Howdy.

Is there any reason why I can't use a CD-ROM to play the CD-s in my car? I have a spare one lying around... I mean, it has the audio-out socket (duh!), and I checked - it can play audio cd-s in a computer with the "main" harness disconnected, just audio and power.

Is the car shaking on the road going to be a problem?

There are 2 voltages that are supposed to go to the device: 5V and 12V. What are these used for? Will I need the 5 volt one?

TIA

It wouldnt work. Your factory speakers have a wire harness that plugs +/- into each speaker...and if you have fac amps/pow antenna, it needs to be turned on by the unit.

Also, i dont think the signal coming out of a CD-ROM unit is amplified at all...so you would have no wattage to power the speakers...you wouldnt hear anything.

Probably doesnt have shock protection.

Suggestion: sell that for $10 and put it to a down payment on a cheap CD headunit :)

I was thinking about using it together with my existing tape head unit...

To be honest, it is far more hassle than it is worth.

You will need both a +5v (for the drive electronics) and a +12v (for the drive motor) power.

The shock protection isn't too bad, but it wouldn't cope with bumpy roads or eractic driving. There is no anti-shock memory or anything like that.

To be honest, it would be much better to either buy a CD headunit, or to get a portable CD player and use a 3.5mm jack to tape adapter.

The audio out from a CD-rom does not provide a usable audio signal.

You can test this by wiring it up to your computer speakers.


That audio plug actually goes to your motherboard's on board sound card/processor before sending the usable signal to your audio out port.

He isn't planning on using the CDROM drive to drive the speakers!

If you use a 3.5mm headphone jack in the headphone socket on the drive, and put the tape adapter in the existing headunit, then it would work.

But like I said, it is a bad idea in my opinion.

It would work but it would take a lot of work and probably wouldnt be worth it.

I see it as one of those things that would be really unique, and pretty cool if it worked as reliably as a normal car cd head unit. But thats not gonna happen. :D