From Start to Finish: ESP32 Internet Radio with a Roberts RM20

[@alrichmond4341]

Very well done. I've never got beyond the bread board stage of any projects on Arduino, and this at least opened the door to show 'how'. Excellent presentation skills too - so refreshing not to have to endure any repetitive presenter ticks such as 'like', 'um', 'uh' etc. Thank you.

[@90FF1]

Looks like I'm over year late in finding your presentation. Beautiful and so well thought out. I've build several ESP32 radios from one station to four. All produced less than satisfactory results. Play for a while then quit. Reboot and play for hours then quit. On the multi channel radios using push buttons to go up and down, usually quit changing in proper sequence. So, after almost a year and a half after shelving the project, you have inspired me to try again. The slider dial did it! Thank you David.

[@BStudioT]

Amazing stuff! That Capacitor-Trick made my day. Thank you. And nice to see my most loved radio station at number 1. Radio Caroline rocks!

[@daijoubu4529]

I've put in a warm white LED in an old FM radio and it looks awesome

[@mibnsharpals]

yes these here are fun : www.ebay.de/itm/50-Stucke-3-Watt-Led-Chip-High-Power-Led-Perlen-200Lm-Warmweis-to/232313840890?hash=item3616fbe4fa:g:cPMAAOSwXSRbPf3K But dont use it with maximum current. Get two or three and frive it with 10 - 20mA , you does not need extra cooling. If you are using 12V pover , get 3 in series and pun one risitor in serie.

[@FredBednarski]

Wanted to make my own internet radio + mp3 player from an old radio and was ready to go raspberry pi route, but I have to tell you - your video made me change my mind and give ESP32 a go. It's one thing to see a quick tutorial video, but it's another seeing the whole process! Seeing you go through the whole process showed me that I too can work with microntrollers! So thanks David, you definitely added "a little something" to the internet and a big something to my life!

[@DavidWatts]

Glad to hear it Fred.

[@bgable7707]

Well done.!!! Nice details / explanation showing how to change and modify all the "Stuff". From not only the radio components, but, mostly the libraries and code.

[@hlaw5553]

Thanks for this video David, you've certainly added something to the internet! I found one of these RM20's at my grandads house, who sadly passed away recently, I was struck by how nice the thing looked and I intend to turn it into an internet radio in homage to him - thank you!

[@Simon_Rafferty]

Well done David - quite apart from the techy side, you've made a really nice video. I really like the idea of reading the VC for tuning and the resulting 'product' is fantastic!

[@laveur]

That was an awesome video! My husband does some similar things with old suitcases. He generally turns them into Bluetooth or aux jacked audio boxes. They are a pretty big hit with friends and family.

[@djhonz45]

I actually found one of these radios outside a house in Catford today!!! This is amazing!

[@mickeyfilmer5551]

That is a nice conversion, and I have learned a good deal from you. Thanks David. i shall be binge watching you for the next few weeks in between "playing with my batteries and stuff at my workbench" as my very tolerant wife says.

[@deslomeslager]

A few months ago I tested a lot of ways how to get an internet radio working. I was thinking of using an old tablet, old phone and such. In the end I had left 2 devices which drew the least amount of power. A mobile phone (Motorola XT 1032, unmodded) did nice (via Bluetooth or cable, but Bluetooth is a lot easier) and the other device was (is) an old iPod. Yes, that is it! An old iPod, I did have to add a small internet page which 'delivers' all radio channels because you can't really go on internet with the iPod browser (super slow and some javascript won't run on it). I have had the iPod running for a long time (days in a mont), and the average use is 0.5 Watt. And that was my aim: finding a device with a good stereo sound using not to much power. And that it runs on 5 Volt is super neat as well. it now runs on a small solar cell which tops the powerbank using some old laptop cells that i had laying around. I am way more happy than the silly DAB radio which is using way more power (about 3 Watt) and which seems to loose its signal several times a day. There are several places where to get your radio streams, I get mine from vtuner.com/setupapp/guide/asp/BrowseStations/startpage.asp and the amount is so huge ! ! ! I love to switch to new stations and explore more and more. Starting to like some chill out stations, some Celtic ones and then some more .. .. More to check: www.radio-browser.info/gui/#!/users Thanks for sharing your project. It would be not mine since I want way less power usage and only full stereo. The iPod is doing very well on its sound output! Oldies but goldies.

