Arkive Radio: Innovative Radio With Recording Features

For my semester 1 industrial design project was to design a radio for a certain real or fictional person. The person this radio was designed for was a middle aged bu isnessman or banker who required a aestheticly pleasing yet functionable radio for use at work and at home. The radio is useful to this type of person because it allows the user to record important media and fianancial updates and then take these recordings away with them for reference.

The following diagrams shows the parts and their original locations in the design. Image one is the main body and image two is the recorder. The only parts not shown are the wires.

The starting base for the radio is a Sony ICF-S22 analogue radio. I used a old digital dictaphone for the recorder part. These were disasembled and wires and components changed or extended to fit my design.

Sony ICF-S22,
Tuner, speaker were extended in order to reach their required place in the radio.
A new battery pack was added to house 2 AA batteries.
The volume, on/off switch was extended and the on/off part was connected to a toggle switch.

Dictaphone,
Speaker was extended to fit design.
New battery pack was added.
The main circuit was kept attached to the face of the dictaphone because it is simpler to simply extend the buttons rather than make and attach new ones.

The design uses two triangular shapes, I have used white and red acrylic plastics to contrast between them.

I used a laser cutter when I made the radio, however they parts could be cut by saw if you are careful enough.

The plastic must be 5mm thick and once cut, using a sander with a 45degree angle sanded down around the edges in order for the parts to fit flush together. Note, for certain angles like the corners of the triangle that are not 45degree you have to leave them untill the gluing stage to correct.

All holes for inserts and buttons must be cut at this point to save unneeded hassle later on

Refer to the diagram for the sizes of the model.

Once all parts have been cut out and edges sanded down to 45degree it is time to assemble all these parts together.

I suggest making a 90degree angle to put the parts against whilst gluing.

I suggest a strong fast bonding super glue.

You will figure out your preferred order to attach the parts together but I started with the biggest base of each, followed by both sides, the sides then panels and inserts.

While the radio and recorder are taking shape you will find corners of the panels will stick out, these need to be sanded flush to the surface of the radio.

Remember to leave the back panel on the radio and right panel on the recorder of to allow access.

 

Once the glue has set the electronics must be fitted.

Recorder,
the main body of the Dictaphone is glued to the under side of the front surface, in line with the button and screen holes.
the speaker is glued over the speaker holes where you have chosen to place them.
the battery pack is placed in between the circuit board and speaker but is not attached as it has to be removed.

Radio,
the speaker is glued behind the speaker cover.
the tuner and volume control must be glued into their fittings(these may differ depending on the radio you use).
the circuit board and battery pack are placed inside.

if your tuner is similar to mine you will need to unsolder and resolder it as shown in picks.

This will all be quite a tight fit but trust me it does.

Once the electronics are in place all the is to do is attach the knobs and panels. 

It is easiest to glue your new twist knobs to the original internal cogs for strength.

To keep the panels on use magnets, this way they can later be removed to change then batteries.