DIY Retro Bluetooth Speaker

I found this radio on the side of the road ready for trash pickup. It did not work, but when I tested the speaker it still worked and sounded better than most modern speakers that are made today. I decided to give this radio a new life, and turned it into a bluetooth speaker.

In order to start the conversion, I began with taking apart the radio. I made sure to remember where I put all of the screws and parts that I removed. I also, filmed the entire conversion process, so if I forgot where a part goes, I could view the video and check. With this radio (yours will probably be different) I had to remove the battery casing, one of the antennas, and unbolt the entire circuit board to get to the parts I needed.

After I removed the entire circuit board, I was able to get to the speaker. I snipped both of the wires from the circuit board, and also marked both of the wires with black being ground and white being hot. I then placed the circuit board back in place, and stripped down the wires and extended them with longer wires using wire nuts.

Next I got my bluetooth audio amplifier ready, which is what makes this project come together. This circuit board is quite cheap and available on amazon. After I got this, I connected the hot (+) and ground (-) wires to the corresponding terminals on the board. I then plugged in a 12v power supply into the board and pressed the power button to see if it would work. The blue light turned on, and the speaker made a beeping noise to verify that everything was installed correctly.

After I verified that everything worked, I finished putting the radio back together. I cut out a small slot in the battery case, and inset the bluetooth audio board into it. This way, when the speaker is turned on, it looks like it's an old radio playing the music.