therossinator

This DIY is to allow you to create a line in to your CR-210 without sacrificing your CD changer. This DIY works by piggybacking off of your cassette input, but you will still be able to play tapes normally after you have completed the DIY. You will need to make a blank cassette to fool the head unit to thinking its playing one but when a cassette is inserted you cannot tell (unlike a lot of other stereos that keep the tape door open when one is inserted) also, there is no excess noise from the motors associated with playing the blank tape. So lets begin.

You will need-

Tools:
Radio removal tools
Soldering iron and solder
T8 screwdriver

Materials:
Cassette tape ($.19 at the thrift store)
A 3.5mm audio cable ($5 at Wal Mart) or anything with a headphone cord that you don't want

Thats it!

Step 1)
Remove your radio from your car, the curved sides of the removal tools will face each other. Make sure you have your radio's security code before removing the connections in the back.

Step 2)
Take the metal top off the radio. It is held in there by friction, you don't need any special tools for this, just carefully pry up on the sides starting at the back.

Step 3)
Once you are inside you will see something like the picture below. Near the red circle are connections marked R, L and G. Those are where you will be soldering.


Step 4)
Remove the 6 or 7 T8 screws on top of the black panel near the back, remove the panel.

Step 5)
Cut one end off of your 3.5mm audio cable making sure you have as much distance between the jack and where you cut. Slide the cut end through the hole above the antenna connection and snake it through to the R, L, and G connections.

Step 6)
There should be 3 strands within the cable, the ground wire is likely to be surrounding the other 2 wires. Strip the wires so you have enough bare metal to solder the connections. Make sure none of the connections are touching. If this is too difficult you can remove the cassette unit via 3 T8 screws and follow those leads to where they meet on the adjacent PCB and solder there, there is a bit more room but not much.

Step 7)
Place the black cover back on with the 7 T8 screws and place the metal cover back on.

Step 8)
Make a blank tape. Take your cassette and pull it apart. Remove the magnetic tape, save about 5 or 6 inches of the end (where the ribbon is clear) and discard the rest. Place the ribbon over the pickup and secure the ends to the inside of the cassette using tape. Place the reels that the ribbon was attached to and place them where they should go, place the top of the cassette on the bottom and tape them together. You now have a tape that will play silence forever and never need to be flipped over.

Step 9)
Place the stereo back into your car and snake the aux cord to where ever you want to be. Place the blank tape into your stereo and hook up your aux into anything with a headphone jack.

Step 10)
Drink a beer and listen to your favorite Pandora station, you are done.


With this line in you can attach a bluetooth audio adapter or hook directly into the headphone jack of your phone or music player, even a 1980s walkman.

I apologize for the lack of pictures, the ones I took are too large to be uploaded here, if you perform this DIY please take some pictures and send me the link. I will add them to the DIY and give you credit.
Also, I have read in places that you should solder the ground wire to bare metal as opposed to the point marked G. Does anyone know the reasoning behind this logic?

EDIT: I have found that using the headphone jack in my phone sounds horrible though this input, however, a bluetooth receiver sounds just fine, no clipping at all, just a minor whine that is directly proportional to the engine RPM. you notice when there is silence, but is hard to tell when you have a song on.

RichPugh

Wouldn't an aux tape adapter do the same thing? Well, I guess you're skipping the magnetic tape head pickup which would without a doubt produce cleaner sound than would be put thru a tape adapter...

therossinator

Exactly! It kicks the pants off of a tape adapter and is completly hidden. The input goes directly into the preamp. Its very similar to the aux in you can get from Becker Autosound but it uses the tape not the radio and it is not $125.

Basal Skull

cool, great solution. I'll reconnect my cd and do this. Thanx

M. Schneider

Much appreciation for posting this DIY! The CR210 Becker/Porsche 993 production year radio's are in fact otherwise sonically speaking OK.
Having lived with a similar mouse trap input scheme with our MY05 Subaru Outback CD-changer - its a workable solution for an AUX input creation where there wasn't one. Thanks again!

mlincoln

I have a '95 (built late 94) with a CR-1 cassette radio. Is there any similar possibility for that?

Mike

M. Schneider

There very well could be, however to manager your expectations the CR-1 radio is manufactured by Alpine Electronics and the late MY95< CR210 cassette AM/FM radio is manufactured by Becker of Germany. Two independent radio chassis's.

A way forward possibly is to have an automotive radio repair shop have a look inside of the Alpine CR-1 for potential. In some cases its not a uber complicated mouse trap to concoct.

therossinator

I didn't have any special skills when I figured out theis DIY. The principle is the same no matter the tape deck. Crack it open and identify the tape pickup, downstream of that will be a PCB with a chip on it that takes the magnetic signal from the ribbon and turns it into audio for the preamp. That audio line to the preamp is where I went in. Hopefully yours will have markings on it too and it will be an easy day.

mlincoln

Is it necessary to have the "blank tape"? In other words, can you just put the aux-in in place and forget ever having tapes again? Or does the (in my case Alpine) whatever-brand-deck have to detect the physical presence of the tape and then turn on or switch to the tape pickup?

Mike

therossinator

Yes, it is. If you select tape on your radio and you don't actually have one inserted what does it do? mine switches back to the last other input. I need the cassette to play scilence and my aux in is filling the emptiness.