HPR1692: Boulevard Brewing Company "Sample Twelve"

Summary: Unrelated tech stuff: Recently, Knightwise showed me a link to use a Raspberry Pi as a streaming music box, much like a Sonos player http://www.woutervanwijk.nl/pimusicbox/ . I looked at the enclosures people had come up with and saw transistor radios from the 40s and 50s which were true works of art, but don't provide a great selection of controls. It was then I remembered seeing a 1950's juke box wallbox control ( http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR2.TRC1.A0.H0.Xjuke+box+wallbox&_nkw=juke+box+wallbox&_sacat=0 ) in a local "antique" shop. I'm never sure when addressing our European friends what parts of the American experience they are familiar with, but in the 40s to the 70s, in just about every American diner with a jukebox, at every booth there would be a remote console with a coin slot. Usually, you would have card tiles that could be rotated by a knob or by tabs, and each song would have a code made up of a letter and a number. Dropping in the required currency and making a selection would cause the song to be played on the jukebox (and sometimes on a set of stereo speakers in the wall unit). As you may see from the eBay link in the shownotes, wall boxes progressed from just a dozen titles in the 40s to far more complex systems, some with digital read out in the 80s. Most were marvels of late art deco design. My parents were far to frugal to let me drop coins into one of these pioneering marvels of analog networking, but thanks to a couple modders who have tied their panels into a Raspberry Pi, I can give you a general overview of how these units communicated with the central jukebox via primitive serial protocols. First off, if you have the expectation of following in Phil Lavin's or Stephin Devlin's footsteps, be prepared to pay more for a wallbox certified to be ready to connect and work with the same brand's jukebox (while all wallboxes seemed to communicate by serial pulse, each company employed a different scheme). Wallboxes of all conditions seem to start around $50 on eBay, but can go into the thousands. As I said, all of the wallboxes are marvels of art deco design if they have no other purpose than to occupy your space and become a conversation piece. Right now on eBay, there is an example of a wallbox converted into a waitorless ordering system (this looks like it is from the 70s, only now do we have this functionallity with iPads at every table). In other words, where once was "Stairway to Heaven", now there was "Steak and Eggs: $4.95". The add on plaque covering the face of the unit identified the system as T.O.B.Y., for Totally Order By Yourself. I could find nothing on the tech on Google, but I really hope it was successful, because it truly would have been a master hack. First step. most wallboxes were powered from the jukebox, you can't just plug them into 120v alternating current, you will likely need a 25 or 30v adapter (research your model). If everything works, you should be able to drop your quarter, punch a letter number combo (which will stay down), then a motor will whir and you selected keys will punch back out. What happens in the background, the motor will cause an energized arm to sweep in a circle, making a circuit with electrodes in it's path. They keys selected determine how many pulses go down the output line, like a finger dialing a rotary phone. Each manufacturer used a different code. In the case of Steve Devlin's Rowe Ami, there would be an initial set of pulses for the number, a pause, then a more complex set for characters A-V (earlier wallboxes had 10 letters and 0-9 to create 100 selections, later boxes had as many as 200). Phil Lavin's Seeburg uses pulses correspo