[V8] Radio Dead-Sort Of

[dsaad at icehouse.net]

Well...

I guess I will have to step up and support Blaupunkt a little.
I have replaced many a volume control in car stereos in my previous life as a
car stereo fixer/installer guy. The problem is not so much the quality of the
part as it is the amount of use it gets - due to the no ACC position of the
ignition switch. I bet you would find a similar complaint on any car with this
(stupid) style of ignition switch.

Like any mechanical part, the more you use it, the sooner it is used up. A
volume control relies on mechanical contact of a wiper to resistance material,
and over time you actually wear through the resistance material - resulting in a
noisy switch, and just plain old mechanical wear eventually takes out the on/off
part.

If you want to avoid this, wire up the radio to the key - but you can't do this
with the Blau in its stock form or you will have to take it out of safe mode
everytime you turn the car off..

For the masochistically inclined, it is possible to make your Blau work almost
like a real radio, but it takes a lot of effort. First, you have to rewire the
head unit to have a "battery" wire and an "ignition" wire. It was not hard for
me since I used to do this stuff every day, but it requires sugery and soldering
on a circuit board.

If you just want to hook up to the key switch you are done here, but I went
further and tapped into the retained power relay (RPR). That required making an
electronic relay with a delay in it - I can't remember the exact reason why at
the moment, but I spent WAY too much time on it. Something about masking a short
glitch in the RPR.


Dave

Quoting Bill Hitzler <bhitzler at kpbsd.k12.ak.us>:

> I think Steve has this one pegged. The volume switches SUCK. You may get
> some reprieve though as long as it's still coming on occasionally. Caig,
> the makers of De-oxit also make something specifically to clean and
> lubricate cheesy plastic volume switches. Seems like a good idea to take
> the radio out and spritz some of this stuff in there once or twice a year.
> The website may be www.caig.com. Good Luck, Bill
>
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