2

SPARK

Internet

radio

toaster

I like to make things, but am not very handy. Also,

my coding skills fall somewhere on the spectrum

between lamentable and laughable. For these

reasons, I have to choose my projects carefully. Which

is to say I need someone else to have already done the

heavy lifting of fabrication and software development.

Turning a 1990’s era Dualit Four-Slice toaster into a Raspberry

Pi-based Google Assistant and internet radio was right in my

sweet spot. Very Red Dwarf.

Why not just buy a Google Home or Amazon Alexa, you ask?

Too easy! Also, while many people seem to have no issues talking

to a plastic speaker, I prefer to speak to a beautifully sculpted

chunk of metal that also makes toast (NB. some care and electrical

expertise is required here to avoid burning down your house).

The Google Assistant SDK allows easy deployment of the

Assistant to a Raspberry Pi, and there are many tutorials on

YouTube and elsewhere if further assistance is required.

What makes the Dualit ideal for this project (aside from

iconic design status) is that it has plenty of unused real estate

inside – room aplenty to stuff a Pi 3B, mini digital amp, OLED

display, speakers, power supplies, and assorted other gubbins.

If you prefer, you can omit much of this and output a line-

level or Bluetooth signal to external components. The ends of

the Dualit are aluminium, so easy to work with for the minor

alterations necessary.

Of course, you can ask the Assistant to play the radio but

I wanted dedicated physical controls – and a station indicator

display. I had to write a bit more custom code for this side of the

project but nothing outside my spectrum.

“

By Peter Kent timetogoclocks.com

Left

Google’s

weird intrusive

1984 -themed spy

device has never

looked so attractive