MightyOhm » wifiradio

Wifi Radio project mention in Nuts and Volts

Jeff — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:24:19 +0000

The March issue of Nuts and Volts features an article by Craig Lindley about how to Build Your Own Wi-Fi Internet Radio.

In the article, Craig mentions that my Wifi Radio project gave him the inspiration to build his project. Thanks for the shoutout, Craig!

Wifi Radio project mention in Popular Science

Wifi Radio project mention in Popular Science

Jeff — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 04:01:19 +0000

My Wifi Radio project got a shoutout in this month’s issue of Popular Science!

“Radio How You Want It” by Vin Marshall appears on page 78. Vin built a gorgeous Wi-Fi radio based on my plans. He also added a number of twists and new features, such as an analog signal strength meter and a graphic LCD display.

Nice work, Vin! Thanks for the mention!

Jan’s Wifi Radio has a modern look

Jeff — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 21:16:25 +0000

Jan Wante made this gorgeous Wifi Radio with a modern look. It is based on my original Wifi Radio tutorials.

Not content to simply duplicate my work, he added a few creative twists of his own, including a custom handmade case made of alucobond, MDF, and real wood veneer that gives his finished radio a nice, modern look. Inside, a hacked WL-520gU wireless router running OpenWrt runs the show and an ATmega microcontroller programmed with BASCOM interfaces with a rotary encoder and graphical LCD display.

The very impressive result is shown in this video:

Nice work, Jan!

Wifi Radio mention on BBC’s Digital Planet

Jeff — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 19:35:00 +0000

Welcome, BBC listeners! You probably want to start here.

Last Friday, I was interviewed by Gareth Mitchell of BBC’s Digital Planet at the incredibly successful Dorkbot/Ignite SXSW show.

The Digital Planet SXSW episode (and a clip from my interview) is now online.

You can also subscribe to a podcast of the show, available for most media players.

I also uploaded some pictures of the Dorkbot/Ignite event. They only capture a small fraction of the exhibits, there just wasn’t enough time for me to see them all!

Austin Dorkbot / SXSW Ignite this Friday

Jeff — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:00:32 +0000

This Friday, March 11th, Austin’s Dorkbot chapter is holding a science fair in conjunction with Ignite Austin for SXSW Interactive.

I’ll be demoing my Wifi Radio project and showing off various other projects. There is a list of presenters here.

General Admission is $10 ($0 for SXSW badge holders), but if you RSVP right now on Dorkbot Austin’s Facebook page there might be some free passes left.

Wifi Radio / Dorkbot 27

Jeff — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 19:05:34 +0000

Last night, I dusted off my Wifi Radio project and gave a 15 minute presentation about it at Austin Dorkbot 27: Electric Boogaloo.

Dorks who want to download the slides can do so here: Jeff_Keyzer-Wifi Radio Project

I had a particularly challenging evening because the hastily assembled wireless network in the ACTlab refused to hand out an IP address to the radio. After wrongly suspecting that the 802.11n network was causing problems (my home network is b/g), I discovered that if I set a static IP and default gateway, I could get a stable connection to the router. That process of discovery took something like an hour of tweaking settings, trying to remember iwlist arguments, how to set up routes, etc.

In the end I got it all working and gave a very successful demo of the radio. Whew!

How To Make A Cheap WiFi Radio

Jeff — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:27:05 +0000

@tinkernut just posted a video tutorial showing how to make a wifi radio for about $50 based on my Wifi Radio project.

The Tech Junkies Build a Wifi Radio (Video)

Jeff — Wed, 26 May 2010 18:57:43 +0000

In this episode of The Tech Junkies, Ben and Eric show how to hack an Asus WL-520gu wireless router into a music playback device. By loading the OpenWRT firmware onto the router and adding a USB sound card, it is possible to convert this cheap/powerful router into a streaming box to be placed anywhere your WiFi is in range. Now you can build your own shoutcast/icecast receiver for cheap and get music wirelessly to any room in your home.

Pretty cool video based on my original Wifi Radio tutorial.

To leave comments or download the video, visit The Tech Junkies Episode #6.

Gary’s Wifi Radio Project

Jeff — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:01:41 +0000

Gary Dion (N4TXI) created a Wifi Radio to match his entertainment center. His project is inspired by my original Wifi Radio project and shares several of the same parts (such as the Asus WL-520gU wireless router) and design philosophy.

Interesting features of Gary’s version of the radio:

Very cool 4 line VFD display allows more information to be shown at once (and it’s blue!)
AVR sends actual shell commands to the router, which allows the serial console to remain enabled for debugging/other purposes – brilliant!
Nice custom PCB for the ATmega8 microcontroller
Rotary encoder and significantly more advanced control menus
IR remote control support!

More details, photos, and source code are available on Gary’s site.

Thanks to the Make: blog for bringing this project to my attention!

Celebrating one year of hacks and projects at mightyohm.com!

Jeff — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:46:26 +0000

Wow! I can’t believe it’s been a year!

Based on the date of my first post, last Wednesday marked the one year anniversary of my blog.

While I pour a toast, here are a few highlights of the past year:

PID Controlled Solder Paste Fridge

The first project I documented on the site, my solder paste fridge was the end result of a weekend effort to turn an old beer chest into a PID-controlled Peltier cooler for storing tubes of solder paste. A year later, the cooler has a permanent home under my workbench and is still going strong, keeping its contents at a chilly 36 degrees F. Besides solder paste, I keep my POR-15 rust proofing epoxy paint and a few tubes of superglue in the fridge (they never dry out!).

Space Invaders! Making RGB video with the PIC

I needed an excuse to learn assembly language programming on the PIC, and this project fit the bill perfectly. Instead of slogging through yet another PIC tutorial I decided to “just do it” and the video above shows the result. One of my favorite projects of last year, I have plans to build more of these and make some electronic artwork for the lab.

Bluetooth Handset Hack

One aging bluetooth headset plus one obsolete telephone handset equals one retro-fabulous hack that I still use today. The best part: Look for this one in Make: volume 20!

DIY PID-Controlled Soldering Hotplate

I’m a big fan of the hotplate (aka reflow skillet) method of surface mount soldering. Over the course of a few months I designed, machined, and assembled this PID-controlled soldering hotplate to help build the first few prototypes of my AVR HV Rescue Shield kit. Hacking around in the garage is always fun, but creating a new tool is one of the most rewarding things I have can think of.

Here’s a video of the hotplate in action, reflowing the step-up converter on the Rescue Shield:

The AVR HV Rescue Shield

What started as a simple hack to save a crippled AVR microcontroller eventually became a kit that I’ve sold to AVR enthusiasts around the world. The AVR HV Rescue Shield includes a cool custom PCB, integrated 5V-12V step-up power supply, and is completely open source. I only made one batch of these, and when they’re gone, they’re gone, so head over to the AVR HV Rescue Shield product page to order one today!

Wifi Radio Project

Certainly the most famous project on the site, my Wifi Radio project has inspired many readers to start playing with cheap wireless routers and embedded Linux. If you haven’t seen it before, the finished project sounds something like this:

I brought the Wifi Radio to the Maker Faire in San Mateo in May. Everyone loved it, including some of the Make: staff, which got me a blue ribbon for the project. Awesome!

Onward!

Well, that’s it for year one… If I missed one of your favorite posts from the past year, leave a comment! If you’re new to the blog, happy reading, you have some catching up to do.

Here’s to another fantastic year of hacks, projects, kits, tools, and resources at mightyohm.com!