Wednesday 15 April 2015

Radio Headphone circuit

Still faffing with the radio; which isn't audible through the speakers over about 40-50mph.

The head-unit has separate amplifiers on +ve and -ve speaker lines & with headphones taking a common ground it needs a little workaround. Connecting left and right -ve or +ve lines will upset the head-unit amps.

The solution, cribbed from googling and reading through various forums is a current limiting and AC passthrough circuit wired into the +ve side of the speaker feeds and the common ground from the headphones back through the chassis ground:

I'm also incorporating a simple double pole single throw switch which isolates the speakers when not in use. I can't use the normal automatic switching 3.5mm jack socket due to the requirements of the circuit.

Decided on a small aluminium bezel for the components:

...and in situ:

Works well enough while stationary; test will be whether its any better when moving and through speakers added inside my helmet.

Update - doesn't like iPhone headphones - the vocals almost always drop out, better response on the helmet speakers though. I suspect the circuit needs some audio quality capacitors and/or some adjustment in capacitor value. If the radio is outputting certain freqs. on the -ve vs +ve speaker lines then its a whole other problem.

It's probably the issue of having to use chassis ground in the first place - at a probable completely different potential to the audio outputs.

Update - in the process of replacing this circuit with a specific amp.

Update - re-created the bezel in formica so its non conductive and can use a metal case socket.

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