DIY cyberpunk Walkman is a blocky music player you wish you had in the 80s

It’s definitely a great time to be alive if you’re the type who loves to assemble your own gadgets but never had the chance in your childhood. With a combination of accessible electronics like the Arduino and Raspberry Pi, as well as the ubiquity of 3D printers and services, it is definitely easier to create the designs you could only imagine years or even decades ago. And you’re not even limited to designs that exist in our timeline!

If you ever fancied Star Trek’s tricorders or those retrofuturistic devices in B-rated sci-fi films, now is definitely the right time to build one yourself. Or if you’ve ever wished you had the cool gadgets that were hip a long, long time ago, you can now also build your own version, one that even transcends eras and designs.

Designer: Yakroo108

Sony’s Walkman became a household name in portable music back when people got their fix from cassette tapes. The staying power of the brand is proven by how its name survived long after the last iPods left store shelves years ago. Many kids probably wanted to have one back in the day, but few could have afforded one or could have convince their parents to make such an expensive purchase. Those kids are now adults, of course; adults who can finally make those childhood regrets come true, though probably in a way that would have been even more impossible in the 80s or even the 90s.

This self-made project, for example, tries to create the Walkman in a different flavor. If the brand started out as a prop for a sci-fi film, this design would have definitely made a hit, though probably to an even more niche audience. The basic shape is basically a gray block, with buttons and knobs to seal the deal. The chassis is 3D printed, of course, so the design could have been a bit more sophisticated.

What’s a bit interesting with this contraption is that it foregoes the usual culprits in DIY electronics. It instead uses an equally compact UNIHIKER SBC or single-board computer similar to the Raspberry Pi, except this one comes with a built-in color screen that removes one component to worry about. That said, the Cyber Walkman does have a smaller secondary screen for additional information, adding to that cyberpunk vibe.

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