'Car' radio/CD/MP3 for downstairs.

[Stemar]

There's a radio/CD/SD card/USB machine in my local Aldi at the moment. If I hadn't just spent rather more than I really wanted to afford just after Christmas on a dinghy & trailer, I'd probably have pensioned off the old CD player on the boat.

I certainly wouldn't waste money on a marine job unless it's going outside. Old boats probably aren't any damper than old cars, likewise new ones. To my mind, if your radio dies of damp, the damp is the problem that needs to be addressed, not the radio.

 

[exfinnsailor]

Just fitted one

On reflection a CD player is probably unnecessary, and if it could run from a USB stick or an ipod, that makes it pretty much a solid state unit, with no moving parts to wear, or pull in salty air.

As to battery drain when not being used, considering these things can sit in parked cars for weeks on end, and not suck all the sparks from a smallish auto battery, being permanently wired into a boat's domestic bank shouldn't pose a problem, surely?

Just fitted a FUSION unit .. Brilliant .. Not cheap but the best things in life never are .. You can put your IPOD inside it and the controls on the front do the rest .. Good sound .. Does not use any power when not in use and it remembers all the settings .. No Traffic Anouncements that we always had to remember to turn off ..

Australian Company .. Try Gooogle .. As I said not cheap but GOOD ..

 

[noelex]

On reflection a CD player is probably unnecessary, and if it could run from a USB stick or an ipod, that makes it pretty much a solid state unit, with no moving parts to wear, or pull in salty air.

As to battery drain when not being used, considering these things can sit in parked cars for weeks on end, and not suck all the sparks from a smallish auto battery, being permanently wired into a boat's domestic bank shouldn't pose a problem, surely?

There are 2 levels of disconnect in car audio player
+ Supply and ignition wire on = unit on or off. It can still consume significantly when off
+ Supply on ignition off = unit off and low power consumption
+ Supply off ignition off= unit off and no power consumption

For the unit to work on a boat you need to connect the ignition wire. If you don’t switch this ignition wire off (just switching the player itself off). On some units the power consumption can be significant.
This residual drain doesn’t effect car batteries because the ignition is always off when the car is left. For a boat, for low power consumption on many units, you need to disconnect (with a separate switch) this ignition wire. Given that you need a switch you might as well make it disconnect everything if you want the lowest consumption, or leave the + attached and retain the settings with only very low consumption.
The message is if you don’t switch the ignition wire off, on some units (not all), you have a significant power drain even if the player is "off"

For my Alpine unit the results are
Player On 0.5A
Player Off ignition and + supply on 0.09A
Player Off ignition off +supply on 0.005
Player Off ignition off +supply off 0A

 

[Searush]

Another vote for old car radios. I used one off a car I scrapped. It was old when I took it out of the car - 15 years ago. But it has LW for the forecasts (& cricket). However, I don't want music on the boat so sound quality isn't that important - I prefer Radio 4 when relaxing.

 

[electrosys]

If you want a REALLY cheap solution ....

Lay your hands on an old Car Radio Cassette Player - if the Cassette part doesn't work too well due to stretched drive bands (and perhaps therefore FREE), so much the better.

Buy a Cassette-to-3.5mm-plug adapter from Ebay - all of £1.20 (delivered) from China. How do they do it ?

Then simply plug in your portable MP3 player or CD player (for which I just paid £2 and £3 respectively, ex-Ebay).
Reproduction is very fair, considering, and zero battery drain when not used. MP3 player uses 1 x AAA, and CD Player 2 x AA.

Virtually no money involved at all.

 

[Sinc]

Aerials?

Hope it's OK to ask a supplementary here?

What do you use for an aerial for the CD/Radio. Saw someone had mentioned a splitter - does that affect VHF (comms) quality? - or is there some other solution?

thanks, Graham

 

[fireball]

Hope it's OK to ask a supplementary here?

What do you use for an aerial for the CD/Radio. Saw someone had mentioned a splitter - does that affect VHF (comms) quality? - or is there some other solution?

thanks, Graham

We just put in a bog standard Halfords antenna - in the tall locker behind the nav table ... reception is adequate ...

