Add an iPod input to many Volvo radios for $0

Post by **micah861** » 19 Oct 2009, 16:49

alright, i have my SC813 all appart, and all i have is a ribbon connector. There are no other wires that come off of the tape unit. Is the mod still possible?

bobbych · Post by **bobbych** » 14 Oct 2010, 00:56

i have succesfully managed to AUX have most volvo radio's. What differs in my mod, is that it REMOVES the tape deck all together, so there is no need for a dummy tape, and the sound is first class as it connects directly to the main board

have a look at my SC801 hack here

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=106676

now I have also done this to most other models so if you need help please ask

eld4au6 · Post by **eld4au6** » 29 Jul 2012, 00:47

sotka wrote:Ok, so I asked for some help in a Finnish forum too, and one poster came up with this picture: http://imgur.com/7AVr2.jpg
Red=right channel, white=left channel, black=ground... Just to help people who are about to do this mod

Thanks for that pic, worked perfectly on my '96 with the sc-815. I cut the wires off my old tape adaptor and just left it in the tape player. Sounds fantastic and has no issues with the tape flipping or ejecting.

Post by **rspi** » 05 Aug 2012, 14:32

I'm in the process of modding my SC-815. I was about to use the method above with the http://imgur.com/7AVr2.jpg image and connecting the wires to the back tape deck module board. Then I seen another thread that suggest connecting the wires to the board on top of the tape deck module...
https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... 2&start=14

Does anyone know which is better?

Post by **rspi** » 05 Aug 2012, 21:51

I have the thing working. However, I do have a problem. My droid cuts the headphone jack off when I pause the music or search for music. After being idle for about 5 seconds I hear a click. Then when I go to play music, it plays through the phone speaker instead of the stereo. I still have the wire plugged into the mod. I have to unplug the wire from the mod, then plug it back into the mod for it to start playing the music again.

The strange thing is, when the phone is NOT playing the music through the mod but through the phone speaker, I can unplug the cord from the phone and plug in the cassette adapter and the sound will switch to the stereo. But if I unplug the cord from the phone and plug it back into the phone, it will continue to play the music through the phone speaker. Real strange. Now I can unplug the cord from the mod adapter, then plug it back in and the music will transfer to the stereo, but if the tape in the player is playing, and the music is playing on the phone, I get a horriable feedback then the phone shuts off the sound again. So I have to pause the stereo tape, then plug in the cord to the mod adapter, then take the tape off of pause before I hear music through the stereo.

Hope that all makes sense. If anyone has any suggestions for me please chime in. The mod sound is better and has much deeper bass.

Post by **rspi** » 06 Aug 2012, 22:30

Well, I'm done with all 3 of my radios. I did the mod for the SC-813, SC-815, and SC-816. I had problems with the SC-816 because it would not work like the other two. I tried about 5 or 6 times, just would not work right so I switched the connection method and it finally worked out.

So, I soldered the 813 and 815 to the back board. The volume is standard and sound is very clear. Has better bass response. The level is standard, set at about 80% to be level with the cd and radio.

: Volvo 815 radio tape deck mod; solder-2.JPG (28.06 KiB) Viewed 2457 times

The 816 was soldered to the top board like in the picture below. The board was a little different so the ground was in the pin just above the joint in the photo. You really need a ohm meter to do this mod. The ground can be soldered to the chasy. The volume was on the loud side so I had to set my player to about 40% volume to be as level as the radio and cd player.

: Volvo 816 radio tape deck mod; solder-3.jpg (58.71 KiB) Viewed 2457 times

I'll do my own photo instructions and post them incase someone needs yet more instructions to do this.

As for my droid cutting off, well, it cuts off and back on as the music is about to play again, on the SC-816. If there is a 5 second pause in sound, I hear a low freq pop as my droid cuts sound from the cord, then another pop as it turns it back on. Kinda sucks but if music doesn't pause it I don't hear the pops. Quality is worth it.

orlando210 · Post by **orlando210** » 06 Aug 2012, 23:35

Hey rspi can you do a write up on the sc-816 and maybe some pics. I took off the top cover of the radio and I don't know where to begin with disconnecting the cd player to get to the tape player. If you can that would be great!

Post by **rspi** » 08 Aug 2012, 00:22

Here are my instructions: http://www.atthetipwebs.com/technologyi ... eo_mod.htm

I hope they help someone.

Post by **rspi** » 08 Aug 2012, 00:23

orlando210 wrote:Hey rspi can you do a write up on the sc-816 and maybe some pics. I took off the top cover of the radio and I don't know where to begin with disconnecting the cd player to get to the tape player. If you can that would be great!

Hi Orlando, welcome to the site.

geoduck · Post by **geoduck** » 09 Aug 2012, 10:09

Great write up! I just started digging into a way to get an mp3 player hooked up to my stereo. Nice to see fresh activity working on this with our older stereos.

Did you try using any resistors? I've seen them mentioned in some other posts for this mod.

rspi wrote:Here are my instructions: http://www.atthetipwebs.com/technologyi ... eo_mod.htm

I hope they help someone.

Bryan

Add an iPod input to many Volvo radios for $0

Re: Add an iPod input to many Volvo radios for $0