Radio in a caterham?
Discussion
I can just imagine the shouts of indignation this may generate but I am thinking of fitting a radio to my se7en. I will be touring in the UK this year and I cannot bear the thought of motorway tailbacks without Radio 4! I am toying with the idea of a helmet with internal speakers and the radio speaker cables terminated with a stereo phone socket (attenuated of course). Also a motorcycle style intercom so I can hear my passenger.
Is this legal?
Is this legal?
I found an old cassette radio with a CD input and spent a day trying to find a place to fit it so it would be out of the rain (I have been told I am a wus for even thinking of using the hood). I finally found a place under the dash on the passenger side so I can now relive my Steel Eye Span days. I still have to find a power out from the first notch on the ignition switch though. I installed a cigar lighter so I can power my pda/gps and a 3.5 mm jack socket for ear phones. I found a motor/cycle intercom kit on ebay for less than 10 quid, bought two crash helmets and am know trying to figure out how to install speakers in them without compromising their structure.
Thanks to you all for the very helpful advice.
Thanks to you all for the very helpful advice.
I have a suplimentary question.
There is no headphone socket on the cassette/radio so I am having to power the headphone speakers in the helmets from the normal 8 ohm speaker outputs. This is not ideal since it could blow the headphone speakers. I am no audio expert but I think I read somewhere that I can throttle the juice by simply fitting some resistors in line. Anyone know if this is so?
There is no headphone socket on the cassette/radio so I am having to power the headphone speakers in the helmets from the normal 8 ohm speaker outputs. This is not ideal since it could blow the headphone speakers. I am no audio expert but I think I read somewhere that I can throttle the juice by simply fitting some resistors in line. Anyone know if this is so?
I agree but I rather like the retro look of the one I have and the ability to play cassettes. I do not think my live axle will allow me to play cds very successfully! I have found a wiring diagramme that shows a setup using 10 ohm resistors and 45 mf capacitors. I will give that a try.
Thanks everyone. I am just wiring up the helmet speakers with a coiled lead from a telephone handset (4 ply cable) and a 5 pin din plug. I have fitted two din sockets in to a small black box containing a connector block with resistors wired in. This lets me feed both helmets and maintain the pos/neg connections right back to the output on the radio. As soon as I have installed this in the Cat I will post some photos.
Sorry for the lack of update. I still have not had time to wire up the helmets. I may have to take the cat to work on Monday (total transport strike in Belgium) and I could be sitting on the Brussels ring for years so I will need Radio 4 and the Beeb World Service. I will make time this weekend and take the photos as I progress.
Here is the finished project. The bits I used were as small black project box, two black coiled telephone extension cables, two 5-pin DIN sockets and plugs, four 10 OHM resistors and two 45 Mfd capacitors. I wired up according to instructions I got from a very helpful guy on an Electronics forum and the result is shown below.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/8996/imag0003dy9....
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/9441/imag0002jx1....
The two 3.5 mm stereo sockets are for the microphones on the comms set which I have not wired in yet.
The speakers in the helmet were wired to the coiled cable and DIN plug.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/9360/imag0006ec2....
The box was connected to the speaker cables from the radio/cassette and mounted on the seat back top between the headrests.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6415/imag0007jo7....
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/2314/imag0009yc...
The radio was mounted under the dashboard on the passenger side.
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/6240/imag0004yt...
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3448/imag0005np2....
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/7937/imag0014am...
The bits cost about 40 Euros. It works ok but I have not yet tried to connect the output from the comms unit to the helmet speakers. The only difficult bit was the soldering. I had to ducktape my wrist to the desktop to stop my hand shaking when I was soldering the resistors etc to the DIN sockets. Old age sucks!
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/8996/imag0003dy9....
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/9441/imag0002jx1....
The two 3.5 mm stereo sockets are for the microphones on the comms set which I have not wired in yet.
The speakers in the helmet were wired to the coiled cable and DIN plug.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/9360/imag0006ec2....
The box was connected to the speaker cables from the radio/cassette and mounted on the seat back top between the headrests.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6415/imag0007jo7....
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/2314/imag0009yc...
The radio was mounted under the dashboard on the passenger side.
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/6240/imag0004yt...
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3448/imag0005np2....
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/7937/imag0014am...
The bits cost about 40 Euros. It works ok but I have not yet tried to connect the output from the comms unit to the helmet speakers. The only difficult bit was the soldering. I had to ducktape my wrist to the desktop to stop my hand shaking when I was soldering the resistors etc to the DIN sockets. Old age sucks!
Edited by davidball on Saturday 4th October 13:45
Gassing Station | Caterham | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff