While this is a utility vehicle, I thought it would be nice to be able to play music, so I decided to add a radio of sorts. When I started looking at options I realized that with the way people go through phones it is pretty easy to find an older model that is just looking for new life. I found an old ZTE T81 Android phone that someone had given me a while back. The phone was locked in Australia, and needed to be back there to be unlocked. While it didn't work as a phone, it is basically a ready built entertainment system.

I built an enclosure for it by cutting up an old Halogen work light. The glass was replaced with a piece of mahogany. I cut out a space for the phone using a jig saw. The only real tricky part of the build was adding a external button to turn the screen on. The screen is turned on by a button on the top which was not accessible when it was mounted. I soldered a wire to a momentary switch to simulate a button press.

The phone is powered by an LM2596HV buck converter wired into a usb chord. A small amplifier and a pair of 3w speakers finish out the enclosure. I also wired in a pair of old led down lights to act as headlights which can be dimmed with a 200k pot. The results turned out pretty nice. I would like to write an android app that connects with the an Arduino via Bluetooth to display system information like battery voltage and current, which would eliminate the current LCD screen.