You can power the bluetooth module internally via the heater circuit which also powers the dial bulbs and is typically around 6 volts. A small resistor inline would give you your 5 volts and no need for a second power cable. Also, if you remove the chassis and wire to the outputs on the reverse you can still use the banana plugs if you what to amplify a record player or CD deck later. Great job though ... I love to see these BT conversions done using the lovely mid 50s German valve amps. Typically its the radio circuits that go bad and then people throw away the valve amps because they dont understand that they could still be perfectly usable and sound better.
The heater (6.3v) has alternative current ..so you need full wave rectifier and use 5v regulator (use 7805) ..to obtain proper power supply for your bluetouth module.
I should see if I can do this to my General Electric Mantle Midget, it's AM only and well, all I get is hearing people at 3:00 AM radio going on about "how ghosts entered them" so yeah this would probably be a much better use
Awesome! That's a pretty cool modification and it certainly makes that radio much more useful for you. Also, I'm not an expert or anything, but you may be able to pull 5 volts from somewhere inside of the radio or maybe tuck a DC Power supply inside of it somewhere.
these old radios run on hundreds of volts. there is no 5 volt in there. the transformer steps up the wall voltage before it goes to the tubes and back down at the speaker. You could mount a 5 volt power supply inside the radio and splice into the line cord internally and you would never even know unless you took it apart.
There is a low voltage source in that radio. The tube heater filiment winding on the supply transformer. It will usually be about 6.3v but AC and you will need a rectifier, smoothing circuit and a regulator to provide 5v DC to the BT module. But as you say there are hundreds of volts available in that set. You MUST KNOW what you are doing. btw if that old radio is still working and it hasn't yet had most of its older capacitors changed, I would advise doing so or getting it done. There are several capacitors that are cheap to change but can cause total loss of the transformers or tubes if they go short or leaky. @@kwacz
@@bofor3948 yes, in mine it is 12.6vac but the negative is referenced to b- which means they are tied together. I tried using this as a source for a 5vdc step down supply i made, but it caused a ground loop which drew large amount current due to the audio ground not being isolated. I just elected to use a 1va transformer and rectify filter step down to 5vdc. Worked great. I tried a phone charger but the radio did not like the switching supply in these and buzzed loudly. So i just used a transformer and made a linear supply using lm340 to get me to a regulated 5 volts from there.
You can power the bluetooth module internally via the heater circuit which also powers the dial bulbs and is typically around 6 volts. A small resistor inline would give you your 5 volts and no need for a second power cable.
Also, if you remove the chassis and wire to the outputs on the reverse you can still use the banana plugs if you what to amplify a record player or CD deck later.
Great job though ... I love to see these BT conversions done using the lovely mid 50s German valve amps. Typically its the radio circuits that go bad and then people throw away the valve amps because they dont understand that they could still be perfectly usable and sound better.
The heater (6.3v) has alternative current ..so you need full wave rectifier and use 5v regulator (use 7805) ..to obtain proper power supply for your bluetouth module.
I should see if I can do this to my General Electric Mantle Midget, it's AM only and well, all I get is hearing people at 3:00 AM radio going on about "how ghosts entered them" so yeah this would probably be a much better use
now this is exactly what i was looking for! Thank you for your help!
I can't find the pickup button a lot of german radios I'm thinking of buying ..is there another name for that kind of a button?
Awesome! That's a pretty cool modification and it certainly makes that radio much more useful for you. Also, I'm not an expert or anything, but you may be able to pull 5 volts from somewhere inside of the radio or maybe tuck a DC Power supply inside of it somewhere.
Yeah, I spent a while trying to find a suitable 5v rail but it proved unsuccessful. I’m fine with running a phone charger out though.
these old radios run on hundreds of volts. there is no 5 volt in there. the transformer steps up the wall voltage before it goes to the tubes and back down at the speaker. You could mount a 5 volt power supply inside the radio and splice into the line cord internally and you would never even know unless you took it apart.
@@kwacz that’s basically what I was trying to say.
There is a low voltage source in that radio. The tube heater filiment winding on the supply transformer. It will usually be about 6.3v but AC and you will need a rectifier, smoothing circuit and a regulator to provide 5v DC to the BT module. But as you say there are hundreds of volts available in that set. You MUST KNOW what you are doing. btw if that old radio is still working and it hasn't yet had most of its older capacitors changed, I would advise doing so or getting it done. There are several capacitors that are cheap to change but can cause total loss of the transformers or tubes if they go short or leaky. @@kwacz
@@bofor3948 yes, in mine it is 12.6vac but the negative is referenced to b- which means they are tied together. I tried using this as a source for a 5vdc step down supply i made, but it caused a ground loop which drew large amount current due to the audio ground not being isolated. I just elected to use a 1va transformer and rectify filter step down to 5vdc. Worked great. I tried a phone charger but the radio did not like the switching supply in these and buzzed loudly. So i just used a transformer and made a linear supply using lm340 to get me to a regulated 5 volts from there.
Hahaha awesome test song! Nice tutorial. Thanks.
why arent you posting anymore
i need several units bulit out to play spotify playlist nd connect to live players
Fucking awesome
Voor 😮
You need to get a better microphone.