Project Codename Boombox

[imagispire]

Okay. To start off I would like to say "Hello!" I am very new here, but I have been looking around and find this whole site to be very inspiring. Throughout my stay here I will be creating a toolbox, this toolbox will be created in a pc case I had bought just for that purpose, but that is not the reason of this thread... as time goes on I will be taking pictures (since i know everyone LOVES pictures) of the toolbox as I build it and make itself a thread, maybe, or just include it in this one. Who knows.

The topic of this thread though, "Project Codename Boombox", is going to be my first actual mod. I am taking a stereo or rather boombox, you remember those big things, wow, but ya, I'm taking that and modding it into a sweet stereo, that uses harddrives inside to play music from instead of using tapes, cds, etc. Pretty much its a computer but really the only thing I'm going to be using it for is to listen to music, it may be hard to ventilate it properly, but we'll see. I've been searching on ebay and i found a perfect one... but... it has like 6 days left.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/marty.rosen/jvcpc5501.JPG

So, what I'm going to do is wait til its about done then bid on it, It doesn't have a buy now... eww. But hey, that is exactly what I want! I will be mounting a screen on it as well, possible fold down on the top or where that tape cassette is located, who knows... till i get it. Then, then i will know for sure. I know it will be a psone monitor... hahahah.

A soundcard will be put in this to achieve awesome sound... and I may be using the speakers that come with it, or I may change them out with better ones, I'm not sure... we'll see how good they sound. I want this to blast... loud as all H. E. double toothpicks... yup. toothpicks not hockeysticks... i have no clue why... probably will be using two 320 gb harddrives...hmmm

heres a link to the soundcard i will probably be getting:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102012
and motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138271
processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819104249
and video card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814139151
nothing special eh
and I'll need a cd drive too you know, to play cds and not just whats on harddrive, to put more on harddrive too without having to upload from a computer or flashdrive or something... or *whisper* download...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136083
that'll do. don't need to burn.

Hmmm... will i have to line the inside of the box with anything or hmm... guess we'll see when I gut it eh?

Oh oh, I was also wondering what OS i should put on it if i want really fast boot up and if I'm going to be just using it for music, i was thinking linux since it like never has to be rebooted... if you get the right distro. I also wanted it to just load up the music player right off the bat... eh i could do that with the startup command duh... im retarded... forget i even typed that.

Thanks for reading :D ,

Timothy M. LaSalle
Imagispire

[Eclecticos]

Welcome to TBCS! Looks like a Pretty Kewl Idea.
Though I must warn you magnets will destroy data on a hard drive.
Should work out fine. . just keep the speakers and drives separated.

The Head on a tape deck is also magnetic so you may want to remove it to.

[calumc]

good luck with it!

[Luke122]

I would recommend going with 2.5" laptop drives, as they are a bit more vibration resistant. Also, go with 4200rpm drives for added toughness.

I think that the 7.1 soundcard would be overkill, since you'll only be driving two channels. Why not grab something with some ooomph behind it? Like THIS (http://www.si5.com/products.php?pID=4038)? Loads of power, but with 2 channels. :) This will save you from having to put an amp in to drive the speakers too.

You may also find that mobo to be too big.. plus, if you want to run this thing off batteries, you are in for some nightmares. I would recommend a mini-itx or pico-itx board, like the ones here (http://www.mini-itx.com/).

I think this is a really cool idea, so I hope that you build it!

[imagispire]

Thank you very much for all the suggestions and help ^_^ oh, im not running it off of batteries... i'll end up putting a psu in it. but ya i had totally forgot about the speaker magnets. oh and the head, that will be taken out because i think im putting lcd screen there. ^_~ thanks for all the help ^_^ i'll look into those links

[scar~face]

Oh oh, I was also wondering what OS i should put on it if i want really fast boot up and if I'm going to be just using it for music, i was thinking linux since it like never has to be rebooted... if you get the right distro. I also wanted it to just load up the music player right off the bat... eh i could do that with the startup command duh... im retarded... forget i even typed that.

Thanks for reading :D ,

Timothy M. LaSalle
Imagispire

i know Winamp (winamp.com) is a good media player that you can run at startup, it also has thousands of skins and cool features, but im almost 100% sure its windows only

[modmansage]

check out here (http://www.ramsinks.com/linux/)
Look for GeeXboX on the page, there's also a download link and a modified version of the distro with more codecs.
It's everything you should need, and then some, it plays mp3's, which is what you will probably be formatting the music as, and other music formats, and movies which you probably woun't be able to to.
since neither distro is over 7MB, you could boot off an sd card and put music on those too, it's a cheaper alternative than hard drives, and in my opinion, easier to transfer music too.

