OK, so I have a portable CD player, and I’m curious if there’s anything around better than this:
http://www.camcor.com/cgi-bin/cat/id=1059752127
I basically want to transmit a signal from the cd player to anywhere in my house – I don’t think the above product would cover that range – does anyone have any experience with any products like this?
FM transmitters generally work well–when the receiver is within range. That they don’t say what the range is makes me not want to buy it. Are you any good with electronics? I’ve thought about trying to build this transmitter. It doesn’t look that hard.
There are any number of products already on the market that do this. Especially for mp3 players like the iPod. Check an electronics/geek store.
This is a subject near and dear to my heart!
Since you are talking about a portable CD player, perhaps my solution might not be what you are looking for (because of cost), but here goes…
My FM transmitter has changed the whole way I deal with my music collection – I can queue up a mess of good Rock and listen on an FM Walkman while cutting the grass. I can put on some classical music for my wife, turning on several radios in the house. I play cool jazz in the evenings. Now that jukebox music is accessible anywhere in my house, I am rapidly ripping my entire CD collection to MP3.
Here is the unit I chose:
Ramsey FM30
Advantages:
o The circuitry is much more advanced than you will find in any small kit or even one of those iPod transmitters.
o The tuner is rock solid. There is absolutely no drift.
o You don’t have to fiddle with screws or dip switches to tune; all of the settings such as frequency, output power, and the like are controlled from pushbuttons on the front.
o It’s designed to be left on all of the time.
o When I crank it up, I can still pick up the signal a couple of blocks away.
o It was kind of fun to solder the kit together.
Disadvantages:
o Maybe you don’t like soldering kits together.
o It was a bit pricey, at $200, but it was well worth every penny.
I had issues with hum and static from surrounding devices. After consulting Ramsey’s discussion groups, I found that the hum could be resolved by tossing the power supply that they give you and buying a true regulated power supply from Radio Shack. The static was resolved by carefully checking all of the connections and avoiding bumping the unit.
Kits like these fall under the fairly recent FCC Part 15 rules. Essentially, you can operate a transmitter like this without a license as long as you realize that you have absolutely zero rights to the airwaves: if you interfere with a licensed station, they win. Of course, there are many details to the regs, such as power levels and the like, but the general idea is to keep under the radar and you will be fine.
Now that I have this up and running, my next project will be to get the Linux server that holds my MP3s to do the jukebox work too. I’m currently using WinAmp on an XP box to play the music. Since I’m a Linux newbie, I’m having sound card issues, so that’ll have to wait.
Yeah, I know. But it’s always more fun to build your own.
I am pretty sure that I actually built this myself. You can order a kit from Jameco for like 15 bucks. It works pretty good, and is not very difficult to solder.
Now that I look more closely, you’d have to replace the microphone with an 1/8" stereo mini plug. Shouldn’t be that hard a replacement.
Maybe I’ll do it over Christmas. Borrow my dad’s old soldering iron.