[@jerril42]

Thanks David, great video. A great combination of solutions. I learned a lot. Take care.

[@narwodev]

I've been waiting (patiently?!?) for a new video from you Mr Watts....looking forward to watching this...

[@JerryEricsson]

Thanks for the video. I have been building wifi radios for a few years now I have made them for family and friends. Sine we live in an extreme rural area where real radio is difficult to tune in, we have one FM station that is a copy of the one AM station here in town. If you have an external antenna for your radio, you can tune in some other stations within a couple hundred miles but they are weak. If you love SW then there are a few stations that you can get with a good set and an outdoor antenna. I do have one small, well medium small AM/SW set built in the old USSR that pulls stations in without the external antenna, love that little set, just had to replace on capacitor to bring her back to full life. Shipping was an issue but it got here, I picked it up as "parts" for a total of 40 bucks half for shipping half for the radio. The thing I always wanted was a unique way for tuning in the wifi without a screen. Most of mine have a screen and I tune them with a rotery encoder, this works fine if you don't mind the screen, but I wanted one where I could use the tuningcap on an old 1957 GE AM tube set that is pretty much trashed as the early board is pretty much gone, someone has gone through it and soldered old power cord wire atop the printed board but that is kind of sketchy. I have all the parts for this build in stock, in fact I was experimenting with a different V1053 board, smaller made for a different setup on a beagle bone black board which works great and is a very small footprint with an ESP32 mounted beside it and the wires jumped on the board I think it will be a simple matter to add the nano to change stations. How many stations can you put on this using the capacitor for tuning?

[@DavidWatts]

Thanks for the lovely comment, it was a really interesting read. I'd love to lean into radio at some point in the future. To answer your question, I have 20 stations programmed in with plenty of space on the potentiometer in between so there are no overlaps.

[@DavidWatts]

Variable capacitor, rather than potentiometer ;)

[@UnexpectedMaker]

That was great David! What a fantastic result!

[@JohnCookNet]

Audio quality seems good. Looks like you had a lot of fun making this. Love the capacitor reading trick.

[@ciarfah]

What a handsome radio

[@ReFreshRC]

You can get I2S amplifier boards and use ESP32 to decode MP3 internally. Also, you don't need extra Arduino to read cap, ESP32 has 2 8-bit DACs built-in. As a result, you'll get rid of 2 extra boards and make it's much simpler and compact.

[@LordGryllwotth]

I2S amplifier. I will buy that. Do you know if the ESP32 can decode the most audio formats? AAC is a popular one on streaming audio.

[@ReFreshRC]

@@LordGryllwotth Yes, you can use ESP8266Audio library, which supports decoding MOD, WAV, MP3, FLAC, MIDI, AAC, and RTTL. And get a MAX98357A breakout board with a built-in amplifier.

[@fenceup07944931177]

@@ReFreshRC hi I know this post was 2 year ago but do you have any example code to do this? Both for decoding the MP3 and reading the capacity.

[@halitekmekcioglu7150]

The audio is good, I heard no noisy thing. It's quite nice to do transforming old stuff more equipped as a hobby project, I liked.

[@RegiPavan]

That's what a call a useful and inspiring project! Thanks for sharing all the details, wonder how many old radios can get a "New Life" out this hack! Please keep posting your videos... Greetings from Brazil!

[@TheDradge]

Keep up the good work David! Well done.

[@learnelectronics]

Nice work, David!

[@DavidWatts]

Thanks mate, don't be a stranger in discord ;-)

[@hdofu]

An analog web radio...that’s the type of thinking outside the box I like!

[@MaxintRD]

Nice project! Your explanations are very clear and it's inspirational to see a nice project from start to end. Well done!

[@weirdboyjim]

Great video David! I actual have an RM40 around but it still works so It wouldn't feel right performing surgery.

[@douro20]

You don't even need an MP3 decoder for this. You can decode the stream and output it via I2S on the ESP32 or even use the internal DAC. There is even an Arduino library for that.

