Really wireless!

[Rothko]

Hi all! I have been secretly working on this project...I had a good response from the 1940's speaker hack, so Im working on a 1957 Radio conversion.

I have already dummy fit it all, but here it is stripped out again because I always forget to show the "in progress" stages. The radio was working, but don't worry, I have kept the innards to build a display piece later. I might use this one for myself-not sure yet, but it looks like it will have excellent airflow. And...most importantly built in speakers amp etc.

I hope to re-fit the original buttons to control power-reset and volume, will have to see later. Its actually smaller than it looks here as the metal old case parts are very cut down, I think the case is only 30cm high.

Well as always, be great to hear some feedback. The Perforated concept model has attracted the interest of a case manufacturer,so thats good, will be back on that soon.

 

[jeffball610]

I absolutely love this. I almost used a 50's Zenieth radio to house my desktop speakers, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Your mod looks pretty simple and clean. It would be really cool if you could incorporate the original knobs to control things. It would be insane if you could do something with the station indicator. No idea how you could do it, but maybe some type of temperature indicator. I'm sure all of that is going too far. Can't wait to see your completed build.

 

[Rothko]

Hi Jeffball, well Im integrating a small amp and speakers, so at least one original volume knob will work as intended. There was a pilot viewer on the main amp valve, it would glow, so Im going to try to replicate this with amber and red LED's for ON and HDD lights, the idea about the old tuning marks is good, all I can think of is to have a graphic equaliser, but it might be too jazzy. I would like each bar to represent disk space, but its beyond me! Cheers.

 

[kiwisincebirth]

I think you need to keep the visual display to a minimum, so as not to detract from the radio case itself.

• Single colour to match the aesthetics, and look. I guess that would be yellowish white through to orange.
• Display information that is static or changes slowly, that won't draw attention to itself. A graphic equaliseser, or dB meter would make it look "flashy" as you say.

If you want bar graphs things like HDD space, or CPU Temp/fan speed would be OK. Also consider Nixie tubes, while not strictly faithful to the radio, have a warm antique look that is of similar generation.

http://vimeo.com/43833487
http://www.smbaker.com/experimenting-with-in-13-bargraph-nixie-tubes

 

[Rothko]

Ohhh! yes they look great! Thanks for the info, very interesting, I agree they seem to fit the period too. I guess what it comes down to is will I keep it-because it looks like some effort. maybe a perfect upgrade later!

 

[Rothko]

Finally-finished swapping over the parts, tonight, it came alive!