Clang! Clang! Clunk!

IOT Meets Vinyl. An Update to the Classic Record Player.

Comment 4

Inspiration

Inspired by fun childhood memories of playing records.

What it does

An IOT Vinyl record player that's controlled by a mobile phone/if we can get the audio streaming via Bluetooth that would be the icing on the cake!

How I built it

Looking for old record players the we can take apart or parts to use/to convert into an IOT record player

Challenges I ran into

Looking for parts :)

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Digging more into the Particle Photon

What I learned

I learned a lot about cartridges and tone arms/team building

What's next for Clang! Clang! Clunk!

Team building & part scavenging :) It's a project from the heart & built with love!

Built With

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Updates

posted an update —

SEWING MACHINE OIL

The platter on my $10 turntable was seized. Google reveals that this is actually a common problem on BSR platters--the grease used turns into glue through the passage of time. In looking for an easy way to remedy this problem I discovered that sewing machine oil is used on 3d printers to lubricate the X and Y axises. Could it work on a seized record player platter?

Why not try?

After a day of soaking the main bearing with sewing machine oil, and lubricating the bottom levers and hinges. The platter spun up the next morning!

The needle does sound scratchy, and the records skip. It's good to know that we have a platform to work on!

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posted an update —

Analog Memories

I've spent a lot of my free time over the past week looking for record players. Craigslist is a great source of record players. But I have trouble meeting people during the day--due to my busy day job. And I totally understand why some people don't want to meet in the evening.

Also I had a hard time with the idea of paying anything over $100 for a record player that I was going to disassemble during IoT Hack Day .

And last Friday I finally found one for $20 + records. Or you can break it down as $10 for the record player + $10 for a bunch of old records.

"Deal!" I said! Only one small problem-the record player and records are memories.

Emotional memories of someone's childhood/teenage years/mid-20s/30s/etc... The sellers were reluctant to see them go. To placate things I said, "Hey let's fire up a record!" And no go. The platter was stuck. I'd find out much later that the record player was a BSR platter, and that the grease would turn to glue with the passage of time.

"Oh yeah, the record player might need some servicing," the old woman said. "Mom, it's okay. You and Gram haven't played this thing in years." the younger woman said. "It's just that there are so many memories here," the old woman looked tearfully. "Yes! There are lots of records here." I said wide eyed--looking at the garage full of records. After an uncomfortable silence, I added, "It's really a great collection of analog memories!" I then realized that I must've sounded like a total nerd in a stranger's garage--in the middle of nowhere--in the middle of the night--on a school night! The older woman thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement and said, "I guess you can have them. They deserve a better home than being in the garage." "Thanks!" I exclaimed. "Yes! Deal!" the younger woman said. "Deal!" I said again.

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