Pictures of Phonieboxes for inspiration 2020/2021
MiczFlor opened this issue · comments
Hi Phonieboxers,
please add your designs of finished Phonieboxes in this thread. Also, I am collecting designs for the new calendar 2021 coming out shortly before Christmas. You can see the 2020 calendar here and the 2019 calendar here.
Use this new thread that I started for sharing pictures and designs, because the old thread was wonderfully picture rich which is why it became very heavy to load. So we start a fresh thread end of 2019 and into 2020. You can find the old thread of Phoniebox designs for inspiration here.
Will you take pictues from 2019 from the old thread for the 2020 calendar? Or should we post a single picture here again for it?
Will you take pictues from 2019 from the old thread for the 2020 calendar? Or should we post a single picture here again for it?
I will go through the old thread, as well, of course. In short: I will dig through both.
So here's what I built for my little one. She's shy of 16 months so this box will be mostly used for animal sounds for now. Love how versatile Phonieboxes are as they will easily grow with your children and their needs.
@andreasbrett: very impressive!
Here is my more modest design:
This is the second Phoniebox I built up.
The first one is my daughter's Phoniebox.. This one is mine :)
Some weeks ago I started to regenerate my good old tube radio Telefunken Jubilate 8.
It was still working but the sound wasn't as good as one would expect from a tube radio or a tube amp.
So I did all the standard things which are needed for bringing tube radios back to service:
- Replacement of all defective capacitors and resistors
- Intensive Cleaning
- Change of the magic eye and of the amplifier tube
After this repair the radio sound (FM/UKW) was fantastic.
While testing the radio I thought if it would be possible to use the radio's TA input for today's audio signals (MP3, CD or ... Phoniebox :) )
So I searched this topic in the internet and found some hints and solutions how to connect audio line outputs to a tube radio's TA input.
Finally I decided to upcycle my tube radio by adding the typical Phoniebox parts (Raspberry Pi Zero, Hifiberry DAC, Power Supply, RFID reader) and an audio cable including a very simple but very good passive audio filter ( see this link for details ).
Now my good old Jubilate 8 tube radio has some additional features which in the 1950's no one had dared to dream: :)
- Internet radio
- Phoniebox player using the RFID cards
- Further software extensions like Bluetooth loudspeaker :)
And of course all sound features can be played in crystal clear tube amp quality. But this radio only provides one audio channel (mono). In my opinion this doesn't matter. I mixed the left and the right channel in the audio cable using resistors.
Open topics:
- I am searching for the right knob or better: I am searching for the metal in the middle of this knob. If you have one in stock please contact me.
- When regenerating this radio I destroyed the cable of the MW antenna. I also want to reactivate the MW/LW antenna . MW and LW is also nowadays nice to hear.
- The USB connection to the RFID reader disturbs the FM/UKW reception. I solved this by using a very good shielded USB cable. When the MW antenna is back I also have to check if this one works without any disturbances
- I want to perform some tests with alsaeq (Equalizer): If this works it could be that I don't need the filter in the audio cable which is mounted on the backside of the radio at the moment.
Attention: If you want to modify a tube radio by yourself you must be an electronics specialist! Tube radios can be very dangerous. Inside of them there are very high voltages which can kill you. So don't do anything with them if you do not exactly know what you must and what you can do there.
This is my first one from 2018.
The second one is in the making.
Classic Design :-)
@flo2305 that is a Phoniebox classic by now, you are right. Nice 50s green. Looks like you got the dial for volume and buttons to skip to new tracks. If you have a working script combining buttons and dial, I would like to add this to the wiki, possibly you can write something?
@MiczFlor Hi. Sorry, but I didn’t realize the volume control in software. It’s the built-in dial from the speakers. I soldered it around and built it into my box.
My first self-designed speaker. Made with a MPCNC lowrider from 18mm plywood. Turned out to be too loud for a kid's room, so I had to cap the volume in software. The slot is for RFID cards which get a label for each audio book.
@040medien that looks great! Also like the card slot. Very nice design!
I'm looking currently for something like this
use the original keys and knobs and be able to put into some old tapes (assigned with a little rfid sticker) to play a playlist or stream.
First I have to search a good one at the basement of my parents oO
@andreasbrett your box looks very nice. What materials did you use?
@andreasbrett your box looks very nice. What materials did you use?
Thanks, @mikebarkmin! Here's a list of materials used:
- box from Obi
- simple rope from Obi as well
- white lacquer from Hornbach (2k PU acrylic lacquer; 2 coats)
- colored acrylic lacquer... idk, my mother painted the owl and used her own colors
- buttons from AliExpress (very cheap ones, hope they last)
If you need more details just ask.
Not completely finished jet - but just a first impression!
Final assembly finished last night:
Final assembly finished last night:
Hi dbfmm: Do you have a part list? (especially the box itself. And how did you get the battery leds to show on the back?
And how did you get the battery leds to show on the back?
I used fiber optic cables for this.
a cool, thanks. Are they just glued onto the batteries leds?
@Yordan1976 Nice! How did you fix them on the battery and where did you get them (haven't been able to find them yet).
