Jukebox Jr. project

[sensibull]

I figured some of you guys might get a kick out of my latest project: a digital music server -- complete with internal amp, lcd screen, and cd drive -- built into an antique radio case. 95% of the parts came from my junk box. But don't tell that to the friend to whom I am giving this for a housewarming present ;-)

http://www.portecho.net/images/JukeboxJr_2.jpg
Little did the antique radio collector who sold me this case for $10 know what I had in store for it.

http://www.portecho.net/images/JukeboxJr_1.jpg
The 5" LCD screen was stripped from a broken portable Panasonic DVD-L50 player purchased on ebay (composite input still worked).

http://www.portecho.net/images/JukeboxJr_3.jpg
The mighty little T-amp stripped of its ugly plastic casing.

http://www.portecho.net/images/JukeboxJr_4.jpg
Finally my Gateway P3 500 of yesteryear lives again in a form it can be proud of. Air is pulled in by that little fan on the bottom right, pushed across the case by another fan mounted right on the cpu heatsink, and then sent back out by the PSU fan, which I modded for less noise.

http://www.portecho.net/images/JukeboxJr_5.jpg
A poor shot of the back panel. The composite cable will be replaced with a single RCA to minijack once I can find one (this one's from my working DVD player). One soundcard jack goes to the internal T-amp. Thanks to the KX drivers, I can send another to a separate amp for multizone. Ethernet port allows for tweaking and control via VNC, when necessary (though the monitor port is available to).

http://www.portecho.net/images/JukeboxJr00357_sml.jpg
The finished project, running a custom Xlobby skin, and controlled by a Remote Wonder that had been collecting dust. Right now, the 80 GB drive has over 300 albums on it in 245kbps MP3, but the CD Rom drive works just like a regular player -- plays discs on insert. Front buttons controll LCD on/off, LCD aspect ratio (an unfortunate necessity), server power up/down, and eject. Original radio knob turns on the amp and controls volume.

Now all I have to do is build the speakers to match. :shock:

[curtis]

Wow!! That is SO cool!!

When will you be going into production? :)

[Jonnyozero3]

haha, that's a great present. well done.

[sensibull]

Not sure how to read that "ha, ha" Johnny but I'll assume you weren't being sarcastic. Thanks Curtis. I caught some major crap on another board I posted to about how ugly and poorly placed the buttons are. Oh well, I'm just glad the thing works :)

[davef]

WOW!!!

I am totally impressed! Nice Job and a very clever idea, I would have a tough time parting with it ;)

[sensibull]

Thanks David. Means alot coming from you. And you're right, a small part of me really really wants to keep it but I'd rather have the good karma ;-)

[Jonnyozero3]

Not sure how to read that "ha, ha" Johnny but I'll assume you weren't being sarcastic. Thanks Curtis. I caught some major crap on another board I posted to about how ugly and poorly placed the buttons are. Oh well, I'm just glad the thing works :)

no no, i wasn't being sarcastic. sorry, I was out in the sun a lot today. it was more of a "wow! haha!" :) just kind of expressing a kid-like wonder and degree of surprise. great job!

[Lou-the-dog]

Neat! You've put a huge amount of time and effort into this...must be a for a very good friend indeed! For the life of me I can't identify where the CD loading slot is. I'm assuming it is at the top, but where?

Randy

[curtis]

I think the CD drawer is just below the screen.

[sensibull]

I think the CD drawer is just below the screen.

That's right. I added a piece of wood to the front of a CD ROM drive (found unopened at a garage sale for $5). It was a bitch to cut the curve on the right so it would slide around the volume knob, and it's not perfect but pretty close.

[bikeman]

But don't tell that to the friend to whom I am giving this for a housewarming present ;-)
WOW! Great job, Sens. All my friends do is drink my beer. Let us know when you ramp up production. :cool:

David

[sensibull]

Thanks David (Bikeman).

http://www.portecho.net/images/JukeboxJr_6.jpg
http://www.portecho.net/images/JukeboxJr_7.jpg

FWIW, here are the speakers I built to go with the Jukebox Jr. Since I still have everything to learn about crossovers, and I wanted the speakers to match in height (9") I decided a single driver design was my best bet. After a little research, I settled on the Aurasound NS3-193-8A1 3" (http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?cart_id=2896786.8092&pid=2038), which some independent tests (http://www.zaphaudio.com/minitest/) by John Krutke over at Zaph Audio have shown to be pretty smooth from 85Hz to 15kHz, thanks to its nearly 5mm of xmax (both stats are pretty rare in a 3" driver). At a mere $20 a piece they were certainly worth a try.

The results? Well, let's just say they don't have the HTM-200s shaking in their boots ;) But not bad at all, really, and when mated with a small sub I think they could easily hang with some of the better PC speakers on the market. And for my friend, who is about as far from an audiophile as they come, they will be just fine.

(The less said about the finish on the speakers the better. I've been doing woodworking of one kind or another for over 10 years and the secrets of a truly great finish are still as mysterious and unknowable to me as alchemy. The fact that they look about as aged as the radio was a happy accident I just claim was intentional.)

[curtis]

Kind of makes me want to go to a garage sale, look for some stuff, and try and build something like that.

I'd have to find a cheap PC to get started.

[sensibull]

If you do give it a shot, I'd say look for a micro ATX motherboard because I barely fit mine. You could also try a laptop with a broken screen and use the monitor out port and an external usb hard drive.. That would have lower heat, be much quieter, and you might even be able to rewire the touchpad. I just happened to have the old Gateway lying around...