Pictures of Phonieboxes for inspiration 2020/2021

[MiczFlor]

Hi Phonieboxers,

please add your designs of finished Phonieboxes in this thread. Also, I am collecting designs for the new calendar 2021 coming out shortly before Christmas. You can see the 2020 calendar here and the 2019 calendar here.

Use this new thread that I started for sharing pictures and designs, because the old thread was wonderfully picture rich which is why it became very heavy to load. So we start a fresh thread end of 2019 and into 2020. You can find the old thread of Phoniebox designs for inspiration here.

[Yordan1976]

Will you take pictues from 2019 from the old thread for the 2020 calendar? Or should we post a single picture here again for it?

[MiczFlor]

Will you take pictues from 2019 from the old thread for the 2020 calendar? Or should we post a single picture here again for it?

I will go through the old thread, as well, of course. In short: I will dig through both.

[andreasbrett]

So here's what I built for my little one. She's shy of 16 months so this box will be mostly used for animal sounds for now. Love how versatile Phonieboxes are as they will easily grow with your children and their needs.

[jens7885]

@andreasbrett: very impressive!

Here is my more modest design:

[lj2000]

This is the second Phoniebox I built up. The first one is my daughter's Phoniebox.. This one is mine :) Some weeks ago I started to regenerate my good old tube radio Telefunken Jubilate 8. It was still working but the sound wasn't as good as one would expect from a tube radio or a tube amp. So I did all the standard things which are needed for bringing tube radios back to service:

• Replacement of all defective capacitors and resistors
• Intensive Cleaning
• Change of the magic eye and of the amplifier tube

After this repair the radio sound (FM/UKW) was fantastic. While testing the radio I thought if it would be possible to use the radio's TA input for today's audio signals (MP3, CD or ... Phoniebox :) )

So I searched this topic in the internet and found some hints and solutions how to connect audio line outputs to a tube radio's TA input.

Finally I decided to upcycle my tube radio by adding the typical Phoniebox parts (Raspberry Pi Zero, Hifiberry DAC, Power Supply, RFID reader) and an audio cable including a very simple but very good passive audio filter ( see this link for details ).

Now my good old Jubilate 8 tube radio has some additional features which in the 1950's no one had dared to dream: :)

• Internet radio
• Phoniebox player using the RFID cards
• Further software extensions like Bluetooth loudspeaker :)

And of course all sound features can be played in crystal clear tube amp quality. But this radio only provides one audio channel (mono). In my opinion this doesn't matter. I mixed the left and the right channel in the audio cable using resistors.

Open topics:

• I am searching for the right knob or better: I am searching for the metal in the middle of this knob. If you have one in stock please contact me.
• When regenerating this radio I destroyed the cable of the MW antenna. I also want to reactivate the MW/LW antenna . MW and LW is also nowadays nice to hear.
• The USB connection to the RFID reader disturbs the FM/UKW reception. I solved this by using a very good shielded USB cable. When the MW antenna is back I also have to check if this one works without any disturbances
• I want to perform some tests with alsaeq (Equalizer): If this works it could be that I don't need the filter in the audio cable which is mounted on the backside of the radio at the moment.

Attention: If you want to modify a tube radio by yourself you must be an electronics specialist! Tube radios can be very dangerous. Inside of them there are very high voltages which can kill you. So don't do anything with them if you do not exactly know what you must and what you can do there.

[flo2305]

This is my first one from 2018. The second one is in the making.

Classic Design :-)

[MiczFlor]

@flo2305 that is a Phoniebox classic by now, you are right. Nice 50s green. Looks like you got the dial for volume and buttons to skip to new tracks. If you have a working script combining buttons and dial, I would like to add this to the wiki, possibly you can write something?

[flo2305]

@MiczFlor Hi. Sorry, but I didn’t realize the volume control in software. It’s the built-in dial from the speakers. I soldered it around and built it into my box.

[040medien]

My first self-designed speaker. Made with a MPCNC lowrider from 18mm plywood. Turned out to be too loud for a kid's room, so I had to cap the volume in software. The slot is for RFID cards which get a label for each audio book.

[andreasbrett]

@040medien that looks great! Also like the card slot. Very nice design!

[Jorgen-VikingGod]

I'm looking currently for something like this use the original keys and knobs and be able to put into some old tapes (assigned with a little rfid sticker) to play a playlist or stream. First I have to search a good one at the basement of my parents oO

[mikebarkmin]

@andreasbrett your box looks very nice. What materials did you use?

[andreasbrett]

@andreasbrett your box looks very nice. What materials did you use?

