Thread: Me experiences with the D-link USB radio

We don't have XM, only DAB, FM, AM & LW

DAB is a no go as it's difficult to build the interface to it.

Dlink FM is unusable, well in my setup anyway.

SharkRadio may be an option if it's available in the UK and PC drivers become available (currently MAC only).

PCI cards - what is supported by MediaCar/Radiator? Which card has good FM reception.

Craig

I'm on it .....just got my D-Link the other day, and yes the reception is ...eh.

But being an electrical engineer, they used a nice chip in this radio. It's a phillips semiconductor and has some nice features. First of which, it is capable of AM tuning. However, this would require software that supported it, and that's not something I'm good at. The DLL would have to be re-written as well.

Here is the datasheet for the Tuner built into the D-Link: http://www.semiconductors.philips.co...757_5759_3.pdf

Upon first glance the application circuit shows 2 capacitors and 1 inductor on the antenna output of the chip. However, in the D-Link application they have only used 1 capacitor (who knows if it's even the right value). It also shows on the datasheet that the input impedance for the antenna is 40 ohms. Sounds low but I'll look into it.

There's also some IF inputs/outputs to counter act interferance. So, I might see how to use these.

Anyone else ever "REALLY" tried playing with this thing?

I only rewired it to play with it.

I donno enough about low level electronics to start chaging the chips and caps. But if you tell me what to do, I can do it.

If you can figure out why it doesn't have good reception, that would be great. Is it possible the voltage that drives it, being that it's USB and can only use 0.5 amps?

I played with it a lot today and got the reception to work extremely well. I don't even need to have the antenna plugged in to get the powerful stations.

I replaced the inductor on the antenna circuit with a 0.1uF ceramic capacitor to act as a low pass filter on the antenna. It works good.

There's also an inductor in the D-Link that's supposed to counter-act interference but obviously it doesn't work too well. To compensate for this, I used wrapping wire (30 awg or so) to wrap around the already in there inductor.

This then acts as a second antenna. The 30 AWG connects to NOTHING, simply wraps around the inductor to transmit the RF to the interference circuit. The wire then comes out of the D-Link and currently is just hooked up to the 3rd ground in the wall.

I don't have my car so I can't test it in the car. If it works well then I'll post some pics to show what i did and which of the two inductors to wrap.

So far so good

really, i gotta try this.

Please post a how to and some pics so i can play too.

Okay ...here's a pic of the basics of what I did to get reception without an antenna.



The D-Link is kind of weird though, it seems like it has a warm up time where once it's on for a while it works 100%. But what I did definitely improves reception. I still have some issues with the D-Link though.

The output voltage is DEFINITELY low ....this is from the limited amplifying power (500mA MAX) available from the USB port. I'll probably add a little operational amplifier to the L and R outputs to boost it up. Currently I have to plug it into the MIC in and enable 20dB boost which is extreme.

I've also noticed that it seems like the frequency response is ....eh....marginal. Treble is fine, but it seems like it doesn't output any bass (70Hz and below maybe)

But reception wise, the D-Link is fine now for me. I get every station that I'd like and am able to pick up deleware stations (I'm in south jersey) just as well as my home stereo receiver without the antenna plugged in.

Who knows how it will work in the car ....

OK, this is really weird.

When I use MediaCar, I get Bass, when I don't I dont get bass with FM.
I think Media car uses some plugin to get it to play as a mp3.

The reception thing is what I'm concerned about.

I have two units, so, I'm gonan modify one asap.

I gotta fix my blown subwoofer first.

I added the 0.1uF cap and it made the reception quieter.
So I removed it.

Originally Posted by LESLIEx317537

I added the 0.1uF cap and it made the reception quieter.
So I removed it.

Was it an electrolytic?

You're actually supposed to use a 60nH inductor (surface mount). If you can grab one of those that's the real part to use. Inductors and capacitors are complete opposites, but for some reason it improved my reception so I just left it. Have u tried wraping the inductor in the pic?

Good luck finding that inductor btw