Give Your Old iPod Touch a New Lease in Life as a Cyberpunk 2077 Radio

If you love Cyberpunk 2077 and happen to have an iPod Touch lying around, why not make your own in-game style radio?
Christopher McFadden

If the video player is not working, you can click on this alternative video link.

Wouldn't it be great to own your very own real-life version of the handheld radio from Cyberpunk 2077? Well, it turns out you can actually turn an old iPod touch into one with little to no effort.

Well, that's not entirely true. You will need some specialist tools and equipment. 

Follow this simple guide to find out how.

cyberpunk2077 radio complete
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

As you can imagine, like any project of this nature, you'll need some tools and materials before you get started. 

Materials and gear needed

Once you have all the tools and gear needed, it is time to get on with this great little build. 

Step 1: Make the main casing for the radio

The first step is to grab your iPod touch and take a note of its dimensions. A pair of digital calipers is an invaluable tool for doing this. 

cyberpunk2077 radio ipod
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

You'll want to know the width, height, and depth of the unit. With those figures in hand, design the rough design for your radio using a CAD package, and print it off to scale on A4 paper. 

cyberpunk2077 radio design
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

With that complete, grab your clear perspex sheet. Remove any protective coverings, cut out the design from the A4 paper, and glue it into place on top of the perspex. 

This will form the main skeleton or frame for the radio to hold the iPod and mount the other pieces too. 

cyberpunk2077 radio perspex
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

Once done, drill the main bolt holes through the perspex as needed. A regular power drill will do the trick.

cyberpunk2077 drill perspex
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

With that complete, transfer the perspex sheet to your table saw, and cut out the main shape of the radio. Follow the lines as best you can but don't get too obsessed, we'll be cleaning up the design later on. 

cyberpunk2077 radio cut perspex
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

Once done, drill a hole in the center of one end of the perspex. 

cyberpunk2077 radio drill large hole
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

With that complete, cut out the center portion of the design on the perspex using a jigsaw. This should leave the main border piece(s) intact and in one piece. 

cyberpunk2077 radio cut center
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

Once done, grab some sandpaper and clean up the cut edges of the perspex. If not already done, round off the corners of the pieces too. 

cyberpunk2077 radio sand perspex
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

With that complete, take a Dremel tool and bevel any sharp edges of the piece inside and out. 

cyberpunk2077 radio dremel edges
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

Step 2: Make the front and back casings

With that complete, take your metal effect plastic. Secure it in your CNC machine and cut out a series of pieces to form the backplate of the radio.

Drill a series of holes to mount it to the frame later. 

Next, take your belt clips, and mock-up where they'll be mounted on the radio. 

cyberpunk2077 radio clips
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

Drill some mounting holes for the clips as needed and thread the holes to receive bolts later. With that complete, bolt the mounting clips to the back cover of the radio as needed.  

cyberpunk2077 mount clips
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

With that complete, CNC some sheet metal to make the design for the front border of the radio. Use your paper template as a guide and drill the required holes through the plate. 

Route the edges in places using your Dremel tool. 

cyberpunk2077 radio metal plate
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

With that complete, drill holes in the perspex part of the radio to match the charging port, headphone port, etc, of the iPod. 

cyberpunk2077 radio ipod holes
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

Once done, hold the metal faceplate to one side of the perspex iPod holder part of the radio and drill some holes in the side of the radio to receive the mounting bolts for the antenna later and other details (like the top knob, etc). 

cyberpunk2077 mount metal plate
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

Once complete, paint the entire perspex piece matt black. 

Step 3: Make the antenna 

With the parts for the main radio more or less complete, we can now move on to forming the antenna. You can either reclaim a suitable assembly from an old router, or another piece of tech or try to create your own. 

The antenna is for display purposes only and doesn't need to be a functional one. In this case, the creator has decided to create their own from a block of black plastic.

cyberpunk2077 antenna
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

Parts for the base and main antenna were machined using a variety of lathe and a CNC machine and then assembled to make the antenna. 

Sadly no plans are available for this piece so you will need to guestimate its dimensions. 

Once complete, spray paint or hand paint in a copper color on the main base of the antenna. With that complete, machine a series of bolts and dials from copper and insert them into the base of the antenna. 

cyberpunk2077 antenna details
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

Step 4: Make the stylized main bolts for the radio

With that complete, the next step is to make the bolts used to secure the parts of the piece together -- as in the game. To do this, take a length of steel rod and machine a series of bolts to the right dimensions. 

Thread them, and then cut the three-armed screwdriver head designs into their tops. You will likely need to also file them into shape at some point too. 

cyberpunk2077 custom bolts
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

You will also need to make the other halves of the bolts to install on the rear of the radio. 

With that complete, use a mixture of steel rod lengths and the same black plastic to machine some of the other details for the radio -- like its top dial. 

Once complete, mount these pieces to the iPod mounting piece of the radio as needed. 

cyberpunk2077 radio details
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

Step 5: Complete the final assembly

The next step is to mount the antenna piece to the iPod holder of the radio. Move it into place, and mount it to the perspex as needed. 

cyberpunk2077 mount antenna
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

With that complete, take the front metal plate, and spray it black. Once the paint is dry, spray the part in yellow.

cyberpunk2077 radio plate yellow
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

Once the paint is dry, place the plate into position, and mount it to the perspex frame. 

With that done, place your iPod into place within the perspex frame. You will want to add some small strips of soft material to act as cushioning to protect the iPod once in place. 

cyberpunl2077 install ipod
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

With that complete, take the backplate, and mount it to the perspex frame as needed. 

cyberpunk2077 back plate
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

With that complete, take your custom bolts, and secure the front faceplate into place using them. 

cyberpunk2077 bolts
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

Once complete, cut a small length of red wire, and connect the antenna and wire connector at the top of the radio as shown below. 

cyberpunk2077 antenna wire
Source: Craftstation/YouTube

With that complete, take a pair of cable tidies and fix them into place around the Cyberpunk 2077 radio. Once done, your Cyberpunk 2077 radio is finally completed. 

 If you enjoyed this project and would like to bring another piece of computer game kit to life, then you'll love this guide.

Add Interesting Engineering to your Google News feed.
Add Interesting Engineering to your Google News feed.
message circleSHOW COMMENT (1)chevron
Job Board