Paragon Project: Cyber-Tape-Deck

By Adam | September 4, 2023

This computer will change the way you see your old electronics. It’s time to go pull out that tapedeck out of storage and grab your Raspberry Pi, because this cyberdeck is guaranteed to inspire you to build your own. It’s the Cyber-Tape-Deck, put together by Matthew H. And we’re super happy to include it in our Paragon Projects series.

As Matthew writes on Hackaday, the idea is to build something that is both functional and something to teach Matthew’s son about programming.

Additionally, of course, the idea is to build something that just looks really cool!

Hardware

Matthew put this together with a Raspberry Pi 3 and an Arduino Pro Micro hooked up to an LCD screen.

As Matthew shares, there are also a number of 3D-printed pieces, because there wasn’t a tapedeck available. So Matthew decided to 3D-print the cassette player. As you can see above, it came out looking pretty realistic.

Matthew was also kind enough to share the .stl files on the Cyber-Tape-Deck page, so if you also can’t find an old tapedeck for your build, you can print one out.

One of my favorite things about this setup is that the tapedeck buttons also can have a purpose, like turning the cyberdeck on and off.

Cyber-Tape-Deck buttons — Credit: Matthew H.

These buttons are also why the Arduino becomes a key component, because it serves as the go-between for the buttons and the Raspberry Pi.

Software

Matthew doesn’t specify much about the software, but the cyberdeck seems to run on the Raspberry Pi OS (formerly known as Raspbian).

What’s great about the Raspberry Pi OS is that if you want to use the cyberdeck for little projects or to teach your kids programming, then it has almost everything you could ask for.

For instance, it comes with Scratch pre-installed. So all of you have to do is boot it up and you’ll be able to show any child how to program in no time!