wootness
11-25-2005, 11:33 PM
I was unpleased with the Belkin Tunecast II's performance, and I wanted to go budget with my car and ipod integration.
I read somewhere that the FCC limits the factories from producing high amplification of the FM transmitters so that there's no interferances with each other. But who cares if it interferes in my car?
I wanted near stereo quality audio, so I attempted to hack the device.
Opening up the Belkin Tunecast II is very easy: 2 screws and prying open a snap-on cover can reveal the PCB.
Conveniently, Belkin left the "ANT" label on the PCB so I can locate the antenna cable easily. The length of the original wire is the length of the 3.5mm plug cable.
I attached a 4ft wire instead and closed it all up.
I ran the wires from the front to the back, along the side of the seat to the back window. Most cars that have no antennas have antennas running across the back window area. (i.e. civic, accords, camry, etc).
After installing the wires to the back of the car, the wires are hardly noticeable since I used very thin wires.
The results:
I can take over strong radio freq.!!!
But choosing a weak radio freq. I could hear very clear stereo audio from my speakers. It has very little static during solo parts; however, it's hardly audible in loud music.
It is such a drastic improvement that I wanted to share it with you all.
Let me know if you have questions.
I'm sure others tried something similar...
I read somewhere that the FCC limits the factories from producing high amplification of the FM transmitters so that there's no interferances with each other. But who cares if it interferes in my car?
I wanted near stereo quality audio, so I attempted to hack the device.
Opening up the Belkin Tunecast II is very easy: 2 screws and prying open a snap-on cover can reveal the PCB.
Conveniently, Belkin left the "ANT" label on the PCB so I can locate the antenna cable easily. The length of the original wire is the length of the 3.5mm plug cable.
I attached a 4ft wire instead and closed it all up.
I ran the wires from the front to the back, along the side of the seat to the back window. Most cars that have no antennas have antennas running across the back window area. (i.e. civic, accords, camry, etc).
After installing the wires to the back of the car, the wires are hardly noticeable since I used very thin wires.
The results:
I can take over strong radio freq.!!!
But choosing a weak radio freq. I could hear very clear stereo audio from my speakers. It has very little static during solo parts; however, it's hardly audible in loud music.
It is such a drastic improvement that I wanted to share it with you all.
Let me know if you have questions.
I'm sure others tried something similar...