I’m 100% newbie when it comes to this kind of stuff. I recently bought a 60’s record console & im looking to retro mod it & let the potentiometers control a stereo receiver through several different Arduino boards. There’s an article written by Arduino that I can share about a customer doing this same exact thing. It looks like he used a few Arduino boards & a stepper motor with linear actuator to control the potentiometers or the tuning for fm/am channels. I am trying to figure out the equipment he used from Arduino (I know a mega 2560 & Ethernet shield but that’s all I can tell but it looks like more from the article). Also looking to figure out what codes he would’ve used to communicate to the stereo receiver to change input, volume, fm/am etc. when he turned the potentiometers to change dials, and any other advice you can give for this project. Thanks.
Thanks for letting us know you are a newbie, that helps advice you is a productive way. That project you are trying to do in my opinion is way to complicated and involved for a newbie. I would suggest you purchase a copy of the Arduino Cookbook, skim it cover to cover then read sections pertinent to your project. Tet a few Arduinos (You need a spare if you fry one) and a current limiting power supply. Experiment with that equipment and learn how it works. There are many tutorials on the arduino some very good some not so good. When you get bored practice your soldering skills.
You will also need to study some tutorials on Schematics and how to read them (language of electronics), that skill will be needed to modify the electronics in your systems. Get a schematic of each of the electronic systems involved and study them. You can download KiCad, a great schematic capture program and learn using that to draw your schematics. It is free. I expect this would take several months t get through. This should get you started.