Thanks, @mikebarkmin! Here's a list of materials used:

• box from Obi
• simple rope from Obi as well
• white lacquer from Hornbach (2k PU acrylic lacquer; 2 coats)
• colored acrylic lacquer... idk, my mother painted the owl and used her own colors
• buttons from AliExpress (very cheap ones, hope they last)

If you need more details just ask.

[UndIch]

![Uploading 04F5FC46-00C9-4F9D-9A45-AA8374DF006E.jpeg…]() Not completely finished jet - but just a first impression!

[dbffm]

Final assembly finished last night:

[deheingit]

Final assembly finished last night:

Hi dbfmm: Do you have a part list? (especially the box itself. And how did you get the battery leds to show on the back?

[Yordan1976]

And how did you get the battery leds to show on the back?

I used fiber optic cables for this.

[deheingit]

a cool, thanks. Are they just glued onto the batteries leds?

[andreasbrett]

@Yordan1976 Nice! How did you fix them on the battery and where did you get them (haven't been able to find them yet).

[Yordan1976]

The powerbank has holes there (the LEDs are inside) and I just bought a fitting diameter (0.5 mm here). Because the diameter isn't perfectly constant, i could measure it and choose the right places for the cut to get a nice close fit.

[dbffm]

Hi dbfmm: Do you have a part list? (especially the box itself. And how did you get the battery leds to show on the back?

@deheingit: the box itself is custom tailored medium-density fiberboard (MDF) which is glued (Leim). Front and back are 8mm; the other parts are 12mm.

I bought optic fiber cable (0,5mm diameter; 2m length) on ebay. On the wood side it is glued; on the powerbank it is just "plugged". It could be a bit tighter but it holds the cable as long as you do not shake the whole box.

[Diekoeche]

We finally Finishing the Phoniebox :) It’s in a Recycled Box where we bought glasses in. So it’s flexible and easy to open with the zipper. That’s why we didn’t built a charging connector.

I hope it’s inspiringly for someone :)

Thank you so much MiczFlor!!!!!

[deheingit]

Hi dbfmm: Do you have a part list? (especially the box itself. And how did you get the battery leds to show on the back?

@deheingit: the box itself is custom tailored medium-density fiberboard (MDF) which is glued (Leim). Front and back are 8mm; the other parts are 12mm.

I bought optic fiber cable (0,5mm diameter; 2m length) on ebay. On the wood side it is glued; on the powerbank it is just "plugged". It could be a bit tighter but it holds the cable as long as you do not shake the whole box.

@dbffm: Ok, thanks a lot

[deheingit]

@dbffm: One mor thing: where did you get the usb port and the power button. i rally like the combination ;)

[dbffm]

@deheingit I found both on Aliexpress € 7,75 | 22mm mounting diameter Micro USB Female to Male https://a.aliexpress.com/FcQZ4hkUL

16mm 3V LED Power Push Button https://a.aliexpress.com/oiAuW0sBZ

[deheingit]

@dbffm : Thanks!!

[pfedan]

During the last days I also built a Phoniebox. Here you go:

(The lid is held closed by a buried screw in the center of the front edge) (I tried to manage the cables in a way that I can still maintain the box in a few years...)

Finally, big KUDOS to @MiczFlor for his ingenious open source project. Such things make the world a better place! 🐱‍🏍✨

[UndIch]

I already posted some pictures of our „Phoniebox“ - but I wasn’t satisfied with t Is so I did some sort of makeover and that’s how we like it ... and hopefully my son does, too:

Parts used: RPi 3b, OnOffShim (top!, 7€ +shipping), Neufatek Reader (soldered for “stop on removal” hardware hack), Logitech S150 (15€, absolut recommended- playing ok sound completely over USB (external soundcard included In the speaker and powered by RPi USB, so turning off via onOffShim!), 10000mAh Licheers Powerbank (BlackFriday Amazon 10€, needed a small one because of the reduced space in the „car“), Push LED Buttons from Conrad (2€ ea), red, yellow led for tail and top lights, some resistors.

So over all 40€+15+10€+10+10€ spare parts = 85€.

[drybx]

Here is my version of phoniebox, which I just finished. So you so much @MiczFlor and the whole community here. Happy holidays to all of you!

[isenmann]

Also finished my first Phoniebox. The RFID reader is at the front behind the face, so you have to "feed" the tiger with the cards. The buttons for play control (play/pause, next, previous) on top and on the back there is the USB charging port and the on/off button. Volume control on the side between the speakers.

For the picture I have removed the baseplate, normally it's closed.

[domu83]

bit aged already... here is my classic design box in the meantime inside upgraded with GPIO extension and RTC module. Featured w/ on/off shim, akkupack w/ fibre led status, magnetic powercord, matrix display & rotary encoder

[deheingit]

@domu83: Very nice and clean design. Can I ask you a few things?:

1. What kind if magnetic plug did u use. I did some research but didn't find anything i really liked. Also the silver plug on the ouside looks great.

