up a battery pack/power supply. There are several online that have the usb 5v output for the pi. I’ll try to wire the stereos AC input to charge the battery so you don’t have to mess with it.

Some online instructions used a different amp and just wired up the speakers but I want to keep the radio so to simply it I’ll just use the pi as an output to the stereo.

Plugging the radio in, as advertised the tape didn’t work. The radio does. It sounds decent but there is some static when turning the volume dial. May need to get a new pot.