In article ,
News wrote:
In message , ARW
writes

Post a photo. The connectors are usually compatible (or can be made to fit)

Right, this is the current radio :

http://www.binnsroad.co.uk/misc/radio/

Looks to be a standard size so a replacement should fit.

Of course, if you knew someone handy with electronics, adding a socket for
an MP3 player wouldn't be difficult.

--
*Why do psychics have to ask you for your name? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Aren't most mono only on the FM side?

well, I thought they might be mono only, spent a minute or two searching
and seems they do offer stereo nowadays ...

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)"
writes
In article ,
News wrote:

Right, this is the current radio :

http://www.binnsroad.co.uk/misc/radio/

Looks to be a standard size so a replacement should fit.

OK, thanks.

Of course, if you knew someone handy with electronics, adding a socket for
an MP3 player wouldn't be difficult.

Well, yes. Trouble is, having been given the idea and know how, I now
realise that there are countless options. Browsing through eBay there
are a lot, from a tenner upwards, including some with inputs for USB, SD
and jack for iplayers and phones.

I'm just going to have to buy one and worry about the wiring when it
arrives. Seems there are lots of people with the knowledge, not to
mention adapters, so I'll probably get there eventually :-)
--
Graeme

In message
-septemb
er.org, Tim+ writes

Ask Mr Cheerful in uk.rec.cars.maintenace quoting the radio's serial
number. He can usually help. Don't forget to thank him though!

Noted. Thanks.
--
Graeme

"News" wrote in message
...
In message , "Dave Plowman (News)"
writes
In article ,
News wrote:

Right, this is the current radio :

http://www.binnsroad.co.uk/misc/radio/

Looks to be a standard size so a replacement should fit.

OK, thanks.

Of course, if you knew someone handy with electronics, adding a socket for
an MP3 player wouldn't be difficult.

Well, yes. Trouble is, having been given the idea and know how, I now
realise that there are countless options. Browsing through eBay there are
a lot, from a tenner upwards, including some with inputs for USB, SD and
jack for iplayers and phones.

I'm just going to have to buy one and worry about the wiring when it
arrives. Seems there are lots of people with the knowledge, not to
mention adapters, so I'll probably get there eventually :-)

Make sure you get one that supports bluetooth INPUT.

That makes it a lot easier to play stuff that is on your phone through it.

On Mon, 25 May 2015 15:42:30 +0100, charles wrote:

depends on how well screened the radio is. Most that I've seen are in
totally enclosed metal case - except where the control wiring exits

Yep, totally enclosed in a metal case that resembles a cheese grater;
nowhere near RF-tight.

On 25/05/15 08:00, News wrote:

Our car is old enough to contain a radio/cassette player, which is only
annoying when we depart on a pilgrimage 500 miles down south, and would
like to play mp3s.

What we need is something cheap n cheerful, ideally to play mp3s from a
phone, USB stick or possibly SD card. Something that can be run or
charged from the car cigarette lighter.

Just seen eBay item 291474623251 which plugs into the cigarette lighter
and plays from SD card. I think it also plays from a phone. I'm not
sure how it works, but I think the idea is the output is picked up by
the car radio, and plays through the usual car speakers.

Have I understood correctly? Any other suggestions? It didn't occur to
me that I could get something that would play through the car speakers,
so was looking at mini boom boxes.


I have one of these:

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/pion...luetooth-tuner

Not hugely expensive at £75 and will do bluetooth and has a USB slot.
Removable front panel.

I have one and it is pretty good (only fault is it cannot handle
playlists). I stuck one of these in:

http://www.conrad.com/ce/en/product/...16G-B35-USB-20

which is such a tiny stick it becomes part of the unit.

I'm thinking if you have a "traditional" (ie single DIN) radio/cassette,
that ought to be a simple straight swap (as opposed to modern cars that
want to wire the radio into the CANBUS and don't have simple things like
ignition-live-wires at the back of the radio.


Anyway - I totally recommend the unit above - plays nicely, and plenty
of power.

On 25/05/15 08:11, Andy Burns wrote:
News wrote:

eBay item 291474623251 which plugs into the cigarette lighter
and plays from SD card. I think the idea is the output is picked up by
the car radio, and plays through the usual car speakers.

