Introduction: Upcycled Ghettoblaster With Audio Chromecast

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Since I was a kid my parents used to own this ghettoblaster, I remembered to play and record my first casettes with it and it also had very good use while we had a clubhouse in our backyard with some kids from the neigboorhood. A few years ago I renovated my appartment and at the time I was looking for a radio player I could use during the renovation. My mom found this old ghettoblaster from under the dust, at first glance I was just happy it still worked although the radio signal could be very noisy at times but when the FM reception was good I was amazed about the exceptional sound quality the speakers still had. After it surviving my renovations this ghettoblaster was collecting dust again at my place but I was determined to keep it and give it a second life one way or another.

The perfect match came to my attention when I recently bought a google audio cast which is a simple device that can make any speakers wit auxilary input to an smartphone controlled internet radio or music player. I firts used it with my living speaker after google introduced the multiroom function I didn't hesitate to buy a second one with the sole purpose to give this ghettoblaster a renewed life. In this tutorial I will show you how I made that happen. If you want to give your own speaker system a renewed life realize that although it is portable it will always need a power outlet and a WIFI connection, which is a perfect match if you're looking for a portable audio device you want to use within your home.

Step 1: Build in the Audio Chromecast

Main benefit for working with ghettoblasters is that there's plenty of space on the inside of the case and inner parts are pretty well accesible but be aware you're working on electrical parts which require some basic electrical experience.

You will need:

  • Standard Electrical tools and screwdrivers
  • Electrical wire and connectors
  • Power socket as shown in picture (approx 3-5€)
  • Google Chromecast Audio (from 39€)
  • An old ghettoblaster which can be cheaply available in a local second hand shop if you don't own one

First Open up the hood of the ghettoblaster to expose the inner parts,

Let's start with making the auxiliary input accesible from the inside of the ghettoblaster by unscrewing the two screws of the PCB, rotate it and rescrew PCB so auxiliary is accesible fom the inside but still fixed to the housing.

Next you have to find the electrical wires directly coming from the 230V inlet in the ghettoblaster cut them and assemble third wire with the power socket I used wago to reconnect them but there several ways to make this happen.

Finally take the google audio chromecast and connect it to the power socket and the auxiliary inlet.

Make sure the parts physically fits the housing of the ghettoblasters when re assembled also fix them so they can not easily "travel" inside your getthoblaster, you can now screw the outer casing back together and connect the external power plug.

You just finished the hardware part of this instructable

Step 2: Getting Started: Cast Audio Content to Your New Speaker Set

Set up chromecast audio as instucted on the package it came with, you could use this page if you encounter any issues.

To cast Internet radio I've installed TuneIn Radio app on my android phone also accesible via the chrome webbrowser, the app holds thousands of different internet stations.

To cast my own audio files I've installed Google Play Music app which is a free cloud based database where I could upload my entire music library to (up to 50.000 songs) this by using the Chrome Version It works great but I heard some complaints because app doesn't work without your credit card coupled to your google account I didn't mind but apparantly other people do so you're warned

Plenty of other audio sources can be casted to your renewed speaker set like Youtube, Spotify,etc.. and casting works pretty easily with every app I tested so far. One remark is that syncing with video content isn't great if you see people singing or talking it sync up terrible so don't try to watch a movie using your audio chromecast (yet)

The multiroom function does works very well I now use my living speakers and ghettoblaster together and even when I put them in the same room they sync up perfectly.

I really enjoy my brand new upcycled ghettoblasters and hope this instructable inspires you to upcycle your own old audio device!