Jukebox Wallbox adapters

[SeanRegan]

These are becoming more popular these days.

I've had mine since when the only use for surplus wall boxes was as a novelty telephone directory.

So they were "cheap as chips" but now hard to find in any condition at any price. Like parent jukeboxes, they were made for hard and continual use. With mine, the only suspect part is the notched plastic drive belt  that turns the pages. These are made of "unobtainium" so have to be looked after.
As a jukebox enthusiast, I found out about the adapters from a jukebox owners message board.

The conversion is quite simple.

The adapter was obtained from Datasync in New York. There's probably UK suppliers now.
A 25v adapter is also required to power the mechanism.

A 3rd generation iPod is used. I bought mine cheaply on eBay, the battery doesn't need to hold a charge as the adapter provides the power.
You load the iPod with  an iTunes playlist of the same number of tracks for which the wall box was designed, in this case 160.  The play list is given a four digit name, which tells the adapter which make and model wall box is being used.  The two pairs of wires that go from the adapter to the wall box, I've fitted with quick release connectors, so I can change wall boxes. There's more behind the wall boxes in case they need any maintenance. A cancel button is also supplied.
The left box is on "free play."  The one in the video takes old 10p or 50ps.

One of the advantages is that you don't have to have any rubbish "B" sides.
I've also got a spare title card magazine, so I can have 3x 160 selections.
The magazines can be swopped over in seconds.

The title cards can be typed out in a variety of styles, fonts and colours and downloaded, on a pdf, free, from an enthusiasts' site. (Mike's Arcade).

For those who can remember vinyl jukeboxes in coffee bars and pubs. Remember going into one and selecting a track on a jukebox and after a few minutes, "your one" started playing? 
Here's some belated news. It didn't matter how many people before or after you selected the same record, it would only play it once! and then only after any other selection chosen before or after you that was ahead of yours on the record carousel.

The iPod plays the tracks in the order of selection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP-HpQTrcDk

For me, it's just nostalgia, a reminder of the coffee bars in Soho in the late fifties and early sixties.
My future wife and I had a flat in Soho. 


I do have two vinyl jukeboxes. But as we live in a small semi, my "stuff" has to live in our small front room, so they live in our summerhouse I built at the bottom of our garden over thirty years ago. 
I play them when I'm gardening, but also a few tracks every few days, each week of the year. "Use is the best form of preventative maintenance."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQaXsWwUW2w

[peter scott]

Good stuff! Welcome to the forum.

Perhaps the signature hold-up requires a certain minimum number of posts before they let you have a signature??

Peter.

[Mike Watterson]

I'd use any random cheap MP3 player rather than an iPod, or an old Android phone, or even a Raspberry Pi.

[SeanRegan]

I'd use any random cheap MP3 player rather than an iPod, or an old Android phone, or even a Raspberry Pi.

But at the moment, presuming you haven't a wall box, you aren't using anything, are you?

You can use whatever is available.

I've had these for over ten years and I used what was suggested by the adapter manufacturer at the time. There's never been any problems with them.
Back then, 3rd gen iPods were "as cheap as chips," on eBay, I only paid a few quid for mine. I'm using three. I'm a tidy person. So they fit here and are easy to change.





I guess few people use more than one wall box, so whatever storage you use, can fit in the coin box or the space it occupies.

Even fewer will have a spare title card magazine, That's why I have three iPods.



The title card production facility I mentioned, enabled me to print off the "turn labels," the original ones of which were very faded.

Whichever supplier of an adapter now is chosen, will suggest what storage facilities are currently suitable.
So a purchaser can make their own choice.
The biggest problem for anyone who wants one is finding a working wall box.

[Mike Watterson]

But at the moment,  presuming you haven't a wall box, you aren't using anything, are you?

I have a server anyway, so I have the 2nd gfx output going to an H.264 + DVB-T encoder-modulator feeding the entire home sat+radio+Terr-TV distribution box (slide show + music played off a USB stick to avoid HDD activity). Years ago the server had a FM Tx (one of the CE ones to connect phone/mp3 to car radio) with a home made 433 MHz link to control WinAmp and a PIC based RDS encoder to display MP3 tags.

Back in early 1970s I repaired an old juke-box in a local café. It played 45s vertically and had a valve amp.

I saw the real remote wall-box kind of jukebox in an Ohio Trucker's café in mid 1980s. Then about 15 years ago a fake kind (though operational) in a US 1950s styled fast food in Dublin, later in Limerick. It certainly would have used a server or media player.

Probably I'll add remote control via WiFi & BT and also FM Radio TX to the existing system. I have three satellite receivers each on an FM channel too, though of course TSF Jazz, or whoever, decides the play list.

I've never seen cheap iPods and I remember setting up software on Windows for them for others and only worse thing was Sony's mad DRM based system for minidisk.

I don't have a Raspberry Pi now, though CEX is selling a bunch, but not sure if the price is sensible.

[Mike Watterson]

My main old HiFi for the Library is a Dual 505, Sony TC-186D, Mitsubishi AM/FM tuner and Rotel RA-810 amp. The TV sound and a Creative external USB box on Shoe-box PC also feed the Rotel. The speakers are big unbranded boxes maybe from 1970s or 1980s off a USA HiFi tuner-amp someone brought when moving to Ireland from USA. I forget the brand.
The house has 3 other sound / HiFi systems, two are surround with more modern and smaller speakers. There is also a JVC with motor driven remote volume banished to the attic. I may move it workshop now that the HP 141 spectrum analyser and the wobbulator/scope for 455k/10.7M IF are both gone.

[SeanRegan]

A quick look on eBay.
3rd gen iPod. working. £4.99. They are cheap as I suggested.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175842023378

[Mark Hennessy]

I've fixed the link. The forum software gets it wrong when it encounters an ampersand. To fix it, you can surround the whole link in the URL tag (put the word "URL" in square brackets).

That said, in many cases, including eBay, you don't need anything after the question mark - that stuff is usually tracking information of some form.

[SeanRegan]

For those still reading this and not lost interest.
Jukebox wall boxes were often positioned at the end of the booth tables in American diners, you often see them in "film noir" movies. Several would be connected to a full size jukebox in another part of the diner. In smaller establishments, they would be connected to a "hideaway." A large wooden box containing the record carousel, the amplifier etc., and the turntable. This would be positioned in a back room or cellar. With just speakers in the diner. This would release more space in the diner for a table where a jukebox would have been positioned.

For those who've never seen one working. The fact considering this is fifty years old with its collection of leaf switches, solenoids and motors is still running perfectly, is testimony to the build quality.
The only thing I've had to do is replace the turntable motor grommets and service the carousel motor as it was running a bit slow. It was a pain to get at to remove and replace it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=morLkJDxWyg

[ppppenguin]

Before microprocessors did everything, there were amazing feats of electromechanical engineering to do what we would now regard as pretty simple things. Jukeboxes, organs and much more.