The powerbank has holes there (the LEDs are inside) and I just bought a fitting diameter (0.5 mm here). Because the diameter isn't perfectly constant, i could measure it and choose the right places for the cut to get a nice close fit.
Hi dbfmm: Do you have a part list? (especially the box itself. And how did you get the battery leds to show on the back?
@deheingit: the box itself is custom tailored medium-density fiberboard (MDF) which is glued (Leim). Front and back are 8mm; the other parts are 12mm.
I bought optic fiber cable (0,5mm diameter; 2m length) on ebay. On the wood side it is glued; on the powerbank it is just "plugged". It could be a bit tighter but it holds the cable as long as you do not shake the whole box.
We finally Finishing the Phoniebox :)
It’s in a Recycled Box where we bought glasses in. So it’s flexible and easy to open with the zipper. That’s why we didn’t built a charging connector.
I hope it’s inspiringly for someone :)
Thank you so much MiczFlor!!!!!
Hi dbfmm: Do you have a part list? (especially the box itself. And how did you get the battery leds to show on the back?
@deheingit: the box itself is custom tailored medium-density fiberboard (MDF) which is glued (Leim). Front and back are 8mm; the other parts are 12mm.
I bought optic fiber cable (0,5mm diameter; 2m length) on ebay. On the wood side it is glued; on the powerbank it is just "plugged". It could be a bit tighter but it holds the cable as long as you do not shake the whole box.
@dbffm: Ok, thanks a lot
@dbffm: One mor thing: where did you get the usb port and the power button. i rally like the combination ;)
@deheingit I found both on Aliexpress
€ 7,75 | 22mm mounting diameter Micro USB Female to Male
https://a.aliexpress.com/FcQZ4hkUL
16mm 3V LED Power Push Button https://a.aliexpress.com/oiAuW0sBZ
During the last days I also built a Phoniebox. Here you go:
(The lid is held closed by a buried screw in the center of the front edge)
(I tried to manage the cables in a way that I can still maintain the box in a few years...)
Finally, big KUDOS to @MiczFlor for his ingenious open source project. Such things make the world a better place! 🐱🏍✨
I already posted some pictures of our „Phoniebox“ - but I wasn’t satisfied with t
Is so I did some sort of makeover and that’s how we like it ... and hopefully my son does, too:
Parts used: RPi 3b, OnOffShim (top!, 7€ +shipping), Neufatek Reader (soldered for “stop on removal” hardware hack), Logitech S150 (15€, absolut recommended- playing ok sound completely over USB (external soundcard included In the speaker and powered by RPi USB, so turning off via onOffShim!), 10000mAh Licheers Powerbank (BlackFriday Amazon 10€, needed a small one because of the reduced space in the „car“), Push LED Buttons from Conrad (2€ ea), red, yellow led for tail and top lights, some resistors.
So over all 40€+15+10€+10+10€ spare parts = 85€.
Here is my version of phoniebox, which I just finished. So you so much @MiczFlor and the whole community here.
Happy holidays to all of you!
Also finished my first Phoniebox. The RFID reader is at the front behind the face, so you have to "feed" the tiger with the cards. The buttons for play control (play/pause, next, previous) on top and on the back there is the USB charging port and the on/off button. Volume control on the side between the speakers.
For the picture I have removed the baseplate, normally it's closed.
bit aged already... here is my classic design box
in the meantime inside upgraded with GPIO extension and RTC module.
Featured w/ on/off shim, akkupack w/ fibre led status, magnetic powercord, matrix display & rotary encoder
@domu83: Very nice and clean design. Can I ask you a few things?:
-
What kind if magnetic plug did u use. I did some research but didn't find anything i really liked. Also the silver plug on the ouside looks great.
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What is the RTC Cloock for? I guess the rPi doesn't have a battery, so the time is not stored once shut down. But why do you need an accurate time?
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You sid u use an OnOffShim, bu on the top I see a "mechanical" switch. How does this work. My understand was that the OnOff switch needs a push button to get a signal and than does the power-off on its own
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Just out of interest: What did you install in the lower left corner next to the speaker?
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What kind of display did you use? And how does it work with the phoniebox software?
Thanks a lot
Dennis
@domu83 I bet you will massively improve the sound, if you isolated the back of the speakers from the grid (using wood and hot glue). You basically created an acoustic short circuit which takes a large portion of the lower frequencies.
@deheingit Thanks... design could be improved 😉
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I used this Magic Plug: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07MTGXDR3?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share and this USB plug: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01ATBTWVM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_.1oaEb9V9N19J
you need to consider the max. load capacity with this concept, because depending on the akku pack used it takes quite long till full charge state. -
the RTC has a battery attached, so storing the time is not an issue. Actually the RTC is considered to solve the issue with long log in time for the Spotify version (issue #406 ). Unfortunately it does not solve this on my end, still investigating.
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the mechanical switch/toggle switch is connected to the on/off shim to act as the remote button. I liked the design of the switch as the power button. Not sure if the toggle switch itself, without the shim would do this job as well (considering the powerbank + the power-on after a total power-down, w/ no power at the rpi).
