Cheap 6 volt tunes

[FMSPEED49]

So I buy this cheap little am/fm/cd from walmart for 25 bucks, Duraband, I belive is the name. it uses 6 D batteries. So I burn thru a few sets of batteries while listening to cd's in my '49 (6v pos ground) , get tired of replacing them , to the shelf it went, and then it came to me...........

So I remove the batteries, figure out which terminal is the actual negitive and positive,solder wires on those connectors, wire it to the 6 volt battery of the car, and it works just dandy, now to make a quick release harness, no more batteries.

I think the trick is to find one that uses 6 batteries, tested at about 1.5 volts per batt, that comes out to 9 volts at full charge, but seems to work fine at 6-8 when charging.

[FMSPEED49]

now to go buy one with a remote...............

[FMSPEED49]

also need to instal an inline fuse.

[40phil41]

Neat. Out of curiosity, what gauge wire did you use?

Phil

[FMSPEED49]

as of right now, 16 gauge, its what i had laying around, I'll keep an eye on it to see if it warms up, but i think it should be plenty. I'll let you know if i find a problem.

[BobT-47P15]

Does your player have a speaker built into it......or can you use another remote speaker or speakers????

[FMSPEED49]

Has two speakers, its a boom box if you will, but i am going to take it apart to see if i could move the speakers. I fI could get one witha remote controll, and put it under the seat, add seperate speakers, I would really be on to somthing.

[FMSPEED49]

this is the link to the one I am destroying now.....

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=3636308

[FMSPEED49]

Hey I just realized, it can record, so I could record the wife whining after being at cruise night for 4 hrs, and play it back when she claims it never happened.

[JIPJOBXX]

I use a Boom Box to play music while I show oft the old 42. But I use an emergency battery to power up my music box. It has two plug ins attachments on it and I plug in a 110 to 12 volt converter and then run a regular extention cord up to the front seat. Works great and a very easy installation. Oh yes I also use for the speaker an old drive in movie speaker and it works perfect. Really an eye opener when I play 40's music.

I really only need this set up when I'm at a car show as I usually run the boom box for probably 8 hours or so. That is why I have a big battery to run my little show that I put on,

[bob_amos]

Too bad it doesn't also play MP3's. I have thousands of old radio shows on CDs that are MP3 format. These are the actual shows that were played during the days our cars were new. I bet there might be something out there that runs around the same voltage as yours. Great idea!!! And... I do like the drive-in theater speaker idea.

[John Mulders]

You can convert MP3 to CD format as far as I know.

google 'convert MP3 to CD music' and you get a couple of hits

John

[bob_amos]

John, Yes I know. And have the program to do just that. But when you can only put a small number of shows on a CD verses well over 300 with MP3 it is so much easier to put a disk in and forget it for weeks or even months. That is why I love the MP3s so much. I have one in my truck that has been there for 4 months and is still not repeating anything.

[52B3B108]

Is your system negative ground? If not, how would you hook it up for a negative ground system?

[JIPJOBXX]

I got a real question and sence I'm from the days of the old tube radio's what does MP3 mean? Just a an oft the wall question.

[D25_Steve]

mp3 stands for mpeg layer 3. MPEG stands for moving picture experts group.

mp3 is just a type of compression to get sound into a small digital file.

[wldavis3]

FMSPEED49,

Your "...wife whining after being at cruise night for 4 hrs"???

You have got to be kidding!!! Never heard of such!

[BobT-47P15]

I don't suppose one of those little flying saucer cd players would have enough output to power speakers would it??? Would certainly be a compact unit.

[FMSPEED49]

You would hook it the exact same for negitive ground, positive to positive and negitive to negitive on the battery. The radio itself is not grounded to anything (i.e. the frame) so it doesn't know or care. If you wanted it key hot you would interupt the negitive side thru the key for pos ground, or interupt the pos for a neg system.

They do have some more expensive boom boxes with remotes and with mp3 players at walmart, but i figure i will try this one for awhile, so if i smoke it , I'm only out 25.00 , as apossed to 75.00, gonna pull it apart tomorrow and see if it will push seperate speakers. I'll keep you guys updated.

On a side note, I seem to remeber seeing a boom box, that looked like a vintage radio or vintage airplane controls or somthing along that line. Now you could get real creative with that one.

[mikemaker]

I bought a cheapo cd player at wallmart and hooked it up through power inverter and tossed it in my glove box. It's been working great for a few years now.

[FMSPEED49]

I was planning to go the same way, but i discovered this, so for 25 buck, i'm hoping it works.

[Brad Lustig]

I have the jump pack hooked up to a regular car stereo (plays MP3 CDs and I think WMA CDs). I also have the power hooked up through a switch hidden in the glove box so there's constant power to the memory lead and a switched lead to power the radio. I can play it for several weeks, probably a total of at least 12 hours of playing the radio before I notice the battery draining at all.

[FMSPEED49]

So far so good, ran a fuse , a quick release connector. Have played it a bout 3 hrs now on cd, with no problems. The only negitive i have seen , is if your playing a cd when you start the car it pulls the voltage down and the cd resets.

[James_Douglas]

I like the warm sound of the stock radio. But, I hate AM radio.

I built, through a guy I know, an little box that runs on 6/12 volts. Whatever I plug into the box (CD, iPod, MP3, XM) that uses a jack that can covert to RCA works just fine.

The original radio plays just like normal as well. A digital signal with the tube radio sounds real smooth.

Ask Don C, who heard it when he was out here.

James

[Don G 1947]

So being a total dunce when it comes to electronics, I'll ask the question and see if I can learn something. Could you also run something that runs off a small 9 volt battery in the same fashion? Something in me says that big ol' car battery would fry it, but then again...

Don