This may be way out there but who knows. I pose this question more for discussion than anything. I have an HP Ipaq rx5915 that I have used for quite some time for Navigation. I also have a 4 gig memory card in it filled with music that I have going into my via a cassette tape adapter. The Ipaq has been great and works on voice command, so playing music I want to hear when I want to hear is easy to do. It’s also touchscreen, which is great on the Tom Tom navigation. The Ipaq also has Bluetooth which works great with my Motorola Q9h, so if I can get this to work, I’d be killing two birds with one stone.
The problem with this set up is two things. 1. I don’t like the giant suction cup stuck to my window to hold the Ipaq in place and 2. I hate wires going all over the place, especially in a Jag.
So, I am currently fabricating the ashtray (I don’t smoke) to hold the Ipaq. When not in use, I will simply close the ashtray cover and everything will look factory. The USB plug will be hard wired to the wires that used to go to the cigarette lighter, since that will no longer be there. All of the wires will go out the back of the ashtray so they can’t be seen. However, the audio output must still be fed into the stereo via the cassette adapter, which will once again give me wires.
Here are my thoughts…
Jag radios and cassette decks are super cheap on Ebay. I am going to buy one for experimental reasons to try this idea. The audio output coming out of the Ipaq is stereo with a positive and negative for both channels, (just like if you cut a wire on your head phones, that’s what you’d see). OK, what I am going to try to do is take the cassette deck apart, and solder in those 4 wires somewhere and run the wire out the back of the cassette deck, (where all of the holes are on the back of the head unit) to the Ipaq. I wish I had a better understanding (schematic) of the tape deck itself, but somewhere after the head hits the tape, a left and right channel separation takes place. I believe the head has to physically move forward so that an audio signal would actually come out of the tape deck, so I would pull all of the tape out of an old cassette and just leave it in the player. The system would “think” the tape is playing, but really, the audio feed would be coming from the Ipaq.
I am not even sure if this is possible, but I figure I’d be out $40 to $50 if it doesn’t. I don’t have an Ipod, so I am not dropping $300 on a Jag ACM module (which I know has the aux input as well).
Does anyone out there who might know about cassette decks think this would be possible? Cassette decks are such old technology that I have a feeling finding a place to solder the left and right positives and negatives to shouldn’t be that hard.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Paul

 

All sounds good...I personally went with a whole new radio...Jensen to be exact. Worked great. Sounds like you got some ideas...so press on and let us know!

 

Will do.
I just bought the radio/cassette deck on Ebay. As soon as I get it, I will take it apart. I'm hoping that the circuit board inside is labeled "solder here Paul"

Anyway, I will keep everyone posted.

Paul

 

cool, thanks. Currently i'm in the process of redoing my g8's radio. ordered a part and will keep all interested parties informed of my progress.