Hacking my boombox

  I have couple of small projects lined up, the first of which was to convert the cassette input into an AUX (auxiliary) input. The boombox in question is SONY CFD-S33. The function button on it controlled the sound from either one of the three inputs which were Tape / CD / Radio. I have stopped playing cassettes for quite some time and I needed to use it outdoors. Unfortunately this year, while using it for some outdoor shoots, I realized that I cannot rely on it's CD playing capabilities either. So either i needed to buy a new boombox or add an AUX input to play from any device which has 3.5mm audio output.
  For couple of reasons I went with second option. This instructables page helped me get started. The only thing I needed to buy was 3-conductor phone jack (RadioShack part #274-0249). Accessing the screws to open up the box was a herculean job though. In the end I opened it up and connected the 3 wires coming from the phono input. This boombox also has TA20168N chip for radio and tape head pre-amplification. I tapped on the output side of the chip as follows:

• Right channel -> red wire -> pin 18
• Left channel -> white wire -> pin 20
• Ground -> black wire -> pin 7

Turned out that this setup taps into the radio input instead of tapping into the cassette input. So now I have to set the function to Radio input and if the AUX input is unplugged then I can hear the radio but if it is plugged then I can hear whatever is being fed into the aux input. Now need to test it's performance in the heat outdoors.

Fresh beginnings

This blog was started quite some time back and had seen it move from one hosting provider to next and finally I have decided to move it permanently to blogspot till the time blogspot is available. It will still be carrying posts on various topics. See my other blogs on specific topics.