A few tasks for this project: - cut a hole in the dash corresponding with the radio support brackets - put together a shelf that mounts on the radio support brackets - manufacture ( #3dp ) or purchase a dial assembly - assemble a computer that can use car power to produce audio signal to a speaker - assemble a speaker that can use car power - decide on the media to use - design and fabricate a media ejection system ## Dial Assembly I would like it to appear as close as practical to the original Bendix 12BU radio that came in these cars.  I'd like to try opening up the window in it to use as the media slot. The controls I will need are: - power on/off (use a detented volume knob?) - volume up/down - eject - forward/reverse - play/pause (or is this redundant with power?) ## Ejectable Media Two main routes here: NFC (media object holds a uuid) or SD (media object holds the audio content itself). Regardless of the route I choose, it should be relatively easy to load new audio content into the truck. I could reuse the ejection mechanics of something like a Fidelipac / [Stereo-Pak](https://tangiblemediacollection.com/artifacts/muntz-4-track) / [Playtape](https://tangiblemediacollection.com/artifacts/playtape) / [HiPac](https://tangiblemediacollection.com/artifacts/hi-pac) / [Quad 8](https://tangiblemediacollection.com/artifacts/quad-8-2) That last one is interesting because Ford had Motorola make "Quadrasonic" tape players to put in car radios in the 70s. Fidelipac (Quad 8's ancestor) was a standard for radio, I'm guessing because it was a good form factor to handle in the studio. I like the feel of a 3.5" floppy disk ejection and insertion. Maybe I should pick up a few samples of Quad 8, [MiniDisc](https://tangiblemediacollection.com/artifacts/sony-mini-disc), [Compact Floppy](https://tangiblemediacollection.com/artifacts/amstrad-3-inch-floppy), [Game Boy Cartridge](https://tangiblemediacollection.com/artifacts/nintendo-game-boy)... I can reverse-engineer the case of the thing with 3d-printing, store an SD card inside each one, and line up some pogo pins in an existing ejection mechanism. 2026-02-08 I bought a Quad-8 cartridge from ebay. I also bought the dial assembly shown above. ## Computer System Raspberry Pi (or similar) with a giant flash drive and custom software. - "music" cartridges cause the system to look up in its database what corresponds to the ID on the cart. - Improvement: if there's no match, connect to the network and ask the central player for its match. - Constraint: each "album" may end up having multiple IDs that hash to it. I don't know if NFC stickers are programmable, or customizeable. - "config" cartridge can tell the player to host a wifi hotspot with an interface to - upload new music? - query the local database - pull new music down from central - load a new software version & reboot - open an SSH server - change the EQ or audio settings - change the wifi credentials it uses to connect to central - "bluetooth" cartridge to connect a phone to the player as if it were a normal bluetooth speaker