Thursday, October 07, 2004
How to modify and improve a Belkin Tunecast II (updated)
First of all, here's a little background. With my iPod on the way, I decided that I needed a way to listen to it in the car. I have a tape adapter that I used to use, but the quality was not so great, and it makes strange crackling noises for some reason. I wanted to get an auxilary input for my radio, but at the time, they were too expensive so I opted for an FM transmitter as an easy alternative.
I did a little research and quickly determined that I would need a transmitter that would allow me to broadcast to any station I wanted, not just the typical 4 that most offer. Here in Lansing, MI we have a ton of stations, and almost every bit of the bandwidth is taken up by one station or another. There are two very strong stations in the typical 88.1 - 88.7 range that most tuners use. My solution was to buy a Belkin Tunecast II, because it has a digital tuner capable of broadcasting to any station in the 88.1 - 107.1 range (or something close to there)
I got the Tunecast and it worked pretty good, it managed better quality than the tape deck, and only broke up occasionally. But being somewhat of an audiophile, I decided to see what I could do to improve it...so naturally I opened it up. I discovered that there was a TINY internal antenna, which barely did the job...so how do I make an external antenna? Read below to find out.
What you will need:
Belkin Tunecast II
About 3 feet of speaker wire (medium guage)
One philips Screwdriver
Two audio connectors (one male, one female) from Radio Shack
First, open up the battery cover, and take out your batteries. You'll notice a single screw; remove it and then carefully pry the two halves of the Tunecast open with your finger nails or a small knife. Be careful, because there are a couple of wires going from the battery compartment to the circuitboard beneath.
Next, take a look at the circuit board, and you'll notice that there is a small internal antenna on one end of the unit. At one end of the antenna, there is a hole in the circuit board that is slightly larger than the rest. Mine has an arrow shape pointing at it, but yours may not. This hole is where we are going to attach the external antenna. Cut about 4-5 inches of speaker wire. Connect one of the audio connectors to the speaker wire (mine were solderless, so I just pinched the wire into it). I used the female portion of the audio connector for this half. Now connect the other end of the speaker wire to the circuit board by sticking it through the hole and bringing it out around the edge of the board. Wrap it around itself, to secure it and keep it from falling out. You could just solder it, but I suck so I just wrapped it up, this way I can remove it easily as well.
Now, you should have a Tunecast with a speaker wire attached. You could stop here, and just attach a three foot antenna to the board directly. I wanted to be able to remove the antenna for when I am not in my car. I can leave the main antenna portion in the car, out of the way, and tucked into a corner or whatever. Then I can take the unit inside and use it with my stereo with less hassle. This call is up to you.
Put the cover back on the Tunecast, carefully threading the speaker wire out the top of the unit, and out the side where you normally can stick the headphone jack for the Tunecast into itself. Now screw the case back together and make sure the unit fires up again. No troubles so far, and we're almost done! See the picture below for the audiob connector close up and the unit put back together.
This audio connector screws apart, and you just crimp the wire in. This is the male portion that is connected to the 3 feet of speaker wire.
At this point we're almost done. Just take the other audio connector and attach about 3 feet of speaker wire to it. I found that with less than 3 feet, the quality went down a bit. Also, with more than 3 (I tried as much as 10 feet) you sometimes end up getting more interferance with a significantly longer wire.
And here we are! The unit is fully modified, and you're ready to enjoy static-free, great sounding audio through your Belkin Tunecast II. With the new antenna, I was able to broadcast to a radio inside my office building through about 4 walls, over a distance of more than 50 feet. In the car, I get great sound, and can send my signal to a friend's car when he is two cars in front of me at a stop light, using a relatively empty station to begin with.
I used my unit for about a month before I broke down and bought an audio input auxilary input for my Jetta. I got the unit from Enfig Motorsport and I love it. Now I get CD quality direct sound through my CD Changer port on the back of the radio. I gave the Tunecast to my wife and she loves it. I will leave the modding of my Jetta for another day. Here's the picture of the finished product. Gotta love it, and it was so easy!
UPDATE (01/03/05):
It has been brought to my attention by several readers that the newer circuit boards on the TuneCast II do not have the same hole which I used to attach my external antenna anymore. In it's place is sometimes a resistor, somtimes not. A number of people have also let me know, as well as posted elsewhere online, that they have successfully soldered the external antenna to the existing tiny internal antenna, successfully completing the mod. My recommendation is that if the hole does not exist, try touching the external antenna to various points on the circuit board until you find one that improves your transmission range. There ought to be something there, whether it is a resistor or the existing antenna that increases your range. Afterall, they have to have an antenna there somewhere, and all you need to do is connect to it. There's not enough power/amps to ruin anything on the board coming from the AAA batteries, so probe away. And good luck!
New Contribution From One Of Our Readers!
For those a bit more crafty with the soldering iron and a breadboard, check out this mod here, he claims to have gotten a 3 mile range out of it! Beware the FCC, use at your own risk. I have NOT done this mod, since I have neither the need for the range at the moment nor the ability to make the circuit. feel free to check it out, but I will be unable to answer any questions about it...
New Tunecast Mod Contribution