Panasonic RX-5010LS Cleaning, Servicing and Modding

The Boombox Bug has bitten again! Yesterday was a good day besides the bad experience with Maxim MX-939. I managed to get my hands on with the Panasonic RX-5010LS. Besides small crack on top of the right coner and broken belt it looks like new. This little Panny sounds really great. I was really amazed when I turned volume knob to max and the sound was loud and clear. Perfect candidate for a small party boombox. I already took it apart for complete cleaning last night. I'll upload pictures later. If anybody knows a link to Service Manual or schematics I would be very thankful!



Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/HJ1r7LmnBHdqLYo38

Cleaning and lubricating

Good work, it's nice to see the work progress and I'm pleasantly surprised to see that belts are accessible purely by removing the front casing. Please keep us informed, especially of the problems encountered and how you overcame them.

Very nice! Keep it up!

Love the effort newbie. Welcome aboard!

awesome job! i love these small panny's , prolly the best small boomboxes ever made for value, and they last forever on batteries.

member superlew modded a 5010 for Bluetooth. You should send him a message as he never showed how he did it. Good luck.


Bad Boy Bill

Thanks guys and thanks for the "superlew" hint. PM successfully sent!

Aux-in is almost complete, but few things to think through. Like where to put wires and switch for tape motor.

Today I got crazy idea, why not to try to power the Panny with few old laptop Li-Ion cells!

IT WORKS!



There is a BUT coming! 4,1V is to low, when you crank up the volume you hear some disortion from the speakers. It is designed to work with 9V so be it, I found nice little step-up DC-DC converter from ebay and connected it between the battery pack and the Panny.

Great success, works like a charm! These Li-Ion cells are about 2000mAh each and connected in parallel, so if I calculated right it must play like 15h at 1/4 volume.



Also made a video: https://goo.gl/photos/4gTqjkwqQ3rhxvZe8

Sorry about the bad picture quality, my Galaxy s6 broke down, have to use spare phone couple days.

That is good news. Waiting for more pictures and info...

I made a hard decision - I will throw out tape deck (no room for rPi) and Raspberry Pi goes in. All the tape deck buttons will work like they are supposed to but the music is now coming from Raspberry Pi. Here is the video of early testing phase. New buttons and python script with Runeaudio works great - very happy!



Google Photos video link: https://goo.gl/photos/dX2fzYfEayUQRBeK6

What in the world are you building?!?!?

Great posts.

blu_fuz said:

What in the world are you building?!?!?

Great posts.

Click to expand...

Thanks! My goal is to build a modern music player with today's tech and mix it with original 80's looks. Besides anybody who is in the range can control it with smartphone over wifi! I have used smartphone as a music player over BT quite some time now and I don't like it because it's draining the phones battery and then for sure you need to call or do something really important with your smartphone and there are no chargers around... Been there done that!

That's sooooooooophisticated!

I think it's brilliant what you're doing, I can't wait to see the finished BB - it'll be AWESOME!

That is very good idea:
Just connect usb flash memory with mp3 song to usb port.
Connect also audio output to 3.5 mm jack.
You can control this player with 6 buttons from cassette deck.
Do you think to use a small tv screen (connected to video out and placed into cassette door)
to see files and folders and mp3 ID tag - small album art and etc?!?

Yes and no.
USB stick with mp3 - check
Audio out - check
6 button control - check (no idea for rec button yet, maybe rickrolling button )
TV/LCD screen - no, too modern for the looks. 2x16 LCD with green numbers would be better I think!

+8 cell Li-ion batterypack
+Wifi stick for hotspot
+RJ45 LAN for software updates
+Qi wireless charging for smartphone (maybe, because it's too thin)

These statements may change in time.

Very cool idea...looking forward to seeing the completed box in action.

New "mechanical digital" buttons are complete!



Maybe I'll put touch LCD TFT after all, because they are cheaper and better to find than vacuum fluorescent displays. I don't want to spend 50-60€ on a small screen, I'll buy "new" boombox with that money.

Step by step, you is so close to the final! Congrats!

16x2 LCD testing clip