Emerson TV/Boombox mod to Touchscreen Media player

[djetaine]

Alright, so I just got my new cheapo box in the mail so I can get started on my "dry run" in replacing the CRT with a touch screen portable media player.
I plan to do this with a box that actually has some decent components but I wanted to get started with something i could afford to destroy if that happens.

I have just gotten the disassembly done and replaced the belts to get the tape working again. Found the problem with the right speaker not functioning and resolved that as well. (just a bad lead)

Here are some pictures of me disassembling the box and removing the CRT.

Next comes the fun part; actually removing some of the plastic bits on the inside to make room for my new 5.2" widescreen touchscreen portable media player.
I have chosen the one I will put in there and just need to purchase it. The wifey says I cant buy it till after the honeymoon next week so when I get back I'll finish up and install the new one and post up part two!

Enjoy

 

[Fatdog]

Good luck! I'll be watching this thread closely as I have a beater that could house a 7" screen.

 

[djetaine]

Good luck! I'll be watching this thread closely as I have a beater that could house a 7" screen.

If you can get a 7" widescreen in there you will be set! Check out the iriver unit 2. It's a touch screen 1280X720 linux powered media player with WiFi. If i had the room that's what I'd be putting in here.

I am done with what I'm doing for now until I get the new PMP unit in in a couple weeks. Everything is pretty much ready to go.

Got the box hollowed out with enough space to fit the new lcd, wires have been moved around to make room. Basically all that's left is a little clean up with some sandpaper and soldering the audio wires in. I tested the line capability I fashioned by just running the wires and using electrical tape to keep them down, I will solder them in once I get some decent RCA's.
Everything seems to sound good. I used a cd turntable I had to test the new lines and found that it functioned as desired.
The only good RCA I have are much too long for me to not feel bad about destroying. Finding the correct points on the board was easy enough just by looking at the trace and a couple times of trial and error.

A little scratchy but I believe that's just from the poor connection I've got using just electrical tape.

I may end up replacing the amp and speakers once I get started on part 2 but have not decided yet. This thing doesnt really sound good past half volume, HEAVY distortion.

Here are pictures of the half finished product.

 

[sonicteambronx]

oooo man i hope this mod is successful!!!! please dont fail ..keep it up youre doing great!!!!

 

[djetaine]

oooo man i hope this mod is successful!!!! please dont fail ..keep it up youre doing great!!!!

Will do! It's actually going a lot easier than I had expected. I've got a lot of pc case mods under my belt so I have a bit of a leg up there but most of those were ripping out the internals of various items, never done one where i kept functionality of the original item as well. I won't be able to work on this any more until I get back from cancun on the 10th but once I do I expect to have it completed in a week or two.
Here is the PMP i'm purchasing for it. I MIGHT run some new RCA's to come out of it to give it audio/video line out capabilities since this will output 1080p. It also has WiFi!!!! 16gb of internal memory with a high capacity microSD capable of up to another 64gb of memory.

 

[djetaine]

Welp, I'm finally back and have just placed my order for the PMP to put in the box. I ended up not going with the Chuwi p7.
After quite a bit of research I just purchased a linux based Archos 5 with a 4.8" screen and 120gig HDD and WiFi.
This project just turned real! My little 40 dollar emerson has turned into a 500 dollar box, lol. If this works I'll end up taking it out of the emerson and putting it into a nicer box but we all gotta start somewhere!
I should have it in by Monday so HOPEFULLY... I can have this entire project done by this weekend. Stoked!!

 

[djetaine]

mockup -

Since its linux based its possible that I could find or code a media player skin for it that will fit the box a little better but not really sure. I'll have to wait until it comes in to look at what I can do with it.

 

[Fatdog]

Glad to see you back and to see that this project is still moving forward.

 

[oldskool69]

mockup -

[ Image ]

Since its linux based its possible that I could find or code a media player skin for it that will fit the box a little better but not really sure. I'll have to wait until it comes in to look at what I can do with it.

 

[djetaine]

just got a tracking number... it will be here tomorrow!

 

[djetaine]

Ok!
Got the PMP in today and it works PERFECTLY. Great deal on it.

On to the good stuff.

Just going from past experience on case mods I knew this one was not going to be easy. That being said... This is definitely one of the most difficult I have every attempted.
As I said before, I thought everything was all wired up and ready to go but there are still a few things to do. Mainly I need to find someway to turn the thing on once its completely installed! As you can see in the picture below, the on button is right on the side of the unit and will be impossible to access once it's installed. I'm thinking some sort of actuator or something to depress the button but that's for another day.

