Planet Arduino

As time has progressed, personal radios have shrunk from the size of a large filing cabinet down to a tiny circuit that can be integrated into other ICs. Instructables user exposedwire wanted to bring back the feeling of a vintage 1920s radio set, so they built one out of wood that carries the same antique feeling with some more modern features.

For the electronics, exposedwire went with an Arduino Uno for the main control board, along with a TEA5767 FM receiver IC that communicates with the Uno over I2C. The currently tuned frequency is displayed on a seven-segment LED module, which is driven by the ubiquitous TM1637 chip. The station can be changed by rotating the accompanying rotary encoder. Finally, the resulting audio signal is sent from the TEA1637 to an NS8002 amplifier and outputted from a small speaker.

The outer shell of the enclosure was fabricated by first 3D printing an arch-like structure and gluing it to the back wooden cover. After the speaker was set into its mount, the wooden faceplate was attached along with its speaker grill and front panel assembly. The FM radio antenna simply sticks out the back next to the power input jack. 

To read more about this DIY radio project, you can view its writeup here on Instructables or see a build/demonstration video here on YouTube.

The post This Arduino radio looks like something from 100 years ago appeared first on Arduino Blog.

When [the-rene] was building an escape room, he decided to have a clue delivered by radio. Well, not exactly radio, but rather an old-fashioned radio that lets you tune to a faux radio station that asks a riddle. When you solve the riddle, a secret compartment opens up. [the-rene] says you could have the compartment contain a key or a clue or even a cookie.

The outer case is actually an old radio gutted for this purpose. In addition, a laser cut box and a servo motor form the secret compartment.

The inside of the radio is decidedly modern. A Raspberry Pi B+ and a ATmega328 handle the various functions. Custom PCBs contain the computers and a few other items such as an analog to digital converter (for reading a potentiometer) and an audio amplifier.

The software plays noise until the tuning knob moves near one of six different frequencies. Each frequency can have its own riddle. Of course, the audio is all digital playback, so the frequency is just for effect. There’s no real radio reception going on here at all.

Secret boxes are nothing new around here. At least this puzzle box doesn’t explode.