[@mibnsharpals]

yes but it sound less, than that solution :-) Ok if you are using very small speakers, you wuld not notice. But with better speaker you would not like it. Because the reulution is less than 5 bit !!!!! And if you are using the DAC you wuld no more than 8 Bit ( speed ), motly only 6bit. The hardwardecoder has 16 BIT !!!!!

[@douro20]

@@mibnsharpals That's why you use an external I2S DAC like the PCM5102.

[@mibnsharpals]

@@douro20 M.) ok bit if you are using an external DAC, you can use the MP3 decoder ....

[@90FF1]

Success!!!!! Problem was operator error. :-( Works great. Now to code in my favorite streams and put it all in a cabinet. THANK YOU very much.

[@packetguy42]

The Pimoroni Pirate Radio Kit could probably be retrofitted into this case, and still use the varcap dial. The $50 kit includes a PiZeroW, pHAT BEAT DAC, stereo amp with VU meter and six buttons. Adafruit is a distributor, and has a nice writeup explaining the whole process.

[@arturo182]

Awesome work!

[@smittywerbenjagermanjensen8414]

Great projekt! I like to tinker about with things like these but I don't have a lot of knowledge about electronics. You made this one look very accessible and doable for someone like me who takes hours to make an arduino switch one relay with one button push and another one with two pushes of the same button. Thanks for sharing!

[@nonsintetic]

Cool stuff! You can skip the nano alltogether, just do the exact same thing on the ESP32, it has a ton of analog pins and I doubt it's going to interfere with the radio stuff.

[@davidjones9730]

Yes, I was thinking the same. ESP is a dual processor I’d imagine it could cope with both tasks,especially as you’re only changing a setting when tuning and not receiving signal. I also wondered why you couldn’t fit the volume in place of the original Volta the front. Great project and gave me a solution to where I can put my homemade Bluetooth amp. Thanks.

[@neilbarnett3046]

@@davidjones9730 I reckon you could do it all on one ESP32 processor, they are faster than most other microcontrollers, and the buffer on the MP3 module will cope with the odd delay. I just don't have time to prove, this, though!

[@chuckwilkins3581]

Great tutorial !! I may have to make one. I like to go to thrift stores to find old radios for projects. I passed on one that looked like this just yesterday.

[@davidw.2467]

Interesting project. The next step would be to get rid of the Arduino and instead measure the capacitance with the ESP32.

[@mattlaptop5728]

Nice work, good explanation. Thank you.

[@lordandal]

Perfect! Exactly what i haved planed for my old tuner :) Very cool Project!

[@AdamWelchUK]

It’s a lovely thing. Found myself searching eBay for an old radio whilst watching. Cheers

[@cypherLabs]

Great work and Class look 👌

[@highvis_supply]

I wonder if it would be possible to just leave out the nano and use the ESP32's second core to run the nano code

[@highvis_supply]

@Pedro Abreu yes, the esp32 has a total of three cores, the first two are identical in performance and you can basically write two different arduino sketches for each of them or the same sketch with shared memory. The third core is an ultra low power core for deepsleep, it also houses the system timer so you can wake the main cores at certain intervals etc

[@Kyle-ye4nj]

@Pedro Abreu Some newer ESP32 chips (ESP32-S2 if I ain't mistaken) only got 1 core. But yeah, typically ESP32 has two cores, the second one is meant for protocols, like handling Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Check the datasheet for more info.

[@vincentstragier6628]

@@Kyle-ye4nj even with one core, threading is still an option on the ESP32 (though the performances will be impacted).

[@mibnsharpals]

i have tested , it runs , but not stable :-( Because the core zerro is reserved for the Rtos. now im testing the ADC and will use an NE755 to make an frequenz voltage Converter

[@zaprodk]

I've learned to have a 4mm drill in the toolbox for cutting the tracks on veroboard :)

[@letrainavapeur]

For more years than I care to count I've used a 3/16 drill glued into a small file handle, probably a Practical Wireless or Radio Constructor idea

[@stevehallam0850]

Great little project!

[@jamesgame8573]

My first time viewing one of your videos, thank you David that was really enjoyable and informative to watch, like others here I think it will encourage me to retrofit this into an old radio, I have a 1939 GEC valve radio that might be a candidate but have to test if the tuning capacitor on an old set like that can be read as in the tutorial.

[@Anaerin]

If not, you could replace the display with an OLED and the tuning dial with a rotary encoder.

