MP3 Radio

[citroenxm]

Hi all S2 Xantia Owners.

I wanted to share a little experiment that worked with All Xantia S2 Owners, with Original Factory Radios fitted to them.

This mod is for the Clarion "Full Facia" Radio unit with CD changer. Like this:



The idea is NOT mine what so ever, and was thought up by my Mate who is a member on here, AlanN...

Your probably thinking, Ah, Ill just use a Tape adapter, but theres three negatives for this. The magnetic heads arent always very good and you can get a quaility drop between them, secondly, the adapters arent always - well Ive experianced a "Non auto Reverse" friendly unit.. Thirdly, they can get noisy in operation as the spooles get loose.

So, why not tap in directly after the magnetic head and get better quaility sound.??

So Alan thought there must be some where inside we can go directly into.. so, off with the cover..



The two screws one by the motor, the other by the circuit board at the rear hold the top on. Lift the top off to have the above.

Then theres only another four screws holding the tape deck in place.






In the last image, the screw is already out due to my crap soldering to chassis idea.

Remove the four screws, this leaves the deck free, lift it up at the rear to de-attach the 20 pin connector underneath



With the deck out, you will now see a cuircuit board running along the back of the tape unit. and on here you will see L channel and R Channel inputs.



Get a Jack lead, strip it back, join the earths together, and solder a Red to a channel and a white, or black or what ever colour you have to the other channel input. Solder the earth to the chassis some where. You'll find a PERFECT copper connection on each track to add a blob of solder to attach the wire end to.

Refit the deck, push it carefully onto the pins underneath.. aline it up by useing the Screw holes. Push it into place and refit the four screws.

thread the lead through the tape entry hole. If the cable is thin enough there is room for the tape to pass the cable.

The next problem we had was keeping the radio in "tape" mode. The only way we could was with a black tape.
Now this IS the clever bit. Re fit the unit all back together with your MP3 lead out the front, connect it all up. Insert a tape - preferably a blank one BUT we found it doesnt matter. The tape will play. However, when you plug the Jack into your MP3 unit, it over rides the Tape output, and your MP3 players comes out in crisp quaility (subject to your recordings/mp3 quaility) ! When the tape comes to the end, it simply reverses direction, but because your not useing a tape adapter you get about 5 seconds of silence while it switches over!

Job DONE! Enjoy!

NOTES: The whole idea was NOT mine, but my mates Alan N...
I found when I was listening to my Phone and plugged my car charger in while listening I got engine noise but ONLY
while charging. Otherwise it was fine.
When I used my I pod. I found I could use the car charger, and the charger noise was almost mute!

[CitroJim]

Excellent stuff!!! Well done to Alan N

Wonder if this will work on the in the 'flap' wireless as used in the very last of the Xantias?

[citroenxm]

Ive got A knackered one, that drains batterys that i can open up and have a look.. though they are a Phillips unit.

[CitroenCrazy]

I had the same thought a while back. See below for some pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/citroencra ... 218493745/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The same radio is now in the Xantia, though further modified to provide 2 inputs, one for the ipod & another for the Pure Highway DAB.

[MTND]

Will a series 1 Blaupunkt radio not fit in the gap with its built in "CD" hole?
In fact in my SX series 1 car I've got the radio out of a VSX spec car with a 10 CD changer attached and plug my Sony phone in the front for music and hands free calls?! Imagine nearly 20 years ago Citroen thought of making cars compatable MP3 players

I presume the radio space wouldn't have changed much between series 1 & 2?

Regards
Mark

[red_dwarfers]

That is a very good idea, need to sort something out with the XM though I'll probably go down the radio transmitter route as I'm a sucker for OEM gear when it comes to certain things...unless I have the wire coming out into the cubby hole just above maybe hmm.

Mark, S1 and S2 radio holes are exactly the same, the only difference is that the steering wheel controls are incompatible between the two.

[citroenxm]

Thanks Kev, Yes you COULD fit a Blaupunkt, but theres issues with those and a few too!

Firstly, the CD changer is fine while it works, but the Changer Controller chip have been known to pack up.
Secondly, Displays seen to fail commonly showing lines instead of full wording
Thirdly, as said above S2 wheel controls are completely in-conpatible with the Blaupunkt.

Advantage with the Blaupunkt, you can decode them with the Radio Part Number (The BP number on the side). The clarion needs the "code" chip reading off to retrive it.

[citroenxm]

I had the same thought a while back. See below for some pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/citroencra ... 218493745/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The same radio is now in the Xantia, though further modified to provide 2 inputs, one for the ipod & another for the Pure Highway DAB.

How did you fool the radio to staying in TAPE made, or does your added cuircuit board do that for you?? We couldnt sus out how to stay on TAPE, so decided to just use a blank Tape..

[Xaccers]

You could take the wire out the back and feed it down so it comes out under the ash tray, or if you have your phone/mp3 player in a holder on the window by the A pilar, you could run the wire across under the dash to there

[citroenxm]

Absolutley Xac course you can! Be as you wish..

[CitroenCrazy]

Yes, that circuit board generates the signal that makes the radio think a tape has been loaded.
It's a large and inelegant sledgehammer to crack a small nut, but it works. The waveform is something like this:

x xxxxxxx
x x x
xxxxxxx xxxxxxx

[CitroenCrazy]

Ahh, that didn't work very well. Not very WYSWYG.
I was trying to illustrate the voltage swing, which starts high, goes low, pauses goes high, pauses and then goes low again. Just holding it low doesn't work.

[myglaren]

Try using the "Code" function -

Code: Select all

*     *
  *  *  *
    *    *

[PIT]

Hi
I made this mod back in 2011 but now I saw this post and just want to add some useful tips.

If you are not planning to use the tape any more (It is 21st century...) you can just cut the L and R line on the PCB, so no noise will come from the tape player. Do not cut the ground! I cut it and it introduced problems...
Also, you don't need a blank tape. While the head unit is still on the table opened from the top, put the mechanism down manually. It doesn't care if there is a tape inside it. It just starts to "play". If you accidentally press the Eject button, the mechanism will pop out, but you can put it back with a long screw driver. To skip this problem, I opened the front panel, and unsoldiered one of the pins for the Eject button. So now it doesn't work The tape mechanism stays down always without a tape in it.

[Barry0allegro]

The S1 xantia had a lovely aux in plug for my iPod ! I knew citroens were futuristic but this is above and beyond!