MisterM

Aha that's a 100% fair point! The truth is, originally I planned to include a large LiPo battery (you can see it in the video), and to make room for it I had to remove one of the screw posts, it would have been fine with just one original screw/post and the clips - but I chopped out the wrong post, so ended up losing both. Those bolts weren't ideal but were the only ones I had that were long enough to go through the case - next time I have it apart (which is regularly) I might replace them, now that the DIY shop is open again! :)

Thanks, I kicked myself so hard over that - failures are definitely part of the process though!

You're right, handling it, it feels like a bulky old cordless house phone!

Thank you, that's great!

Hi, thanks! - it's as simple as having an old Pi handy but not an arduino, the LED control would have been easier too but the personal challenge was all about making use of what I had and not ordering anything new.

I have one in pieces as I type - a few more challenges with the space but definitely giving it a go :)

Thanks! It's certainly cleaner than my workbench, lots of destroyed cassettes and plastic everywhere :)

Thanks! Wow loom bands that brings back memories!

Thanks!

They're really useful things, bit delicate but save a lot of space - I think mine was in a "Pi Zero Essentials" bundle but if you search "Pi Zero USB Shim" you can get them singly, Amazon in the UK do them https://www.amazon.co.uk/ThePiHut-USB-microUSB-Converter-Shim/dp/B01BVEFHC4 so hopefully they're cheaply available everywhere!

Ah no I'd never do that! I look out for broken stuff especially that would otherwise go to waste. It's also much cheaper to buy! :)

Thanks! Got my first walkman in 84 for a school trip so very fond memories :)

Thanks that's great! They went down really well - attempting to make something similar this year but in chocolate, bit messier but we get to eat all the mistakes :)

That's great thanks! I do really love it and am about to start on another multi-station one using the same method for another room - the Volume Up button is connected between GPIO5 (Physical Pin 29) and GND, and Volume Down is connected between GPIO7 (Physical Pin 26) and GND. You could use different pins if you like as long as they're not already being used, e.g. by the audio HAT. Good luck with your build!

Hey that's a lovely build, thanks for sharing! Love how you've made use of the original big buttons, and rotary controls too, that's not as easy as it looks! I had an almost identical radio (see pic) until recently, but it was fully working and I didn't have the heart to dismantle it, also huge like yours. Soma FM forever!

Thanks - it was a space thing, I needed the Pi to lie flat in the case and the original speaker was just too wide!

It was lack of space absolutely you're right, the speaker itself would have worked fine I think but there just wasn't room to fit in the Pi, would have been about a 1cm overlap with the Pi on top of it, and with the header pins the Pi had to sit absolutely flat. Still I have a spare dusty-but-good speaker for something else!

Thanks!

Ah yes that's a much better quality product! An actual circuit board and microswitches inside instead of wires and screws. I've definitely played on one of those at a friend's house way back in dinosaur times, something about those grippy sides jogs a strong memory - thanks for that!

Thanks!

The contacts must've been pretty brittle as well as springy! We used to bend them a bit to make the controls more sensitive, but never looked back when the microswitch controllers came out, I remember my Konix Speedking being a serious upgrade for games like Yie Arr Kung Fu, and DTD of course!

Yip it's the same e-ink technology, just with three colours rather than just black & white. It doesn't refresh as fast as the kindle when in 3 colour mode but I saw the other day if you run it in B&W it's much faster. :)

Hey that's great! Good call on the 3.5mm soldering, I was never 100% happy with that thing sticking out but didn't want to risk inflicting my soldering on the original board and killing it. Power supply looks good too, really neat - I love that it's the same model!

Hi Kenneth and thanks very much for sharing the useful links and your code experiences! I had similar head-scratching with PyUserInput at first but tracked it down to how I'd installed it, if I remember rightly I first installed it with "pip install PyUserInput" then got those "No Module Named ..." errors, then when I instead used "pip3 install PyUserInput" it was fine all the way, I think it's to do with the version of Python that pip and the Pi use as default. Hope that helps!

I'm glad you're making progress there! I remember having problems like that with it when I was getting it to run on boot from the autostart file, turned out it would only run *without* the sudo before the python3, which sounds similar to your SSH problems. Good luck with the rest of it!

Good question - I used a lot of bits I already had, to use exactly the same things it'd probably be around £60, but I splurged on a specific speaker for the case and used the pHAT Beat, really for a basic version you just need a Pi, a webcam, button and a battery speaker so could be as little as £40-45 :)

I'll give it a go later this afternoon and reply back - curious myself now!

That was an interesting test - I left it ringing until it timed out, about a minute, and the "knock knock" preview video didn't show through at all. Wondering if it would be any different with an integrated Pi camera rather than a USB webcam, will give it a try once I've got the "one box" version working.

Thanks, it happens quite often here - I do need to work on voice operated answering in case of being both stuck and having phone out of reach!

Thanks! I love that it works pretty simply with fairly standard bits 'n pieces, good luck with your build!

Thanks!

I think so, yes, you'd probably need to install the Python module fswebcam but then it'd be straightforward to take a pic, just an extra few lines of code to do the capture after the button is pushed. Bit more info at https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/webcams/ - what I'm not sure about is whether access to the webcam is "locked" by Google Duo (because the webcam is already selected in the Audio & Video sources) - in this case the fswebcam module might not be able to do the capture.

Thanks! There was no-one more surprised than me when it worked!

That's great, good luck with it! And also thanks for reminding me to update my board, that's supposed to be the ceremonial thing I do after hitting Publish :)

Excellent! I'm still looking for an oversized 1950s hairdryer to house one for the bedroom, don't think I'd get away with a tape player in there. :)

Thanks!

Not sure on the software but it must be possible to scan for network cameras, tinycam pro on my phone does it, that'd be cool. Also your comment made me think a thermal imaging camera on there would be very cool, maybe when the prices come down a bit!

Thanks! Wish I had as many home minis as I have broken cassette players!

Ah yes now you're talking! That'd be a great smart home device, a little cablecar where beers leave their chilled depot in the kitchen and circulate around the lounge overhead every so often.

Looks grear, really clean! And you're right marbles are ideal for this, probably easier to get hold of than ball bearings too!