{"id":567867,"date":"2026-03-27T13:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T13:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/567867\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T13:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T13:20:09","slug":"you-too-can-build-this-15-esp32-internet-radio-that-brings-winamp-into-the-modern-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/567867\/","title":{"rendered":"You, too, can build this $15 ESP32 internet radio that brings Winamp into the modern era"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                    Summary<\/p>\n<p>                                        This $15 ESP32 board + 1.54&#8243; LCD uses a Winamp-style internet radio UI to play music.<\/p>\n<p>                                        It streams internet stations via Wi\u2011Fi or plays music from the SD card, controlled via three top buttons.<\/p>\n<p>                                        It&#8217;s a cheap and fun weekend build, bringing 2000s desk vibes with optional battery and speakers.<\/p>\n<p>If you ask anyone what software they used to listen to music in the late 90s to early 2000s, there&#8217;s a good chance you&#8217;ll hear Winamp appear a few times. It was a dependable, easy-to-use player that you could kit out with whatever skin you please, and believe me, people made plenty of themes for this media player.<\/p>\n<p>Well, if you want to bring back the glory days of Winamp, make a cool internet radio, and have a fun project to make over the weekend, you can do a lot worse than build this DIY ESP32 project that brings the old vibes back once again. Best of all, it&#8217;s really cheap to make.<\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"440\" height=\"364\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"RGB LED Matrix Panel with the ESP 32 showing the time and date\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rgb-led-matrix-panel-rpi-esp32-12.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rgb-led-matrix-panel-rpi-esp32-12.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                    Related<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.xda-developers.com\/projects-complete-in-weekend-esp32\/\" title=\"6 projects you can complete in a weekend with the $5 ESP32\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t6 projects you can complete in a weekend with the $5 ESP32<br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"display-card-excerpt\">The ESP32 is affordable and powerful, and there&#8217;s a lot you can do with one.<\/p>\n<p>                        This $15 ESP32 internet radio is the perfect weekend project<\/p>\n<p>            And it&#8217;s not just a random set piece<\/p>\n<p>As spotted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackster.io\/news\/the-15-internet-radio-you-can-build-in-a-weekend-56de6fe31941\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Hackster.io<\/a>, this cool project is the idea of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4ZUwnb6cSs4\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Volos Projects on YouTube<\/a>. They created a cute little internet radio that runs off a Waveshare ESP32-S3 1.54-inch LCD development board, which costs around $15. If you really want to, you can squeeze a 1,000mAh battery into the case for a portable radio, but you can just wire it up to a socket if you want to..<\/p>\n<p>While the display looks like a classic Winamp player, it&#8217;s actually made using the LovyanGFX and Arduino GFX libraries. Which is good, because it means you get all of the appeasing and nostalgic visuals of Winamp without actually running a decades-old app on your ESP32. The Winamp buttons even correspond to the three buttons on the top of the case for easy navigation.<\/p>\n<p>Interested in more maker-related content? We launched the XDA Maker Weekly newsletter featuring unique and original content you won&#8217;t find anywhere else on XDA. Get subscribed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xda-developers.com\/profile\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">modifying your newsletter preferences<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>The board uses Wi-Fi to grab internet stations to play, and you can use the SD card to load up music offline if you&#8217;d prefer that. You don&#8217;t need to add anything extra for the device to play music through its audio output; however, if you really want to, you can hook up some speakers to it for better sound quality. Overall, it sounds like a cool, easy, and cheap project for anyone who wants to add some 2000s flair to their desk.<\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"440\" height=\"364\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"esp32-1955-radio\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/esp32-1955-radio.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/esp32-1955-radio.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                    Related<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.xda-developers.com\/1955-radio-esp32-powered-internet-streamer\/\" title=\"Someone turned a 1955 radio into this cool ESP32-powered internet streamer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tSomeone turned a 1955 radio into this cool ESP32-powered internet streamer<br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"display-card-excerpt\">Why not play Fallout tunes on it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary This $15 ESP32 board + 1.54&#8243; LCD uses a Winamp-style internet radio UI to play music. It&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-567867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}