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To be used as CD player, the
CD-ROM drive doesn't need to be connected to the computer. This way, it is
possible to easily transform a CD-ROM drive into a Car CD player. Sounds
crazy? Not so. With this tutorial you will be able to have
a CD player in your car without spending almost anything.
The CD-ROM drive to be use may be
of any type, from the first models ("1x") until the most modern
ones ("60x"). The only prerequisite is that the drive needs to have
is an earphone plug and volume control. And practically all CD-ROM drives
have that.
There are two great advantages in
transforming a CD-ROM drive into a Car CD player. First, who will want to
break your car window to take CD-ROM drive? And, secondly, since any type of
CD-ROM drive can be used, you may take an old drive that is just dusting away
in your house (for instance, a 2x drive from an old 386 computer), which
brings the cost down to almost nothing.
To install a CD-ROM drive in the
car, you will need a female power plug, to be used to fit into
CD-ROM drive power plug (that plug can be cut from an old power
supply) and a voltage regulating integrated circuit called 7805, that may be
easily found at electronic parts stores. You will also have to buy a heat
dissipator for the 7805 (sold at the same store).
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The car battery is a 12 V one, but the CD-ROM
drive needs two voltages to work: 12 V and 5 V. The 7805 circuit is
able to convert a 12 V voltage into 5 V (its pin 1 is for the input,
its pin 2 is the grounding, and its pin 3 is the 5 V exit). Figure 1 shows the
plan for the connection. The grounding pin should be connected to the wires of
the plug grounding and the negative pole of the car battery, what is done by
simply connecting that pin to the metallic body of the car.
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All you have to do is to make the
connections shown in the above schematics (don't forget to
isolate all connections with insulating tape) and you are set: you will have
a CD-ROM drive working as CD player in your car.
The audio output will be made
using the earphone plug. To listen to a CD, you will have to use earphones.
To have the sound come through the speakers of the car, you will have to buy
an amplifier with RCA inputs and a stereo P2 (mini jack) x stereo RCA cable
(the same type of cable used to connect Discman units to amplifiers). The
stereo P2 plug (also known as mini jack), which is the one used for the
earphones, should be fit at the earphone output of the CD-ROM drive, while
the RCA plugs should be fit at the input of the amplifier. The volume control
will be made using the volume control in the CD-ROM drive.
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