MAKE reader Al sent in this fm signal boosting mod for the nano iTrip – “If your like me you have purchased an fm transmitter for you ipod with dreams of wirelessly transmit your tunes to your car stereo or home stereo. Well these things do work, but generally reception is a problem,.. you end up having to have the unit close to the receiver or will sound like garbage, or not even pick up at all. This hack is for the Griffin Itrip Nano version. The concept of this hack will work on any of these FM transmitters, but this is for the nano version because it offers a hand way to connect the antenna extension… usb.” [via] – Link.
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I’m sure the poster had the best intentions — but
this is amazingly ignorant. Sure, it looks cool to
have a coax connector sticking out from your ipod,
but this so bogus. Where do I even start?
1. the 75ohm to 300ohm device isn’t a “splitter”, its
a “matching transformer”, or just “transformer”.
2. there is no point in shorting out both terminals
on the 300ohm side of the transformer and then hooking
it to a piece of coax — once you’ve shorted the two
leads together, you’ve just turned the whole thing
into a badly connected single piece of wire. The
coax isn’t even ELECTRICALLY CONNECTED to the ipod
when you do this!
3. instead of all this bother, just hook a random
length of ANY wire (telephone wire, cat-5, line cord,
hell, even coat hanger) to the usb plug, and wave
that lead (an antenna, really) around until your
reception improves.
4. Rather than hooking this “antenna” to ANY wire in
the USB connector, why not try to find out WHICH WIRE
is the actual antenna connection ? (This assumes that
the antenna connection comes out on the USB cable).
Of course, if the antenna connection is only present
inside the unit, and you don’t want to open it up,
then just hooking the antenna up to some random
connection will be the best you can do, but that will
be pretty hit or miss.
Here are previous reference articles that solve the
same problem correctly:
Si Link Transmitter mod
http://mypage.iu.edu/~bschank/Si-Link/Si-Link.htm
Belkin Transmitter mod http://mypage.iu.edu/~bschank/Tunecast2/tunecast2mod.htm
and modestly, I submit:
my mod for the Radio Shack transmitter
http://www.casano.com/fm-transmitter-hack/index.html
(And yes, I know the links look stupid (at least they do in the preview.)
I have a Griffin “Rocket” and the mod couldn’t be simpler….pop the case halves open with your thumbnail, bend the antenna wire out so that it sticks out the “nose” and pop the case halves back together. Your “Rocket” now has a 4″ wire coming out the nose.
Doubled the range instantly.
Just as an FYI for the next one, it’s voila, not walla.
http://www.answers.com/voila
Has anyone read the review on iLounge? They mention several times that just plugging in a USB cable boosts transmission clarity and strength, so that seems to confirm this hack—and offers an easier alternative. I don’t know if it is better. I imagine that would depend on length of USB cable used, how it is positioned, quality, shielding, etc. And, of course, variables in how the hack above is specifically executed. But they might all be very close, too. I really don’t know.
Here is the link: http://backstage.ilounge.com/index.php/ipod/review/griffin-technology-itrip-fm-transmitter-for-ipod-nano-ipod/
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