First things first, lets throw it in the box and test fit it. I did some measurements just based on online specs so it should fit relatively well in there on the first try right? Well... Sort of.

Everything looked good there until I thought about power. I had originally assumed that the power inputs would be on the back. Oh no no, wrong on that one. The power input is right there on the bottom of the unit. No way It will go in the hole I cut without some serious modification. It was either modify the power adapter itself or modify the box. Modifying the box seems to be the way to go as I might have a hard time finding this connector in the future.

Connector location on Archos

New cut out in box

I threw it in there and it fit, but it wasnt square so after about an hour of trial and error, shaving, dremeling and sanding I finally got it to go in there square and sit on its own.

This is going to be it for the day because it is HOT HOT HOT in Dallas, Texas at the moment and my little ol fan isnt doing me much good in my open garage workspace.

Bear in mind while looking at these pictures that the aesthetics are NOT complete. There is still a lot to do to cover up blank space and dremel/rotozip marks

Things that still need to be done -
Secure PMP into opening with a custom bracket
Make hole in back or side for USB adaptor (charge and transfer are through the same USB connector)
Permanently solder the connections I made temporarily for the audio out to the PCB
Make sure that custom connection will actually route through to the audio out on the PMP (it looks like it will without issue)
Build out new panels/molding for the areas I removed so they look clean
Sand, sand and more sanding
Paint.
BOOM!

I am thinking to be completely finished with the entire project I have about 10 more hours to go. That's not including recapping the whole damned thing and putting in some better speakers. I may leave that to another project as this was supposed to be a trial run before I do this for real on a nicer boomer anyway. With the depth of this project, I may hold off on doing it to a nicer boomer for quite some time.

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

Kick ass project man.....There are some many features that your doing that make this cool. One of them is having a working cassette player!

Looking forward to seeing the finished product!

 

[djetaine]

Kick ass project man.....There are some many features that your doing that make this cool. One of them is having a working cassette player!

Looking forward to seeing the finished product!

Yeah, it's really coming together. The plan was to only ADD functionality and lose none of the original. Well, I will lose vhf and uhf but thats what the wifi is for!
One thing I am going to look into today is trying to find out if I can record off the box itself into the archos. There are a couple ways I might be able to do this. First thing I'm going to try to do is work with the 1/8" speaker outs that are already there. If those arent amplified to heavily I'm thinking i may be able to just branch off of them directly into the mic jack on the archos (there is no line in on this unit, only if you purchase the additional dock which wont fit in the boombox). Either that or maybe find the trace thats pushing the preamplified signal coming from the tape deck.

Lots of ideas running through my head!

 

[Fatdog]

Lookin' good so far!

 

[blah blah]

great project i can't wait for the next installment!

 

[djetaine]

Anyone have any idea's on what to do about filling the gaps? I'm thinking bondo and then paint but I havent really worked with bondo a whole lot other than just filling cracks and nicks. As you can see in the photo I'm going to have to create rather large pieces. Maybe use some sort of tin or hard plastic, cut it and then attach with bondo or some other resin?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Master Z]

How about some dense foam like the dark grey stuff. It will act as a damper and hide the gaps as well.

 

[Gluecifer]

Hmm.

I think a plastic frame around the edge would finish it off nicely.
Not too thick, just enough cover the gap and overlap the frame of the media player.
Something similar in colour to the tuner dial, but glossy to go with the tape deck door.

This might provide some extra support for it too.

Just my suggestion anyway. Good luck!!



Rock On.

 

[blu_fuz]

This is a very cool mod!

 

[djetaine]

Hmm.

I think a plastic frame around the edge would finish it off nicely.
Not too thick, just enough cover the gap and overlap the frame of the media player.
Something similar in colour to the tuner dial, but glossy to go with the tape deck door.

This might provide some extra support for it too.

Just my suggestion anyway. Good luck!!



Rock On.

I've thought about this too. This might work depending on how well I can fabricate a real mount for it on the inside. I was thinking a plastic frame that would be removable so that I can pull the unit in and out. This way I wouldnt have to come up with an actuator assembly to power the unit on and off, I could just remove it, turn it on and stick it back in. Might make my job a little easier. Got a bunch of disc golf games planned for this weekend but I'll be working on it during the night today and tomorrow. Hope to get quite a bit done before work on monday. For the support and frame I'm thinking thick felt covered in plexiglass resin, that should provide enough support and give me a good surface to work the paint and possible bondo on.

Thanks for all the ideas and support guys!