Vintage Radio Shack Intercom system Upcycled! | ESPHome | Page 1

stone wigeon Jul 19, 2024, 2:38 AM

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I was gifted these brand -new old stock radio shack analog intercom units. They were in remarkable shape. Sadly, their tech was really outdated so I decided to give them new life by upcycling them for use in home automation! 👍🙂

I added an ESP32, a 98357a I2S audio amp, a single WS2811 RGB LED, a USB-C LiPo battery charger and a LiPo cell recovered from a recycled vape pen. The unit that has a volume control also received an INMP441 I2S microphone and had its Potentiometer and potentiometer end of travel switch added as well.

Since these units didn't have an LED, I decided to add them but I didn't want to ruin the "vintage vibe". So, I took an old-school clear body LED and cut it off, then drilled a hole in the corner of the speaker bezel and friction-fit the LED from the rear. I then hot-melted a RGB led behind it.

I added a mini toggle switch to the back to fill the hole where the 3.5" wire jack was located. This allows me to manually turn on/off power to the ESP (the switch is between the battery and the ESP board). These little units don't sound quite as nice as the bell desktop speaker I upcycled (in another post here) . They are a bit "tinny" but they do sound about right for their vintage.

At the moment I use them to make TTS announcements around the house but with them being YAML controlled, I can repurpose them at will. I am hoping to use them to replace the Amazon Echo's I have around the house.. someday.. 😁

frail wagon Jul 19, 2024, 3:21 PM

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I love these upcycle projects! Really cool stuff.

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Small thing: but I feel like an amber LED would fit the vintage vibes better than a green one. Just my taste though :)

crude minnow Jul 19, 2024, 7:07 PM

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Can you share your config?

golden path Jul 20, 2024, 11:31 AM

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I did buy those when I was a teenager!!!

stone wigeon Jul 20, 2024, 2:55 PM

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@frail wagon since the led behind there is RGB, I can choose an amber color if I want. 👍

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@crude minnow Sure. As soon as I get back to the house. At the moment, I'm sitting in the car on my phone while my wife is shopping for yarn 😆

stone wigeon Jul 20, 2024, 4:49 PM

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crude minnow Can you share your config?

Ok, here's the yaml for one of the intercom units:

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https://pastebin.com/dUxar2J5

fleet cradle Oct 9, 2024, 8:02 PM

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stone wigeon https://pastebin.com/dUxar2J5

Could you share it again please? The pastebin deleted the yaml 😦

stone wigeon Oct 9, 2024, 8:25 PM

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hold on.. lemme see

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does this work?
https://pastebin.com/kfjKmZn5

fleet cradle Oct 9, 2024, 8:46 PM

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stone wigeon does this work? https://pastebin.com/kfjKmZn5

Perfect, thank you!

cloud chasm Oct 9, 2024, 9:06 PM

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stone wigeon does this work? https://pastebin.com/kfjKmZn5

Why not attach it here? Ideally in the top post if possible, otherwise here in a comment?

stone wigeon Oct 10, 2024, 12:13 AM

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This forum seems picky about size of attachments so i figured it might bounce or violate some rule so it felt simpler/safer t o send it to pastebin.. i would LOVE to feel comfortable about doing an inline paste without getting scoldfed by the admins or the system 😛

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and, as I expected:

steep root Oct 10, 2024, 12:15 AM

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attach it as a file

stone wigeon Oct 10, 2024, 12:15 AM

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hence pastebin 🤷‍♂️

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This the the preliminary yaml i have for it 🙂

📎 archer-intercom-pot-v1.yaml

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my hope is to someday be able to replace all my amazon echos with my own home assistant voice system

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i'm st ill fighhting with the reliability of the MAX98357a i2s modules. i have found them to be very unreliable/intermittent at being able to just play a sound when asked to do it. SOmetimes they do, sometimes they dont, and I cant see why. 😦

#Vintage Radio Shack Intercom system Upcycled!