Bravo! We are kindred souls! I love giving new life to old technology! They generally look better in my opinion and why not up cycle when you can! Thanks for showing us your way of integrating!
I just finished one and had to come on here to see if and how someone else has done it. I ended up connecting my positives from the speaker leads from cheap dollar store bluetooth radio to the soldered pins on the aux of the boom box. It worked but sounded terrible. Turns out those pins are negative. After I changed them it sounds good but not as good as playing a cd in it. I believe the outside part of the rca jack on my aux are positive. Hopefully I can connect to that or better yet splice on some rca Jack's and plug them in. I wanted to avoid plugs but now I know I can make it work. Been wanting to try this but avoiding it fearing my result would be throwing it all in the garbage. Great video
From all tutorials and videos, I choose to go in your way. I wish I can get the TAPE amp always on, but I didnt fin anything. My boombox is so rare there's only 2 picture on the web and no manual. I added a switch to the tape motor. Bluetooth module is on the chip output and it works. many thanks
Just came across your channel you got a new subscriber thank you for giving very clear and easy to understand info I'd love to turn my old boombox into a Bluetooth boom box
I am planning on doing a similar project to this with an similar radio that I got from a thrift shop. I think there is probably a way to keep the tape function as well as bluetooth. Maybe i will post a video of my project when i am finished.
follow where the input selector is and that is your input, normally it all goes to the vol control and the cassette has a relay to turn the pre-amp so that why you have to press play , you should connect the input where u can find the selector in, and not in the preamp of the cassette
Good for a first attempt.... I would like to see you work on the detail.. Like using the correct type of wire to extend connections. You did better than most.... keep it up...
I'd guess that routing the signal right into the tape head leads didn't work well because the normal voltage (and current) coming from a tape head is very weak and the circuit is configured for that. You might have been able to get that approach to work by adding the appropriate resistors.
This is SUCH a helpful resource! Exactly what I was looking for. You even wired it into the pre-amp so the physical play button needs to be pressed down to output, that's even cooler than I was expecting to be able to do without intimate knowledge of the board! Have you worked with any bluetooth boards that you've powered through the power supply on the board itself? Having to open up the back to manually turn on the receiver any time I want to use it feels like it would get grating after a while, I'd love find a way to power the BT receiver passively from the same battery input as everything else. Thanks so much for the video!
Would you mind sharing a little more information about the brand and model of the Bluetooth receiver and the battery pack? Could you also explain or share in more detail how you integrated the power source to allow for charging and use? Thank you.
So I ended up using a Bluetooth Receiver board sold by TinySine on Amazon. I powered everything from a 12v lithiium ion battery pack sold by Talentcell. I just charge the battery directly with the charger that comes with the battery pack. The bluetooth receiver runs on 5v so I used a linear voltage regulator to drop the 12v from the battery down to 5v and I soldered on a micro usb plug to the voltage regulator in order to power the bluetooth receiver.
Hi! Great video. I'm getting ready to start my own rebuild soon and was just wondering how to connect the on/off switch? Is it possible to use the one on the original boombox? (if it has any) or just use a random button on the original box. Happy I found your channel, subscribed.
Hey thanks. So for the boombox in this video I am still using the original power button which is essentially the source selector switch. Selecting cassette without having the play button pushed down is basically "off". But for some of the other boomboxes I had to add a new power switch. On this video I kept the original parts inside so everything basically still operates as normal- there is a switch on the battery pack that does need to be switched on, but assuming it is, then the power switch on the boombox works like normal. In some of my other videos I ended up replacing all the original components inside with a new bluetooth amp board and for those projects I did add in a new power switch. I'm hopefully going to do another video soon showing that process. Anyway, good luck with your project and holler if there's anything else I can help with.
Whynotmake Hey again. I just started my build today with an old Sharp GF-3939 and decided to use the td7492p that you used in another video of yours and now I’m just powering it with a 18.5V plug into the wall, I’m however trying to find a good battery pack for it so i can take it with me. Do you know how long the TalentCell battery life is? How long it can power the speakers at about 50%? Would love another video from you showing how you connect the battery and a new power switch etc. Sorry if my English isn’t great, it’s my second language.
Awesome, hope your project is coming along well. I'll start working on another video where I show how to put in the new power switch along with some other improvements I've started making. I'll also have to do some testing to determine the total amount of time the battery pack will power it. My experience has been that it will run for a long time. I've had them run for over 10 hours. Obviously it's dependent on a few things but mainly the AH of the battery pack.
Nice work,is it hard to add a headphone jack to a boom box?? I bought a Nexa boombox(that weighs 25 lbs) and it’s a cd,cassette,fm/am radio,but there’s no headphone jack,Thanks John🎧🎧🎧
I’m gonna do this to my old…well…outdated BOSE CD player…actually gonna convert the batteries also to Milwaukee power tools batteries and splice in a Bluetooth receiver.