[@ESTEBANTMAN]

Awesome! This gave me the strength to publish tutorials of the things I do.

[@oaffinis]

Thanks David, I really enjoyed that.

[@waltervermeulen6572]

I t worked fine but now I only get Cornucopia Broadcasting and Classic FM. What happened tot the BBC channels?

[@Cardassiaprime]

Well David, you did create a great looking radio after my initial doubt as to whether or not it was a good idea- but the end justifies the means. Job Done , Well Done. Barnie M7PBX. Oh listen they're playing a Jam song on the Radio- lol.

[@ChunkySteveo]

Totally forgot to comment on this video to say top job David! Really great project! I have a similar project in my never ending pipeline to make a "GTA Vice City" radio with an 80's radio, it was using the Raspberry Pi, but looks like an ESP32 may be suitable enough to manage all the audio now with a decoder board - sounds promising! When I saw is say 42 minutes... how dare you!!!! 10 minutes later watching it, I thought I best get comfy! I'd echo other people's thoughts - any way to integrate the nano's job into the ESP32?

[@mascote483]

wow such cool idea! I might do a similar project someday! thanks for the video!

[@beatehausler6160]

very nice !!!!

[@Zeeye]

Good video. Good research. Thanks

[@officebroomer]

Great video!

[@noggin73]

Nice. I've been looking for old radios at boot fairs for a similar project but not found one yet.

[@jlphotographic]

Great work David, love it, doing something similar myself now. Only thing I am doing differently (basically because the nanos are acting up!) is I am using the touch sensor (touchRead(T0) with the variable cap connected to pin4, and the other end of the cap connected to ground, solid results (so far, leaving it run while I keep an eye on the values) with this code from microcontrollerslab dot com slash esp32-touch-sensor-button-example: int touch_sensor_value=0; void setup() { Serial.begin(115200); Serial.println("Touch sensor tutorial ESP32"); } void loop() { touch_sensor_value = touchRead(T0); Serial.print("Touch0 value is = "); Serial.println( touch_sensor_value); delay(1000); } Anyway, thanks for helping me get started on this, great stuff!!!

[@rich1051414]

Me: "How do you keep up with your bracketing with your indentation being all random?" Later: Failed to compile due to missing bracket.

[@tav9755]

Nice project. Well done

[@craigr306]

brb let me get some food and a coffee in this for the long haul

[@andymouse]

Nice project, loved it !

[@onecircuit-as]

Amazing video. Great project and very inspiring! 👍😀

[@connorchapman4223]

Very cool David. I have been planning to make a speaker from some electronics I have salvaged.

[@QuantumOverload]

Thank you for this video. Love the idea of modding an old radio into something more modern on the inside and yet keep the functionality of the radio. I'm just wondering if adding a small display on the front, for just displaying text the like radio station name, would be handy or if it would be too much of an aesthetic to the radio.

[@thereare4lights137]

Your fiberglass pencil is called a burnishing tool... and yes they are fantastic

[@jantepas7511]

Great project and good tutorial. Thanks.

[@LoftechUK]

Great video. Thank you

[@kychemclass5850]

A boost converter to power the old bulb at a higher voltage. But actually, a bright white LED (3 to cover the range of the scale might have been better?

[@m_ouz4211]

I wonder if you tweaked the Andreas code a bit and added ESP 32's Bluetooth feature and made it a Bluetooth speaker too and if you can add your automated radio station( or play some mp3's which you choose) it would be awesome

[@crckdns]

actually... it's based on the radio Andreas Spiess made months before educ8s has done his video ;) however, I love the design with the old radio! looks great :D

[@nrontsis]

Awesome project, thanks so much for the video! Can I ask how can I find the fluorescent 3.5v lamp you used? Also, why didn't you use/retrofit the front volume dial but instead chose to expose a new one at the back?

[@DavidWatts]

I wanna say it was a bad pot but I'll be honest, I don't really recall now I am afraid. I am sure if I could have made use of it I would. It hasn't been an issue, I basically never adjust the volume so it is almost a benefit.

