Vintage Pi Radio Project

Vintage Pi Radio Project

Our kitchen radio finally gave up the ghost a few days ago. I suspect it is just the power supply, and at some point I’ll crack it open and see if it is salvageable. However, it was a good opportunity for another little side project – A Vintage Pi Radio.

So…
I just won an auction for one of these vintage transistor radios on eBay.

Vintage Pi Radio - Case

… which prompted me to order a couple of FM Stereo decoder modules (with a convenient I2C interface for control) and begin shaping ideas for a Raspberry Pi Zero vintage radio project. There’s plenty of info and datasheets around for the RDA5802 IC that these modules are based on, so it shouldn’t be too much trouble to get it up and running. I also have a bunch (5) of the little 3W+3W 5volt amplifiers from my previous (first version) of the Raspberry Pi Outdoor Music Player project (which, by the way is also getting a cool new chassis).

Vintage Pi Radio - i2c fm stereo receiver module

Combined cost was less than £10, so less than £15 all in, including a Raspberry Pi Zero. Watch this space for more details