Have I understood correctly?

Yes, the basic "iTrip" functionality, it's an FM transmitter.

Don't go there. I tried that once - bloody useless things. Subject to
horrible drop outs and always needing to retune as the available free
channels shift while you drive.

On 25/05/15 12:17, Cursitor Doom wrote:
On Mon, 25 May 2015 11:04:35 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

Depends on finding a station (and pirate) free chunk of VHF spectrum,
and maybe having to retune on long journeys to find another.

Shouldn't be an issue. The proximity is so close that the little
transmitter should utterly wipe out everything else including even strong
commercial stations, so you don't need to find a free slot or re-tune.
Google 'FM capture effect'.


But in practise, very very crap...

On Mon, 25 May 2015 08:00:12 +0100, News wrote:

Late to the long thread that I ain't about to read...

Our car is old enough to contain a radio/cassette player,

Do you have a battery device that can play MP3's like a phone, might
not have to be a "smart" phone? If not MP3 players are cheap, but get
one with a display so you can navigate tracks/albums.

Around a fiver, ceratinly less than a tenner from Amazon.

For example:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009NO8OWA 8GB
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008DGGW1O 8GB

Wonder which is knocking the other off?

Connection into the car system cheapest and most reliable option is a
"cassette adpater". This a cassette housing with a flying lead and
3.5 mm plug that goes into the headphone socket on the player. My
last one wore out after a good few years, latest was £5 delivered
from Amazon, (don't pay the £10 from Argos etc...)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001AZKRQ6

There are the micro FM transmitters, I have one but it's not as good
as the cassette route, can be fussy about location to get a good
signal into the radio, gets through batteries or is yet another cable
if you power it from the car.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 25/05/15 08:00, News wrote:

Our car is old enough to contain a radio/cassette player, which is only
annoying when we depart on a pilgrimage 500 miles down south, and would
like to play mp3s.

What we need is something cheap n cheerful, ideally to play mp3s from a
phone, USB stick or possibly SD card. Something that can be run or
charged from the car cigarette lighter.

Just seen eBay item 291474623251 which plugs into the cigarette lighter
and plays from SD card. I think it also plays from a phone. I'm not
sure how it works, but I think the idea is the output is picked up by
the car radio, and plays through the usual car speakers.

I have one of these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/August-CR100-Transmitter-Smartphones-Blackberry/dp/B001MQ0ROU/

Work well enough for the price, just need to find an unused fM frequency
on the radio and tune it to that.

In message , News
writes

Right, this is the current radio :

http://www.binnsroad.co.uk/misc/radio/

Moving on, I now have a new radio to install. First thing I need is an
adapter for the aerial, ISO to DIN, like eBay 111674846894 (I think!).

However, that is the easy bit. The radio cables in the car terminate in
two 8-way connectors, one of which is 8 speaker wires and the other,
everything else.

The new radio has one 12-way connector, so, in the absence of an
adaptor, is it acceptable to cut off the plugs in the car and just
connect everything via a 12 way chocolate block, wrap in tape and stuff
down the hole behind the radio (where there is plenty of space)?

Luckily, both car and new radio have wiring diagrams.
--
Graeme

In article ,
News wrote:
However, that is the easy bit. The radio cables in the car terminate in
two 8-way connectors, one of which is 8 speaker wires and the other,
everything else.

The new radio has one 12-way connector, so, in the absence of an
adaptor, is it acceptable to cut off the plugs in the car and just
connect everything via a 12 way chocolate block, wrap in tape and stuff
down the hole behind the radio (where there is plenty of space)?

Have you check to see if you can just by an adaptor? Halfords sell some.
But a decent ICE supplier might be better. Or Even Maplin or Ebay. It's
unlikely given the vast numbers of cars made there's not an adaptor.

--
*How much deeper would the oceans be without sponges? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"News" wrote in message
...
In message , ARW
writes

Post a photo. The connectors are usually compatible (or can be made to
fit)

Right, this is the current radio :

http://www.binnsroad.co.uk/misc/radio/

BTW Does anyone know the code to reset my car radio? Some daft **** took
it out to make a video and he now needs the code to make it work again.