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not sure how to call that, but thats the logic board/equalizer/control module of the speakers (former housed logitech speakers). missed to mention, that I also use a noise filter (https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01LX0H29W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_O.oaEb9T13N49)
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I used this I2C 44780 2x 16 LCD display (https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07CQG6CMT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_1I1YQNIY5SKkA), today I would consider to use a OLED display instead to display covers as well. Might be more helpful for kids which can't read so far. Implementation is done thanks to #498 contribution.
@pfedan thanks for the hint. Actually I domnot have any issue with sounds. It's actually pretty good. I had a USB soundcard preciously, but my feeling was, that the rpi onboard was even better. I also use a noise filter, maybe that's why I do not face any issue.
Wonderful ideas that were implemented up here.
Some Pictures of my Phoniebox, it will be a Christmas present for tomorrow.
@deheingit Thanks... design could be improved 😉
1. I used this Magic Plug: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07MTGXDR3?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share and this USB plug: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01ATBTWVM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_.1oaEb9V9N19J you need to consider the max. load capacity with this concept, because depending on the akku pack used it takes quite long till full charge state. 2. the RTC has a battery attached, so storing the time is not an issue. Actually the RTC is considered to solve the issue with long log in time for the Spotify version (issue #406 ). Unfortunately it does not solve this on my end, still investigating. 3. the mechanical switch/toggle switch is connected to the on/off shim to act as the remote button. I liked the design of the switch as the power button. Not sure if the toggle switch itself, without the shim would do this job as well (considering the powerbank + the power-on after a total power-down, w/ no power at the rpi). 4. not sure how to call that, but thats the logic board/equalizer/control module of the speakers (former housed logitech speakers). missed to mention, that I also use a noise filter (https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01LX0H29W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_O.oaEb9T13N49) 5. I used this I2C 44780 2x 16 LCD display (https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07CQG6CMT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_1I1YQNIY5SKkA), today I would consider to use a OLED display instead to display covers as well. Might be more helpful for kids which can't read so far. Implementation is done thanks to #498 contribution.@pfedan thanks for the hint. Actually I domnot have any issue with sounds. It's actually pretty good. I had a USB soundcard preciously, but my feeling was, that the rpi onboard was even better. I also use a noise filter, maybe that's why I do not face any issue.
@domu83: Thanks a lot for you answers. One follow up question: The USB plug has a Micro female port on the inside, correct? Where did you get a micro-usb to micro usb kabel?
Have a great christmas time!
Ah sorry, my mistake. I guess you just need some kind of extension like: https://www.amazon.de/SunshineTronic-Verlängerungskabel-beschaltet-doppelt-geschirmt/dp/B001F6Y8JC
@deheingit right... I used this one: DeLock Kabel USB micro-B... https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00B3SBTRQ?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
This is my design, my son got it this morning as a present and he is just as happy as I am. 
This is our handpainted box: 😊
Here are a few pictures of the first (more to follow :-) ) phoniebox that I build for my 2 1/2 year old Godchild as a Christmas gift, needless to say that she loves it.
The card reader is in the top side of the cube
for the box I used 18mm pine bords that are box-jointed and glued together, the edges are routed round, the bottom is screwed on for maintenance.
Here is a picture of my "development system", which I used for tinkering, learning and evaluating more or less useful ideas. This is "my phoniebox" that I use as a player on my desk at the moment. I will definetly build a proper one with some different features for myself.
Here is a rough list of componets that I used:
- RaspberryPi Zero W
- 2 x MAX98357 I2S class D amplifier
- 2 x Visaton FR7 speaker
- USB card reader
- 16x2 dot matrix display with I2C adapter
- homemade on/off board inspired by the on/off shim
- Intenso powerbank
- arcade buttons for prev/play/next
- rotary encoder for volume / mute
- iluminated stainless steel button for on/off
Other SW components that I used or modified
- lcdproc for controlling the display
- mpdlcd as a interface between mpd and lcdproc
- some own modification for mpdlcd to get more screens (default is only one)
- some own stuff to display IP, SSID and time via lcdproc
- some modifications to rotary and gpio scripts to fit my needs (combined fast forward/next and rewind/prev, integration of my on/off board)-> should be combined, cleaned, documented and made available
- some changes to playout control to get resume working via the play button after power-on
Things that I plan to do in the future:
- clean and document my changes and then make them availabe for the community
- try to intergrate lirc just for the fun of it
- whatever else comes to my mind or is wished by my "first client"
@MiczFlor + community, big thanks for the great project. I try to become more active here as I really like the project
I designed a little adapter PCB to use the Hifiberry Miniamp and the OnOffShim together, it also holds the pull up resistors for the buttons and additional connectors for the display, 3.3 V and 5V . It fits on all raspi models with the 40 pin headers.
I designed a little adapter PCB to use the Hifiberry Miniamp and the OnOffShim together, it also holds the pull up resistors for the buttons and additional connectors for the display, 3.3 V and 5V . It fits on all raspi models with the 40 pin headers.
@andrebsch I like your idea for designing a PCB for that. Would you mind sharing the PCB design file? Did you use KiCAD or sth. similar?
