Many people threw away their favorite cassette player when the world switched to CDs. I did the same thing ten years ago, gathered my will into a fist and took the absolutely serviceable Fisher PH-W405K to the trash heap. But many still have imported radios that they bought with great difficulty at Beryozki and second-hand stores. AIWA, Sanio, JVC, and even the legendary Sharp GF-777 are still gathering dust somewhere in the closet. After all, this technology is convenient for everyone: it’s compact, it sounds great, it runs on batteries for a long time (we’ll talk about converting this technology to run on batteries), but, unfortunately, it doesn’t play anything else except the radio. But I know a way to give your boomboxes, boomboxes and ghettoblasters a second life, installing a USB port in them.
One day we were given an LG FFH-217 radio tape recorder in excellent condition. My friend Misha, having learned that we bought a dacha, gave it away with the words “you will listen to the radio.” But alas, as it turned out, FM radio stations do not broadcast there; the nearest large city is 80 km away. This radio stood there for several years until I came across a small circuit board, 2x4 cm in size, made in China. The board contained a pair of chips and a USB connector, and a remote control was included with the board. I then bought several pieces of such boards in order to choose the most suitable one for installation in a car (see article about), one of them turned out to be powered by 5 volts, and this became the basis for my modification.
Options for selecting a board:
1. We disassemble the old radio.
2. Now you need to find a place where you will embed the new board. Find a place and make a hole for the USB connector. In my case this is the back cover.
3. Install the board to measure the required length of wires. I soldered the audio outputs directly to the corresponding AUX connector, and removed the power from the pins of the control board connector.
Nowadays, no one can be surprised by a radio in a car; it’s difficult to see a car without it. The latter's screen displays not only sound data. In some versions, it displays speed, data about external light lights and much more. But in our digital age, not every one of them is able to support listening to music from USB. It's good that many car radios can connect this type of input.
Music in cars appeared back in the 70s of the last century. At first these were simple radio receivers with a small range of received waves, and they were installed only on executive Volgas. For the owner of a medium-sized Zhiguli, such luxury was unavailable for a long time. With the development of industry, a cassette recorder was added to the radio receiver, which was later replaced by disc support. Subsequently, even a CD changer appeared. The newest cars have radios with the ability to listen to music via USB.
But what should the owner of a car produced 5-10, or even more years ago?
Buy a new radio?
No - modernize the old one.
But before we talk about such modernization, let's figure it out.
This input on it, like on any other household audio-video equipment, allows you to connect ordinary flash drives according to the 2.0 standard. But this is clearly not enough. The radio must detect the flash drive, understand the format of what is recorded on it, and play it back. No one argues that if the radio has an audio input, you can connect the output from your smartphone and download music to it.
But what happens when you get a call? In most cases, they unplug the cord from the headphones and talk without them. This simple operation requires both hands and distraction for a few seconds. If this happens in a fast moving car... The situation on the road changes quickly, you get distracted... and get into an accident.
There are several solutions to this situation:
Most factory radios may have a socket on the back. All work comes down to several actions:
Control protocols are different for different cars, so when you change cars, you will most likely have to change the adapter. But when buying a new car, this issue is not so important.
An FM modulator is a device that can transmit a signal from a flash drive (as well as a memory card) over a radio channel. In general, it is plugged into the cigarette lighter socket and tuned to a certain frequency. The same frequency is adjusted on the radio receiver. You (and your neighbor nearby) can listen to music from a flash drive. But for a large city, where the radio range is jam-packed, you can do it differently: install the modulator directly into the tape recorder. How to do it?
The power converter in the modulator is different, in the player it depends on its brand.
A shielded wire connects the audio output of the modulator and the input of the radio.
There is no such input on ancient cassette players. In this case, the signal will have to be fed directly to the input of the preamplifier. It's easy to find - it's where the shielded wire from the head goes.
The wiring diagram for the amplifier chip can be found on the Internet.
For example, this is what the circuit of an amplifier based on TDA2005 looks like.
Since in the new version only the radio receiver unit remains, the modulator can be located in the housing. If all contacts are connected correctly, then the activation of “AUX” or “Tape” is redirected to the modulator.
