So after my exams are over, I was pretty bored. I have about 3 and 1/2 weeks to kill before I start work in January. The commute to my new work place is about 40~50 min in rush hour and my poor old Tercel has no car stereo! I've been using my iPod with one earphone on for the past few years that I drive my car. So I've decided to do a little project of my own -- design a car stereo!

I took apart an old pair of computer speakers I had (about 12 years old). I examined the circuitry and found that it was simple enough to be removed from its speaker casing. The existing speakers were too small to fit inside my car's speaker hole so I needed a bigger one. Luckily, I had a large old-school speaker case which housed the tweeter, mid-size and bass speakers. I took the mid-size speakers, hooked it up to the circuitry and found the quality to be acceptable. Real audiophiles will stop here and complain about poor impedance matching and damping factor. Fortunately, I am not an audiophile -- I primarily need this stereo to entertain myself only. A few more tests showed that the existing circuitry can drive the larger speakers fairly well, even with the supply voltage fluctuating.

Next, I fitted the speakers into my car's speaker hole and, although not a perfect match, I did not need any screws to hold it in securely. There were existing wires running throughout the car, so I also saved on wiring.

Finally, I removed all the circuitry that was once inside the computer speaker and popped them inside a small paper box I found. After poking a few holes and attaching some screws, I have the new control unit for the car stereo. To my surprise, this box fits perfectly into my car's radio slot. A few more wiring and I was done and ready to roll!

The overall sound quality was decent, and the volume can be cranked up really loud. I took it out for a test drive and everything was working smoothly.

Total cost: $0. All old parts are found at home.



This is the box after it is installed into the car.


With my iPod video hooked up to it playing "Bad Day". Ironically, it was a good day.


A close up view of the connectors and buttons. There is even an LED!