The Gerber files for the Adapter PCB can be downloaded here:
https://github.com/andrebsch/Pi-Hat-for-Phoniebox
Hello everyone ! This is my first Phoniebox. It will be used to listen to audiobooks from HP Lovecraft with RFID stickers on HP Lovecraft books.
@andrebsch I really like your case. Is it a custom made one or could you please list your used components? I appreciate your answer. Thank you!
...and this is mine. Its a remix of primers design on thingiverse but modified to fit 2 speakers and different buttons arrangement.
Cheers.
@fatalerror1981: Thanks for sharing - i really like the design. Maybe I'll try this using my soon to arrive 3D printer ;)
3 question:
- I guess you printed the dinosaur as well. I was just thinking about how to create cool "phoenies" - do you know of a library with models to use
- you painted it manually after printing, right? What kind of color would you use?
- who did you build in the rfid ship?
THANK YOU!
@dermarzel
My Case is custom made. Its made from 18 mm plywood and the middle layer is a 27 mm beech wood. The back panel is made with a 6 mm plywood and for the Front I used a 12 mm plywood.
I made a pattern and then I used a router with a bottom trimming cutter to make the other layers, After this all layers where glued together and sanded until the surface was smooth.
The Housing for the Display is made with a 3d Printer as well as the Knob for the Volume control.
For the carrying strap I drilled a slotted hole on each side and fixed the belt from the inside with 2 screws to the housing.
AS speakers I used Visaton FR7 but FR 10 will fit as well.
At the moment I'm working on my second box and the housing is made in the same style but with a CNC machine, so sanding at the end will not take so long :-)
@fatalerror1981: Very nice case! Do you have your own 3D printer or did you use an online printing service?
Now it is my turn to send a big, big "thank you" to @MiczFlor !!!
Some background: As a father of three boys I got in touch with the original Toniebox in Nov 19. Although the overall idea is nice, the total costs for three kids would add up soon (not counting the plastic waste bye each new tonie). So I was looking for an alternative solution and came here. As I have literally no technical background I had to spend some evenings reading and watching YT-videos in order to find my personal setup.
My project: I came to the conclusion that I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. So, no buttons, no powerbank, everything managed bye RFID. Even the cases should follow the idea of upcycling in order to avoid any unnecessary waste. So I choose the following parts:
- RaspPi 3b
- Neuftech RFID Reader EM4100
- SanDisk Ultra microSDXC 128 GB
- Trust Leto 2.0 USB Lautsprecher
- Aukru 5V 3A Micro USB Netzteil mit Schalter (incl transparent case & coolers)
During the past weeks I build four boxes in total as each kid got his own and we wanted an additional one in our living room. And here are the results:
Box No 1 - living room:
Box No 2 - kid 8yo:
Box No 3 - kid 6yo:
Box No 4 - kid 3yo:
As the parts are the same in each box the interior is also the same in each box. Just as an example the interior of box no 3:
All boxes shut off after 30 min of inactivity; therefore all boxes have power adapters that include a switch so that they can start the boxes on their own. As the boxes are ment to be stationary there were no power banks used. Everything works very smooth & stable (apart from issue #747 ). All RFID cards have been painted bye the kids on their own.
I couldn´t be any happier. So, once again: Thank you @MiczFlor for this beautiful project (hearts)
@Diablo-Rojo really nice and good examples for simple and clean Boxes! Thanks for sharing!!!
Thank you very much @MiczFlor . Me an my daughter strongly appreciate the project!!!
Further, also thanks to @splitti for the blog post and the LED Control script
Nicht immer einfach, aber das Ergebnis ist um so besser geworden.
Mein Sohn hat am 10.02. Geburtstag und soll die Box bekommen. Er hat sie auch schon des öfteren gesehen und auch den Stoff selbst ausgesucht. Nur ist er bis dato im glauben das die Box für einen anderen Jungen ist ;) Kinder sind was tolles xD
Ich habe die Version ebenfalls mit einer Powerbank gebaut. Diese aber komplett zerlegt und auch die Akkuanzeige in das Gehäuse integriert. Dies fand ich durchaus wichtig, um auch einem Kind deutlich machen zu können wann der Akku alle ist.
Das System läuft auf einem Raspi 2 mit Hifiberry MiniAmp und On/Off Switch wie in der Beschreibung. Nach anfänglichen Installationsproblemen läuft nun alles einwandfrei.
Was ich etwas anders gemacht habe, waren die Tasten. Normale Arcadetasten finde ich derart hässlich und sie würden auch nicht zur Optik der Box passen. Deswegen Touch Sensoren unter einer Gravierten 4mm Acrylglasscheibe für die Bedienung und nur für das ein und Ausschalten einen Taster auf der Rückseite.
Das Gehäuse selbst besteht aus 4mm Nussholzfunier. Dies wurde im Laser geschnitten. War für uns die einfachste Lösung, da wir son teil zu Haus haben für Frauchens Firma.
Alles in Allem ein sehr sehr schönes Projekt!
Wow, schick. Die herausgereichte Akkuanzeige ist tatsächlich eine gute Idee. "Ist der Akku leer" ist eine häufige Sorge bei unseren Boxen - meistens unbegründet.
