TURNING AN OLD RADIO INTO A COOL BLUETOOTH SPEAKER

[@shanemarcotte2062]

Love your "thinking cap"! Great work man!!

[@tilsonrobotics6859]

@@shanemarcotte2062 Thanks, I appreciate it!

[@orionwarren4244]

These radios were built and constructed as fine furniture to occupy an honored place within the family home, delivering real-time news and entertainment that print media couldn't do at the time. Glad they're making a comeback as accent pieces!

[@tilsonrobotics6859]

Thanks Mr T 😉

[@ramirrobenavidez1454]

MY LOVES THIS OLDER RADIOS STILL. I HAVE TWO OF THIS OLD RADIO THAT I FIXS IN THE 90 TO WORK. BOTHS ARE VACUUM TUPES AND I HAVE A VACUUM TUPES TESTER. EXTRA NEW TUPES.I HAVE A 1947 S&W AM AND FM OR BBC STATION AND LP PLAYER BUILD INSIDE THE WOOD CONSOLE AND A MOTOROLA 1930 WITH AM,SHORT WAVES,POLICE DEPARTMENT STATION, AND A LP PLAYER BUILD INSIDE THE WOOD CONSOLE.AND ALL LITES WORK TOO. YOU CAN HEAR RADIO STATIONS FROM CUBA,CHINA, AMERICA.

[@suewilliams2880]

This old radio should be restored back to its original glory days no Bluetooth

[@theweirdospfan.28]

Except what are you gonna do with it? Most of these are am radio only and no one wants to listen to am radio

[@watcher818]

These so called upgraded gutted radios are simply a holder for modern equipment. It has a small scratch on the cabinet or missing tube? Better gut and make it a BT speaker holder.

[@ThePatriots92]

Would love to know if you sell the push buttons! And curios what amp/speaker you used. Dope!

[@tilsonrobotics6859]

ZK‑502L Bluetooth Power Amplifier Board 5.0 Stereo Audio Receiver Dual Channels Digital Audio Amplifier Module for DIY Speakers 5-24V a.co/d/5Q5K0lG

[@tilsonrobotics6859]

I would need an original button to get the measurements correct

[@CaptainSisko1972]

I say make them usable again!!!!

[@russelllukenbill]

Great job!

[@GrumpyCossack]

Very impressive indeed.

[@tilsonrobotics6859]

Thank you

[@lgthouskpr]

What BT components did you use for this project?

[@tilsonrobotics6859]

a.co/d/hffHu0Q

[@rustyrails1886]

I see people fussing about you making the radio blue tooth. And you should make it original. Well I think it's ok to make them original too. But think about it. Even if you have it restored to perfect original condition, the beautiful music that this radio was intended to play just is not there any more. The am band is mostly news and sports talk now, and also th amount of man made noise on the am band is so bad now, that it is going to be near useless to try and use this radio the way it was in the 40s. So I say make it Bluetooth. Then play that beautiful old music and the radio shows like jack Benny. Fibber mc ghee and molly. So many great shows that you will never hear on the modern àm band. I have that same radio set that you are using. Mine used to work many years ago. Now it's just to look at. Blue tooth could give a beautiful radio another chance at life. Please tell me y'all's opinion about what I have said. Rusty in Arkansas

[@tilsonrobotics6859]

Thanks Rusty, I totally agree with what you said, that's exactly why I put Bluetooth in these old radios . Its like having a vintage car with a new sound system in it.

[@patrickmorrissey2582]

This is exactly what I want to do to the one similar that I have, the only difference is that mine has a built in record player. This is awesome. I will use this as a reference!

[@tilsonrobotics6859]

Great, I would love to see a picture of it when your done!

[@TKELCH]

Everyone seems to have bluetooth on the brain. It is a shame the radio was not restored to it's original form WITH OUT BLUETOOTH!

[@MrPeaceLock]

Because it can only catch AM frequency... Nowadays there are so little AM stations.

[@patrickmorrissey2582]

I’m sure it’s because people don’t want to spend the money. I have one similar to this but mine has a turntable in it also. I would love to have all three, Bluetooth, am/fm and play records, that would be sweet!

[@howardoller443]

@@MrPeaceLock There are plenty of AM stations available. I had an old AM-only radio restored and I get stations all around the USA and Canada.

[@MrPeaceLock]

@@howardoller443 not in Portugal for example

[@howardoller443]

@@MrPeaceLock Good to know. :)

[@smith13579100]

Well done!

[@tilsonrobotics6859]

Thank you!

[@eadthem0]

So did you get the original tube radio and amp working and add the bluetooth as an input, or did you hook the speakers up to a modern amp with the bluetooth? It looks nice.

[@tilsonrobotics6859]

Just hooked it up to the modern amp, sounds great!

[@autouniondkw102]

He used a modern amplifier. On the plus side, the original radio chassis is still there. It could be repaired with new capacitors and resistors as required and re used, although a original speaker would need to be sourced. Bluetooth signal can then be fed through the pick up input. Looking at the original chassis, it looks to be a class AB push pull output stage, so it would have quite a bit of power and a bit thumpy.

[@stphinkle]

@@tilsonrobotics6859 There are different ways of thought on this. Some people insert a modern amp and disconnect the old radio. Others mod the existing radio and run the bluetooth through the tube amplifier by adding a switch and feeding the bluetooth audio signal into the tube amplifier which also sounds good but more vintage. For people that mod the original, it is best to mod models with a power transformer. If you plan to mod a series string amp (such as an AA5), you need to add an isolation transformer.

[@bartosz878]

This radio could cost a fortune in Europe in original condition. You did very good job on the cabinet, looks great, but other than that, I consider it a barbarian devil work. The electronics were a piece of history and could be effortlesly brought back to former glory by someone who knows tube equipment (inqluding me), It was a shortwave radio and could receive stations from all over the world. Instead of this you just ruined it's heart and installed some cheap chinese amp and speakers that nobody is going to remember. If you wanted so badly to play from external source, you could always plug your phone to auxilary input from behind and save it in original. I have bunch of tube radios and I'm going to pass them to my children in future and educate them about past world. You just simply don't destroy an old city hall to build a disco club.

[@tilsonrobotics6859]

@@bartosz878 FYI, it's a customer's radio and he wasn't willing to spend a penny on the vintage electronics even though I could have repair it. This radio was worth $35 in Canada. He is extremely happy with his Radio!

[@MrGigi-dz9cv]

No bluetooth. You can allways attach external bluetooth, to the audio input of this radio If you want. Let the radio be as it was intended.