ChronoTune
Contents
Description
The ChronoTune is a concept design for a time-travelling radio. Instead of tuning to the frequency, one tunes to a year and hears music, speeches, and other audio from that year. Version 1 tunes from about 1850 to 2050. If a version 2 is made, it will tune from the Big Bang to the Big Crunch.
Documentation
The exterior design of the ChronoTune was based upon the Philco 70-series cathedral radio from the 1930s. Eric laser cut lamination layers using the design patent drawings similar to patent #D83957.
Software
The code is here: https://github.com/emerrill/RBC-2011
Media
i3 Detroit ChronoTune blog page
YouTube video of infomercial and behind the scenes
Lead project in Popular Mechanics
Naming Convention
Sound files must be named like so:
- 1917e00.mp3
The extension must be .mp3. Note the lower case M and P. The year must be 4 digits with optional - sign appended for years BCE.
Resources
TODO
Software
- Handle multiple files in a given year (random?).
- Remember play-position within a year so you can tune away and back without starting over?
- Solve the startup bug, is this baud-related?
- Scale the tuning range so the pointer follows the printed scale properly.
- Figure out why turning the tuning knob too fast sometimes crashes it.
- Make the date range exponential and print a new scale.
Electrical
- Beef up the amplifier, it's got a nice 6x9 speaker and could make better use of it.
- Add a Bluetooth A2DP receiver module instead of the FM tuner, for when it's tuned to the present-year?
Chassis
- Figure out a way to put the LED display tubes back in? They looked sweet but they didn't quite fit the chassis.
- Perhaps "behind" the tuning scale...?
Media
- Make a repository for sound files.
- Collect a bunch more audio.