[@AlexanderGorshkov]

Just awesome! Best regards from Russia ;)

[@tubegor]

Ingenious project. 👍 For me as an option: LAN connection would be a dream. Thanks.ツ

[@tubegor]

@@russellsmith8835 This is very valuable information for me. Thanks Russell 👍(ツ)❤️

[@rubenzilzer]

I have two internet radios working with raspberry p 3 (with terrible rotary encoders for tuning) and I wanting to build a third one , impossible to find a RBP , now waiting for the esp32 to arrive, already built the arduino reading the capacitor and it works like a charm with your code!! Thanks!

[@DavidWatts]

Glad to hear it Ruben. I prefer the ESP32 for this because you don't have to worry about safe shutdown.

[@rubenzilzer]

@@DavidWatts its working!! almost no change to your code, only that the esp32 refused to connect to wifi, it took me a week to discover that it came without a macaddress!!, added code to read the potentiometer and control the volume

[@DavidWatts]

That is great Ruben, wishing you many hours of fun. I hope you have a cool case for it.

[@rubenzilzer]

@@DavidWatts kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5OpoGOJj6mopsU

[@DavidWatts]

That looks brilliant, well done.

[@patazertyui]

This video is really cool, well done mod and astonishing result. My take away is your "arduinization without destruction" philosophy, not so easy to do :-)

[@DavidWatts]

It depends on your situation really, radio reception in my area is poor basically to do with the make up of the building and levels of interference. For me it was useless as it was so making it work is any way while keep the aesthetic was preferable.

[@devttyUSB0]

Nice build! I'm torn between repairing the old radio and projects like these. :P

[@Andrew-ci6nw]

That is brilliant!

[@Regelbau502]

Kind of makes me dream of turning the (obsolete) AM band of one of my of my old Pioneer receivers into the online radio band, think that could be done?

[@90FF1]

The tuner with variable capacitor and Nano is genius! It put a big smile on my face when it came to life. Tuning the radio, ever so close, but no cigar for me. Do you have a forum or group through which one can communicate? Tnx.

[@karlstanton2525]

How did you wire the variable capacitor? I couldn't quite make it out. Thanks! Great tutorial!

[@tomplam]

did you ever figure this out?

[@te71se]

David! Only just stumbled across your channel by chance now. Nice to see some more nerd 'mo's out there. I have an old ROSS radio that I want to turn into an internet radio with Raspberry Pi and 7" touchscreen display (already mounted), but unsure what do with the software side of things. I see you mention your RM20 was previously a RPi radio but I looked and couldn't find anything in your previous videos. Can you point me in the right direction? Thanks a bunch xoxo

[@DavidWatts]

Ho, it was all done in a series of live streams, kinda of an impenetrable format to learn from. Let me see if I can dig out the code for you. The reason I ditched the Pi was the long start up and shutdown sequences. While I had used the front buttons to automate that, it was tedious to not be able to just turn if off and on whenever I liked.

[@te71se]

@@DavidWatts yeah totally understand that aspect and that was one of my main concerns and was going to look into soft startup and shut down buttons, but this ROSS radio is big boi and the idea is keep it on above the fridge with the display at almost head height where I can see weather updates etc so turning it on/off frequently isn't much of a concern.

[@TheSpotify95]

That was a really nice conversion for that radio! If I had the knowledge to do such, I'm sure I'd do something similar. Though is there any way of finding the streams for non BBC stations? I sometimes listen to Radio 1, and that's more or less it: most of my listening is via commercial radio stations.

[@lelandclayton5462]

Theres a Roberts RM20 on eBay right now for 25GBP. Looks like the case needs a little love.

[@Chickey]

Great project!

[@DavidSiebert]

If you had a pi and a nano then you had an easy solution for the shutdown and start up time. Don't shut it down. Keep it running in a sleep mode and have a super cap or a small li battery. When you turn it off it sleeps and if you unplug it then the nano notices that the power is cut and then tells the pi to shut down while the supercar or battery runs the system. Done. Plus you could add an SDR and make it also a real radio as well as internet radio.

[@JohnUllrey]

Nice job. I've been planning to do something like this but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm not sure why you needed the Arduino, it seems to me that you could have done it all on just the ESP32.

[@DavidWatts]

The from start to finish videos are usually done in a day so I shy away from added risk of it not working. I knew I could achieve what I wanted with the Nano so it was a easy choice.

[@makelife9661]

Really nice to see! Where to get the current tester?

