Ralph Musto's 1950s Ecko Stroller III Radio Gets a Major Refresh, Courtesy of an Espressif ESP32
Taking a 1950s AM radio and putting it online takes ingenuity, a custom PCB, an ESP32, and a handily pre-written Arduino sketch.
Radio enthusiast Ralph Musto has given a vintage Ecko Stroller III AM portable a new lease of life, courtesy of an upgrade to internet streaming capabilities using an Espressif ESP32 microcontroller and color OLED display.
"I have a bit of a passion for restoring old radios, especially the battery sets from the 1950s," Musto explains. "Mostly I restore the original valve radio to good operation and then, as there is not much to be heard on MW these days, add an FM module so it can be used in today's world. However, this project takes a different tack and completely replaces the internal circuits with a modern internet radio."
The target for the upgrade: A vintage Ekco Stroller III MBP183, a boxy device built by E.K. Cole Limited in Southend-on-Sea in the 1950s. Originally designed to pick up medium-wave and long-wave (MW and LW) broadcasts on a superheterodyne receiver, Musto's portable was in need of a range of new internals.
"I removed the original circuitry from the Ekco (purists look away now) and fitted a new loudspeaker," Musto explains. "Because there is a lot of connectivity required here, for the DAC, rotary encoders, and the display, I decided to make a PCB to handle all that. Putting it all together then becomes fairly easy.
"I also copied the original dial display and added a slot in the middle for the OLED, then printed it out on self adhesive clear plastic and fitted this to the radio. The contrast is not so good as you can see, but overall I am happy with it."
As for the microcontroller that gives the radio its newfound network connection, Musto has built atop another's open-source design: "I chose […] a project by Ed [Smallenburg] (edzelf)," Musto explains. "Full credit must go to Ed for the Arduino code used in this project."
A full build log is available on Musto's Hackaday.io project page, while the custom PCB he built can be purchased on Tindie for $5 as a bare circuit board. Smallenburg's original ESP32 Radio project, meanwhile, is available on GitHub under the reciprocal GNU General Public License 3.
