Controlling a bluetooth receiver with inputs from a cassette deck

Projects General Guidance
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Hello all. I have a slight pipe dream idea for a Bluetooth cassette adapter for my car... Brief backstory is that I have one that works, but short battery life, poor audio quality, and lack of controls turned me off of it to the point that I went back to my wired adapter.

Regarding battery and audio quality, I'll resolve both of those by using power from the car directly, and by using a good quality receiver. the controls are where the Arduino comes in. The factory radio has controls for music playback (play/pause, fast forward/reverse) all of which physically effect the speed of the cassette. So what if I used a sensor to determine the speed of the spindle, interpreted that signal with an Arduino, and then sent those signals to the receiver? So like, if the spindle starts/stops then play/pause the music, if it it travels above X speed, skip song, etc...

I am definitely a novice when it comes to Arduino. I started learning maybe two years ago, but without an end goal outside of learning, I struggle with motivation. I thought an actually useful project like this one would be a good way for me to get back into it. But being a relative novice, I dont know if something like this is quite difficult, or even impossible with the hardware.

For components I would probably use my wired cassette adapter I already have (or 3D print a new case that fits the tape head inside of it.) I would need to find a bluetooth adapter that has simple voltage inputs for play/pause and other functions (though maybe there is a better/different way to do that?) and I would need some kind of speed sensor for control input. If anyone has suggestions on those, that would be appreciated.

Any thoughts? Sorry for typing basically my whole life story lol. I couldn't find any previous topics regarding this idea here or elsewhere, but if there is an existing thread feel free to point it out instead of writing the same thing again. I feel like there is no way this is a new idea, and it is probably the current poor state of the internet that is keeping me from information lol... but who knows? Maybe I'm just a visionary :wink: And let me know if there is any more information I can provide.

Thanks so much. -Micah

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You... make a good point lmao. This is my problem with making crap, that I tend to overcomplicate things. and if I am tearing down the stereo enough to get to the switches, I could probably just cut out the tape head and run a line in directly. One less point of failure (and one less for me to screw up :slight_smile: )

Any thoughts on a bluetooth receiver I could control with an Arduino? I haven't found one yet.

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I did not know that. I was looking for a different receiver I could control with one. that is very good to know, will check it out

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In my mind I'm looking for a unit I can connect to my phone and then stream audio. preferably with an analog line level output that I can run straight into the head unit in my car. but even if it is purely digital, I wouldn't be against buying a separate DAC as well. I didn't see anything like that on the Arduino site... there are tons of options on sites like Parts Express and Amazon, but none that I have found seem to have inputs to be controlled by a separate device. many have extra pins but idk what they are used for, since they often aren't labeled.

I'll keep looking for tutorials and options. Unfortunately the current state of the web is pretty poor which makes it hard to find what your looking for. it is definitely still out there though. just gotta dig through all the sites that play the search algorithms.

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Something similar to that would definitely work, but that's more or less where I'm already at with the cassette adapter. I'd like to have something powered by the car so it would turn on and off with the radio and I wouldn't have to charge it, and I'd like to be able to steal the signal from the switches on my radio so that I could control it without using my phone.

That said that receiver would probably fix the audio quality issues I'm having. My bluetooth cassette adapter is what you call, "hot garbage", so it sounds like such :wink: Thanks for the recommendation! If I can't find a receiver board I'll probably order one of those and call it good :slight_smile:

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