Antique Radio Project Help Needed!

[saturnkk]

I recently purchased an old pre-WWII Console Radio. It is a non-working Zenith SW radio. My plan is to convert it into a Touchscreen jukebox for my arcade / bar area.

Now the question; I am looking for a Jules Verne meets Bioshock / Hellboy type exterior look (aside from the touchscreen). Does anyone have any suggestions on where to find metal dials, iris's, old looking analog meters (e.g. decibels, voltage, etc..)?

Also, any fit an finish suggestions / guidance would be appreciated as well!!!

The pic shows the front. The whole center will be cut out (the window and buttons) for the 17" screen so any added items will happen on the front pillar edges, top or sides.

Thanks!!!

[yotsuya]

'Sup, Saturnkk?

Look For Drventure's jukebox. He does some awesome builds in a steam punk fashion.

Welcome to the board!

[drventure]

Oohhhh... You're singin' my tunes! 

I found tons of stuff off ebay. That and skimming local antique stores constantly. Just don't tell em' what you're planning on doing with their precious antiques 

Love to see a pic of the console you have. I just finished a restore of a Late 1920's vintage (I think) Majestic radio

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=115860.0

It's not near as steampunk as my buffet arcade cabinet, but I also finished it in about 6 months instead of, oh, going on 5 years 

[saturnkk]

Thanks, I saw your project!  It is an inspiration.  I attached a pic above for reference...

[drventure]

Nice cabinet. Seems shame to take out that gigantic dial, though.

The rough part about that shape cabinet (mines the same) is that if you mount the touchscreen to the front, it's going to be quite low and at a terrible angle for viewing and using. I had to do quite a bit of positional testing to get a setup that actually allowed me to use the screen reasonably. There was no way it'd have worked mounted flat to the front.

Looking forward to what you come up with!

[saturnkk]

Nice cabinet. Seems shame to take out that gigantic dial, though.

The rough part about that shape cabinet (mines the same) is that if you mount the touchscreen to the front, it's going to be quite low and at a terrible angle for viewing and using. I had to do quite a bit of positional testing to get a setup that actually allowed me to use the screen reasonably. There was no way it'd have worked mounted flat to the front.

Looking forward to what you come up with!

Thanks, I have been thinking about the screen, actually.  I will either have to figure a good way to angle/tilt it upward (I am not a woodworker) or maybe do a top mount (which likely wouldn't be as aesthetically pleasing...)  It is a shame about the dial but I would like to have all my dials / knobs / meters fully functional.  Since this is my first and I will likely make a lot of mistakes and learn a lot I don't want to get overly ambitious! (e.g. pop-up out of top of cabinet screen).  Maybe I'll hit Radio Shack for a VU meter, decibel meter, temp gauge, etc...  I am also thinking of mounting external speakers (maybe car speakers) with a throwback metal grill in front.  There is something like this in Bioshock (the game) that I really like...  Any way to incorporate an iris would be great too!

[drventure]

Yeah, I can see what you mean, but damn, that case looks like it's in REALLY good shape. I'd hate to hack it up too much.

The popup screen was +definitely+ the hardest part of my build, and while it works great and does look pretty cool, I'm not sure I'd go that route again because it was SO much more complicated.

One possibility is a flip out slide out mechanism under the top.

IE separate the top from the cab (mine was easy to separate, not sure about that one), mount the monitor to the UNDERSIDE of the top, then hinge the top to flip up from the back.

Finally, if you JUST do that, to monitor will be quite a ways back and to get a good angle, you'll have to move the unit away from the wall, SOOO, you mount the whole flip up mechanism on 2 draw slides so that the top with the monitor on it can slide forward while it's being flipped up.

I actually contemplated doing this for my build, but in the end, I didn't because
1) I wanted to do something with an linear actuator, just because 
2) I wanted to be able to set things on top of the cabinet and NOT have to remove them when I wanted to open it up.

Another thing to consider, speakers, Looks like you'll have a little wider area that I did for a couple speakers, but in the end that 18" width or so doesn't make for a very large soundstage, and you'll have difficulty fitting 2 larger speakers in there.

I used some 4" full range speakers from a Kenwood 5.1 surround system, plus the sub, but I'm not terribly happy with the sound. It's ok, just not great.

I'm MUCH happier with the sound from the dismantled Altec Lansing 2.1 computer speak set that I used in my buffet project.

Unless you +really+ want to crank the volume, I'd recommend going that route.

Also remember that you'll likely be putting a harddrive in there, and great big speakers vibrating violently don't agree much with harddrives, so be sure to take some precautions there. (dampening mounts, vibration enclosures, etc).

An iris would be fantastic. But that's a whole other level of complexity!