QUESTION; I got a vintage fisher surrounding sound boombox... I want to converted it to Bluetooth one but keep the surrounding sound quality. Mind that in order to get surrounding sound you need to press a button on the boombox... I wonder if that button can be activated as well with Bluetooth conversion...WHAT DO YOU SAY?
Bill Tracy yes. Just wire in a Bluetooth stereo amp board and install a switch to change between tape/radio functions and Bluetooth amp. Cheap and quick and you get to keep all functionality intact
Did you try putting a cassette in there when the phone when it was playing through the auxiliary? Would they play at the same time? You could probably also use a tapeless cassette to stop the noise and keep full cassette functionality. I think these are super super cool
Thanks ,glad you liked it. So when I first started with this boombox the cassette wasn't functioning correctly and unfortunately in my process of adding the auxiliary I ended up cutting the cassette outputs. So it wouldn't have worked in this case. I also had cut the power to the cassette drive motor to stop it from making noise. I guess if you added the aux into a working cassette system you could probably get them to both play at the same time, but I'm not sure what the goal of that would be.
Awesome, hope yours turned out good! So I started using a few coats of Flex Seal spray on the vents. Don’t go too heavy on each coat and give it plenty of time to dry between. Should work well, it does for me. Good luck!
your website links your "Adding Bluetooth to working boombox" to your video where you gut a boombox (whynotmake.com/boomboxes/). I think it would make more sense to link to this video.
Bravo! We are kindred souls! I love giving new life to old technology! They generally look better in my opinion and why not up cycle when you can! Thanks for showing us your way of integrating!
I just finished one and had to come on here to see if and how someone else has done it. I ended up connecting my positives from the speaker leads from cheap dollar store bluetooth radio to the soldered pins on the aux of the boom box. It worked but sounded terrible. Turns out those pins are negative. After I changed them it sounds good but not as good as playing a cd in it. I believe the outside part of the rca jack on my aux are positive. Hopefully I can connect to that or better yet splice on some rca Jack's and plug them in. I wanted to avoid plugs but now I know I can make it work. Been wanting to try this but avoiding it fearing my result would be throwing it all in the garbage. Great video
From all tutorials and videos, I choose to go in your way. I wish I can get the TAPE amp always on, but I didnt fin anything. My boombox is so rare there's only 2 picture on the web and no manual. I added a switch to the tape motor. Bluetooth module is on the chip output and it works. many thanks
Simplicity , ingenuity , creative awesome gotta love it .
Just came across your channel you got a new subscriber thank you for giving very clear and easy to understand info I'd love to turn my old boombox into a Bluetooth boom box
Great project! This is exactly what I’m looking for
I am planning on doing a similar project to this with an similar radio that I got from a thrift shop. I think there is probably a way to keep the tape function as well as bluetooth. Maybe i will post a video of my project when i am finished.
follow where the input selector is and that is your input, normally it all goes to the vol control and the cassette has a relay to turn the pre-amp so that why you have to press play , you should connect the input where u can find the selector in, and not in the preamp of the cassette
Good for a first attempt.... I would like to see you work on the detail.. Like using the correct type of wire to extend connections. You did better than most.... keep it up...
Thanks. I’m learning as I go, and trying to help others along the way if I can. I’m definitely not an example of best practices.
I'd guess that routing the signal right into the tape head leads didn't work well because the normal voltage (and current) coming
from a tape head is very weak and the circuit is configured for that. You might have been able to get that approach to work by
adding the appropriate resistors.
You should try updating the speakers too!
This is SUCH a helpful resource! Exactly what I was looking for. You even wired it into the pre-amp so the physical play button needs to be pressed down to output, that's even cooler than I was expecting to be able to do without intimate knowledge of the board! Have you worked with any bluetooth boards that you've powered through the power supply on the board itself? Having to open up the back to manually turn on the receiver any time I want to use it feels like it would get grating after a while, I'd love find a way to power the BT receiver passively from the same battery input as everything else. Thanks so much for the video!
Well done 👍🏆. Great work thanks.
Thank you for your video.
Would you mind sharing a little more information about the brand and model of the Bluetooth receiver and the battery pack? Could you also explain or share in more detail how you integrated the power source to allow for charging and use? Thank you.
So I ended up using a Bluetooth Receiver board sold by TinySine on Amazon. I powered everything from a 12v lithiium ion battery pack sold by Talentcell. I just charge the battery directly with the charger that comes with the battery pack. The bluetooth receiver runs on 5v so I used a linear voltage regulator to drop the 12v from the battery down to 5v and I soldered on a micro usb plug to the voltage regulator in order to power the bluetooth receiver.