[Luke122]

You just have to watch for the limited rewrites on flash cards. If you are feeling ambitious, why not make a PXE (network) bootable version of Geexbox? You can customize it however you want, and then there's no HDD's (or optical drives) in the boombox at all. Boot from network, stream music from network share. :D

[modmansage]

that could be a good idea, but what if you want to take it somewhere, you're screwed.
besides, sd cards and other flash media are relativity cheap, around $15-20 for 1Gb.
if you're willing to spend it, you can buy a microdrive, it's basically a small hard drive like what they put into the video ipod and it goes all the way up to 100Gb.
you could do an e-bay search for ipod and broken and get an ipod with a good hard drive, load some music onto it along with Geexbox and have the flash cards to import/export music.

[imagispire]

i'm probably going to end up using a shock resistant setup. like 2 grates and using elastic rope and tying them up so they bounce, i should have enough room by the dimensions i am reading... and by the way... the stereo there up top was bid up pretty high... so i can't get that one. and that grate setup thing i saw it in another mod... so. ^_^

[Bucko]

seeing as how you aren't actually getting that boombox, I'll move this to the Idea Zone.

[modmansage]

you should check out any garage sales and pawn shops in your area to find something similar.

if all else fails, I'd say you could get an old NES and build inside of that, put a card reader, eithernet jack, and some usb connections in the game slot, and turn the controller ports into ps/2 ports if you want to use a ps/2 mouse and keyboard.
power in the back obviously and a laptop screen on top if you could manage it.

[Crazy Buddhist]

I used to own exactly that Boom Box ... bought it in 1984 for £300 ~ $600 and it weighed in at 56 llb's as I recall (I used to hitchhike 10 miles to school and back and lug it with me so I could listen to tunes whilst awaiting a ride :D ) ... a set of 12 D2 Duracell betteries lasted like three hours cos it pumped 32W/channel.

It's a nice piece and the case could work well for modding:

The speakers detach from the sides, the handle comes off, and the tape deck and tuner/amp seperate ... so its actually four boxes that clip together or you can mount the tuner/amp and cassette modules next to each other on a shelf - so its basically a hifi- seperates unit with two side plates to screw them together and hang the speakers off - then the handle clips on the top of the side plates.. lots of possibilities for an interesting mod if you see one come up again.

... mind you $600 for a case :D bet they don't cost that on ebay nowadays

[Crazy Buddhist]

http://www.stereophonik.com/gutterslide/boomboxPC/

^^^^ Some ideas for you here :)

[Crazy Buddhist]

How about trying to find one of these (image from pocketcalculatorshow.com click on the image to go to the site .. lots of old boombox/ghettoblaster info):

You could replace the turntable with a slick keyboard that slides out on the mechanism.

http://www.pocketcalculatorshow.com/boombox/graphics/jvc-pc-dc33.jpg (http://www.pocketcalculatorshow.com/boombox/)

[imagispire]

oh that would be sweet^_^ thanks guys. hmm the nes maybe as a different mod... but i do have one of those or 2 i believe. lol

[imagispire]

Okay... so i was wondering if it was possible for me to use a laptop battery in this boombox? that way i could take it without the cord places and play music without needing an outlet for a bit of time eh? and i found a sweet retractable cord i could use as well ^_^

[NamesAreUseless]

if you could figure out how to hook up a car battery to it like how they do in pimp my ride then you could have it for a month or more without recharging it.

[calumc]

or if you really want power use a tractor battery, its like 2 car batteries stuck together!!

[imagispire]

that would weigh a ton. and it wouldn't fit inside the stereo unless that was the only thing in it... hahahha

btw. i just won a bid for a stereo.

http://i8.ebayimg.com/03/i/000/ab/c8/9910_12.JPG

[imagispire]

Just waiting for it to arrive in the mail... it's taking forever.

[solja]

Just waiting for it to arrive in the mail... it's taking forever.

yea I know the feeling... I'm still waiting on my case :(

[lukeisthecoolest]

i don't know if this was stated but you should use a mini-itx mobo (preferably VIA or Jetway)

and of course a 2.5" HD so it is very small

for software you could use this: http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.17/.f

it will allow easier music playing

[imagispire]

Thanks guys. Hey it came in the mail at the beginning of this week right before i went to work..monday. i haven't been able to post. but ya. its sweet its works. its a sad sad state of affairs that i'm going to end up gutting it. it looks really nice though. and the speakers.... they plug in like headphone jacks. its awesome. they are perfect. ^_^ i'm very happy with it. all i have to do now is run up my list of things to get before i can get to building this puppy. i have to fix somethings on my car and pay for college... so i give it.... 3 months... ew right?... rawr. i hate when i can't just save up money and i have other bills to pay for and fixing my car and paying for college comes out of the extra money i have after rent, gas, cell, utilities, etc... i can't even buy much groceries then. arg. ima die. hahaha