[saturnkk]

I am thinking of mounting the speakers on the outside with this type of look (see pic).  I am thinking of going car amp & speakers because I think that I can get much bigger sound...  I would either use a free air subwoofer or enclose the back.  You are right about vibration (especially if I enclose), thanks.  Dampening will be a priority.  Is there any place to even get a cheap iris?!?  The only one I saw was from a link here on a thread and it was in the $400 range!

[drventure]

Ahh.. Well, if you're gonna go full on steampunk, Personally, I'd mount those speakers in some kind of cones at the end of flexible conduit, kinda like I did on my buffet, only bigger.

You can see it here, the brass grid in the glass lamp shade thing on the end of the gold colored flex shaft



Of course, for what you're wanting, esp with car speakers I'd go bigger, maybe like gramophone horns or something with the speakers in them.

Here's an example




Check out the earlier pages of my build thread to see a ton of other ideas some of the guys around here were tossing about. Lots of good stuff there.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=88515.msg929544#msg929544

[saturnkk]

I was thinking of buying some Howard Restore a finish to clean it up...  Would you say walnut color??

[drventure]

It's hard to tell from the pic. Jeez, that pic makes it look like the cabs in almost pristine condition!

But walnut tends toward the darker and browner, that cab looks a bit more like teak, lighter and orangey.

But again, it can be hard to tell that sort of thing from pics.

[saturnkk]

Does Howard have one for teak?  It is in good shape but there are some scrathces on top...

[drventure]

http://www.howardproducts.com/prod-restor-a-finish.php

Probably the Cherry, walnut or mahogany.

The dark walnut is what I was thinking of, it's looks way too dark for that piece. Walnut might be too brown, though.

[saturnkk]

Maybe Cherry...

[saturnkk]

So I am working on the monitor conundrum and I had an idea for the Dial area.  If I mount the monitor on top, I can replace the dial with a plasma ball... 

[drventure]

That could look nice. There are plasma balls of all sizes available. I used a very small one on my control panel.

Another possibility is to remake the dial, like that thing in "the Golden Compass", full of brass gears and symbols. When you select a new song, it could be make to spin around and select various symbols (almost like a Stargate)

[saturnkk]

Very cool idea but:

1.  Where do you find that?!?
2.  What is the diameter?
3.  Changing songs/videos linked to dial movement sounds HARD!

[drventure]

1.  Where do you find that?!?
2.  What is the diameter?
3.  Changing songs/videos linked to dial movement sounds HARD!

1. I googled Golden Compass, but the gizmo is actually called an alethiometer.
That gave me the idea to google "Steampunk stargate. Sure enough, someone has put an image together of one

2. You'd have to make one. Or buy obtain the movie prop 
3. Nah. Stepper motor and usb driver circuit. Guys have used that here to setup monitor rotation rigs for Mame cabinets. But that's just an idea. You +could+ leave the dial in place, but connect it to a mouse scroll wheel (I document that in my build thread) and then have the dial allow you to adjust volume, or move back and forth between tracks, or fast forward, rewind, etc.

Another possibility is cut out the center of the dial and put one of those plasma disks behind it to show through.

[saturnkk]

Thanks!  The opening is 7".  I cannot seem to find a disk that is wide enough (the ones that are listed have reviews that say they are about 6 - 6.5 wide and the plasma part is only 5") so I am leaning toward an 8" globe and lean it in and silcon it.  I might have to paint or cover the other side so you can't see through it though...

[saturnkk]

Started the tear down.  Some before pics...

[saturnkk]

Some  closer shots.  Looks like it is from Feb 1940... 

[saturnkk]

In the last pic you can see the 4 openings.  The largest will be filled with a plasma ball.  The two upper (left and right) openings I would like to have some combination of metal dials, large bulbs and/or analog gauge.  The bottom round hole I would like for a power switch (metal toggle).  The face plate is a worn brassy color...  How do you think it would look chromed?  Too fancy? 

[drventure]

You might try taking some polish to the faceplate, it could actually be brass, in which case, some polishing compound and a buffing wheel might be all you need.

Looks like a good start. That cast flywheel is great, save that and put it on a spinner 

[saturnkk]

Is there any specific polish you recommend?  Also, do you have the link to your mouse wire-up?

Thanks!

[drventure]

Here's where I discussed what I did with the mice and scroll wheel

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=115860.msg1238038#msg1238038

The main thing I ran into was that I didn't pick up exactly the right encoders from Digikey (never done this before, so who knew) and I ended up getting ones that didn't have the same detente offset. The end result is that I'd get double scroll events for each real scroll wheel "click" (ie windows would see two "scroll down" or "scroll up" events for each single event from the wheel).

A little autohotkey scripting more or less worked around that problem (if the events come too close together, cancel one of them). But still, if I'd gotten the right encoders.... Thing is, I'm not really sure what "the right" encoder would be..

Wiring them up, however, was easy, the pushbutton is just that, a pushbutton, standard 2 wire connection.

The encoder part is 3 wires as I recall, but they wired up in the same order as was already used in the mouse.

