Remote control for Winamp.

[rockouthippie]

I am taking an antique console radio and am building a computer into the cabinet.

This is about a 40" high console radio, so they'res lots of room. I scavenged the amplifier out of a old Kenwood and built a motorized slider so that the "tuner screen" (now just decorative) slides out of the way, so that I can shoot a Sanyo DLP projector through the hole. So it's also a large projection TV.

Sitting there it looks completely like an antique radio, but now has a 150 watt amplifier and 2 soft dome midranges, 2 horn tweeters and a subwoofer built in and a 950 Mhz Athlon. The stereo effect was a lot better than I thought, even though the speakers are close together.

This old radio has serious attitude :-).

I've been streaming stuff to it (VLC and shoutcast).

The thing is I'm only using one of the front panel knobs(volume). There are 3 more. I can use the computer due to a wireless keyboard and mouse (that can get stuck in the back on a special built shelf). I'd like to have some simple interface to the knobs though.

OK, so here's the deal

I need some way to get a serial port or something to let me use the other three unused knobs. I'll build an optical doohickey that will give me velocity and direction information on the knobs.

I figured one knob for FFWD/REWIND, another for NEXT/PREV TRACK, and the final unused knob to roll the tuner screen out of the way for the projector.

Any ideas on how to interface for Winamp on the serial port or some other simple way to control it with simple logic?.