Let me begin by telling you, that we adore this project and really love our Phoniebox. I assembled it in December, it was a gift for my two boys. They use the box constantly since then.
Parts used:
- Raspberry Pi 3B
- RAVPower Powerbank 22000mAh
- Larcele Buttons
- Trust Leto 2.0 USB Speakers
- KKmoon IC Cardreader 14443A
The case is just a plastic-container from our local supermarket meant for food. My wife sewed a housing out of felt. Its closed with two big strips of fastener. Its fugly, I know that. But it works like charm. :)
A thing I like very much is the implementation of MQTT. I added the box to my openHAB-Setup and can now monitor the usage and change volume etc. straight out of my Smarthome-Menue. I totally recommend looking into that, you can do amazing stuff with it. Two examples I realized with Phoniebox and MQTT:
- When I drive home after work, the box announces "Dad is on his way home", when the box is switched on.
- My boys have one card they use, when they want to play "circus". It starts circus-themed music on the box, but also crowd-cheering on the smart speaker in their room and it changes the light to a colorful theme. (Hue Lights)
One thing I would love to have is a lock-function (Reader and GPIOs) via MQTT. That would be nice.
I also cast the tracks that are played to my Awtrix-LED-Controller.
I designed all the cards with a simple Photoshop-Template I created. So my kids can see whether its a audiobook or music etc.
One thing I would love to have is a lock-function (Reader and GPIOs) via MQTT. That would be nice.
You mean lock the buttons and reader? That's already possible. You can start and stop the rfid and gpio services. Send "start" or "stop" to the following mqtt topics.
- phoniebox/cmd/rfid
- phoniebox/cmd/gpio
Love your circus lights solution as well as the daddy's coming home notification. Cool ideas!
@nikolaus-online That usage statistics display in your openhab basic ui looks great! It's grafana based, right? How did you implement the time selection below? Curious as I too use grafana for displaying statistics but never found a way to dynamically change the displayed time frame.
- phoniebox/cmd/rfid
- phoniebox/cmd/gpio
Thank you! That was exactly what I wanted! ^^ It works perfectly. I don't know why I haven't seen it in the documentary. That's very nice to keep the peace between my two boys.
Love your circus lights solution as well as the daddy's coming home notification. Cool ideas!
Thanks! 👍 My kids love it!
Curious as I too use grafana for displaying statistics but never found a way to dynamically change the displayed time frame.
It's a pretty ugly solution, but it works. I cast the graphic as a "Image" Item, the link contains the timeframe. So i figured, i could just place five links with "visibility=[]" and one dedicated Scale-Item (Number) that is changed via Switches.
Sitemap:
Image refresh=30000 url="#####&from=now-24h&to=now" visibility=[PhonieboxStatsSkala==1]
Image refresh=30000 url="#####&from=now-12h&to=now" visibility=[PhonieboxStatsSkala==2]
Image refresh=30000 url="#####&from=now-6h&to=now" visibility=[PhonieboxStatsSkala==3]
##### = URL to Shared Grafana-Graph.
And for the Switch:
Switch item=PhonieboxStatsSkala icon="time" mappings=[1="24h",2="12h", 3="6h"]
PhonieboxStatsSkala is a simple Number-Item.
Like I said: It's not the most elegant solution, but it works! ^^
Like I said: It's not the most elegant solution, but it works! ^^
I like it, it gets the job done!
The second Box is finished, i named it Pawbox (Pupsbox seems to be the wrong name in Germany)! There is a ne animation style, both boxes get a brandnew Raspberry Pi 4 1GB and were installed with the spotify Version.
The boot time to start audiobooks takes 14 - 17 seconds. Both boxes will be synced by RFID Card.
@splitti nice Bootanimation + nice highlight behind the dogs on the back! Huge improvement on the layout compared to the 3 Fragezeichen box!
Not sure if it counts...
Its more a "PhonieBoard".
Cheers!
So after my little one damager her 1.0 box i rebuild it to the 1.1 version :)
It still runs the Classic version (2.0b) as my previous experience with the Spotify version was long loading time where i have now about 15 seconds boot time.
As this became the 1.1 version i added a few things as you see in the pictures.
The ESP8266 that you see runs WLED and my plan is to use it over the API with the Phoniebox so it plays some colors when playing, nightlight when idle but also show some progress. (Still figuring out how to do that :)) The leds on the backside are controlled by the ESP (WS2812's)
Anyway still love this project and as of today we got also rid of the real Toniebox.
Didn't see, that here is a new place to report the builds. So I post our setup also here:
Here is our setup.
Printed on Ender3pro with rainbow-filament (that was my first productivity print).
Hardware:
1x Raspberry PI zero W
5x Buttons
1x Slider (Volume control)
1x adc1115 (analog to i2c)
1x HD44780 (see: https://github.com/MiczFlor/RPi-Jukebox-RFID/wiki/LED_displays_HD44780-i2c)
1x Hifiberry MiniAMP
2x small speakers
1x big speaker (at the bottom)
... lots of small stuff
David
Hey everyone, we proudly present you our version of the phoniebox. We had much fun building it and we hope our daughter will also love it, when she gets it in a few days.
