One of the objectives of the project is to get the radio to suit look similar to the Tivoli radio I currently have. At first I tried phoning around repair companies to see if there as an old one going spare. However there was not.
I realised I would have to end up making one myself. However I did'nt really want to source some cherry wood and use that for two very good reasons.
- Its not cheap
- I would probably make a mistake and end up wasting it
So a quick trip later and some online googling I bought some MDF and a few sheets of MDF veneer. The veneer cost me about £20, and the wood was about a £10, but I had lots left over.
With a bit of careful cutting, I got a carcass for the box all gluded up. Although it was not quite square, so I scrapped the first box and started again.
For the front and the back plates I just cut out two pieces of MDF to fit the box. Since I planned on using a mobile phone / tablet to control the radio, I had no need for fancy control panels. I did cut out To make life easy I just bought a roll of speaker cloth.
Some staining and polish, and the final box was complete.
For the amplifier - since on its own the Pi can't power the speakers, I looked around for a small 5v amplifier. On ebay I found the following Mini Digital 3W+3W Amplifier Board, which although is tiny, it seems to put out a decent amount of sound for what I'm looking for.