I'm posting again after a long while. I'm not terribly good about updating this website, but I'll hopefully get better. This long overdue post was spawned due to a recent creating of a couple of repositories on GitHub. These two repositories are https://github.com/dwilliams/ole-radio-input-switch and https://github.com/dwilliams/pcb-things.

The first repo (https://github.com/dwilliams/ole-radio-input-switch) contains a project to provide an input for the old radios that I'm restoring. I would like to be able to use these radios for audio books or soft music around the house. I'm not a fan of the butchering that happens to these radios when people replace the old tube guts with an iPood or raspberry pi media player and cheap chinese amplifier. I've designed a couple of small boards that can be inserted into an old radio between the detector section and the amplifier or output section (which is usually where a volume control exists) that will allow a line input or bluetooth module to be switched in. This adds an input while keeping the original radio circuitry intact and functional.

Here's some pictures of these boards:

The second repo (https://github.com/dwilliams/pcb-things) contains random printed circuit board designs that don't fit into other projects. The first couple of PCBs that have been added are a couple of panels for holding a tube socket and banana jacks for each pin. Originally, I priced out the 4 inch square panel as an aluminium panel through Front Panel Express. It was about 40$ per panel, which isn't a bad price for custom milling. However, I have just been making a couple of PCBs for the above project and saw that ten 4 inch PCBs could be purchased for 5$ plus shipping. That price difference made it worth using PCBs instead of aluminium for these panels, which will be bench top experiment devices.

Here's some pictures of these boards: