I can't believe I never replied! Thanks! Yes... a little creepy though. It's not something I want to find playing without actually plugging it in. Sorry again for the late reply!
This is such a cool project. I want to build one and stuff a Bluetooth speaker radio in it for the illusion. I intend to use paper doilies for a round speaker grille and have found some perfectly elegant lacy ones. Can stack the doilies to strengthen them. They can be bought in large quantities for fairly cheap. They come in white or brown paper, gold or silver foil, and vinyl.
That's an awesome tip that I'm gonna tuck away. The dome on this dial is a Christmas ornament so I'm always looking for items that can be repurposed. The bluetooth speaker is BRILLIANT!!! Just build your playlist and away you go. So much easier and more versatile. You can use it all year long and just have a cool "radio" for all of your tunes. Thanks for sharing!
There are a lot of rechargable bluetooth speakers that double as lights and can change colors. Some beat to the music. That's the kind I intend to use and can stream music to it from a cellphone, or if the speaker has a TF/SD card or USB drive/mp3 player slot, can just insert a card or USB drive with old music or old radio shows on it. If the tuning dial on the fake radio is translucent the Bluetooth light should show through it. Styrofoam plates tend to be translucent and a bright Bluetooth / LED light should show through to a degree. Could maybe use the plate to cut and create a tuning dial and cover it with clear plastic. I'm saving the material for the project and will be excited to see & hear the outcome. Also intend to create an old pendulum clock out of cardboard. Lots of working movements on Amazon that can actually make it tock.
This is so cool!!! I am so impressed!! I think it's very smart to mount the main "ground" and "Power" lines to perf board(protoboard) instead of using wire nuts soldering them all together, I used this method on an arcade I was building that had a bunch of different boards, all requiring Power! (arduino, Audio amp, stepper driver, Serial MP3 player, neopixel LEDs, etc.) Very cool!!! 😎 Nice Work!!
I’m kind of a neat freak that way. I hate soldering things together in case I want to cannibalize the parts for later projects. It also makes it easier to throw in smoothing capacitors, resistors or even varying voltage sources. Sounds like great minds think alike!
NICE! Yes... a Bluetooth speaker is a brilliant solution... far more flexible and practical. I have a habit of overcomplicating projects because I'm fiddling with some new component and build the project around it rather than start with the project and find the most efficient way to accomplish it. Thanks for the comment and all the best!
I did at one point but not at the moment. Let me see if I can pull that together and build out the content on this page - randommakingencounters.com/diy-halloween-haunted-tombstone-radio/ Since I completed this project, I've changed how I manage audio files but I should have all of the vectors and STL files I used to print everything. It may take me a bit but I'll make this my current "make my blog better" project. Thanks for the ask and thanks for the comment!