That is great. First question, how do you charge the LI battery? Next, how about adding a SSD?
How do you determine what speaker outage to use? 🤷♂️😬
Hi! Great video. I'm getting ready to start my own rebuild soon and was just wondering how to connect the on/off switch? Is it possible to use the one on the original boombox? (if it has any) or just use a random button on the original box.
Happy I found your channel, subscribed.
Hey thanks. So for the boombox in this video I am still using the original power button which is essentially the source selector switch. Selecting cassette without having the play button pushed down is basically "off". But for some of the other boomboxes I had to add a new power switch. On this video I kept the original parts inside so everything basically still operates as normal- there is a switch on the battery pack that does need to be switched on, but assuming it is, then the power switch on the boombox works like normal. In some of my other videos I ended up replacing all the original components inside with a new bluetooth amp board and for those projects I did add in a new power switch. I'm hopefully going to do another video soon showing that process. Anyway, good luck with your project and holler if there's anything else I can help with.
Whynotmake Hey again. I just started my build today with an old Sharp GF-3939 and decided to use the td7492p that you used in another video of yours and now I’m just powering it with a 18.5V plug into the wall, I’m however trying to find a good battery pack for it so i can take it with me. Do you know how long the TalentCell battery life is? How long it can power the speakers at about 50%? Would love another video from you showing how you connect the battery and a new power switch etc.
Sorry if my English isn’t great, it’s my second language.
Awesome, hope your project is coming along well. I'll start working on another video where I show how to put in the new power switch along with some other improvements I've started making. I'll also have to do some testing to determine the total amount of time the battery pack will power it. My experience has been that it will run for a long time. I've had them run for over 10 hours. Obviously it's dependent on a few things but mainly the AH of the battery pack.
Do you think there is a way to add a line in to a 1967 am/fm radio...no cassette player?
Nice work,is it hard to add a headphone jack to a boom box?? I bought a Nexa boombox(that weighs 25 lbs) and it’s a cd,cassette,fm/am radio,but there’s no headphone jack,Thanks John🎧🎧🎧
I’m gonna do this to my old…well…outdated BOSE CD player…actually gonna convert the batteries also to Milwaukee power tools batteries and splice in a Bluetooth receiver.
You can add a screen now if u haven't already
QUESTION; I got a vintage fisher surrounding sound boombox... I want to converted it to Bluetooth one but keep the surrounding sound quality. Mind that in order to get surrounding sound you need to press a button on the boombox... I wonder if that button can be activated as well with Bluetooth conversion...WHAT DO YOU SAY?
Its possible just to put in a Bluetooth dummy tape casette or bluetooth radio transmitter..
nice job
Any way to keep the cassette function as well?
Bill Tracy yes. Just wire in a Bluetooth stereo amp board and install a switch to change between tape/radio functions and Bluetooth amp. Cheap and quick and you get to keep all functionality intact
Did you try putting a cassette in there when the phone when it was playing through the auxiliary? Would they play at the same time? You could probably also use a tapeless cassette to stop the noise and keep full cassette functionality. I think these are super super cool
Thanks ,glad you liked it. So when I first started with this boombox the cassette wasn't functioning correctly and unfortunately in my process of adding the auxiliary I ended up cutting the cassette outputs. So it wouldn't have worked in this case. I also had cut the power to the cassette drive motor to stop it from making noise. I guess if you added the aux into a working cassette system you could probably get them to both play at the same time, but I'm not sure what the goal of that would be.
@@Whynotmake Not a whole lot of use outside of "I think it would be neat". I might have to try this someday.
what electric board do I need to convert my vintage boombox into Bluetooth one?
Thank you
Just converted a boombox myself, I want to seal some of the vents in the casing, what do you recommend for that?
Awesome, hope yours turned out good! So I started using a few coats of Flex Seal spray on the vents. Don’t go too heavy on each coat and give it plenty of time to dry between. Should work well, it does for me. Good luck!
Sprayed from the inside I might add. In case that wasn’t clear.
your website links your "Adding Bluetooth to working boombox" to your video where you gut a boombox (whynotmake.com/boomboxes/). I think it would make more sense to link to this video.
you gota be a mechanical genius to figure this out
The simplest way would be to install a Bluetooth cassette
Could you not just splice into the headphone jack? Doesn't make sense to take away the use of the Cassette? 🤔
Noice
So this ruins the cassette player, which is part of the appeal of a bookbox
The simplest way would be to install a Bluetooth cassette.
don't see why not just get a Bluetooth enabled system
I don't see why people still driving old 1990 Ferraris when they could get brand new hyundai elantra.