ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Hi there:-)I am not sure whether this topic is appropriate for this forum, but anyway here goes :-)A couple of months ago I bought a nice condition BM 6000, BG 6002 and BC8004 along with the SC 60. Accepting the fact that cassette tapes are not again to be a part of my music collection, I got this crazy idea of converting the BC into a digital mediacenter.The BC8004, however, only needed a new belt replaced (thanx Martin) and was in fact in such a good condition I did not have the heart to scrap the machine.After buying a non-working BC 8000 I was ready to go. I removed all electronics and replaced it with a RaspberryPi, a nice red LCD-display and an IR-diode for the remote. I did reuse the cool looking LED VU-meter.I had to spend a good deal of time learning Linux, MPD-player and Python as well as meddling with the electronics, but I'm rather proud of the end result:
Several buttons on the front panel are used for navigation and updating playlists as well as selecting individual songs. The original remote is used for basic control of the music.If there's interest I will post more details of the project.Best regards Thomas
Über cool! A music server that's a visual match for vintage Beogear, and very creative.
Live been tempted at times to get an ols 10.5 inch open reel and do something similar, just because I like watching the reels go round and round!
I for one would love to see more about your project.
Jeff
I'm afraid I'm recovering from the BeoVirus.
Respect! What a great idea! Would you be so nice to post a little more photos and perhaps instructions what you did in detail and how? I love those projects!
Brilliant
--mika
Very impressive & Nice!
Please post all details available.
//Bo.A long list...
Hi,
A fantastic idea and looks good.
I always fancied doing this with an old non-working becord 4500, but my technical knowledge was sadly lacking to come up with a way to do it.
Please share how you achived your media centre.
Thanks
Toby
Great idea and well done.
And thank you for saving the BC8004.
This is AWESOME! Great job, sir!!
Please post some more pics & info!
Beo4 'til I die!
Beyond cool!!! Please post the process!!
Ah, you know... A little B&O here, a little there
badgersurf: Hi, A fantastic idea and looks good. I always fancied doing this with an old non-working becord 4500, but my technical knowledge was sadly lacking to come up with a way to do it. Please share how you achived your media centre. Thanks Toby
Can you imagine how awesome a 4500 unit would be with this hardware? I can see it now... Some brilliant red dot matrix display showing text through that wonderful glass panel above the keys.
I'm now in the market to find a BC4500 LOL
Wow that is such a good idea!
I bought Raspberry Pi for my nephew last week as I was desperate to get one but really struggled with how I could integrate it into my B&O setup so I bought it for him just to see it and try it out . Such an adaptable little computer! I did read all the info about poor sound from the chip etc but would love to get one working with XBMC which I use on my ATV1 currently.
I have a non HD Beovision 5 so have hacked the ATV to play colour composite out, but the RPi will connect directly. How did you sort out the sound issue and how did you get it working with the B&O remote. I began to read about LIRC etc but it just began to get me confused so I gave up. It would be perfect if I could get one to work for my N.Music perhaps via the Beolink PC2 I have packed away (or instead of it) if it can be integrated without masterlink. Getting a display to work too is brilliant.
My problem is I have the ideas but not the know how.Although I have dabbled with linux I don't really know what I'm doing.
Stoobie
Hi againThanx for your many kind replies:-)While it has been the result of a lot of hacking and trial and error I will try my best to document the project in detail.First on the whole endeavour started with a long unfulfilled fascination with B&O combined with my wish to revive my vinyl record collection. I've always been a fan of the system 6000/8000 from the eighties with their retro-futuristic looks so the choice was pretty clear to me.The idea of creating this media center came to me watching this rather massive combination of the BM6000 and BC8000 glowing with red lights. Some how the BM6000 looked very lonely not accompanied with the BC8000.Coincidentally I read about the Raspberry Pi and it being able to run an XBMC-mediacenter. I, however, decided to scope the project to be audio-only and with a display somehow fitting with the looks of the BC8000.Ok, parts list first:From the BC 8000:- The cabinet- The VU meter (just for looks, but it looks good :-) )- The key panel- Raspberry Pi with power supply and SD Card- Wifi Dongle, Edimax EW-7811(the Rasperry Pi can be rather choosy regarding WiFi dongles)- A suitable display. The Raspberry Pi has composite as well as HDMI output, so at one point I considered using a lcd display as seen in portable DVD-players as it would fit behind the glass panel of the BC 8000, but eventually I chose a LCD display kit from Adafruit (very cool ressource for Raspberry Pi and Arduino projects):http://www.adafruit.com/products/1110To me the display somehow resembles an old school eighties look, that would fit with the looks of the BC8000. Also the display kit provides five buttons, suitable to be mapped to some of the BC front panel buttons.The display kit is rather easy to assemble but does demand basic soldering skills. Adafruit has an excellent manual as well as sample code in Python to get you going. - One IR diode, reaped from a defunct DVD playerAgain, Adafruit provides a nice tutorial on how to connect an IR diode to the GPIO pins of the Raspberry Pi. This tutorial is mainly targeted at XBMC, but I found it very helpful:http://learn.adafruit.com/using-an-ir-remote-with-a-raspberry-pi-media-center/overview- Sound card... well it is well known that the Raspberry Pi sound wise is less than adequate for HiFi listening. On the other hand it is also well known that only a limited number of USB-based sound cards work with the Pi. As can be seen on several forums, people are working on this issue, but I'm not quite up to speed on this. I chose to pick the sound from the HDMI via an HDMI to VGA-adapter with DA-conversion built-in. Although not audiophile quality it sounds better than the built in sound on the PI. These adapters come in different flavors, but this works for me:http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0088K7QVA/ref=pe_217191_31005151_3p_M3_dp_1- Regarding the VU meter, I founds this nice LM3913 LED driver from Texas Instruments:http://www.ti.com/product/lm3915It controls 10 LEDS and is rather simple to implement. This guy has a project based around this driver:http://sound.westhost.com/project60.htm- Regarding the power supply, everything is powered from the same 5v power supply, similar to those supplied with smart phones.I have uploaded some additional photos of the innards of the media center. It looks messy and it is, being very much a result of the incremental process;-)
Frontpanel: I cut out a piece of masonite board matching the PCB holding the original displays and somehow made room for the VU-meter on top of a rather messy self-made PCB and the LDC display from Adafruit. I did track wires from the Adafruit PCB to the original wires from the BC control panel. This solution could be made more elegant, but I ended up mapping the following keys:Memory- -> UpMemory+ -> Down<< -> LEFT>> -> RightReturn -> SELECTAlso behind the front panel I placed the IR-sensor. Perhaps I'm going to move to the bottom front of the cabinet for better reception, but it works for now
The next photo reveals the messy inside:- The Raspberry Pi- Wires from the GPIO expansion on the Pi to the IR-sensor and the Adafruit LCD kit- HDMI2VGA Cable (partly visible) connecting to the Pi.
