Original AM Radio hacked into Bluetooth+AMP

[alfreema]

EDIT:
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I just renamed this thread because my final solution is more fun than the original question about the connectors below.
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I have the following two connectors for my bone stock '76 AM radio ...

Power


Speaker

And I want to tie in a bluetooth amp that I bought.   But I don't want to cut/splice/replace my original connectors or wires.  I'd like to find a male version of the power and speaker connectors (or maybe those are the males and I need females -- I didn't really pay attention to what was going into what when I pulled them).
I am having a terrible time finding anything that would work that would let me not modify the OEM stuff.
Help??
Thanks a ton in advance!
https://imgur.com/bwJgWTvhttps://imgur.com/bwJgWTvhttps://imgur.com/bwJgWTv

[bd]

Try Metra Online and Crutchfield.

[VileZambonie]

I want to tie in a bluetooth amp that I bought

What did you buy? Does it interface with your radio in any way? This should be a standalone unit you are installing.

[alfreema]

I want to tie in a bluetooth amp that I bought

What did you buy? Does it interface with your radio in any way? This should be a standalone unit you are installing.

It's stand alone.  I bought this 100Wx2 amp that connects to your phone for $26 that has bluetooth and lets you stream music/iheartradio/whatever from your phone:



I only have one speaker, so I guess I will just hook it to the right channel?

[alfreema]

Try Metra Online and Crutchfield.

Okay I will try searching those two.  Do these connectors have a name, similar to computer connectors?  I'm not really sure what to search for, but I'll go try searching again but if these have a name that would help tremendously.

[Captkaos]

This is the plug for the power radio http://www.metraonline.com/part/Aftermarket_wire+harness_71-1677-1

[alfreema]

This is the plug for the power radio http://www.metraonline.com/part/Aftermarket_wire+harness_71-1677-1

When I look at the picture for that product it gives me concern, because compared with the picture that I posted I don't see how it would work. 

I have the original three wire connector, so if the two wire connector is supposed to fit inside that, it would only pick up ground and the cabin light wires, not the yellow power wire that I really want.   If the two wire connector is for the speaker, then it doesn't look like it would work there either.   The bigger flatter connector might work with the speaker though.   

But it's the power connector that is the bigger concern for me.

[VileZambonie]

Okay so you want to preserve your factory setup so why not leave your factory setup alone and just use a Bluetooth speaker? It will sound 100x better than your 10 ohm mono speaker and you can take it anywhere you want including in your truck. If you are bent on using it, just disconnect the connector at the speaker and run your speaker wire to it.

[alfreema]

Okay so you want to preserve your factory setup so why not leave your factory setup alone and just use a Bluetooth speaker? It will sound 100x better than your 10 ohm mono speaker and you can take it anywhere you want including in your truck. If you are bent on using it, just disconnect the connector at the speaker and run your speaker wire to it.

Because that's waaay too obvious.  LMAO!

... searching Amazon for bluetooth speaker and 12v to USB C converter.

[JohnnyPopper]

Bought a JBL Flip, works well and sounds great.

Cigarette adapter USB to USB, came with cable, holds a charge for a long time.

[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.

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]

In real life, you can't get 100 (good) watts out of a little box like you showed. Or two for that matter.

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.

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.

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.