Web Radio Boom Box
23 February 2006 | By Ian in Hobbies, Made by isnoop
For the past few months, I’ve been working on a web radio boom box. I’ve hollowed out a perfectly good radio and made room for a tiny motherboard and power supply that are set up to run Damn Small Linux off of a USB flash drive. There is a wireless card inside, and the box is configured to sniff out wireless networks and automatically start streaming web radio on any friendly Wi-fi network.
I’ve come across several obstacles along the way, ranging from the actual hollowing out of the stereo to linux wireless headaches to my most recent discovery: the new, smaller motherboard I found for this project has very anemic audio output.
I fully expect to install a small audio amplifier to drive the speakers that go with the stereo, but sound quality is still very tinny even with the EQ fully tweaked out in XMMS (a Linux Winamp clone). I’ll have to do some more experimenting to see if this motherboard can be made viable. In the meantime, I’ll continue to work on my other projects. More about those later.
23 February 2006 | Az Said:
If you’re in a hacking mood, try the amp circuit board from a T-Bridge amp from thinkgeek.com. They have awesome audio quality, and are battery powered.
23 February 2006 | dan Said:
if the mb has more than one usb port, try a usb soundcard. i have one and it puts out great quality sound. for example,
http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/audioadv/micro/
ebay is your friend.
-dan
23 February 2006 | burndup Said:
Maybe when you have time, you could post more textual details about your Damn Small Linux config, how you configured the wifi card, etc, what app you use to stream the internet radio, etc. Pictures are nice, but they dont help with the important details.
24 February 2006 | friggybum Said:
Dude, saw you on engadget and thought “how many fucking isnoops could there be?” And lo, ’twas you.
Hope all is well and you and the missus are having some fun. ^___^
24 February 2006 | eyethbill Said:
How does on dowload this particular item? I am new at this so pardon my ignorance. Thanks.
24 February 2006 | cabletguy Said:
Great idea…I look forward to the details and what new things are about to come.
24 February 2006 | underpowered.org » Blog Archive » Wifi boombox Said:
[...] Isnoop is one handy fella. Here is his mobile wifi radio. It sniffs for friendly wifi networks, connects, and begins streaming internet radio. Sweet! [...]
01 March 2006 | openspectrum.info Said:
Home-made WiFi-enabled BoomBox sniffs hotspots, streams online radio stations
02 January 2007 | jedhands Said:
I second the ‘great idea’ response. This is the kind of thing I (and I’m sure many, many others) have been looking for, and you seem to be right at the cutting edge! What’s the latest on this project? Does it run on batteries?
19 July 2008 | mayagaming online Said:
mayagaming online…
memorized patties taxis undoubtedly!Popsicles?crossbar …
19 July 2009 | wireless-card Said:
nice work guys, Home-made WiFi-enabled BoomBox sniffs hotspots