Antique Bluetooth Mantlepiece Boombox

3 min readJul 16, 2016

Sometime in 2009 my mother-in-law bought me an ‘antique’ mantle clock. I fully intended to make it into a sweet iPhone dock for my spanking new iPhone 3gs. The clock sat silent & motionless on a shelf for 7 years :/

Technology Finally Happened

Not sure what lit a fire under my bottom, but just recently I decided to do it. I’ll make the goofy castle-clock into a functional bluetooth boombox.

I did some research on Instructables.com and Googled around a bit and ordered a few parts off Amazon:

“Why Drok?” you might ask. Well, before starting this project I knew pretty much nothing about assembling audio components, so I figured I’d increase my chances of success by getting the same brand. Plus, if I set my house on fire, I’d know who to blame.

Prepare the POWER!!!

So the reason for the 12V to 5v USB power adapter is to use one power source for the amp (12V) and the bluetooth receiver (5v USB). It was pretty darn convenient, and saved a bit of soldering in the end. Here’s how the assembly went down:

Cut the barrel jack off the 12V power supply.
Solder the barrel jack back on, along with the 12V to 5V adapter.
Curse my shoddy soldering skills, and re-do step 2.

A Test.

Attach speaker wires to amp, plug bluetooth receiver into 5V adapter, use 3.5mm cable to connect bluetooth receiver and amp, prepare to plug everything into the wall for the first time.
Pray.
It. Works.

Make It So.

Cram all the stuff into the mantle clock and glue/tape it down.
Screw the speaker into the clock.
Realize that there’s no way to close the door and fit the power cord through the tiny hole in the side of the clock.

Try, Try Again

Curse out loud.
Cut power cord and thread it through the hole. Re-solder.
Fin?

Troubleshoot

No. There is a very loud, annoying buzzing sound as soon as the bluetooth connects and I try to play audio. If I plug my iPhone directly into the amp, there’s no buzzing. So there’s something up with the bluetooth.
Read lots of stuff on the internet and fruitlessly fiddle with settings on my phone.
Discover a thing called a “ground loop noise isolator” on a forum (sorry, lost the link) that solves buzzing from bluetooth audio receivers when they share a power source with an amp.

The Final Stretch

Order more stuff from Amazon

So yeah, the ZIOCOM thing worked just right (phew!). I also ordered those 3.5mm cable things so I have the option of plugging up a device that is missing a bluetooth. Plus, who doesn’t like retractable cables?