I bought a 1998 Boxster the other day, and I'm really enjoying it so far. I'm planning to use it as my new daily, and I spend a lot of time on the road, so good tunes are a must. It has a tape deck, so I was thinking I could use a Bluetooth tape adapter and leave it in the tape deck, but it seems all of them have a battery that has to be charged every 8-12 hours. The wired adapters I've used in the past never needed batteries, I suppose Bluetooth is more energy intensive, but couldn't you use the spindles in the tape player to turn a small generator to make the power you need? I just hate having wires all over the interior of the car.
No the energy the tape has available to it isn't enough to run a bluetooth receiver, it would be challenging enough to run a digital watch from that energy.
Fun story, 8-tracks had a lot more energy available to them including through some electrical contacts near where the head touched the tape, and there were some devices that used this power for things like radio receivers.
The BT tape adapters need a battery for the same reason BT earbuds need a battery but wired ones don't. They're radios.
I'm using a BT FM transmitter in my old Miata. Better sound quality than the wired tape adapter I used to use, probably because the tape heads haven't been cleaned in 30 years. If you can find a blank spot on the spectrum, it works well.
^I also switched to a BT FM transmitter device w/ mic and call controls in my AE92.
If it's your daily driver and you're going to be using it a lot, why not just invest in a cheap (or even not so cheap) modern head unit?
dps214 said:
If it's your daily driver and you're going to be using it a lot, why not just invest in a cheap (or even not so cheap) modern head unit?
I believe those cars were still DIN too, so it's even easier. If you are dead set against getting rid of the tape deck, fm is still probably better than tape if you want to do Bluetooth
I put a modern head unit in my 914. Now it pairs with my iPhone and I get Spotify and Sirius in my old car. Not anywhere near stock, but it's cool. Almost as good as the Synch III in my Mustang.
It was a single DIN unit. Now they actually have single DIN units where a touchscreen pops out when you turn it on and it uses Apple Car Play. I am looking at one of those for my 1978 Dodge Motorhome.
If you look for a Tranzit Blu they hardwire into the radio antenna and give you hands-free phone and Bluetooth to your speakers. It is small enough that on my Rover I was able to tuck it into the dash behind the stereo. I also dislike wires running everywhere.
EvanB said:
How about one of the bluetooth FM transmitters that plug into a cigarette lighter? I have used them on some vehicles before I got around to putting in a proper head unit.
Amazon.com: Anker Roav Bluetooth Car Adapter and Car Charger, Power IQ 3.0 Type C PD, Bluetooth FM Transmitter for Car, Wireless Calling with Bluetooth 5.0, Noise Cancellation -T2 : Electronics
Did that type of unit work reasonably well, Evan? If so, that looks like the ticket for adding capability to my old Civic without adding tge theft target of a decent head unit.
In reply to einy (Forum Supporter) :
Mine was older and not that fancy but it worked fine for me. The sound quality seemed fine but I've only used it in older cars with marginal speakers.
GameboyRMH said:
No the energy the tape has available to it isn't enough to run a bluetooth receiver, it would be challenging enough to run a digital watch from that energy.
Hm. A little googling suggests that the take-up reel is supposed to deliver 30-50 g/cm of torque and run the tape at 2 inches/second. A little back-of-the-envelope math suggests that's around 5-10 watts, which I would think would be enough for a bluetooth radio? I have no idea how expensive it would be to miniaturize a generator to fit in that package, though.
Seems like the easier solution would be to just run a power wire out the tape door the way that the old ones used to run the signal wire.
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:
GameboyRMH said:
No the energy the tape has available to it isn't enough to run a bluetooth receiver, it would be challenging enough to run a digital watch from that energy.
Hm. A little googling suggests that the take-up reel is supposed to deliver 30-50 g/cm of torque and run the tape at 2 inches/second. A little back-of-the-envelope math suggests that's around 5-10 watts, which I would think would be enough for a bluetooth radio? I have no idea how expensive it would be to miniaturize a generator to fit in that package, though.
Seems like the easier solution would be to just run a power wire out the tape door the way that the old ones used to run the signal wire.
If you could really get 5W out of one that would be more than enough, but it seems that in practice the motor puts out just a tiny hint of torque and will kick into auto-reverse/anti-jam mode at a very low torque level, and because the speed is so low you'd need a lot of torque to generate power. People have tried this idea to make self-charging tape-substitute devices like the BT adapter proposed here.
Now, does anyone make a Bluetooth AM transmitter, for folks rocking cars so old all they have is this.
Racebrick said:
dps214 said:
If it's your daily driver and you're going to be using it a lot, why not just invest in a cheap (or even not so cheap) modern head unit?
I believe those cars were still DIN too, so it's even easier. If you are dead set against getting rid of the tape deck, fm is still probably better than tape if you want to do Bluetooth
Yes they're old enough to be standard sizing. Depending on original equipment with a bit of effort you can rearrange things and make a double din fit as well. Mine had a touch screen double din unit installed when I bought it. Unfortunately it was from before Android auto / car play but had Pandora integration which was almost as good.
volvoclearinghouse said:
Now, does anyone make a Bluetooth AM transmitter, for folks rocking cars so old all they have is this.
Actually yes:
https://www.retroradioshop.com/products/am-transmitter-and-bluetooth-adapter-for-retro-vintage-or-antique-radios-1
volvoclearinghouse said:
Now, does anyone make a Bluetooth AM transmitter, for folks rocking cars so old all they have is this.
On one of my previous Cadillacs, I put a hidden stereo inside the glovebox so could rock the stock look. It didn't have bluetooth but that's because we didn't have smartphones and Spotify and get off my lawn.
