SqueezeBlaster!

[NeilB]

I'm going to attempt a project.

I'm going to take one of these;

http://static.flickr.com/122/298690073_8f24705bab.jpg

one of these;

http://static.flickr.com/114/298690071_99b5eb5975.jpg

and a few of these;

http://static.flickr.com/121/298690074_e272624813.jpg

And hopefully turn it into the (crosses fingers) world's first Wireless MP3 Ghettoblaster!

I have no idea how to do it to be honest but I really fancy having a go (ok, I have a friend who's pretty nifty with the old electronics).

Bought the ghettoblaster from Ebay (where else) which has a working radio but the tape is busted. My idea is to remove the radio tuner bit and replace with the Squeezebox LCD, patch the outputs into the amplifier section of the circuit board, somehow get the power from the ghettoblaster's power supply and hopefully be able to use the radio antenna for the wireless antenna.

Or it will make an atractive door stop. :)

[bhaagensen]

Cool ! To make it even cooler (in my point of view) I think you should try to keep a bit of the retro look of the blaster. Especially the analogue VU-meters would be a treat to see actually working. Perhaps you can also find some useful thing to do with some of the silverlooking switches and buttons.

Good luck :)

[gwak]

Keep us posted, i agree it with the post above that is would be great to get the analogue VU meters working

-best
-gwak

[byKnight]

Duct tape.

[EFP]

a step up from the portable slimp3?
http://www.olsontribe.com/slimp3/

Can't wait.

[NeilB]

Just looked at the portable SLIMP3. Damn, beaten to it... :(

Some good info though and it won't stop me going ahead.

[waldy]

Hi Neil,

I'd encouage you to go ahead, here's my mkII attempt. Once built you'll find it hard to switch off.

http://waldystuff.blogspot.com/2006/09/pandoras-box-after-rather-ugly.html

[ezkcdude]

Hi Neil,

I'd encouage you to go ahead, here's my mkII attempt. Once built you'll find it hard to switch off.

http://waldystuff.blogspot.com/2006/09/pandoras-box-after-rather-ugly.html

Nice! Is it portable?

[waldy]

Hi,

No, I plug it into the mains with a power pack, (itx power board inside case). Serves my purpose. The case has a battery compartment which takes 9 cells, so it could be made portable, but I doubt battery life would be any use.

[NeilB]

Just thought I'd check back in and update you on progress.

I've stripped down the ghetto blaster (is it still ok to call them that?) removing the FM board, the and the tape deck.

http://static.flickr.com/136/322605243_0b5880e73d.jpg

From the circuit diagram and some poking around I found where the output from the FM board goes into the amp stage on the amp board and conneting it up (with crocodile leads) gets a good signal. However, I can only run the SQB at about 25% volume or it distorts. Given that the only other lines into the amp stage are the tape deck and external phono inputs, this is probably my best bet. It does sound good though, has a nice warm compressed sound to it, which is what i wanted really - don't want or expect a "hifi" sound.

Here it is working and playing a rather apt song :)

http://static.flickr.com/128/322605242_6c9ee8ce50.jpg

You can just see the LED meters workging. Unfortunately the one I was originally going for on Ebay with the analogue meters got to a silly price and there was no way I was going to pay a silly amount of money in case it ended up as a brick. :)

So, that was the signal sorted. Next problem was power.

The SQB power is 5v DC but the only output coming off the ghetto balster transformer was 15v. Faced with the prospect of trying to put in another step-down transformer I opted for the easier (but possibly less safe) idea of putting the whole SQB wall-plug inside the unit and running a 240V from where the power goes into the transformer. I've had this connected with crocodile leads and it works, it's just going to be fiddly to solder into the switch on the ghetto blaster. We'll see.

The other issues are;

- Finding a place for the SQB circuit board
- Removing a chunk out of the tuner band/frequency strip to mount the SQB LCD
- somehow using the FM antenna on the ghetto blaster as the WiFi aerial for the SQB?
- putting the whole thing back together again

At the moment I'm taking a forced break (y'know, christmas etc) as I need to order a few bits and pieces (longer ribbon cable for the LCD board, couple of connectors for the audio) but there's probably not a chance in hell of getting them anytime soon with the christmas post.

So, it's still ongoing and neither me, the SQB or the ghetto blaster are dead, yet.

:)

[Toy Maker]

Good idea... Let us know how it goes.
I had the same idea a few months ago.

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=27219

http://www.carveraudio.com/Beosound2000xi/P1010200.JPG

[NeilB]

Spent the whole weekend trying to finish off the project as it's been hanging around too long, cluttering up the dining-room table (it's too cold and grim outside to be spending days in the shed!) and I've finally got it all back together and working. Woohoo!

It's running with two mains plugs at the moment though as I've not plucked up the courage to solder into the 240V in order to house the Squeezebox wall-wart inside the tape deck but I will get around to that. Or most likely I'll ask a friend as one thing the project taught me is that I can't solder for beans. Definitely more practice needed before taking on another project :)

In this picture I taped everything roughly in-place so that I could verify it would all fit and still operate, which you can see it does.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/172/364837622_ca70b33e15.jpg

And from the back you can see where I've positioned the Squeezebox circuit board.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/102/364837624_47d3b5a01c.jpg

Once I was happy that it was all going to fit I had to cut out a gap in the radio strip to mount the Squeezebox LCD. This was a really pain and if I'm honest I'm not that happy with it. Initally I marked out a hole big enough to poke the LCD through but the aluminium strip became so flimsy that I had to just cut it into two pieces and leave a gap for the LCD. There were also fit issues that really left me no option. But, as you can see from the picture below, it doesn't look *too* shabby. I even drilled out for the IR receiver which I made a tidier job of. I taped it all back up again and checked operation...

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/140/364837627_0910bd3a0f.jpg

So, final things to do. I wasn't happy with the gap where the tape deck used to be so I removed the buttons from the tape mechanism and glued them in place. Same with the tape counter and the headphone socket. Finally put all the switches, sliders and knobs back in place and it's complete!

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/166/364837636_0ebd4e9cba.jpg

Typically, *after* I'd screwed it all back together I spotted that I could've stuck the tape wheels (is that what you call them?) into the two hole which would make the front even tider. I'll do that when I take it apart again to sort out the power supply issue. There's also two ugly marks on the clear plastic cover where the LCD is - look like residue left behind from some really old stickers so I'll have a go at cleaning that up too.

The other issue that I hope to be able to deal with is that there's quite a bit of noise getting into the output which seems to be interference from the Squeezebox (you here little static noises when scrolling through menus and stuff) and also what sounds like some ground-loop type noise if you have the volume sliders up and no song playing. Any advice here would be welcome.

[Skunk]

I could've stuck the tape wheels (is that what you call them?)

Reels actually, like film.

If you have to have the switching supply inside the unit maybe shielding it with foil would help, so long as it won't short/overheat etc. On the flip side shielded signal wire couldn't hurt (unless it weren't grounded I suppose).