We also used the recording feature, because when I was a kid myself I had much fun with such a thing and maybe our daughter will also do. The other stuff is straight forward as most of you have done. I have some more details and a shopping list (beware obvious ref links 😉) on my (german) website.
Hardware:
1x Raspberry Pi B+
1x 10000mAh Mini-Powerbank and 1x magnetic usb cable
1x Neuftech RFID Reader
1x Trust Leto 2.0 Speaker and 1x AUKEY noice filter
1x usb microphone
6x 30mm arcade buttons and 1x 16mm power button
1x ky-040 rotary encoder
2x irf520 mosfet driver module (to control the 5V power of the LEDs with the 3,3V GPIO)
1x 10000µF capacitor (to fix the powerbank reset) and 1x 33µ inductance (to fix the powerbank shorting recognition)
1x wooden box, 1x grass mat, 1x groot action figure, some fairy garden things and some color
Only thing I want to point out is the powerbank problem we had and solved. We used a different powerbank then most of you because of its small size, but it had the problem with the Pi resetting when connecting the powerbank to power. There was an article in the c't about that and also some of you already used it, by adding a capacitor and an inductance. The problem was, that it worked flawless on the breadboard, but did not work after soldering or even plugging it freely with wires. The powerbank than thought its shorted and did not power the pi (which the inductance tries to fix). The reason we figured out after a lot of hours was, that the breadboard (and some connections) do have a small resistance and the soldering (my second time) + the wires were too "good" (i'm kidding, it wasn't good) so that it had low resistance. We added 2Ω of resistance, which solved the problem completly.
We thank all of you for the inspiration and even some help in those github issues and guides you have done, because there was a lot that helped. 😊
@GMZ87
Darf ich fragen, wie du diese RFID-Karten "bedruckst"? Sind das vorgefertige Etiketten zum Aufkleben oder Folien? Finde die Optik absolute Spitze!
Schöne Grüße
Manajoe
My Phoniebox, an easter gift for our daughter.
This Phoniebox is an Easter gift for my kid. A pirate treasure chest.
Details:
- 1x 24x21x18cm treasure chest project box.
- 1x EasyAcc 20000mAh powerbank.
- 1x Raspberry Pi 4B, 2GB RAM (undervolted and clocked down so there is no need for a cooling fan).
- 1x GPIO extension board. Makes life a lot easier.
- 1x OnOff Shim, soldered onto the extension board.
- 1x HifiBerry Miniamp.
- 2x Visaton FRS5 speakers.
- 1x RC522 RFID reader, connected via SPI.
- 5x 12mm colored momentary push buttons.
- 1x 12mm momentary push button with green LED glow ring as power button, connected to OnOff shim.
- 1x 22mm Micro-USB connector as external power connector on the backside.
- A bunch of wires, and other small stuff.
Hello, once again! I just finished my third Phoniebox (number two still in progress since May 2019 ;-)). It’s for a friend’s son and works with the current beta software. I also updated my first Phoniebox and the software makes no problems. I only don’t know, if it should show up covers in the Webapp‘s folder list or if it changed and the cover only should show up for the currently playing folder. However, here‘s my result.
Box is a Fire station from Kaufland, fits perfectly. I used a RPi 3 B and Logitech S-150 with builtin soundcard. Neuftech Reader and some buttons and a LED. Thanks for inspiration and once again for the great software and all the updates in the past years! Thank you so much!
Marieke
I built my first Phoniebox for my daughter when she was 2 years old, that was in 2018. Mainly inspired by this project here (thanks a lot to MiczFlor for his work!!!), and the WheezyBox I had found here (https://daddydoes.de/wheezybox-alternative-toniebox/), that was my first box:
In this version 1.0 I used the following components:
RPi 3B+ with 32GB Sandisk SDHC Card
Neuftech RFID Card Reader
AUKEY Powerbank 20000mAh
Trust USB Speakers
CSL USB Soundcard with Ground Loop Isolator
Arcade-Buttons
Wooden box by Bauhaus ;-)
YKRUD2 for Powering off
The box worked fine in general and my daughter loves it from the first day on! But I didn’t like some disadvantages of my construction:
The AUKEY powerbank isn’t capable of „PassThrough“, so if it’s out of power, we had to recharge and could not continue listening meanwhile. Additionally, it has a button that had to be pressed, if the Pi had been turned off completely, so I constructed that „physical“ wooden extension
I had not implemented a way to see the „charging status“ of the powerbank, so the box turned off quite unexpectedly.
YKRUD2 has also one problem: it only completely cuts power from the Pi, if you power off by pressing the button. If you use the Idle Timer, the Pi is shut down, but power is not cut off.
So although my son is not yet 1 ½ years old, I needed to build an own box for him, he always loved listening with his sister and tried swiping the cards by himself ;-).
Meanwhile I had read a lot on Splitti’s blog (http://splittscheid.de/selfmade-phoniebox/) and picked up some new ideas (especially the display and the powerbank including the fiber optic cable for battery status). Thanks so much for your detailed instructions.
