The BrainStomp Blog Tech for your small business

     First of all - credit where credit is due. I did not come up with this, I found the original project at iPodWizard.net, the reason I am creating this how-to is because I had a terrible time finding this data originally. That said - on with the show.

     I have tried about a half a dozen iPod FM transmitters, NONE of which delivered what I wanted; clean, clear, crisp sound with minimal to no static. The best one of the lot was the Monster iCarPlayPlus but it still fell short of the target. So I set off to find a way to improve it. I knew that someone far smarter and far more creative than me must have done it by now, so began the search. After much time spent looking at things that mentioned the iCarPlayPlus but did not contain a proper modification or hack for the device I found one at iPodWizard.net. I made this mod on my first device and never put the case back on it, when I finally decided to put the case on I must have crimped a power cable or something because my unit went up in smoke. Seeing as I was going to do the modification/hack all over again because of the tremendous gains that I saw with it I figured that I mind as well document it and write this up.

     This write up assumes you have the iCarPlayPlus, some cable (I used a strand from a piece of Cat V), a soldering iron, a small drill bit (1/16" or 1.58mm for me), a couple of extra hands and the patience to do this kind of stuff.

     The disclaimer mumble jumble - I and BrainStomp are in no way resposible for what you do with this information. This process can damage your equipment, burn you, make you blind, give you lead poisoning, yada, yada, yada - Do this at your own risk, if you dare, but don't come complaining to me if something goes wrong. You are a big boy or big girl take responsibility for your own actions. Are we clear? Great.

     So we begin by opening the case of the device. This thing is only held together by some glue. If you use a small flat blade screw driver and just glide it along the seam where the two parts come together it will come apart soon enough. Take your time, be gentle, don't mess up the finish because you will want this to look good when you put it back together right? FWIW I used the bottle opener/flat blade on my Gerber multi tool.

     Next, we carefully take this thing apart. Be careful those 3 red buttons are loose in there, do not loose them in the carpet/room, you will need them later.

     Next, cut yourself a piece of cable. I used a strand from a length of Cat V cable. You can use any solid 22 or 24 gage cable. The strand I cut was 34 inches. The final product will be 30 inches but I wanted to give myself some room to screw this up without having to cut a whole new cable.

     Ok, now it is time to do some reading on the original document, on page 4 of the original PDF you are going to find the location you will need to solder to get this antenna on. The picture here is the detail of that area. You will need a low power soldering iron for this. These are surface mount components and they take very tiny tips to work on and any large amount of heat could burn up a component. So you will need to work very skillfully and fast. I used a Radio Shack 15w iron with the smallest tip they had for it. I started by heating the iron and letting it get to temperature. Then I warmed up my new antenna by touching the tip of the iron to the exposed copper for few seconds, long enough for me to feel the heat by holding the antenna about 1 inch from the end of the cable's exposed end. Next, you will likely need the help of a couple of extra hands to hold the components down while you solder. So get that trusty assistant to hold the cable in place, you then touch the tip of the iron to the cable 's exposed end. This will heat up the cable and the contact point at the same time while making the cable a heat sink to prevent you from overheating the surface mount component. Once your assistant can't hold that cable in place any longer because of the heat traveling up the antenna cable - then use the solder on the iron and let just enough get to the cable. Take the iron off and make your assistant hold that cable in place till the solder is solid, it will only take a couple of seconds or so. The hard part is now done.Make sure you do this according to the instructions on the PDF. I messed up the first time I did this and had to go back and add more solder to make a connection with the pad that is the antenna lead. BTW - the pictures in this write up are prior to me fixing the lack of solder to get both pads. Taking the case appart is much easier with the factory glue than with super-glue.

     Now make a tiny hole for your antenna cable to exit the unit. Make this hole as close as possible to where the antenna soldering point is. I used a 1/16th bit by hand to make the hole. It doesn't take much time and I think it is cleaner than using a power drill.

     Make a knot about 1/2 inch from the solder point on the antenna cable this will serve as a safety mechanism in case the antenna gets pulled or tugged. The knot will keep the stress at the case and keep it from the soldering point.

     Thread the antenna cable though the hole on the case and put the case back together. Be careful not to pinch any of wires. I used some super glue to hold it together.

     Next I used some black parachute cord to encase the antenna cable to make it look better. You don't need to do this but it makes a difference in the looks of the device in your car. I measured 30 inches of cable and made a sharp bend on the cable itself. After that I made a knot on one end of the para-cord, on the other end I selected a single strand and attached my cable to it with a square knot on the strand and a couple of twists on the cable. Then I trimmed the excess cable from the antenna. I fished the antenna cable though the para-cord using the strand by pulling on the end that has the knot on it. after the cable was mostly all in then I took the knot off to allow the strands to be taken out of the para-cord. I burnished both ends very carefully with a lighter and super-glued the end next to the device against the case.

     The mounted hardware takes the antenna vertical and hangs it from the rear view mirror.