Vintage smart radio

There are loads of upcycling projects that involve taking a cool old enclosure, ripping out the original electronics, and replacing them with a microcontroller – and don’t get us wrong, we love that sort of thing. What makes this build different is that Tsuryx has kept all the original features of the Sony TFM-9450W radio, and added new ones without taking anything away.

The magic ingredient in this build is the audio signal mixer, an example of which is currently available on AliExpress for the princely sum of £1.19. This is what enabled the maker to retain the functionality of the radio – you simply unsolder the wires connecting the original radio to the speaker and route them via the mixer. Adding the Amazon Echo Dot requires some disassembly – you’re removing most of the electronics from the smart device, including the speaker – but once that’s done, there should be plenty of room inside the enclosure, and you should be able to connect the smart device to the audio signal mixer with a male-to-male 3.5 mm cable.

There’s obviously more to the build sequence, but if we’re honest, there’s not a lot more, which makes this a perfect project for anyone who wants to dip a toe into modifying old hardware.