Oh ****. Now I feel guilty :-)

Don't be. I found the code later on.

BTW The timing of your post was impeccable.

The only reason I could make the video so quickly was because last week an
apprentice asked me how to remove his car stereo (he has just passed his
test and has bought his first car and NEEDS a new CD/MP3 player etc). I told
him it could be done with 4 nails and I still had the nails used to remove
his radio in my pile of crap that I empty from my work trousers at the end
of a days work.

He still has a lot to learn. It cost him £20 in a bet that he made before
the journey home. I said that I could drive home without using the clutch -
and I did. He should never have said "You cannot change gears without a
using the clutch"

--
Adam

He still has a lot to learn. It cost him £20 in a bet that he made before
the journey home. I said that I could drive home without using the
clutch - and I did. He should never have said "You cannot change gears
without a using the clutch"

done it a few times when the cable snapped.....

On Fri, 29 May 2015 19:13:14 +0100, Jim GM4DHJ/m ... wrote:

He still has a lot to learn. It cost him £20 in a bet that he made
before the journey home. I said that I could drive home without using
the clutch - and I did. He should never have said "You cannot change
gears without a using the clutch"

done it a few times when the cable snapped.....

I think I've had to manage without the clutch on a few occasions with
some of the old motorbikes I used to ride in my younger days but that's
not too difficult a problem to deal with except when attempting an uphill
start.

I remember only one occasion when I had to deal with driving a light
Vauxhall Bedford van with a snapped clutch cable. The only tricky bit
involved moving off from a standstill.

Luckily the starter and battery were in good condition and the engine
didn't suffer the 'hot start' syndrome common to some models of Ford cars
so it was just a matter of slipping into neutral on approaching a
stopping point and switching the engine off to stick it into 1st ready to
start it up in gear with just a modicum of throttle to get moving again.
It made for an 'interesting' drive back to the works garage.

I've cultivated the habit of 'clutchless' gear changing ever since to
the extent that I rarely used the clutch other than for getting underway
from a complete stop. I've not had a car of my own for quite a few years
now and only land up driving the XYL's automatic when we're both going
somewhere together so my left foot gets even less exercise when driving
these days.

The XYL does have a full driving licence but an Achilles tendon injury
some 15 years ago precluded her use of the clutch so she landed up buying
automatic cars on her disability mobility allowance. The first one was a
rather nice Volvo that was quite a pleasure to drive but that, sadly
developed an expensive gearbox fault that was deemed uneconomical to
repair so our son, who was in the auto trade by then, got her a very good
condition 2nd hand Astra 1.6 automatic which has refused to suffer a
similar fate in the past 8 or 9 years or so that we've owned it.

It drives well enough if you're not too discomfited by it's
unwillingness to let the engine work more efficiently at the 30mph speed
limit but its propensity to make the engine rev in a lower ratio than I'd
prefer to choose in a manual car has always been a constant source of
irritation to me.

I'm hoping to persuade the XYL to at least try some manual cars when the
time eventually comes to replace the venerable Astra. With some tuition
from me and a bit of practice, I'm sure she'd be able to cope once more
with a manual gearbox if we can just find a suitable car with a light
clutch pedal action. After all, it's not as if there's any need to be
constantly pumping away at the clutch pedal even in today's urban driving
conditions.

--
Johnny B Good

In message , ARW
writes
"News" wrote in message
...

Oh ****. Now I feel guilty :-)

Don't be. I found the code later on.

Good :-)

Adaptor plug thingy arrived this morning, and radio now installed and
working! The whole process was a lot less complicated than I feared.
The radio was supplied with a plug which terminated in bare wires, so I
bought a socket that matched the plugs on the car wiring harness. That
socket also terminated in bare wires.

I tinned all the bare ends, then joined with two choccy blocks, one for
the eight speaker wires and the other for the various power wires.

