I made a RETRO Google Home!

[@WouterVandenneucker]

just fyi, it's a transistor radio with components on a PCB, that wasn't happening in the 40s. This is a 70s radio...

[@inigoselwood9382]

I honestly couldn't tell if he was joking

[@RickMunday]

I was just going to make the same comment having just stumbled across this video. I actually had this radio, it was used and given to me in the late 70s. I would have integrated into the current amp on the radio if it was functional. Because the sound out of that tabletop radio was phenomenal.

[@juicyjay3338]

and was super popular in the mid 80's thanks to Radioshack's Realistic brand...this kid is dumb..lol

[@deleyt4312]

LOL, yeah. I guess he's smart AND dumb at the same time...

[@miatared]

1940's.... More like 1980's

[@pygmalionize]

cool, i would've connected google home to that radio preamp and try to make it work with the volume nob and the original touches, it would be nice

[@ianleitch9960]

From the 1940's? That Radio would likely be late 1960's possibly, but more likely the early 1970's Stephen. Look at the facts, semi-conductors, PCB, the style of the Sony logo. Most definitely well post WWII.

[@PercyPanleo]

From what I can find, it's either from 1972 or 1977.

[@HansVledder]

Ehm, Stephen, this Sony ICF-9550W is from 1977, not the 40's ...

[@TheHkluivert]

Yeah, he could have Googled that nr as well. Now he looks a bit, eh, young?

[@joedroppingtek]

I just picked up the exact same radio at a thrift store...now I got a weekend project!! Thanks!!

[@snipingninja4354]

Love seeing someone else geek out about tech and channel that passion into something truly cool and classy! Love the vids, keep up the inspiring work! Maybe I'll get working on something 🤔

[@Blacklight8001]

The 80’s. From the 80’s. Im not that old 😂

[@iandiaz8634]

Hi! , thanks for the idea, I did it with an old amplifier and it looks great 👌

[@TinkerManMick]

Love the excitement you have in your videos man - an inspiration! Found you coz ur video is suggesting mine thank you :D You got a new subscriber!

[@coyotedomino]

That’s a ridiculously cool project! How did you put the lights in front of the speaker?

[@deg262]

Just watched. Think he missed out the best bit, putting it back together. Was wanting to do something like this myself

[@tright6]

He probably wired them over the speaker

[@EthanDoezYT]

I have a similar project that’s pretty much exactly like this 😂. I wanna use an Alexa in a small retro radio I have. Theirs a clock in it and it works but the radio doesn’t work and is probably to old to work with the radio stations now and days. So I’m gonna use a portable car fm radio transmitter and an Alexa and make that the radio. It’s gonna have a switch to toggle between the Alexa and fm radio for whenever. And the radio is gonna be able to go back and forth between Alexa and radio. And the clocks glass cover is gonna light up when you use Alexa. Very excited to make this project! Tho it might be a while before I do that one since I’m working on making a modern smart TV inside a portable retro tv. It’s a whole other mess but so far it’s been a mess that I’ve enjoyed making!

[@Seriph1]

Seriously dude calm down! I’m TOTALLY KIDDING. I LOVE LOVE LOVE how excited you are about the old tech and repurposing something so many ppl would think is just old crap. Rock on son! I’ve just bought a radio case from the 1930s and plan on making it a digital radio, bluetooth speaker and Google home.

[@christopherhughes2076]

I had this same idea and I'm so glad someone else has done it

[@rottnlove]

I'm planning on doing this with am-fm radio, 8-track and record player.

[@bruceblundell6849]

Well done

[@3LFL3DA]

Cool project! The radio was manufactured in the 70s not the 40s though

[@rabinniroula5201]

What I like about him is the fact that most of the big KZbin channels wouldn't bother to see if the board could drive the bigass speaker but he did it anyway. Pure curiosity in action.

[@mrinsane9269]

I love your videos and I love hearing you geek about technology, it's just amazing watching you make stuff and/or changing stuff

[@SpencerPaire]

I like how technical your projects can be, but I feel like this video was just several minutes of you gushing about how cool the radio is and how big the speaker is, and then one minute of you cutting open a Google Home and then glueing it behind the speaker mesh. This project would have been very cool if you had tried to put an amp on the Home to take full advantage of the big speaker, maybe found a way to read the lights with an Arduino that could move the channel-select bar up and down, or even just gotten the cap touch buttons to work with the dials. But instead, this project just felt like a filler arc; cut open gadget, put it in different box. That said, I'm sure something cool is happening in the background, so I look forward to your next video!

[@stephen_hawes]

Thanks for the feedback! I totally get what you're saying. I've been grappling back and forth between being either technical or cosmetic with my videos, so hearing a preference helps me dial that in. I think sometimes I'll definitely make more cosmetic videos like this one because it's just what I want to make, but overall I think I'd like to get into the weeds more than I did here. I have a pretty technical one coming down the pike, so keep an eye out for that! And thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts!

