DIY Car radio replacement

myminifactory

I live in an area where there's always a chance that your car radio will get stolen, and unfortunately, it happened to me more than once. Restoring my car after the damage was not cheap, so I started looking for solutions to prevent this from happening again. That's when I discovered removable fronts on some car radios - the idea being that without them, the radio itself has no value, making it less likely to be stolen. However, I found out that over time, the connections between the radio and the removable front can deteriorate, causing issues every time you try to use your radio. This was a problem I encountered with all my previous car radios. Another issue I had was with the features that took control of my radio via the FM ether - suddenly, music would stop because of an "important announcement" on the radio, which really annoyed me. To be honest, I don't even listen to the radio; I only use it as a medium for playing MP3s from USB sticks. So, I decided to replace my car radio with something that wouldn't be desirable for thieves and would keep working over time - something that could withstand speed bumps, literally! I have a smartphone that doubles as an MP3 player, an old amplifier, and a cheap Bluetooth module that costs only 6 euros. With this setup, my phone can automatically connect to the amplifier. The only thing left was a way to hold these components together and replace my car radio with it. My idea was to create a panel that would cover a hole in the dashboard, complete with buttons for switching between amplifier, Bluetooth, and power using an LM317 voltage regulator. There's also a button for selecting between analogue and Bluetooth input to the amplifier. The LM317 powers both the phone and the Bluetooth module. I even included a clip to secure my phone in place. If someone were to steal this setup, I wouldn't lose any money because I already had these parts lying around - they weren't being used anyway!