Who hasn't thought of integrating an mp3 player into an old, but still beloved boombox or music center? Doing this is a kind of pleasure, because installing a regular player into old audio equipment is oh so difficult. More convenient options for modernization are offered by our Chinese comrades. On many trading platforms you can find built-in audio modules equipped with a combined digital-to-analog converter and sometimes a miniature amplifier.
Devices of this kind can have different functionality: from the simplest decoder with a single USB port for a content source to advanced models equipped with their own LCD display, control panel and additional connectors. The most practical, cheap and at the same time fully functional version of such a module from Aliexpress was considered on mySKU.ru.
The board's specifications claim MP3 playback up to 320 kbps at sampling rates up to 48 kHz, WAV and even five-channel DTS. This option is not equipped with any additional interface, except for analog audio output and a single USB port. It turns out to be a kind of mp3 player that requires a power supply and speakers (also an amplifier, actually). It is they that will be used from the old audio device (a kind of second life, but, alas, the operation of the board and the music center itself can only be coordinated separately).
After receiving the parcel from distant China, you will need to partially disassemble the animated tape recorder to determine where the board can be mounted. Installation must be done in such a way that the control panel and dataport can be used. If you have the appropriate skills, you can unsolder these components and place them on the wires - this way you can place the board in more convenient places. Most often, such modules are placed in cassette compartments, next to the power buttons or in disk drives. You can find more interesting places.
Then we take a coil of wire. It is needed to connect power and audio output. This is the most difficult operation. You will need some knowledge of circuit design and the circuit diagram of the existing device itself, which can be downloaded on the Internet. If you are not strong in circuit design, contact a friend who is more knowledgeable in this topic, who will help you find the power pins where the two wires will be soldered. Be careful! The board consumes 5–12 VDC, no more.
Having stretched the wires to the installation site, we will begin placing the board. You will probably have to make a cut in the housing, which will require a Dremel or similar brand of tool. For the simplest placement, you can use a regular cassette compartment, then the port will be accessible when you open it.
A small detail remains - connect the audio output from the board to the output of a music center or tape recorder. You can use the circuit, find the output stage on it, and solder the wires from the audio output of the USB board to them. You can do it easier and output them to the AUX audio input or similar (if, of course, it is available).
Now you just need to connect power to the board with a USB output, then insert a flash drive with music and carry out the first test of the updated boombox.
Of course, the complete design is very dependent on the functionality of the Chinese device and will not be able to completely replace any modern music center with NFC, Wi-Fi, the ability to work with streaming services and many software features to improve sound. But, on the other hand, is all this necessary?
At the time of writing, the module cost about $5. We accept the amplifier and speakers as free. If the sound suited you initially, it will not change radically for the worse. So it's not a bad way to upgrade your audio system.
Of course, you can go to the store, spend about $50 or more, buy a new one and not fool yourself. But this is not our method!
So, let's take a Chinese MP3 player that reads flash drives and memory cards. There are a lot of options. The most important thing is that it has a headphone output. From there we will record the audio signal. You can use a car FM transmitter with a separate audio output. Its advantage is that the transmitter comes with a remote control. Let's disassemble the player.
We disassemble the car radio and remove the CD drive or tape drive (which one). Of course, provided that they are not workers.
We solder the positive power wire of the MP3 player through the “Krenka” to the contact of the car radio, on which, after turning it on, voltage appears (+12 or +9 V).
Don't forget about the voltage converter from 12 to 5 V. FM transmitters have a built-in voltage converter. MP3 players may not have it at all. You'll figure it out locally. In any case, it is better to use LM7805 or the domestic analogue KR142EN5A.
After we have sorted out the power supply, we connect the sound. We take a shielded wire (the kind that usually comes from the head of the tape drive) and connect the audio output of the MP3 player to the AUX input of the car radio. WHAT? Is there no such thing? Then it's a little more complicated. We are looking for a pre-amplifier on the board (the same shielded wire from the head goes to it). We look at the brand of the microprocessor to find where its audio signal output is (Google will help you). We solder the isolation electrolytic capacitors and feed the audio signal from the player there.
Now we mount the MP3 player board into the car radio casing. After removing the tape drive (or CD drive), there is plenty of space there. The main thing is to prevent a short circuit.
The USB output is output to the front panel, into the hole where cassettes or disks were inserted.
