This is how the inside of the turntable looked before the conversion. The platter and cover have been removed for this picture.

Finding PC components to fit inside was a big challenge. There is very little rectangular space inside the turntable.

The spindle for the platter goes from the top of the unit clear through to the bottom. The tone arm also utilizes the entire height of the turntable, making it impractical to place anything underneath it.

I decided to go with the mini-itx form factor based on size. The motherboard is less than 7 inches square. I bought the components from www.mini-itx.com.

This is the underside of the top panel where the motherboard will go. In the foreground is the pitch slider mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB).

In the first phase, I completely disassembled the turntable and began cutting the top metal piece.

Without removing the spindle or the tone arm, the only place the motherboard would fit was in the lower right.

The height of the motherboard required that I cut away lots of metal from the underside of the top panel.

After cutting the bottom piece, I was humored to find this chunk on the floor with the severe warning:

Caution: To prevent electric shock do not remove any screws. No user-serviceable parts inside. Refer servicing to qualified personnel.

After removing the necessary parts of the top panel, I reassembled the turntable with the PC components inside.

Front left is the power supply. Behind that is a custom circuit board for the controls. Left of the tone arm base is the Hard Drive. Front right is the motherboard.

Mounted underneath is a slim CD-ROM drive.

I designed a custom circuit board (background) to connect the buttons and lights from the turntable to the PC.

The Start/Stop button turns the PC and and off.

When the PC is on, the popup white light is illuminated and so is the red light that shines onto the dots on the edge of the platter.

The 33 RPM light shows the Hard Drive activity.

The connectors on the motherboard are not externally accessible. TurntablePC has connectors for video, keyboard, and one USB port at the end of the cables show here. The cables you see are for:

• Power

• Video

• Keyboard

• USB

• Audio

• Ground

When fully assembled, it is hard to tell the turntable is actually a PC. The motor no longer works. However, the platter still spins and the red and white power lights still work.

Here is the nighttime look of the TurntablePC. What DJ wouldn't be proud of this setup?

Thank you for visiting TurntablePC.com. If you have questions or comments, please email me.

Aaron Higgins, Summer 2005