Restoring a ’60s Jukebox with Raspberry Pi and Arduino

What is a jukebox without records? According to artist/hacker “Tijuana Rick,” that would be “an empty cool looking speaker box.” In his case though, this isn’t just a philosophical question, as his father-in-law came across a free 1969 Wurlitzer 3100 jukebox. The only catch was that the previous owner kept all of the records.

Instead of scrambling to garage sales or online auctions, Rick decided to modernize the device using an Arduino Mega to receive signals from the 40-year-old jukebox’s buttons. It then passes this selection info on to a Raspberry Pi that can stream music from a variety of sources. To accomplish this, he used code based on Thomas Sprinkmeier’s GitHub repository.

Be sure to check out his page for more details on the build, including how he molded replacement buttons for the vintage machine himself!