Originally Posted by Rolf

I think you should ask your son to draw a picture of how he wants the front of the old radio to look after it is modified. I cant think of any way to utilize the rectangular hole and the two round holes to accommodate the three pots and the LEDs on the PC amp. And how is he going to make the rectangular hole look "cool"?

Using the rectangular hole will be easy!!!!! Haven't you seen any of the store bought i-pod docking/listening stations? The I pod is rectangular.

You don't need to build an amp, you already have one in the included PC speakers. The same goes for a power supply.

I don't understand why there are so many naysayers to so many projects here. Where is all the DIY pride here? lol

What are each of the knobs for? presumably volume, balance, and ?

Since your speakers will be in a fixed position you can probably do without an external balance control. I would leave the balance control attached to the board. Extending the other two controls should be fairly easy and straightforward (as pointed out by spiffitz). Just keep posting any progress and questions you have and the real helpers will show themselves.

What are each of the knobs for? presumably volume, balance, and ?

Treble, Bass, and Volume perhaps? Just guessing here myself.

De-soldering large components isn't hard, especially the pots. I constantly remove and replace 15-pin VGA connectors at work from circuit boards with no ill effect; certainly a 3- or 4-pin pot is a no-brainer. A solder sucker will take care of those no problem. I do agree that practice should be done on a junk board first if one has never done anything like this but really, how hard is it to melt a solder point and press the button on the sucker?

As for the rectangular hole, I can't make too many suggestions because I don't know what went in there originally and what they want to put in there now.

Personally, here's what I'd do if I wanted to avoid electrical work:
-Put the circuit board as-is, behind the rectangular hole.
-Fill rectangular hole with a panel, perhaps covered with speaker fabric for aesthetic reasons. Hinge it so you can get to the original controls. If originality is no concern, then put holes in the panel to line up with the existing board's controls.
-Install "dummy" knobs on the two original holes with glue, epoxy, etc. or attach only one knob for volume (see below)
-Alternatively, the board can be mounted so that the controls and plugs are behind the radio.
-Speakers can go where you want, where they fit.

Lots of options and if you're crafty with tools soldering might not even be needed. At most you'd need to extend the speaker wires and you can use crimps for those.

If your son really insists on moving the knob(s), then the potentiometers (pots) will have to be de-soldered and extended using wires and more soldering. I can't see too well in the pics, but they look threaded and you'll need the nuts for them. The holes on the old radio would then need a smaller hole for the pots. You could probably find a washer that has the right ID to fit the pots through, yet a large enough OD to cover the large hole from behind.

Actually we were planning to just fill the rectangle in the radio with the original panel that went there that had the station numbers on it.

As for the knobs they are tone, volume, and a power knob. Probably the biggest problem here is that there are three knobs and two holes, but if we can rewire them then we could probably just put one in the back of the radio.
We would like to avoid altering the radio, mostly because we are hoping to keep the original look.

Thanks for the help.

Originally Posted by bmclaughlin

Actually we were planning to just fill the rectangle in the radio with the original panel that went there that had the station numbers on it.

As for the knobs they are tone, volume, and a power knob. Probably the biggest problem here is that there are three knobs and two holes, but if we can rewire them then we could probably just put one in the back of the radio.
We would like to avoid altering the radio, mostly because we are hoping to keep the original look.

Thanks for the help.

Just a thought... Maybe you could leave the power Knob on the board and always in the "on" condition, then goto the hardware store and buy one of those inline power switches to install on the power cord. This assumes that the power knob on the pc speakers is a mechanical switch that "clicks on" and not some sort of digital type switch.

or leave radio as it is and just make transmitter

The speaker in the radio has a rip through it, the radio is about 60 or 70 years old if not more. It was a good suggestion though.

When we de-solder the knobs from the chip do we have to worry about the metal melting and getting on the rest of the chip?

Originally Posted by bmclaughlin

When we de-solder the knobs from the chip do we have to worry about the metal melting and getting on the rest of the chip?

If you are talking about removing the pots from the PCB (printed circuit board); yes you have to worry about it. It is metal so I can cause shorts if it gets in the wrong places. But it usually don't stick, so it can easily be removed.

Just have the solder sucker ready in the other hand. As soon as the solder melts it'll look like a "blob" and can be sucked up then. Solder normally doesn't melt into a puddle since it cools off before it gets a chance to run, plus it'll only stick to hot bare metal which the rest of the board hopefully won't be.

Learn some soldering basics through a Google search and practice on scrap wires until you get the feel for it.

We finished the radio.

I (this is the son now) learned how to desolder and solder things from circutboards well enough so that I desoldered the knobs from the cirutboard of the computer speakers and attached them with velcro to the old radio. I also attached the speakers with velcro so that if there ever any problems the parts come out easily.

The tuning dial is the volume knob, the lower right knob is power, and the lower left knob is tone.

Thanks for all the help you have given.