So I finally came up with this second box in version 2.0, I kept the "classic" optic from my first box:
I wanted to eliminate some weaknesses of version 1.0, so I changed some of the parts:
RPi 3B+ with 32GB Sandisk SDHC Card
GPIO Expansion Board
AZDelivery OLED-Display 1,3 Zoll
Neuftech RFID Card Reader
EasyAcc Powerbank 20000mAh
Trust USB Speakers
CSL USB Soundcard with Ground Loop Isolator
Arcade-Buttons
Fiber Optic Cables 1mm
Wooden box by Bauhaus ;-)
OnOffShim for Powering off
The new powerbank is capable of PassThrough, I had the chance to use the fiber optic cables to have a charging status and OnOffShim cuts the power, no matter how the Pi is shut down.
As we don’t listen to any podcasts nor have a spotify account, I installed the Classic version on Raspian Buster, I have disabled WiFi from the beginning, until now I only need (wired) network for adding new sound files and assigning card IDs, what I usually do when the kids are sleeping ;-).
And to not giving my daughter any reason to be jealous, I updated her box to version 1.1, by cloning the SDHC-card from the second box and also building in the new components.
Eventually, I would like to thank everybody being involved in this project and the other pages I had read since 2018. My kids really love their boxes, my wife and I don’t have to restart any CDs or loop songs, they can do it all by themselves. I enjoy following your project, finding ideas, thinking about how to implement changes to my boxes and also doing the handicrafts.
Just a perfect fit!
NiNiBoX - The minimalistic version
Pure Rfid, since the user is 1 year old and does not need no buttons. She already learned to controll it by cards. I wanted to eliminate as much anything as I could. So theres only a charging port at the outside.
Her Arsenal:
Rightnow Im Prototyping PaPaBoX with Display and Subwoofer.
Elephon
We have finished our Elephon, 20x10x10cm in size. My wife designed the box.
The ear of the baby-elephant is the power-button. His cheek is the power-LED.
RasPi 3B
USB-Soundcard with Speedlink TWOXO Speakers
Neuftech USB RFID Reader (with Hardware Mod)
Ansmann 10800 mAh Powerbank
SHIM OnOff from Pomoroni
My first box for my kids. This is such a beautiful project that I tell all my friends about it. It is a very nice introduction to the world of raspberry and electronics. Thanks for this brilliant open source project.
Between my last post and now, the phoniebox got some upgrades:
- Better covers for the speakers
- Rope handles
- An OLED-Display (many credits to @splitti and his companion project https://github.com/splitti/oled_phoniebox)
- A special card that tells the time of day in German: "Es ist zwei Uhr siebenunddreißig nachmittags." (using an NTP updated time and pre-made MP3s for each minute of the day - Google's TTS API was very helpful here.)
Still, a Hifiberry is powering the speakers that I took out of the Trust Leto 2.0 set.
Here it comes:
Used a DIY USB Arcade Controller Kit for the buttons, so solder free, phew!
Used a DIY USB Arcade Controller Kit for the buttons, so solder free, phew!
Poor robot, must have seen horrible things :'(
My sons Phoniebox in an old tea box:
Interior (Three chambers for more stability - the walls were already in the box - most of them were removed):
Interface:
After finishing/updating the two boxes for my kids I wanted to build one for me and my wife for the dining room, to replace our FM radio. I disassembled the old “Grundig RF420” radio my grandma used to have in her kitchen.
This time I used the following parts:
RPi 3B+ with 32GB Sandisk SDHC Card
GPIO Expansion Board
AZDelivery OLED-Display 1,3“
Neuftech RFID Card Reader
EasyAcc Powerbank 20000mAh
Visaton F 8SC Speakers
HiFiBerry MiniAmp
5x Microswitch
2x AZDelivery KY-040 Rotary Encoder
Fiber Optic Cables 1mm
OnOffShim for Powering off
I wanted to keep the original optic of the Grundig, but I couldn’t use the built-in radio scale, because it was printed on transparent plexiglass. As I wanted to integrate the display quite invisible and I didn’t dare to drill or saw into the plexiglass, I ended up drawing the scale in GIMP and then print it with a black background. But as the outer transparent plastic cover is tinted, one almost can’t see the difference to the original :-)
I physically glued the old external rotary knob to the KY-040 so volume and track adjustment can be done the old school way. I created a radio stream with multiple URLs in the livestream.txt, so I can scroll through the channels with the knob, the radio stream also starts playing at startup. The other buttons also work, a button press mechanically activates the microswitches on the inside to power on, pause or activate radio manually.
With splittis sync script https://github.com/splitti/phoniebox_rsync I can now manage all RFID shortcuts on my NAS and then update all three boxes to use the same RFID cards.
One more time, thanks so much to everybody in this project, I had so much fun building this box and giving my grandma’s old radio a new life.
Everyone builds an original!
Thanks for this great project!
Here is my sons box...
My second box with a CNC machined housing.
My first box. And my daughter love it. Thanks for your work.
After the first installations 2 years ago, the box ran in a Siemens Super H53, but never in a way that would have been suitable for children.
