The Idiot repurposed an old Army Radio

Stuffing a Raspberry Pi and Google Voice Hat into a vintage Army radio chassis to make a music player.

An ongoing experience merging old technology and newish technology.

Note: This is an in-progress write-up. It assumes some familiarity with Raspberry Pi basics and flashing OS images to SD cards.

Safety note: Projects like this involve exposed electrical wiring. If energized, it can damage components — and more importantly, hurt you. Be careful.

The Find

Back in late summer of 2018, a flood drove me out of my home for a few days. My roommate and I ended up bar-hopping in Petersburg, VA. Somewhere between Bar 3 and Bar 4, I wandered into an antique store and came across an Army Radio (Model C-845/U).

It sat as a paperweight for a few months while I figured out what to do with it. One weekend, I gutted the internals, assessed the space, and an idea clicked.

The Army Radio chassis

It had a working speaker, switches, and dials. After removing the old components, there was plenty of room for whatever I wanted to put in there.

Interior view

Internals layout

Parts

What It Does Now

I originally intended to turn this into a Google Assistant device using the Voice Hat. Unfortunately, the AIY projects codebase has since been deprecated and the “Hey Google” / “OK Google” hotwords no longer work with it.

So right now, the radio uses Tizonia to stream music. Volume is handled by the original potentiometer on the chassis — a satisfying analog touch.

Completed build

Power is wired through a toggle switch that powers the indicator light, the USB wall charger, and by extension the Pi. I know that’s not ideal since there’s no graceful shutdown path. I’ve been looking into capacitor-based hats that can handle a clean shutdown on power loss.

I replaced the headset port with a USB + HDMI extension panel, just in case I want to plug in a keyboard and monitor.

What’s Next

Still working out what to do with:

  • The DB gauge — I’m leaning toward tying it to audio output level, though that feels uncreative
  • The transmit light
  • The intercom and microphone level dials — the intercom dial could switch the Pi’s operating mode (music player → assistant → something else), but I haven’t figured out the implementation

The more I work on it, the more I think it has enough internal space for a Mini-ATX board with some modifications. Could be a fun future project.

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