[HaRuMaN]

Hey, drventure, you'll appreciate this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-Magic-Eye-Tube-VU-Meter-for-the-most-9-pin-tubes-electronic-kit-/280807526523?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item41616ed07b#ht_10567wt_1396

scroll down and watch the videos...   

[drventure]

@Haruma

Those are fantastic. A tad $$$ maybe, but they'd look great in these kinds of radio cabinets. He even mentions it's got an "automatic level adjustment" so that there's always some activity regardless of the input level. Interesting. That's one big complaint I had with using the VUMeters I went with.

cool stuff.

[HaRuMaN]

I've been drooling over those for a couple of days now...  that seller also has some other cool stuff, too.

Yeah, a bit $$, but his stuff looks quality, as opposed to the chinese crap alternatives.

[saturnkk]

Can someone explain to the Newbie (me) how I can integrate this into my set-up?

Thanks!

[HaRuMaN]

Can someone explain to the Newbie (me) how I can integrate this into my set-up?

Thanks!

Integrate what, the magic eye VU meter?  All it needs is power, it has a mic that pics up sound and the tube reacts.

[saturnkk]

Can someone explain to the Newbie (me) how I can integrate this into my set-up?

Thanks!

Integrate what, the magic eye VU meter?  All it needs is power, it has a mic that pics up sound and the tube reacts.

It is just that simple then?  Plug-in, mount somewhere on my radio, and play?  I could potentially get longer screws and mount it to the inside of the radio with the buld protruding from a hole then?

[HaRuMaN]

Can someone explain to the Newbie (me) how I can integrate this into my set-up?

Thanks!

Integrate what, the magic eye VU meter?  All it needs is power, it has a mic that pics up sound and the tube reacts.

It is just that simple then?  Plug-in, mount somewhere on my radio, and play?  I could potentially get longer screws and mount it to the inside of the radio with the buld protruding from a hole then?

Yes, that simple.

That auction link is for a kit (some assembly required), and tube not included.  You can get the tubes fairly cheap on eBay, as well.  I don't think the power supply is included with that kit, but all it is is a 12V wall wart.

There are other kits on eBay that are a lot cheaper that I would look at, especially if you are gonna mount the sucker and just have the tube protruding through a hole.

[HaRuMaN]

Here's one for much cheaper, coming from China, looks like powered off a 9V wall wart.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6E2-EM84-EM87-EM800-6HU6-magic-eye-indicator-tube-vu-meter-pcb-assemled-gold-pl-/200750241778?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item2ebda597f2#ht_10439wt_1396

Same seller, different style:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6E1-EM80-EM81-magic-eye-indicator-tube-amp-vu-meter-gold-plated-pcb-assembled-/200750239015?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item2ebda58d27#ht_11660wt_1396

[saturnkk]

Thanks!  So the Chinese ones come with a bulb then...  Do you know which bulb number the one is that allows viewing from overhead (top down) instead of from the side?  What makes the more expensive one a better choice?

[HaRuMaN]

Here is a top down one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6E5C-6E5S-magic-eye-indicator-tube-vu-meter-pcb-assemled-replace-EM34-EM35-/200753174913?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item2ebdd25981#ht_12203wt_1396

I think the german one is much more expensive due to the pretty case, etc.  Quality looks to be better, too.

I think the chinese ones should work fine, I'm thinking about getting one just to play with.

[saturnkk]

Here is a top down one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6E5C-6E5S-magic-eye-indicator-tube-vu-meter-pcb-assemled-replace-EM34-EM35-/200753174913?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item2ebdd25981#ht_12203wt_1396

I think the german one is much more expensive due to the pretty case, etc.  Quality looks to be better, too.

I think the chinese ones should work fine, I'm thinking about getting one just to play with.

Cool!  Do you know the diameter of it?  I am thinking of using it in the bottom hole that is already ~1 inch diameter.  So for these Chinese ones, all I need is a 9 volt .5 amp transformer that I could buy at Radio Shack then and I am done?

[HaRuMaN]

Cool!  Do you know the diameter of it?  I am thinking of using it in the bottom hole that is already ~1 inch diameter.  So for these Chinese ones, all I need is a 9 volt .5 amp transformer that I could buy at Radio Shack then and I am done?

Looks like the diameter is 32.3 mm, so 1.27 inches.

Yep, any wall wart with those specs should work, 9-12 V, 0.5A.

[saturnkk]

This is very cool.  Can these be adapted to meter anything else (e.g. amps, bass or low level volume, voltage, etc...)?

[HaRuMaN]

This is very cool.  Can these be adapted to meter anything else (e.g. amps, bass or low level volume, voltage, etc...)?

I would assume so, but I would not know how to accomplish this.

[saturnkk]

The German ones have a cool red glow at the base that the Chinese ones appear to not have.  Is this due to the German casing design and not an integral part of the bulb?  Looks like the German ones may have a small red led but I am not sure...