2014-02-26

Someone once said that I was 'addicted to noise', while I don't necessarily agree with the 'noise' part, I certainly like to listen to music... all the time. With that in mind, you can understand my desire to have a sweet sweet music player in my workshop, and now I have one (sort of). Say hello to Bonechop!

What's in a name?

Bonechop is a Beaglebone Black computer running Debian Linux and using MuttonChop for network controlled audio playing, and the whole system is put in an old AM Radio. Since the Beaglebone Black doesn't have audio out capabilities, I opted to use a hella cheapo USB audio card; and it works wonderfully.

Gather Some Supplies

Here we have:

  • a nice big late 50s or early 60s Montgomery Ward Airline AM radio gifted by a friend (thanks buddy!)
  • a screw driver
  • some awesome glue
  • white gorilla tape
  • the beaglebone (and a USB audio card)
  • a bunch of little wood screws
  • a 1" x 1" piece of poplar to use a stand offs

OK, the Poplar Didn't Work

aside from having a hell of a time just cutting the poplar into little pieces, every piece I tried to put a screw into would split before the computer was securely fastened. bummer.

Fortunately, there were some pine shims in the workshop that were left over from when my buddy framed in a door. Thanks buddy!

Here we have 3 small pieces of pine secured to the Beaglebone with little wood screws. I would have used 4 pieces, but the 4th hole is located near the micro-SD card slot and my blocky stand-off wouldn't fit properly. That's OK because 3 points make a plane.

A New Adhesive!

This is the first time I've used Weldbond, and I must say that I'm quite pleased with the results. After tipping the radio onto its side, the 3 stand-offs were glued to the body of the radio.

The next day, I took my coffee picture with the finished product.

How about a video?

As an entry to a contest by Adafruit Industries, I made a video of Bonechop playing some music.

This project is definitely not finished, but it is in a damn fine usable state. Now I need to go find some switches to wire into the GPIO.

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