I would not, under any circumstance, go for a VHF splitter ... I know they are supposed to be good with failsafes etc etc, but in an emergency I want to KNOW that the cabling is not going to be an issue.

 

[Sinc]

We just put in a bog standard Halfords antenna - in the tall locker behind the nav table ... reception is adequate ...

I would not, under any circumstance, go for a VHF splitter ... I know they are supposed to be good with failsafes etc etc, but in an emergency I want to KNOW that the cabling is not going to be an issue.

Yes - that's what I was worrying about - I don't like the idea of messing with the mast head one.

Thanks

 

[Twister_Ken]

Mine's now being fitted (went for this - no moving parts), with a bog standard car aerial tucked into a behind-settee locker. Haven't had the chance to try it yet, but Mr Sparks is sure it'll work on FM but doesn't hold out much hope for AM.

 

[Kittyhawk]

Yes, been there, done that also

Mine's now being fitted (went for this - no moving parts), with a bog standard car aerial tucked into a behind-settee locker. Haven't had the chance to try it yet, but Mr Sparks is sure it'll work on FM but doesn't hold out much hope for AM.

I used a little stubby helical wound car aerial when I did mine many eons ago... it tucked in behind the radio ISTR. Worked fine.

 

[planteater]

Hope it's OK to ask a supplementary here?

What do you use for an aerial for the CD/Radio. Saw someone had mentioned a splitter - does that affect VHF (comms) quality? - or is there some other solution?

thanks, Graham

I made up a 7m extension cable and fitted a standard rubber car radio aerial on the pulpit. Works much better than hiding it in a locker.

 

[Quandary]

I made up a 7m extension cable and fitted a standard rubber car radio aerial on the pulpit. Works much better than hiding it in a locker.

How did you do this, most car aerials seem to depend on being earthed to the metal bodywork, doesn't seem to work with grp. I can get FM but little else.

 

[Abraxas33]

Go for car radio

Yet another vote for car radio's and quite possibly an arial that is not too high. On Abraxas I fitted a spare VHF arial on the mizzen - great reception but when it was hit (or a near miss) by lightening the display got fried. Cheap to replace though.

 

[gasdave]

There are 2 levels of disconnect in car audio player
+ Supply and ignition wire on = unit on or off. It can still consume significantly when off
+ Supply on ignition off = unit off and low power consumption
+ Supply off ignition off= unit off and no power consumption

For the unit to work on a boat you need to connect the ignition wire. If you don’t switch this ignition wire off (just switching the player itself off). On some units the power consumption can be significant.
This residual drain doesn’t effect car batteries because the ignition is always off when the car is left. For a boat, for low power consumption on many units, you need to disconnect (with a separate switch) this ignition wire. Given that you need a switch you might as well make it disconnect everything if you want the lowest consumption, or leave the + attached and retain the settings with only very low consumption.
The message is if you don’t switch the ignition wire off, on some units (not all), you have a significant power drain even if the player is "off"

For my Alpine unit the results are
Player On 0.5A
Player Off ignition and + supply on 0.09A
Player Off ignition off +supply on 0.005
Player Off ignition off +supply off 0A

Just for clarification as I will also be installing an Alpine unit bought off ebay, where would you wire the ignition line (with it's separate switch) to and where would the + go to?

Apologies if this seems a silly question!!!!!!

 

[noelex]

The yellow ignition wire must be connected to the + supply (as well as the red +power supply wire) for the unit to work.
Put a switch between the + supply and the ignition wire.

To switch the unit on the unit has to recieve power and the above ignition switch needs to be on.
Hope this clarifies.

 

[Mavis]

If I could just add a question to this thread.

I have also bought a car radio and need an aerial for it. I have a VHF antenna at the top of my mast for the VHF radio, and a seperate VHF antenna on the aft pulpit for my AIS Engine. While I do not want to interfere with the VHF radio and antenna arrangement the thought occured to me that as the AIS engine only receives and does not transmit, would it not be possible to simply hook up a simple (tv) coax Y splitter to the cable and share this antenna with the car radio. This rather than paying thirty odd squid for the special marine spitter from Pacific. I ran this by the tech people at Nasa Marine and they just said give it a go!!.

Has anyone tried this?