Some time ago I started to look for a smart turntable solution – a turntable that you can control from Home Assistant. And I didn’t find anything. What I found labelled as smart was turntables that can broadcast on Bluetooth speakers. That’s wireless, not smart. I was hoping to get some DIY projects where you add an ESP32 or Raspberry Pi pico to a turntable and make it gain wireless connectivity and IOT functionality.

But found nothing.

That’s when I figured I could get myself a “fully automated” linear tracking turntable purposely to add an IOT-capable companion device that would interact with the main brain.

I started shopping and got a great deal on an old Sansui P-L45 linear turntable with little description and a picture showing it at least “powered up” – I was thinking I would only need to change a few capacitors and perhaps a tonearm belt to get it working. I was far from the truth.

After diagnosing a bad CPU, I realized the only way to save this turntable was to either find a donner unit, or find a modern replacement for the dead chip.
Odds of finding a dead turntable with a working CPU are very slim at best, and as far as replacement CPU for these, none exist.

So I made one.

I wanted to stimulate a working turntable, but my project got somewhat sidetracked into making a complete turntable rehost.

And now the PCB for that Turntable Controller can be obtained online and its software is open-source and available for any geeks facing the same problem. Or anyone just wanting to update their P-L series turntable to smart status.

See it in action:



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