How to make USB support and still keep the old (working) player
There is no need to stop specially at soldering the extension cord. The attached video shows in sufficient detail with the names of all the parts how such a cable is soldered to the radio in Wv.
Sometimes the electronics of an old cassette player are configured so that it can only play when the cassette is inserted. In case of modernization there will be nothing to play with. The solution is to find a diagram of your cassette player on the Internet and find out which jumper is clamped by the inserted cassette. Close the jumper, and the radio will be “sure” that the cassette is in place.
An ancient car radio lying on a shelf in a closet will last for many more years. Instead of buying a new one, add USB support to the old one.
Have a nice day, everyone!
What is written below will probably cause misunderstanding among true connoisseurs of good sound, but, nevertheless, several sound-reproducing devices have been converted with the help of this module, and the new owners are quite satisfied.
Periodically, thoughts arose to somehow diversify the playlist in my car. At the same time, I really didn’t want to change the standard radio, because for some reason I got used to it.
I drove for a long time, listening to music using various players, the output of which was connected to the linear input of the radio (the linear input, of course, had to be made by myself)
I've been waiting for a long time for the Chinese brothers to invent something that can be inserted inside a standard radio, and finally they got it.
Price $7.8
The photo is on the website, here is my general view from the details.
As soon as one such board arrived, the child asked to install it in the computer speakers. It turned out neatly, you can listen to music from a flash drive, and, oddly enough, all radio stations were caught on a stub of wire without hissing and with acceptable sound quality.
Since I did this at work in my spare time, and my colleagues were interested in what I was doing, the next three boards suffered the same fate
One was built into speakers, two into old radios.
The owners are glad that they used to have a radio on their refrigerator, but now they have a radio with flash drives.
And finally, we got around to the standard radio in the car.
A little more about the device:
Using a module + a purchased amplifier chip + old 25W speakers + a homemade case, we got a super-duper boombox for the dacha. Plays loudly, floors vibrate
In the case of MP3 there is a semblance of an equalizer, in the case of radio there is no equalizer.
The remote control can be heard from about five meters away.
There is fast forward, rewind, pause, auto-search for stations. There is no random play. Shows only the track number. Tracks are played in the order in which the files were recorded, using this you can create something like a playlist.
If you have both an SD and a flash drive, you can switch from one to the other.
In general, we can say that the module is the internals of the miniboomboxes described in neighboring topics, but is cheaper due to its light weight.
It should be noted that different variations may arrive.
They come with an amplifier for each channel (about 1W), and they come without it. There are some with a clearly defined linear output, but sometimes you have to look for it on the board.
There are various options for such devices on household farms. I liked the one described because the indicator can be disconnected and, by connecting it via a cable, more flexibly installed in the donor device.
I couldn’t find it cheaper anywhere, so I had to buy it at DH, spent a month trying to get it shipped, then waited another month. If this feature of the store is unknown, it should be taken into account.
I hope the review will be useful to readers.
Thank you for your attention.
The problem of connecting a flash drive is often faced by owners of old-style standard radios, where in order to listen to their favorite music they have to constantly buy new CDs, which are no longer so easy to find. How to connect a flash drive to a car radio if there is no USB input? There are several ways to correct the situation.
A USB adapter is a device that connects directly to the audio outputs of a car radio, equipped with a USB port, which allows you to connect a flash drive, mobile phone or other gadgets.
Advantages:
Installation:
The radio itself does not require additional configuration, but since the principle of operation is based on emulating the operation of a CD, in order for the radio to be able to see and play recordings from a flash drive, you should create folders on it with names corresponding to the playing format of the radio: “CD1” , "CD2", "CD3", etc. The files should be saved in a folder called “CD7”. Without creating folders with these names, the radio will not be able to detect the necessary file entries.
Leading manufacturers of Bluetooth headsets are trying to make their products as popular and functional as possible for users. Therefore, recently a headset has appeared on the market that allows not only to carry out telephone conversations without violating traffic rules or creating emergency situations on the roads, but can also perform a sufficient number of additional functions, including playing audio recordings from USB drives.