After a long break I have now started a complete new building that had to fit into a round corner shelf in the children's room.
Features:
4x LED (Power, Playing, Info, Warning)
4x GPIO Button
hit-event prev / next, replay, pause
holdevent volup / -down, replay list, shutdowntimer
11x card slots for favorites
1x playback slot (stop on remove)
can be seen here in a test installation. Ultimately, the box was hung under the shelf to make room:
Hello,
some pictures of my first box:
In April I finished my 3rd Box. I worked on it for about one year. But finally I am very happy with the result. My son, too ;-)
First, the RFID reader was at the top of the box but this didn‘t work for him. Then, I set the antenna around the buttons and this was much more better.
With my Phoniebox's design I'm applying for the least-effort-award. I've just used the child's suitcase (actually a present for newborns) from a big german drugstore chain. Still, I'm pretty happy with the result. Lot's of thanks to @splitti for thoroughly documenting his experience (I heavily profited from that!) and to @MiczFlor of course ;-)
I present here the Phoniebox, which was lovingly christened by my daughter Klackerbox because the buttons click so beautifully when you press them. A big thank you to the community and the comprehensive documentation with which I got Airplay and MQTT running. I love the software and the freedom it gives me. Really great. For all of you who wonder why MQTT? I'm gaining more and more experience with rhasspy, an open source offline voice assistant, with which I control the phony box via voice control. I think I will have a lot more fun with the clackbox =)
I built a chirping box as birthday present for my 3 years old son.
I was searching for a robust music player but didn't want an old fashioned child's CD-player and also didn't like to teach him hitting a music box to play the next song.
I was really glad and surprised finding the phoniebox project.
It gives me the freedom to buy music on CD, as MP3 or to stream it from anwhere.
First I was a bit afraid of starting the project, because I have no programming or electrotechnical skills.
I asked my husband to build the music box, but he didn't like to.
The birthday of my son was closing in and I had to try it by myself.
And it works!
The housing is built in the design of 2 bird's nesting boxes.
Each one has a speaker placed behind the entrance hole.
In the box with the peaked roof I placed the raspberry.
The RFID reader is placed below the pent roof.
And there is also a powerbank.
The powerbank is the only part that I don't like.
It only delivers power for 1 day, although the music box is in standby most of the time.
When it's completely empty and we charge it, we have to remove the cable and plug it in again to restart the raspberry.
This is not intuitionally for a 3 years old boy.
My son loves his chirping box and he lets it play all his favorites songs.
And he also loves to listen to the bird's voices' cards matching the design of the box.
Hi, ich möchte gerne meine Phoniebox vorstellen.
Habe sie die Tage auf die aktuelle Software umgestellt und bin sehr froh über die neuen Funktionen! Vielen Dank an dieser Stelle!
Zu den Funktionen:
5 Knöpfe für play/pause, vor, zurück, lauter, leiser
1 led An/Aus Schalter ("Nase" des bären mit weißem Ring)
On/off shim
Diverse Karten für Hörspiele und Lieder
Rfid Chips für Funktionen wie 30/60/90 Minuten Timer..
Hier eine grobe Übersicht der verbauten Teile (glaube da haben mir noch paar Teile wie micro usb Stecker gefehlt)
In Planung:
- RFID Karten neu einlaminieren (lösen sich leider wieder, vllt finde ich auch eine andere Lösung)
- Halter für die RFID Karten basteln
Here a phoniebox "book" covered with artisan beige linen and loudspeakers hidden in the spine. Some 3d printed parts have been designed specifically for this box such as the powerbank holder which serves also as mounting surface for the raspberry pi and a tiny bezel for the OLED display.
The +5V for the LED lights in the buttons is tapped from the amplifier board which gives a visual cue that battery is drained (when not played - after idle time the raspbi shuts down anyway)
The strap is from black leather. On the bottom of the box is a RFID card wallet that can hold up to 5 cards (favourite songs). Inside the box you'll find the usual suspects (RFID reader, onOff shim) and a tiny bit of golden glitter hotglue.
For better acoustic we decided to drill three extra holes (~15mm) into the box.
Overall result: happy kid 🙂 - the book fits in a bookshelf. Thanks to the entire phoniebox community!
Thank you so much for the time and work you have devoted to this project and for making it available for others to enjoy!
I made this last December for my 3 year old son. He has used it pretty much everyday this year he loves it. The whole family does. It is now the main way we all listen to music in the house.
Thank you so much for the time and work you have devoted to this project and for making it available for others to enjoy!
I made this last December for my 3 year old son. He has used it pretty much everyday this year he loves it. The whole family does. It is now the main way we all listen to music in the house.
Wow, I really love this design!
The Phoniebox has a fabric-covered front that is magnetically attached. I glued fibre optic cables to the power bank to make the battery status visible outside. The phoniebox is switched on and off with an OnOff SHIM and can be charged via USB-C. I sprayed the symbols onto the wood with a stencil. All large components are attached with Velcro so that they can be easily removed.
You can find more information here.
First Box for my daughter.
Similar to the one from last year - touch buttons at the front seat (inside) can be used for prev/next and vol+/-