[@sarahjanegray]

Fabulous video. Thanks David. I am also working on my own version and having a woodworking friend of mine create a reproduction of an old Phillips radio (the 1930s cathedral one) to house my internet radio+ project, also using an ESP32 and VS1053. Love the idea of also using a Nano for other functions. Would you be able to put an image of the schematic for the USB power supply you created as power consumption is what I am struggling with at the mo and it might help me. Thanks.

[@nicholasbarrell3142]

Hi David. I could really do with some help. No matter if I use the original code, with all the screen and eprom stuff removed, as was in your video or if I run your esp32 code I am unable to get this project to work. The serial monitor continues to display loop (): number 0. Got to say am I a little lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am trying to convert my Grandfathers old Roberts R404. Thanks Nick

[@DavidWatts]

It sounds like you are not using a variable capacitor to change the station or that isn't making it through. Try changing the default station "int radioStation = 0;" to see if that changes the number. I think that probably is the case, the number only directs the radio to trigger the the station in the array.

[@chainsawdave6342]

@@DavidWatts I wonder if that is the same problem I'm having. Is there an easy bypass?

[@dreamvisionary]

I love it, but think that if you could get the existing volume knob to work with the new circuit then it would finish it off nicely.

[@DavidWatts]

Sadly it didn't work as expected, It might just need a clean or a replacement. For now I am happy enough, I don't need to adjust the volume much, I mostly just listen to Radio 6 music or Radio 4.

[@dreamvisionary]

Still a great project and has inspired me to look at doing something similar myself, as I love the look of old radios.

[@LordGryllwotth]

My mothers old DAB+ with Internet radio is having issues, piss poor reception, the wifi and dab has been terrible from day one. But recently it have been worse, and also there is a lot of noise on speaker from the internal components, have not tried with a 12v battery to exclude power supply issue. Could try and solder on an external antenna also. I even recently had to replace its power supply, it was just a regular 12v psu internally, so an external psu was easy to find. She only listen to one station. I only need the mp3 decoder (can it do other formats?), got a small amplifier laying around.

[@PierreCadieux]

Is there a parts list? I caught some of it from the video, but didn't catch all of the names of the parts. Thanks for sharing

[@ianfairfield8931]

That was a great video David. I would like to recreate this with an old roberts rambler I have. I have no issues in the physical side of doing this but am quite new to coding. Would you consider sharing your codes for this project please?

[@DavidWatts]

Hi Ian, you should find all the references and my code in the video description. Best of luck.

[@ianfairfield8931]

Well now I feel stupid😂 I’ve been staring right at it thinking it must be here somewhere. Thanks for the prompt response.

[@matyi1656]

*turned waay up the volume to hear the radio* TODAY WE'RE GONNA BE MAKING-... - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[@lineegg7417]

i keep thinking of the kinks when i see your name

[@wardprocter2371]

Thanks David, great work on retrofitting that old radio! Did you consider using one of the unused switches on the front for a power switch? Or maybe replacing the original volume knob with the one on the amp?

[@DavidWatts]

The volume dial on the front is also a power switch it won't work to control the volume sadly. Super scratchy and non linear in terms of resistance. I did think about the switches for jumping to different arrays of stations, just like jumping between long wave and medium wave.

[@simontay4851]

Volume pots are not supposed to linear. They are logarithmic on purpose because human hearing is logarithmic.

[@DavidWatts]

@Simon Tay yep, log pot results in a linear response for your hearing. However, pot is either broken or not designed for a standard amp. It had a very small zone of quiet to loud when fed into the PAM8403.

[@sarahjanegray]

@@DavidWatts How about replacing the linear pot with a rotary encoder and taking that into ESP32 to set the volume through the VS1053 driver?

[@DavidWatts]

@@sarahjanegray Hey Sarah, I wanted to keep the power switch on the front as part of the potentiometer. Since I have been using it isn't a big inconvenience. I tend to keep the radio at the same volume anyway. You could absolutely swap it out but then you'd need to add a power switch. A rotary encoder is an intriguing idea, it would work really well as a digital volume control.

[@RegiPavan]

David, I have a suggestion: Is it possible to use the existing Band Selector of the radio (some old radios have at least three Bands) to change between station's libraries, for example: Rock, Blues, News, Foreign and so forth? That would add a lot of potential to this project!