2. What is the RTC Cloock for? I guess the rPi doesn't have a battery, so the time is not stored once shut down. But why do you need an accurate time?

3. You sid u use an OnOffShim, bu on the top I see a "mechanical" switch. How does this work. My understand was that the OnOff switch needs a push button to get a signal and than does the power-off on its own

4. Just out of interest: What did you install in the lower left corner next to the speaker?

5. What kind of display did you use? And how does it work with the phoniebox software?

Thanks a lot Dennis

[pfedan]

@domu83 I bet you will massively improve the sound, if you isolated the back of the speakers from the grid (using wood and hot glue). You basically created an acoustic short circuit which takes a large portion of the lower frequencies.

[domu83]

@deheingit Thanks... design could be improved 😉

1. I used this Magic Plug: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07MTGXDR3?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share and this USB plug: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01ATBTWVM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_.1oaEb9V9N19J you need to consider the max. load capacity with this concept, because depending on the akku pack used it takes quite long till full charge state.

2. the RTC has a battery attached, so storing the time is not an issue. Actually the RTC is considered to solve the issue with long log in time for the Spotify version (issue #406 ). Unfortunately it does not solve this on my end, still investigating.

3. the mechanical switch/toggle switch is connected to the on/off shim to act as the remote button. I liked the design of the switch as the power button. Not sure if the toggle switch itself, without the shim would do this job as well (considering the powerbank + the power-on after a total power-down, w/ no power at the rpi).

4. not sure how to call that, but thats the logic board/equalizer/control module of the speakers (former housed logitech speakers). missed to mention, that I also use a noise filter (https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01LX0H29W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_O.oaEb9T13N49)

5. I used this I2C 44780 2x 16 LCD display (https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07CQG6CMT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_1I1YQNIY5SKkA), today I would consider to use a OLED display instead to display covers as well. Might be more helpful for kids which can't read so far. Implementation is done thanks to #498 contribution.

@pfedan thanks for the hint. Actually I domnot have any issue with sounds. It's actually pretty good. I had a USB soundcard preciously, but my feeling was, that the rpi onboard was even better. I also use a noise filter, maybe that's why I do not face any issue.

[Hans-Haefner]

[Hans-Haefner]

Wonderful ideas that were implemented up here. Some Pictures of my Phoniebox, it will be a Christmas present for tomorrow.

[deheingit]

@deheingit Thanks... design could be improved 😉

1. I used this Magic Plug: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07MTGXDR3?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share and this USB plug: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01ATBTWVM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_.1oaEb9V9N19J
   you need to consider the max. load capacity with this concept, because depending on the akku pack used it takes quite long till full charge state.

2. the RTC has a battery attached, so storing the time is not an issue. Actually the RTC is considered to solve the issue with long log in time for the Spotify version (issue #406 ). Unfortunately it does not solve this on my end, still investigating.

3. the mechanical switch/toggle switch is connected to the on/off shim to act as the remote button. I liked the design of the switch as the power button. Not sure if the toggle switch itself, without the shim would do this job as well (considering the powerbank + the power-on after a total power-down, w/ no power at the rpi).

4. not sure how to call that, but thats the logic board/equalizer/control module of the speakers (former housed logitech speakers). missed to mention, that I also use a noise filter (https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01LX0H29W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_O.oaEb9T13N49)

5. I used this I2C 44780 2x 16 LCD display (https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07CQG6CMT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_1I1YQNIY5SKkA), today I would consider to use a OLED display instead to display covers as well. Might be more helpful for kids which can't read so far. Implementation is done thanks to #498 contribution.

@pfedan thanks for the hint. Actually I domnot have any issue with sounds. It's actually pretty good. I had a USB soundcard preciously, but my feeling was, that the rpi onboard was even better. I also use a noise filter, maybe that's why I do not face any issue.

@domu83: Thanks a lot for you answers. One follow up question: The USB plug has a Micro female port on the inside, correct? Where did you get a micro-usb to micro usb kabel?

Have a great christmas time!

[deheingit]

Ah sorry, my mistake. I guess you just need some kind of extension like: https://www.amazon.de/SunshineTronic-Verlängerungskabel-beschaltet-doppelt-geschirmt/dp/B001F6Y8JC

[domu83]

@deheingit right... I used this one: DeLock Kabel USB micro-B... https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00B3SBTRQ?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

[camCut]

This is my design, my son got it this morning as a present and he is just as happy as I am.

[Reddi82]

This is our handpainted box: 😊

[Florian1974]

Here are a few pictures of the first (more to follow :-) ) phoniebox that I build for my 2 1/2 year old Godchild as a Christmas gift, needless to say that she loves it. The card reader is in the top side of the cube

for the box I used 18mm pine bords that are box-jointed and glued together, the edges are routed round, the bottom is screwed on for maintenance.

