Sony’s cassette deck turned into a wireless receiver using a Raspberry Pi

User Reddit Unchecked_arrogance turned an old Sony cassette deck into a wireless receiver. One of the cassette compartments was converted into a touchscreen display running on a Raspberry Pi. At the same time, the cassette playback functionality was retained in the second compartment, and the cassette part works independently of the digital part.

The enthusiast was inspired by other craftsmen who had done something similar using a smartphone. However, using a Raspberry Pi with two decks makes it possible to keep the criminal functionality.

The Raspberry Pi is powered by a direct connection to the deck’s transformer. This means that you can use the device without turning on the deck itself. The receiver can use Wi-Fi, but a network cable will provide a more stable connection. Unchecked_arrogance also created several ports on the rear panel: Ethernet and USB, through which both analog and digital signals are output. The enthusiast considered adding a DAC to the Pi, but currently uses a DAC via USB.

For the project, he used a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ and a Sony TC-WR770 tape deck with two cassette slots. Instead of one, Unchecked_arrogance installed a 4.3″ touch panel with a custom-made plexiglass frame, as well as an SSD for media storage.

«I would like the physical buttons of the deck to work. I know it’s quite possible with the Pi’s GPIO, but I lack both programming and electronics skills, so the buttons are currently inactive, but who knows, maybe I’ll add this feature in the future».

The project uses the MoOde Audio Player, which contains a number of useful features for streaming media and supports UPnP, Bluetooth, Spotify, etc. It has a user-friendly interface that can be controlled via the touch panel. It can also be controlled via the network.