My phone cassette adapter
September 16, 2007
It’s always annoyed me that there isn’t a SIMPLE way to connect audio devices (iPods, CD players, phones, etc.) to cars. It’s fairly common place now in new cars, but not in 1997 when they build my BMW. …So I had to hack a solution.
I sync my favorite playlist to my phone and I wanted to connect that to my car. This is my end result. It cost about $20 to build and it sounds MUCH cleaner than the Bluetooth and FM adapters I’d tried in the past. It also doesn’t skip or pause randomly like Bluetooth, and you don’t have to adjust it all the time like FM adapters.
This is what my cassette adapter looks like…
Below is an up-close shot of the adapter without the phone connected. The Velcro and old Xbox jack hang off a regular cassette adapter I modified to work with my phone. I couldn’t find a cassette adapter that had a 2.5mm jack, CDs, iPods, etc. all use 3.5mm. Cell phone companies use 2.5 (because they’re evil).
Below is the adapter outside of the cassette slot. I realize it’s not that pretty, but it’s always hidden so who cares.
And here’s a video of me explaining what I did and how you can build one. Just post a comment if you have any questions, anybody should be able to do this. Even if they have almost no experience with electronics. The real trick is to go to WalMart and buy a cassette adapter that can be easily taken apart like mine.
Blogging with Brien 
April 9, 2008 at 6:43 am
Well done.
Does it work with the phone as a phone?
April 9, 2008 at 11:12 am
I said not to use the white wire from the XBox 360 headset, that’s the microphone. So speakerphone works for listening but no-one will hear you.
If you want to turn this into a speakerphone simply connect that white wire to a microphone. If you’re using a broken old XBox 360 headset like I did, that has a microphone you could use.
My suggestion would be to drill a hole in the cassette case and hide the microphone inside the cassette. That’d look nice and clean. If you try this, please let me know how it works for you.
April 9, 2008 at 11:16 am
…One more thought. A simpler option might be to simply cover up the microphone part of the 2.5mm jack into the phone. If the phone doesn’t sense a microphone it might use the phone’s mic.
This page might be a good place to start if you’re not familiar with the 2.5mm jack, basically non-conductive rings separate the “wires” feeding the jack. You’ll need to identify and block the section for the mic. It shouldn’t be too tricky.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS_connector
June 24, 2008 at 2:33 am
Greetings
I use the same thing when i want to use my mp3 player in my car 😆
My next car stereo must have an usb to use my pen 😉
November 16, 2008 at 12:09 pm
ur cassette adapter is really kewl..i really like the innovative thought process behind it.well i just purchased a 1994 bmw 325i convertible.it has an cassette player. I wanna connect my microsoft zune ipod to it. I had bad experiences abt the cassette adaptors.Some simply dont work with the car desk system.Which 1 do u suggest to buy..coby ,belkin, monster, sony, griffin or any other..I want something that will work and give me a descent sound quality.thanks. awaitin ur reply.