The player control buttons are connected to unused control buttons for the tape drive or CD drive. There are only three of them - “play/stop”, “next track” and “previous track”. In the case of a cassette deck, we install suitable mini-keys opposite the button rods.
Just a short review as requested.
I had an old Samsung music center. I worked at the dacha, they mostly played records on it, the cassettes were no longer to be found, and the CD drive had safely died. I stopped reading audio CDs completely.
And then I came across reviews of various mp3 decoders and how they are built into speakers, old radios, etc., so I decided to order them.
Here is the music center itself.
All the photos were taken just like that, for myself, I didn’t intend to do a review, since here, on Muska, there were similar devices and everything was described there in great detail
For example
and here is the site/blog/aliexpress/30448.html
So we have a Samsung music center
A scarf from China, a remote control for it and a pair of wires for connecting power and sound output.
The remote control is an ordinary Chinese one, infrared, the kind that goes with all Chinese radio products. FM transmitters, MP3 players, etc. No photo.
Reverse side board
We connect 9V from a Krona battery. The board starts blinking a hellish blue LED
I myself am not particularly strong in electronics, so I disassemble the music center and call a friend. He, having clarified the model of the center with me, finds a circuit diagram on the Internet and says “look for the LA3246 chip, this is a tape recorder preamplifier, legs 17 and 4 are audio channels, and leg 10 is ground, and 11 is power.”
I find
And I solder
I check, it’s playing, but it’s somehow loud, so much so that it’s even off scale.
I transfer 5 16 to my legs and everything becomes just wonderful!
But there is one BUT! Since this is a tape recorder preamplifier, it plays when the Play button is pressed on the tape recorder.
Then I took a Dremel from my wife, also bought in China, and cut a hole, attached the board from the inside and put the center back together.
The result, an hour and a half of fiddling, the music center continues to please. I switch the volume and modes of the music center with the original remote control, the Play button on the tape recorder is mechanical and always pressed, the MP3 decoder is in “Random” mode. I switch to the radio - the radio plays, I switch to the tape recorder - they play MP3.
I'm more than happy with all this.
The decoder plays MP3 up to 320kbit, supports 32GB flash drives, larger size and HDD have not been tested.
Second life of old technology
+ cheap
+ tinkers with a soldering iron because he has nothing to do at the dacha.
I bought it with my own money, a long time ago.
I'm planning to buy +73 Add to favorites I liked the review +68 +138Nowadays, 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.
Why connect USB
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.
What is a USB input on a radio?
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:
- The radio (sometimes the CD player) may have an external input on the back side, plug a special adapter into it;
- you can remove the old player and put an FM modulator in its place;
- Solder the USB extension cable to the radio board.
Option with adapter
Most factory radios may have a socket on the back. All work comes down to several actions:
The advantages of this solution:
- The radio will “decide” that you just changed the player. Accordingly, if the radio supports MP3 playback from a disc, it will be able to play it from a flash drive.
- Some adapters, in addition to USB support, have memory card support. You can remove the card from the smart card described above and insert it into such an adapter.
But there is also a minus
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.
Modulator: how to connect and use
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?
To work you will need:
- soldering iron;
- a set of shielded wires (you can take regular ones, but shielded ones will give better quality (a sufficient amount of wire will be in the original radio);
- Modulator (you can use any MP3 player). The advantage of the modulator is the presence of a remote control, as well as a built-in power converter;
- the radio itself;
- voltage converter 12 - 5 V.
Operating procedure
Nutrition
- After disassembling the radio, disconnect the tape drive or disc player.
- Having disassembled the modulator, remove the microcircuit (there is only one there).
- The plus from the modulator power supply is soldered to the general plus of the radio (the contact where 12V will appear when turned on),
- Minus - to the minus of nutrition.
- USB is connected to the front panel using an extension cable.
The power converter in the modulator is different, in the player it depends on its brand.
Audio
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.
Assembly
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.
Video
How to make USB support and still keep the old (working) player
Connect the USB extension cable directly to the car radio board
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.
Video
What to do if you need a cassette
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 would be to find a diagram of your cassette player online 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.
I was satisfied with the sound quality; digital noise, oddly enough, is absent even during pauses. I think the sound is about the same as if we took it from the line output of a regular sound card and fed it to the speakers. And if you compare it with what it was (and there was only one radio in the car), then I’m just very pleased.
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.