Volvo radio hack
I drive an old car. A 1994 Volvo 850 Turbo Sportwagon, to be precise. Mature vehicles like this have some real advantages. Insurance payments are very low (as was the sale price), I don’t worry about minor scratches, and I never mistake my car for another in the parking lot.
There are also some disadvantages. I pay a more for maintenance (especially since it’s a foreign car) and I lose out on some of the modern perks, like built-in GPS and a CD player. I’ve been getting by with a tape adapter for the iPod, but this leaves much to be desired. Plus it looks weird.
When I stumbled upon this how-to, I was convinced. I pulled out my stereo (which fortunately is very easy in a Volvo) and got to work.
Once I disassembled the stereo and removed the tape deck, I could access a handy riser card that included labeled (!) pins for right, left, and ground. I cut an old 1/8″ stereo cord and soldered onto the appropriate pins.
It’s not the cleanest solder job, but I’m not looking to win any aesthetics points. I’m a big fan of hot glue, and applied a liberal dose to insulate the connections and eliminate any strain on the joints. Finally, I put everything back together and routed the cable out the back of the stereo.
I notched the front corner of the stereo to allow for cord egress, and routed the slack along a seam towards my center console. Now I have an AUX input without requiring a tape adapter. Great!
Filed under hack : Comments (1) : Sep 15th, 2007 by tadfad
September 16th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
This is my favorite TadFad hack to date! The new iMac looks nice too. Mike and I use our built-in webcams to chat across the apartment all the time! (…we tried it once, and it was a lot less fun than we hoped.)