[@DavidWatts]

Yes, you could do that to switch stations like having different playlists of streams. They are ganged switches on most radios so it would be fairly easy just to have them on interrupt pins.

[@TheEmbeddedHobbyist]

I think the best Roberts radio was the one witht the turntable on the bottom. As a kid I used to spin my mun's radio around as fast as i could as it made the music sound like it was phasing in and out very fast. Think you should have put the volume pot on the front to keep the orignal control function.

[@DavidWatts]

Sadly that pot doesn't result in a linear response to the PAM8403 but it is still the main power switch.

[@simontay4851]

Volume pots are usually not linear. They are logarithmic on purpose.

[@DavidWatts]

@@simontay4851 yep, log pot results in a linear response for your hearing. However, pot is either broken or not designed for a standard amp. It had a very small zone of quiet to loud when fed into the PAM8403.

[@TheOleHermit]

Brilliant! A poor boy's Leslie speaker!

[@limpfishyes]

Love this, I too have a very old Roberts Pi Radio project that needs updating. Could you get the esp32 to handle the dial input as well as data? I'm going to give it a whirl. Your long switch statement seems a bit redundant?? Can't it all just be replaced with: if ((incomingData>=1)&&(incomingData

[@DavidWatts]

Hindsight is 20:20. Not sure about using the ESP for the tuning dial, it has a tiny audio buffer so I went with the option I had already used on the Pi internet radio.

[@mibnsharpals]

ih have tested ist with an bigger buffer, it runs, but very instable :-( the core zerro is for the wifihandle and other stuff importand. What im testing, use the ADC and an NE755 ( timer IC ) , to generate the value. Of if you dont destroy the radio, add an potentiometer into the scale.

[@DavidWatts]

@@mibnsharpals I'd be really interested to hear your results. Love seeing people improve on my hack jobs.

[@yuvrajwaghe7419]

Is there a way I could do this with esp 8266, im aware of the code changes that it would involve but is it practical with lower ram?

[@marcotaub]

Great project, why did you use a nano for the station dial instead of measuring it with the esp32? 😊

[@DavidWatts]

It was a know working solution from a previous project, I didn't want to add any more complexity, I wanted to finish it in a day.

[@icmtec24]

Hello David, your video about the expansion of the Roberts RM20 is very successful. Thanks a lot for this. I would like to recreate it. Do you have a tip where I can get Radio Roberts RM20 from?

[@DavidWatts]

eBay is your best bet, I got mine for £10. You could do this with loads of different radios though.

[@icmtec24]

@@DavidWatts thank you david. I have already looked German on Ebay, unfortunately there is not much there. I like the RM20 model very much, so I would like to buy such a device

[@DavidWatts]

These might work for you - www.ebay.de/itm/TELEFUNKEN-Gavotte-1691-Transistorradio-Radio-Tuner-1967-Bastler-Vintage/154104348153?hash=item23e155bdf9:g:zKUAAOSw-1NfbwPD or www.ebay.de/itm/altes-Telefunken-Radio-aus-Haushaltsaufloesung-fuer-Bastler-Sammler-Gavotte-301/174464488661?hash=item289ee4d4d5:g:AEYAAOSwOVlfLFS0

[@ArlenMoulton2]

You did a really cool job, although this still isn't something I'd encourage people to do, as the radio has already lasted 45 years but the new electronics will probably fail after 5, better to just buy an RM40 which has an AUX input and plug in a Bluetooth receiver.

[@S.P.A.R.K.Y.]

Nothing like a boat anchor, if you can find an old reel to reel tape player, one might send a signal from the tape magneto.

[@DavidWatts]

It's all boat anchors here.

[@S.P.A.R.K.Y.]

@@DavidWatts The old Zeneith Transoceanic portable, would love to have one that would handle both the old tube chassis or flip the switch to modern.

[@DavidWatts]

@@S.P.A.R.K.Y. If there was enough room in the chassis, you could do that. You could isolate the speaker with a DTDP switch, the internet radio would just run all the time and only output when you switched. Volume would be an issue, however you could read the potentiometer and tell the VS1053 to change it's output volume digitally. By the way, that Zenith radio looks pretty epic.