73-87 Chevy _ GMC Trucks > Interior & Equipment
Original AM Radio hacked into Bluetooth+AMP
alfreema:
I'm super stoked. Bought a bluetooth speaker and it was annoying as heck, so this is what I did ...
I LOVE the old school look of my AM radio (weird I know). So I took it out and ...
1) Took off the top and bottom covers.
2) Ripped out the circuit board, two transformers and some weird cylinder cluster thingy that was taking up too much room.
3) Cut all the wire leads except one handy ground wire.
4) Found the switched side of the POT (radio's on/off knob), and soldered a new red wire to it for switched power.
5) Tied that new power wire to the device I posted up above (WUZHI bluetooth+amp thingy that's $16 on Amazon).
6) Ran a ground wire from it to the ground I left available and wired nutted those.
7) Then I soldered in a USB C charger that I tied to the power for the Radio's light bulb (also cheap on amazon), and added the ground to the wire nut ground in step 6.
8) Set the bluetooth+amp to "ON" at mid-volume.
9) Buttoned it all up and reinstalled the radio.
Now the operational test ...
Fired up truck with the AM radio turned off. Nothing. Perfect, power is properly cut to the bluetooth/amp with the original knob's POT.
Switched the radio to on ... 2 seconds later .. heard the BEEP! Perfect!
Synced up phone, and now when I turn the truck on my truck automatically syncs to my phone and I am listening to music/iheart/podcast/whatever automagically via my 6x9 speakers!
LOVE IT and the old radio still looks cool too.
One thing that failed was I bought some LED 1893 replacement bulbs and swapped out the old original bulb, and it didn't light. Oh well. Might be corrosion at the base of the bulb holder, but I didn't really care enough to disassemble and figure out.
alfreema:
Cost to hack your AM radio into a bluetooth+amp is:
$16 for bluetooth+amp device
$13 for 2x fast USB C chargers (you only need one obviously so you can probably get one cheaper, but I wanted an extra to replace my other car's crappy USB port with something that will actually charge)
+ $ for misc wire connectors, cable ties, solder. You can reuse the wire that you cut out from inside the radio so you don't need any wire before hand. I had all this one hand.
+ $ for speakers if you don't have any. I found cheap 6x9s at Walmart for about $36 for two. They also have cabinets for the speakers that were like $50 (weird that the cabinets cost more than the speakers?). Then you'll also need speaker wire. I bought a coil at Walmart for $13 I think -- it was 16 gauge, 50 ft.
JohnnyPopper:
I'm sorry Alfreema,
I appreciate your passion and contribution to this forum.
In real life, you can't get 100 (good) watts out of a little box like you showed. Or two for that matter.
Speakers need power, not so much for volume, but for control of the speaker, to deliver good sound.
I have to call foul without seeing pictures of your Frankenstein creations, front to back.
I will be happy to acknowledge your accomplishments once confirmed.
alfreema:
--- Quote from: JohnnyPopper on September 02, 2024, 11:31:43 pm ---In real life, you can't get 100 (good) watts out of a little box like you showed. Or two for that matter.
--- End quote ---
It's a fair challenge, I was skeptical too when I bought it. I'm definitely not trying to get 100 watts per channel out of it, but I assure you I am getting way more than two quality watts out of it. :)
The speakers are 75W and I am obviously not trying to extract as much as I can get out of them, by any stretch of the imagination.
I will say, this isn't the 90s anymore though and Class D amplifiers are a real thing due to massively decreased MOSFET sizes and switching technology. You aren't winning any audio competitions with this device, obviously, but you get a reasonable result with it.
--- Quote from: JohnnyPopper on September 02, 2024, 11:31:43 pm ---I have to call foul without seeing pictures of your Frankenstein creations, front to back.
I will be happy to acknowledge your accomplishments once confirmed.
--- End quote ---
I'm not looking for acknowledgement, just thought I'd share a fun way to keep the look of your old AM radio but get a quality bluetooth experience. I'm quite happy with the result, and if I wasn't I wouldn't have bothered to share. The best part is that my phone syncs with it immediately when I start up my truck (way faster than my Lexus), so I am not fiddling with a bluetooth speaker on/off button and waiting for that annoying sync. It's just fire up the truck, listen for a beep that comes through the speakers and then hit play on my phone. And the audio quality is WAY better than any of the bluetooth speakers I have used -- though I didn't go out and buy expensive bluetooth speakers, but that's kinda the point.
If you have $20 to burn you really might try messing about with this Class D amp though, it's surprisingly decent enough.
JohnnyPopper:
Alfreema, I found the description of your Frankenstein Creation very delightful. In fact, quite creative! Coming from a guy whose nickname is 'MacGyver' I give it high marks.
I apologize if I sounded condescending. It wasn't my intention.
Coming from world of A/V/Automation I cringed when I saw the little 100w box. However, your points about class D amps are well taken. They have come a very long way.
In reality, expecting high end sound from the acoustic environment of these trucks, without heroic efforts in analysis, design, and build out, is kinda dumb. Getting better sound than stock is not.
Having said that, your FC is worthy of imitation. As for the light, it could just be that an incandescent bulb would work.
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