[@RavenTheLabrador]

I know this video is so stupid. Seriously all he did was remove it from the Google nest case and put it in the case of the radio cut off the original speaker and hook it back up to the old bigger speaker. Anyways this is absolutely not anything that is in any way difficult at all for anyone who has the most basic knowledge of electronics not even that. Seriously if you can use a soldering iron you can do what he did in about 5 minutes or less with very basic knowledge. Anyways this was absolutely nothing even close to the reverse engineering that he was talking about and if he really thinks it was that just shows that he knows nothing about what he's doing.🤷‍♂️👍✌

[@jasrenfro9856]

That speaker is buggered. Foam is toast.

[@speedracer9132]

Great video but please mute the wake word when you edit the video, we don’t see our speakers going off

[@yourbiglebowski]

You didn’t show much in this tutorial. Such as installing the pcb in the casing. How did you get the pcb in front the original speaker without touching the rubber surround of the speaker? Did you leave the original power supply inside to power the radio scale light? Did you use the original power supply inside to power the Google home or did you make a plug in the back of the casing to power the Google home with a usb cable and a power plug?

[@JoelARuiz-js1vy]

dude this was amazing

[@alainbrunet47]

Wow that was a amazing project ! I should try it the day I find a old radio in a garage sale.

[@daysgoneby81]

Do you have a guide or photos? Did you have to extend the touch controls? Did you power the mini and radio lights together?

[@RavenTheLabrador]

Seriously if you can't figure this out what are you doing because all he did was hookup a bigger speaker and put in a existing radio as the case literally nothing at all.🤷‍♂️

[@JaclkMurphy]

@@RavenTheLabrador he also moved the touch onto the mesh.

[@quay901]

Love the micro servo motor horn necklace 😁👍

[@psykatrick3497]

i want someone who looks at me the way Stephen looks at everything electronics

[@x9x9x9x9x9]

I see you learned to mute the hey google thing here. It set off my phone sitting next to on my desk. Also that radio is from the late 70's. 1940's would most likely be a tube radio and the board would be single sided with no green solder mask. Also the aluminium heat sink on the back of the board is a dead giveaway aside from the logo and being made in Taiwan. Aluminum wasn't a common material until about the 70's. The Sony logo is the easiest way to tell also made in Taiwan. I am not sure but I am pretty sure sony was made in japan up until the 70s. That is a TFM-9450 and just to calm anyone down about destroying an old radio its not that old and they are common. For tools let me recommend you the Nanch screwdriver kit with the large aluminum handle. It has 90% of what you will need in it. I also like the ifixit tool kits but their quality is just barely there for the price but their Mako kit has every bit you will ever need for taking apart electronics. As for the build. This is awesome man. You might try adding in a cheap amplifier to get a little more volume out of it since that speaker is most likely being under driven. I think the home mini has a 2 or 3 watt speaker while that old speaker is 5. I think you got lucky on the impedance though. I think the home mini uses a 8 ohm speaker as well.

[@chasecrouch3251]

You should post pictures of how you put it all back together. That would be awesome

[@PelleBleu]

Is there a plans somewhere that i can use like how you dit it step by step personally i have a icf-9740w

[@Xavier_Ns]

I might have to make myself one of those

[@sharonperkins5175]

Hi. Can you tell me what the brownish material stuff on the outside of the radio is called please?

[@heygeggan]

40s..😂😂

[@Reticence9zen924]

I'm watching on a Pixel phone and my Google Assistant switched on at the start of the video!

[@heygeggan]

That radio is made between 1972-1977

[@nihildriven]

Wish youd bleep "hey google"

[@stevesamplingmusic]

this model of Sony Radio was made in 1972+ ;)

[@ninjastronghold]

destroyed bueatiful radio reciever.... Bravo Sir, bravo...

[@johannesTMP]

cool... bot thats a 70's radio.... i'v done something similar to a 40's set.... and thats a whole different beast altogether..... sounds fantastic now ;-)..... but you need to use an amp that works the same way as the original

[@vintagefreak10]

Did you connect the Google home’s electrical to radio’s electrical? How did you ground it? Attempting one of my own and having issues with noise.

[@samdavid22]

Radio's in the forty's used valve's; looks like late 60's

[@AlfonsoJimenezOchoa]

Con tanto hueco, te cabe una batería y así lo haces portátil.

[@AugestTheManokit]

hey, me and my father are planning on doing a project just like this one. how hard was it and did you enjoy doing it?

[@raynbow3879]

Even tho I'm late to the party: Nice idea. I had one extra Google Nest Mini around and put it in an old 10W speaker enclosure. Works okay so far, but the chip responsible for the audio on the mini does get warm if you turn up the volume (Raspberry Pi heatsink to the rescue). I wasn't able to get the touch buttons to work with physical ones, if anyone has some ideas on that it would be great. Love your motivation. Greetings from germany

[@PixelPotionCafe]

I was really hoping you'd tap into the power amp inside the original circuit

[@RavenTheLabrador]

I think it's clear that doing something like that is a little above his knowledge/ skills level.🤷‍♂️👍✌

[@ChillerFreak03]

Love it to see a new video from you in my timeline

[@kwacz]

That is not a radio from the 40s. not even close. If it were it would have vacuum tubes. It has transistors in it and I would estimate it to be from the late 70s to the 80s approximately.

