Retro-Styled Raspberry Pi Radio

Ok, so you want a radio — but not just any radio. It has to be wireless, access a variety of music services, and must have a vintage aesthetic that belies its modern innards. Oh, and a tiny screen that displays album art, because that’s always awesome. This 1938 Emerson AX212-inspired radio delivers.

Building on the backbone of a Raspberry Pi Zero W and an Adafruit MAX 98357 mono amp chip, the crux of this single-speaker radio is the program Mopidy. Mopidy is a music player that enables streaming from multiple services, with the stipulation that you have a premium Spotify account. Once signed up, [Tinkernut] helpfully outlines how to set up Mopidy to run automatically once the Pi boots up. The addition of a screen to display album art adds flair to the design,  and Adafruit’s 1.8″ TFT LCD screen is small enough to fit the bill.

But wait — there’s more!

[Tinkernut] has also gone ahead and added a duo of knobs to control the radio’s volume and turn it on and off, providing  diagrams and code along the way for anyone who wants one of their own. A 2500mAh battery keeps this radio powered on for quite some time, and — once encapsulated within a 3D-printed case — this dynamite boom-box is ready to rock.

While music is usually all round us in this day and age, you might find that not all radios play music, and some of the devices that do might surprise you.

[Thanks for the link, Hackster Tipster!]

Filed under: radio hacks, Raspberry Pi