Raspberry Pi: Transform the popular single-board computer into a pocket-sized vintage radio

A simple project has utilised the Raspberry Pi as a pocket-sized vintage radio. Posted to r/raspberry_pi and republished by the Raspberry Pi Blog, the project has been christened the Radio Time Machine by its creator u/alexis__reddit/. The Radio Time Machine includes features stations for each decade of music from the 1920s until the 2020s, which u/alexis__reddit/ has achieved by creating several multiple Spotify playlists. These can be accessed via the hyperlinks below:

• 1920s
• 1930s
• 1940s
• 1950s
• 1960s
• 1970s
• 1980s
• 1990s
• 2000s
• 2010s

The project calls for a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, an Arduino Nano and two RGB LEDs for the dial, along with one button that is capable of short and long presses to power cycle the device and to switch between tracks. u/alexis__reddit/ also used the shell of a vintage Bluetooth radio.

Software-wise, the Radio Time Machine uses the Mopidy library for Spotify. Additionally, the project integrates custom NodeJS app with the JohnnyFive library to read the button and potentiometer values, trigger the LEDs using the Arduino, and to load the relevant Spotify playlists.