Radio solution with RDS & TA (TMC possible)

**ReflexNPG** · 07-22-2007, 01:00 PM

Hi,

just if somebody is interested here my radio solution - its build by my friend.

How does it work?
The Blaupunkt radio communicates with the front panel over a bus - SPI. Its possible to listen on this bus (so all info between master and panel is available). To control the radio it would be possible to put messages on the bus, but we prefered to use the remote controler interface of the radio. This interface only provides basic functionality, but its quit enough for my needs.
The radio is now integrated into my frontend (Carmen - Beta Testversion).

Advantages are:
- high quality car tuner (Blaupunkt are one of the best)
- Radio still usable without computer running
- Radio is controllable via car computer
- Easy 2 use serial interface
- Information from the radio is available for computer (RDS, TA, Frequ, etc)
- good chance for extracting TMC (will be implemented in the next month)
- very low price

Used parts:
- Blaupunkt radio
- Pic 16F873
- serial 2 usb interface
- some small parts and cable

c ya
Reflex

**FMode** · 07-24-2007, 05:26 AM

If the µC is not on the frontpanel try to shut him down (and hope that there is no crap inside it like PLL, RDS Decoder... I have seen some of these bull**** µC in such radios).
If you are intercepting the communication to the frontpanel you are only a "visitor" of the radio instead of the boss...

More questions look here:
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/hard...-rds-rdbs.html

**ReflexNPG** · 07-24-2007, 08:09 AM

@FMode:
why i should shut down the µC?
I want 2 use the radio witout car computer also...and i can control the main functions with the remote connector of the radio (its all described in the first post).

Most important feature is 2 get the TA info and to pause the media on the car computer and to extract the TMC data.

In your project its a different approach and more complicated i think. You sell it 4 50-120 Euros - i payed 5€ for the radio and 10€ for the rest. I can use the standard line-in 4 the car computer and my radio has a 4x20 watt amplifier and lbnl i dont see support 4 TMC in your project.

**FMode** · 07-24-2007, 09:23 AM

what ? another "master" besides the carpc in the car ? this isn't a good idea (IMHO!)

"TMC" are Groups 3A and 8A from the RDS Datastream - they just need to be decoded+interpreted...
Or does this radio show you TMC messages in its display ?

And my Grundig HU project has "gone to court" - I paid for 50 radios which I never got so I went to court and won (and got my money back)

**ReflexNPG** · 07-24-2007, 09:57 AM

2 masters? No, but the radio is intelligent and takes of some work from the carpc - so if you want TA you just enable it on the radio and if there is one during mp3 playback, the car pc will pause and after TA resume. You can select the source on the radio or with pc, its even possible 2 turn off the radio with the pc. The radio will also tune autonomous to a channel with rds and tp.

The rds info is already parsed by the radio, so we can read the bytes directly. For the tmc info, we will prepare the rds stream (which can be read out on one pin of the radio controller) with an additional µC.

Is your hardware compatible with other hardware? I think, that our solution is applicable on most Blaupunkt radios, cause we use only the SPI bus.

I'm glad, that you got your money back 4 the radios and i hope you could sell some...