[@Jflo.333]

I was hoping to see how you wired the touch part.

[@flightofapaullo72]

Been wanting to do this for awhile now. It's there a way to tap into the four led lights to maybe extend them out if need be?

[@RavenTheLabrador]

Pretty simple just remove them from the Google nest and put them in any place wanted nothing difficult about that at all.🤷‍♂️

[@johnpatterson7140]

oh dear .............wrecked it ............

[@mikegilman5966]

Very cool project! I’m going to attempt the same. A couple of things- is the large speaker powered solely by the google home board? Also how do you power the original radio lights? A separate power cord? What Id like to do with mine is have the google home/large radio speaker plus a led strip behind the the tuner/station glass- all powered by one cord. Possible? Sorry if I missed the link where it might have been explained. Kudos again! Don’t let these nitpickers steal your enthusiasm.

[@stephen_hawes]

Thanks! Yeah, surprisingly the amp in the Google Home Mini is totally enough to drive that much larger speaker. The way I wired it was leaving most of the original radio electronics intact (especially given that all the lamps needed their own wacky AC voltage), and I just added in the mini with its original power adapter. I thought about trying to pull a 5V rail off of the radio to power the mini, but I was worried it might brown out if the rail couldn't supply enough current. You could do the same with the LED strip, and just connect its original power brick to the mains voltage coming into the radio. Let me know how it goes!!

[@daysgoneby81]

@@stephen_hawes Do you have a guide or photos? Did you have to extend the touch controls? Did you power the mini and radio lights together?

[@april9th1821]

Clearly, this is not from the 1940s more like the 1970s.

[@RexakonGaming]

Dr Phibes lmao

[@lunchie80]

How many people noticed the PIONEER speaker inside the SONY radio?

[@cowbatboots282]

That's not a 1940s radio.

[@Mountain-Man-3000]

The 40s?? Ha!

[@bazmac5078]

You need to do more research. If you did you would have found out that it's not from the 40s and is actually much older, probably from the mid tudor period. Anne Boleyn might of actually owned this and could possibly have bluetoothed Greensleeves to this speaker, that Henry VIII had WhatsApp ed to her smartphone. Anythings possible...

[@cwbh10]

I'm impressed it has a circuit board and no tubes being that old! Are you sure it's from the 40s...?

[@madrockxvx]

Judging by the Sony logo, 60s or 70s at its oldest. So 50-60 years tops

[@NickG123]

Ceritianly not. It's from '77. This kid's just a clueless idiot.

[@fabiannfl]

Great super cool

[@thatmiddle-agedex-mormongu2590]

That radio is from1970s

[@ultimotivada-da7369]

that's not a radio from the 40's more like 70's

[@TheHkluivert]

The 40’s?? Don’t think so...!

[@WikiHanz]

Hope your first quesion was. Hey google how old is an FM transistoradio made by Sony really? 40ies my dude .... tsss all this internet and saying this LUL

[@NickG123]

Jesus Christ, a beautiful 70's hifi Sony cabinet now gutless. Ruined by a mindless kid. I bet it worked fine too, Sonys were built to last!

[@Cabet00]

More more!!

[@P5YcHoKiLLa]

Wait, you "found it kicking around your parent's house" ?! That thing is probably quite rare and valuable?

[@HifiCentret]

While a cool project the radio itself is retro. It's not from the 40s. In the 40s transistors were only at experimental stages and not available to ordinary consumers. It could be from the late 60s but my guess it's from sometime in the 80s or early 90s based on the look of the electronics. Many components have date markings but since the video doesn't show any clearly I can't say something for sure. One thing is for sure however. It's definitely not from 40s nor from the 50s. Late 60s at earliest (though I really doubt it) and most likely 80s.

[@HifiCentret]

Ahh. I missed the model no. ICF-9550W @ 1:29. From the late 70s - so now that's clear ;)

[@spiritualawakenings6251]

Wow and before watching this video I wasn't aware they made fully transistorized radios in the 40s or that we were buying Sonys back then. lot of misinformation dude.

[@dizzysteve256]

Certainly obviously obviously not from the 40s it's not from the 1940s apart from you not knowing the radio is not from the 40s It's not a bad video but certainly not super cool 😎

[@chatroom101]

Sew koul!!!!!

[@benassy69]

Really man? You have an oscilloscope and a lot of electronics tools and you never seen an old radio and the pulleys systems? I bet your enthusiasm is only for the sake of the video. Aaaa great video BTW ;)

[@florinmoldovanu]

his fake enthusiasm (to stimulate the viewers) is so obnoxious to the point that he made me hate myself for wanting to watch this video till the end

[@CMK-BigFoot-1420]

That's how a lot of KZbinrs talking now, it's supposed to bring in a lot of views as you said, I think it's to bring in the younger generations