One surprise was two power connections, one +ve, the other -ve. Perhaps
because the radio could be mounted in a plastic dash, therefore no
earth? Is the radio chassis/case likely to be isolated, and therefore
suitable for both positive and negative earth cars?
--
Graeme

On Wed, 3 Jun 2015 19:44:16 +0100, News wrote:

I tinned all the bare ends, then joined with two choccy blocks,

Solder might not have been a good idea. It prevents the screw
gripping the wires properly then flows under the presure, loosening
the joint. The vibration in a car I can imagine hastening the
process. The proper thing to use on stranded wires into screw
terminals is plain crimp ferrules.

Having said the joints become poor I've never had a problem with
(old) screw terminals and solder but have found them rather loose.


--
Cheers
Dave.

In article o.uk,
Dave Liquorice wrote:
Solder might not have been a good idea. It prevents the screw
gripping the wires properly then flows under the presure, loosening
the joint. The vibration in a car I can imagine hastening the
process. The proper thing to use on stranded wires into screw
terminals is plain crimp ferrules.

For jointing a wire (or one into two, etc) where it won't have to be
removed, I prefer to solder the two together and insulate with heat
shrink. Takes up less space than a connector block. That's the way it is
done in an car wiring harness.

--
*Hard work has a future payoff. Laziness pays off NOW.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In message o.uk, Dave
Liquorice writes
On Wed, 3 Jun 2015 19:44:16 +0100, News wrote:

I tinned all the bare ends, then joined with two choccy blocks,

Solder might not have been a good idea. It prevents the screw
gripping the wires properly then flows under the presure, loosening
the joint. The vibration in a car I can imagine hastening the
process. The proper thing to use on stranded wires into screw
terminals is plain crimp ferrules.

Thanks Dave. One little problemette encountered is the clips that hold
the radio in the dashboard. They don't match, which means the new radio
can slide out - but that means I can occasionally check the tightness of
the screws.
--
Graeme

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)"
writes

For jointing a wire (or one into two, etc) where it won't have to be
removed, I prefer to solder the two together and insulate with heat
shrink. Takes up less space than a connector block. That's the way it is
done in an car wiring harness.

Yes, I think that is the way forward. To be honest, using the connector
block was mainly because I had little faith the whole thing would work
first time, but it did. The wiring diagram with the new radio was
Chinese badly translated to English, and that with the old radio, was
German. I ended up following the paths of the individual wires rather
than using the colour codes. What did surprise was the colour codes of
the recently purchased parts. They bear no relation to the wiring in
the car, but do at least match each other. There is one spare wire, but
I think that is for remote operation of an external aerial, which I
don't have.

I'm still amazed to have a radio with all those useful sockets for about
twenty quid. OK, cheap Far East crap, but it works.
--
Graeme

"News" wrote in message
...
In message , "Dave Plowman (News)"
writes

For jointing a wire (or one into two, etc) where it won't have to be
removed, I prefer to solder the two together and insulate with heat
shrink. Takes up less space than a connector block. That's the way it is
done in an car wiring harness.

Yes, I think that is the way forward. To be honest, using the connector
block was mainly because I had little faith the whole thing would work
first time, but it did.

And the correct thing to do is to just leave it like that until it fails
(either the car or connectors)

Remember the old saying :-)

I'm still amazed to have a radio with all those useful sockets for about
twenty quid. OK, cheap Far East crap, but it works.

Sometimes it is worth DIYing.

Good result.



--
Adam

In message , ARW
writes
"News" wrote in message
...

Yes, I think that is the way forward. To be honest, using the
connector block was mainly because I had little faith the whole thing
would work first time, but it did.

And the correct thing to do is to just leave it like that until it
fails (either the car or connectors)

Doubtless the car first :-)

Sometimes it is worth DIYing.

Good result.

More importantly, the family are impressed, which means brownie points

--
Graeme

On 25/05/2015 08:00, News wrote:

Our car is old enough to contain a radio/cassette player, which is only
annoying when we depart on a pilgrimage 500 miles down south, and would
like to play mp3s.

What we need is something cheap n cheerful, ideally to play mp3s from a
phone, USB stick or possibly SD card. Something that can be run or
charged from the car cigarette lighter.

Just seen eBay item 291474623251 which plugs into the cigarette lighter
and plays from SD card. I think it also plays from a phone. I'm not
sure how it works, but I think the idea is the output is picked up by
the car radio, and plays through the usual car speakers.

