Walkman Talks Directly to ESP32 Devices
A hobbyist added ESP-NOW wireless support to a 2009 Sony NW-X1060 Walkman, letting it sync a shared aquarium demo with an ESP32 board.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Consumer Electronics
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Infinite-Zombie5875 modified a 2009 Sony NW-X1060 Walkman to communicate directly with ESP32 devices using ESP-NOW. The change did not require removing the original Marvell Wi-Fi chip.
Why it matters
The project shows that legacy consumer hardware can be repurposed for modern low-power device-to-device communication without hardware replacement. It offers a reference for hobbyists interested in reverse engineering existing radio firmware.
The Walkman was released in 2009 and its original Marvell Wi-Fi chip remains in place. The demo runs a shared aquarium scene on both the Walkman and an ESP-Mosaico, which supplies IMU data over ESP-NOW.
The players
Infinite-Zombie5875
The Reddit user and developer who modified the Walkman and shared the project with the ESP32 community.
Sony
The Japanese electronics company that released the NW-X1060 Walkman in 2009 as part of its portable audio line.
The details
The developer reverse engineered the radio firmware's RX and TX paths and added hooks for ESP-NOW action frames along with a native C API on the Walkman side. Both devices render the aquarium scene locally, with state kept synchronized over ESP-NOW, and the project code is hosted on GitHub.
Timeline
2009: Sony releases the NW-X1060 Walkman.
November 2, 2026: The project is published and shared in the ESP32 subreddit.
The Tech Race
The project extends Espressif's ESP-NOW peer-to-peer protocol, originally designed for direct communication among ESP32 chips, to a 2009 Sony portable music player. It shows how legacy consumer hardware with existing Wi-Fi radios can be pulled into the ESP32 ecosystem through firmware reverse engineering.
Owners of older Walkman-era devices with Wi-Fi radios may be able to repurpose them for low-power wireless projects using community firmware work. The approach requires reverse engineering the radio firmware, so it is practical mainly for hobbyists rather than everyday users.
The takeaway
Older hardware can sometimes gain new capabilities through firmware work rather than replacement. Hobbyists interested in similar projects can study reverse engineering methods applied to existing radio chips.
Further reading
For more on connected gadgets and device hacking, explore the Consumer Electronics section.
More information
Find the project code on GitHub.
Source note: This article includes information reported by XDA-Developers.
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