Ok, that's it for now:-)
In my next posts I'll go through details of the hardware setup and the software.
Best regards
Thomas
So cool! Nice work again and I look forward to the details. I suspect given the real amount space required others will start to enable similar DIYPI kits on other gear out there. If this would have been around 5-6 years ago I would have repurposed a lot of junk gear that hit the trash can.
BeoMegaMan: So cool! Nice work again and I look forward to the details. I suspect given the real amount space required others will start to enable similar DIYPI kits on other gear out there. If this would have been around 5-6 years ago I would have repurposed a lot of junk gear that hit the trash can.
This is cool
I remember some years ago, there was a guy who build a Mac into an old Beocenter:
So good to see old B&O gear get a second life...Although I prefer keeping it original - this is the second best solution It should NEVER end up in the trash can...
Very cool!!
I like these kinds of tinkering.
I've bought some weeks ago a Raspberry and started to use several (XMBC) images. But I'm not happy with the speed of controlling. It's so slow!
Comparing with my TVIX 6600, it is much slower and less attractive. But I'm still experimenting.
But I'm curios how you will cope with the remote instructions from a Beolink 1000 or newer.
You could also use the datalink from the BM6000 for controlling instead of ir.
Beobuddy,
Have you tried Raspbmc which is made for the Pi, or OpenELEC Mediacenter as the re is a Pi specific version. Not sure if it does the same as XBMC!
Thanks for the tips. I've tried these. These images are indeed specially designed for the Raspberry with XMBC control.
I also tried the XBian image. That's an image which uses only a mouse without a keyboard.
The problem I have is network related. Whereas the Tvix runs very smooth with streaming, the Pi doesn't.
Hi again
Sorry for not getting back, but I'm quite busy. I'll try to collect my documentation regarding software setup, python code etc, but it's gonna take some time;-)
Regarding choice of remote scheme I did consider using the master link instead of an IR sensor, but the IR sensor seemed easier to implement at that time. I'm using the original Beomaster Terminal for the BM 6000 and have configured my pi to start/resume playback upon TP1 keypress, and pause the playback when P-P6 and PH are engaged. The buttons << and >> are used to skip back en forth in the selected playlist, STOP, well you figure it out;-)
Haven't quite decided what I will use REC and Return for, but probably I'll use Return as a select- menu item thangy....
Also I will be able to use the otherwise unused EXT button to something - probably some sort of menu selection.
I'm not quite done though, for instance I would like the OFF switch to turn off the display on the Pi. Power consumption is very low, and it is by the way impossible to turn of the Pi besides unplug the power supply;-)
I like this project. It is really fascinating what possibilities this small and inexpensive Raspberry PI is offering.
Hi thomz,
I am still interested in your software solution and the programming you did.
I would like to connect some B&O speakers (like Beolab 4000) directly to my raspberry via powerlink (building a "playmaker" solution for a reasonable price ;) ), but how do I get the turn-on voltage (3,5-5,0V)? I could use the GIPO interface of the raspberry, but how do I steer it? How can I find out that audio is playing and giving these information to the GIPO interface?
I hope I can learn something out of your project to bring my thoughts to life.
Here is my BeoBerry
It is in BM5000 killed by thunder, and generally in a bad shape, so I sacrified it....
blah-blah and photographs as needed
It has that red dot button
Oh yes.
Well, open is also present...?
OF course, disks
Remote? Of cource
Undoubly Beo4 cold be used but I did not bother... And it does not show catalogs.
So lets play music :)
GREAT!Could you explain in a little more detail how you solved everything? Beo 4 control would be the cherry on the cake :-)
Allmost all parts are standart stockparts.
Raspberry Pi 2, HD44780 LCD display (withc I have to break in parts because small window of BM5000), PCM2704 USB DAC, Slurp-in USB-cd/dvd player, USB HDD, USB hub, couple 5V mains plug, Nokia tel charger for STB and on/off circuit. Some small stuff, mostly what I fould for drawer.
SW is KODI
In the begining ther was
empty BM5000
Filled with some parts...
No, not hires pics, the quality is purely very, very, very prototype like... But as you can see BM5k is not optimal box, lot have to modified. LCD did cause most trouble, and it is still too high. Front panel is hard to make line on because flap and broken holders on glass panel, I guess BM5k5 would be easier. For some reason top cover seems to be too narrow? Std USB cables are not optimal either for inside plugging.
everything starts with the prototype, refining, designing etc. can be done after everything works fine, fast and reliable. You did a great project and I really like those ideas.
Thanks, maybe I decided someday that one BM5k5 on my self is also beyond reparation (it probably is, dead processor prehaps)