Have I understood correctly? Any other suggestions? It didn't occur to
me that I could get something that would play through the car speakers,
so was looking at mini boom boxes.



Not sure if mentioned I have a small Belkin unit that converts my MP3
player into FM signal you chooses an unused part of FM band ... tune
both to it and it works fine.

Its called a TuneCast ............also have a spare one if someone wants
to buy one cheap

In message , rick
writes

Have I understood correctly? Any other suggestions?

Not sure if mentioned I have a small Belkin unit that converts my MP3
player into FM signal you chooses an unused part of FM band ... tune
both to it and it works fine.

That is exactly the route I was planning to take, until the price of a
complete radio, with sockets, was pointed out, here. Radio and adaptors
purchased, installed and working all for less than thirty quid. Bargain.

Have not actually tried it on a real journey yet, because we do so few
miles. Latest MOT cert says just over 10k miles over the last four
years, but at least half of that is journeys down south to see family,
500+ miles each way. Being a peasant, I would happily let R2 babble
away in the background, but family want a choice :-)

--
Graeme

"News" wrote in message
...
In message , rick
writes

Being a peasant, I would happily let R2 babble away in the background,

And R2 has Sally Traffic.


--
Adam

On Sat, 06 Jun 2015 15:35:49 +0100, ARW wrote:

"News" wrote in message
...
In message , rick
writes

Being a peasant, I would happily let R2 babble away in the background,

And R2 has Sally Traffic.

Good Good...is she still on there?

I gave up on R2 (mainly mornings anyway) when they took on Chris Evans.

In message , ARW
writes
"News" wrote in message
...
In message , rick
writes

Being a peasant, I would happily let R2 babble away in the background,

And R2 has Sally Traffic.

Indeed, although we prefer to travel overnight, when traffic is light.
Next trip is July - collect child from school then head on down.
Straight down the coast from Aberdeen, Perth, Edinburgh, pick up the A1,
keep to the coast through Berwick then just keep going until we hit the
M11. Longer way round, but a better trip.
--
Graeme

"Bob Eager" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 06 Jun 2015 15:35:49 +0100, ARW wrote:

"News" wrote in message
...
In message , rick
writes

Being a peasant, I would happily let R2 babble away in the background,

And R2 has Sally Traffic.

Good Good...is she still on there?

I gave up on R2 (mainly mornings anyway) when they took on Chris Evans.


If you get up earlier than there is Vanessa Feltz.

--
Adam

In message , Bob Eager
writes
On Sat, 06 Jun 2015 15:35:49 +0100, ARW wrote:

And R2 has Sally Traffic.

Good Good...is she still on there?

I gave up on R2 (mainly mornings anyway) when they took on Chris Evans.

Yes, difficult. I find adverts elsewhere drive me insane now, so rarely
listen to anything other than R2/4, but don't like R4 with family in the
car. They do insist on talking :-)

Chris Evans annoyed me at first, but I'm used to him now. I quite like
the old charts show, but that means listening to Blackburn. He was a
PITA on Caroline, and nothing has changed. Woof. I'm too old for R1.
Most of the DJs I quite liked are probably dead or in prison now. Johnny
Walker soldiers on, and I used to like Johnny Moran. Sad when we lost
Roger Scott, John Peel and Everett. I always found Everett, like Wogan,
to be much better on radio than TV.

--
Graeme

On 6 Jun 2015, ARW wrote some amazing prose:

And R2 has Sally Traffic.

Amazing nominative determinism!

--
tom raider

In article ,
News wrote:
I always found Everett, like Wogan,
to be much better on radio than TV.

Yes - some of Everett's stuff was amazing - and I speak as a sound
engineer, so know how much work it took then. Do sometimes wonder what he
might have created with today's technology.

Main difference was the radio stuff was (mainly) his own work. TV, written
for him. And he never seemed to actually enjoy doing it.

--
*If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Tom Raider" wrote in message
...
On 6 Jun 2015, ARW wrote some amazing prose:

And R2 has Sally Traffic.

Amazing nominative determinism!

It all depends on if you would give her one.

I would.

--
Adam