I can’t remember where this vintage YouTube video about Tinkernut’s radio project came up recently, but I can remember being surprised we hadn’t covered it here on the blog back in the day. We covered his Twitch-o-matic and Coke bottle spy cam projects, but somehow this music streaming radio slipped the net. So today I’m here to right a wrong.

Maker Tinkernut feels that modern radios look too “blah” to display in his home. Because we sadly do not yet have the technology to allow gorgeous vintage radios and plain-but-higher-quality modern sets to have babies, he decided to make his own.

How does it work?

Digital-quality audio comes courtesy of an Adafruit MAX Mono Amp which pushes sound to the mini speaker. These both sit on an Adafruit Perma Proto Bonnet, which the Raspberry Pi Zero W wears.

Thanks to the Mopidy music server, the radio can play music from a local disk as well as pretty much any streaming service, including Spotify, SoundCloud, and TuneIn. You can edit the playlist from a phone, tablet, or computer.

Tinkernut’s inspiration for the housing came from a 1938 wooden Emerson clock radio. He modelled an homage to it in Tinkercad before 3D printing the parts and spray painting it in a bronze textured finish. Très retro.

Blending the old and the new

The maker was careful to include little touches like physical knobs to control volume and power, enhancing the user experience by retaining the tactile interactions you used to have with older devices. He juxtaposed that with the modern touch of a 1.8-inch LCD screen to display album art and user feedback. The best of both worlds.

Tinkernut would love for all of you to reject your new-fangled, soulless fixtures and build your own retro radio. He has created a detailed guide offering step-by-step instructions from initial setup to final tweaks, including managing software through SSH and ensuring the device boots properly. My idea of a vintage radio is the canary yellow one with a CD player in the lid and a tape deck on the front that we all bought from Argos in the 1990s, so I don’t think I’ll bother reviving that visual monstrosity.