Here is a picture of my "development system", which I used for tinkering, learning and evaluating more or less useful ideas. This is "my phoniebox" that I use as a player on my desk at the moment. I will definetly build a proper one with some different features for myself.

Here is a rough list of componets that I used:

• RaspberryPi Zero W

• 2 x MAX98357 I2S class D amplifier

• 2 x Visaton FR7 speaker

• USB card reader

• 16x2 dot matrix display with I2C adapter

• homemade on/off board inspired by the on/off shim

• Intenso powerbank

• arcade buttons for prev/play/next

• rotary encoder for volume / mute

• iluminated stainless steel button for on/off

  Other SW components that I used or modified

• lcdproc for controlling the display

• mpdlcd as a interface between mpd and lcdproc

• some own modification for mpdlcd to get more screens (default is only one)

• some own stuff to display IP, SSID and time via lcdproc

• some modifications to rotary and gpio scripts to fit my needs (combined fast forward/next and rewind/prev, integration of my on/off board)-> should be combined, cleaned, documented and made available

• some changes to playout control to get resume working via the play button after power-on

Things that I plan to do in the future:

• clean and document my changes and then make them availabe for the community
• try to intergrate lirc just for the fun of it
• whatever else comes to my mind or is wished by my "first client"

@MiczFlor + community, big thanks for the great project. I try to become more active here as I really like the project

[andrebsch]

I designed a little adapter PCB to use the Hifiberry Miniamp and the OnOffShim together, it also holds the pull up resistors for the buttons and additional connectors for the display, 3.3 V and 5V . It fits on all raspi models with the 40 pin headers.

[dbffm]

I designed a little adapter PCB to use the Hifiberry Miniamp and the OnOffShim together, it also holds the pull up resistors for the buttons and additional connectors for the display, 3.3 V and 5V . It fits on all raspi models with the 40 pin headers.

@andrebsch I like your idea for designing a PCB for that. Would you mind sharing the PCB design file? Did you use KiCAD or sth. similar?

[andrebsch]

The Gerber files for the Adapter PCB can be downloaded here: https://github.com/andrebsch/Pi-Hat-for-Phoniebox

[gsowins]

Hello everyone ! This is my first Phoniebox. It will be used to listen to audiobooks from HP Lovecraft with RFID stickers on HP Lovecraft books.

[dermarzel]

@andrebsch I really like your case. Is it a custom made one or could you please list your used components? I appreciate your answer. Thank you!

[gsowins]

Hi ! Thanks for your comment ! The case is custom made from a lamp I found here https://www.leroymerlin.fr/v3/p/produits/lampe-charme-romantique-bois-naturel-mathias-buchen-e1500944306?megaboost&gclid=CjwKCAiA6vXwBRBKEiwAYE7iSzcZN5tlJuctKueuAsjHgqNRAfsyxjHUibJBsT6-0rop3wxJ4zlhThoCJzgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds for a few euros. I took away electrical components and I managed to put inside a USB RFID reader and a JBL speaker like this one https://boutique.orange.fr/accessoires/jbl-go-mini-enceinte-noir (sound is amazing ! ). I bought an old vintage radio speaker on eBay for 40 euros (that was a really nice deal since this kind of item is usually sold at least 100 euros). The vintage speaker holds to the case thanks to a plumbing pipe. I can send you some pictures if you want :)

Thanks again ! Guillaume

Le mar. 14 janv. 2020 à 20:25, dermarzel notifications@github.com a écrit :

@andrebsch https://github.com/andrebsch I really like your case. Is it a custom made one or could you please list your used components? I appreciate your answer. Thank you!

— You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/MiczFlor/RPi-Jukebox-RFID/issues/639?email_source=notifications&email_token=AOHMFVEIUYHJ7PWEXNAEFKLQ5YGT3A5CNFSM4JQ6QH3KYY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOEI5Z5NY#issuecomment-574332599, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AOHMFVEHUWM7YXVCLGLNVL3Q5YGT3ANCNFSM4JQ6QH3A .

[fatalerror1981]

...and this is mine. Its a remix of primers design on thingiverse but modified to fit 2 speakers and different buttons arrangement.

Cheers.

[deheingit]

@fatalerror1981: Thanks for sharing - i really like the design. Maybe I'll try this using my soon to arrive 3D printer ;)

3 question:

• I guess you printed the dinosaur as well. I was just thinking about how to create cool "phoenies" - do you know of a library with models to use
• you painted it manually after printing, right? What kind of color would you use?
• who did you build in the rfid ship?

THANK YOU!