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JEEP BLUETOOTH RADIO HACK FOR A TJ JEEP
HOMEBREW  FEBRUARY 6, 2017 PARKER  7 COMMENTS
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MOTORING 

I have been working on my old 1999 TJ Jeep and I always wanted to have Bluetooth connectivity in for the stereo. I
PINBALL  could have bought an after market head unit but I never really liked the look of them and they tend to be easily stolen
out of the Jeep (softtop!). The stock head unit matches the dash and is less likely to be taken. Thus the solution was to
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hack in a Bluetooth module into the radio!

OUTBOUND LINKS

BenHeck
EEWeb
Kraft Research Lab
LHE RSS FEED
MacroFab, Inc.
Retroactive
Tymkrs

First I bought a used radio on ebay. Part number for the radio was P56038933AB and I was able to pick one up for $25
CHANGE LOG as I wanted to keep my radio functional in the Jeep till I got the Bluetooth working. Then I picked this module on
Select Month amazon. I chose this module as it had a wide input voltage, every single connection and signal was brought out to a
header, and it had good reviews.

META Next I opened the radio. It had T15 Torx (jeep thing :| ) machine screws that held it all together. Took it apart all the
way to the bare radio.
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Next to gure out how to get the Bluetooth signal injected into the radio! Most people that do these kind of hacks
just blindly poke around the radio till they nd and audio signal and then inject there. This is ne but I wanted to make
sure I was getting the best audio quality out of my cheap Bluetooth module and early 90’s designed, base model head
unit. I also wanted to keep the volume knob on the radio functional. This meant injecting the Bluetooth signal in the
circuit before the power ampli ers and before it was gained for volume.

To gure out where to inject the audio. I rst wrote down all the IC Manufactures, Part numbers, and Package size.
Clicking the links will show an image of the IC.

Part Number Manufacture Package

SC433377CB 04827914AB Motorola DIP-42

4652138 022AZ9836 ST Microelectronics DIP-42

04744263 Motorola DIP-28

04231192AA Philips TO-220-13

Next I started searching for stuff like “ST Audio DIP42” into google. After nding promising datasheets, I then
veri ed their pinouts buy tracing the power and ground sources in the radio. Here is the cross reference of what I was
able to nd. I also found this interesting PDF which is a early 90’s listing for ST Micro parts. I was able to nd the
TDA7340S IC with it.

Part Number I/C Cross Reference

SC433377CB 04827914AB Probably a 6800 series MCU

4652138 022AZ9836 TDA7340S

04744263 MC13022A

04231192AA TDA8947J

The IC that does the sound muxing, volume, and tone control is the TDA7340S and I gured this would be the best
place to inject the Bluetooth audio signal.

Above is the block diagram. After the audio mux the signal travels to an external effects loop which consists of in
series 1uF electrolytic capacitors. Then the audio signal travels into the volume and tone control parts. Perfect! If I
inject the audio right before the capacitors I will retain the volume and tone control of the radio.

I thought about using the unused PHONE IN and then using a MCU to sniff the I2C buss and inject the right
commands to switch it to that input but gured that would be more work then just injecting in the effects loop.

The next part is to make sure the signal from the Bluetooth adapter is compatible with what the TDA7340S is
expecting. At max volume on my phone the Bluetooth adapter outputs a ~50mV DC offset signal with a ~1.7V to
~1.9V Pk-Pk. The signal in the effects loop was 4.65V DC offset signal with a 800mV Pk-Pk.

Bluetooth Module output at max volume.

Output of the TDA7340S effects loop. This would need to be matched to ensure compatibility.

Since these signals are different I needed to adjust the signal of the Bluetooth adapter. I would need to apply a DC
offset and then negative gain the signal from the Bluetooth signal. The opamp circuit below should do the trick. The
feedback circuit is set to half gain and by applying half of VCC (via a voltage divider) to the other input of the opamp
we can DC offset the signal.

I tested it by having my phone play a tone via a tone generator app called “Frequency Sound Generator”. Signal below.

The input is in red and the output is in yellow. Signal now matches closely to what the TDA7340S expects their to be in the effects loop!

Then to switch between the TDA7340S signal and the Bluetooth signal I found an analog switch IC made by Maxim,
MAX4544CSA+. The opamp I decided to use was a AZ4558C. I decided to use it because it is a decent audio amp and
fairly inexpensive. Lastly, since its stereo we need to double everything. Below is the schematic and layout I did in
Eagle.

The les for the board can be found on my github. I uploaded the les to MacroFab and ordered the board.

I then soldered the board into the radio. I desoldered one leg of the the effects loop 1uF caps which are designators
C112 and C113, then soldered hook up wire on the legs of the capacitors and into the hole in the PCB. The power for
the Bluetooth module is pulled from the bottom of the radio. To switch the audio from the TDA7340S to the
Bluetooth the input of the MAX4544CSA+ is pulled up. A switch on the dash will be used for this. See image below
for how everything is hooked up.

Power for the Bluetooth module.

Then I tested the radio and made a video.

And then installed it into the Jeep!

CATEGORIES: 1999 TJ JEEP, JEEP BLUETOOTH RADIO, MOTORING

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7 THOUGHTS ON “JEEP BLUETOOTH RADIO HACK FOR A TJ JEEP”

rafael
FEBRUARY 22, 2017 AT 1:30 AM

Hi, nice writup, thanks.

I did something very similar in my car audio, but found a problem that when audio volume in var was set louder
(not loud, but let’s say 40%) AND BT module was not connected, or just was not playing anything, you could
hear “power supply” noises . Of course when music appeared, it was not noticeable , but annoying anyway.
I found that applying isolated DC DC converter completely solved all noises problem…

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Jerry
FEBRUARY 22, 2017 AT 2:16 AM

Nice, I have the same exact deck in my neon, I may have to do this.

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Adam Davis
MARCH 27, 2017 AT 5:51 PM

Thanks so much for this tutorial! I recently added an aux port to a ford pioneer radio and wanted to do the
same to my dodge intrepid. The pioneer was a straight forward job as there was a r and l output directly from
the tuner. The dodge, however, used mpx output. My radio uses a 28pin chip audio processor made by ST. With
this tutorial I was able to locate the oit puts and capacitors (although in my case they are smd caps.) Tests have
been successful tapping into this circuit and I will be completing the project tonight.

 REPLY

Adam Davis
MARCH 29, 2017 AT 4:02 PM

Well, it turns out it wasn’t as simple as expected. The chip in my radio is a TDA8461N. This chip places the
effects loop after all the tone and volume controls. I can injecr audio there, but only at a xed (or variable by
the device being used) volume level. The volume knob on the radio is useless with that setup. Therefore, the
experimentation continues…

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Adam Davis
MARCH 29, 2017 AT 5:27 PM

Correction.. chip is a TDA7461N.

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txlonghorn
AUGUST 15, 2017 AT 2:19 PM

very nice!! i am hacking an OEM chrysler deck(p56038933ab) for portable 4channel aux/bluetooth capable
box.

16d21h45m to 2017 kickoff

All th live long day!!!

HOOK’EM!!!!

 REPLY

Marcio Ferreira
FEBRUARY 25, 2019 AT 6:28 AM

Could you use the “paired” come from the bt module to automatically switch from radio audio signal to the
Bluetooth one? It’s strange to think that you made a hacking to transform your 90s set to a wireless audio
player using… wires and a switch!

 REPLY

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