Making a Car Phone into Bluetooth

[spastik]

I recently finished my newest project. It took about 2 hours of work to put it together, and probably 20 min of brainstorming for ideas. Here it is.

Things Required:
Old school car phone - free (Thanks shenrie!)
Rechargeable Bluetooth Headset - $20 at Burlington Coat Factory (who knew they would have them??)
Soldering Iron
Solder
Switch
Multimeter (for testing wires and making sure there is continuity
100 Ohm resistor (Brown-Black-Brown-Gold) - For internal lights (LEDs)
Glue Gun
About 2 hours or less of time

To start off...

Here is a picture and video of the original phone without any hacks yet.
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j226/spastikthedj/carphone/carphone0.jpg

YouTube - Original Car Phone before Bluetooth Hax (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh3YhnlvP_s)

It is a Fujitsu Commander XL.

After testing it seeing how it worked, I began to rip it apart.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j226/spastikthedj/carphone/carphone1.jpg

Next, I took apart the Bluetooth headset to see what was inside. I suggest getting a Bluetooth headset that is rechargeable, so you dont waste money on batteries.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j226/spastikthedj/carphone/carphone2.jpg

I first started with figuring out what color wire from the RJ-45 jack went where. Both ends had different color configuration, so this is where i used my multimeter to find out what color on the female side, went to the other color on the male side.

I disconnected the Mic and the Speaker, since I will be using the ones on the car phone for it. I found what was positive and what was negative, then begun soldering.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j226/spastikthedj/carphone/carphone3.jpg

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j226/spastikthedj/carphone/carphone4.jpg

I now thought about placement of the headset, and where to mount the switch to control the lights. I decided to keep the casing on the headset since the button and light would have cause a pain to remove and install in a new location; instead i modded it to fit. The original Mic input on the car phone was a perfect spot for the switch.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j226/spastikthedj/carphone/carphone5.jpg

Here two more angles of where I am at in the project.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j226/spastikthedj/carphone/carphone6.jpg

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j226/spastikthedj/carphone/carphone7.jpg

I now started to work on the front lights of the project. I wanted them to turn on at night, or just when I would show off the phone. I first needed power that wouldnt drain the small headset battery. What is better than just using car power! So I ran wire (positive and negative) outside the casing and soon to hook up to spade connectors (since I will be able to remove it without cutting wire). I wired the lights to a positive and negative I made on the RJ-45 jack.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j226/spastikthedj/carphone/carphone8.jpg


I also realized if I ran full 12v on to this, the LEDs would only last a short while before going off. I added a 100 Ohm resistor in before the power went to the lights so that it acted like the original power source for the phone. I heatshrunk the resistor after soldering as well.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j226/spastikthedj/carphone/carphone9.jpg

I wrapped everything up with a little glue gun on the ends of the connections so that they wont accidentally touch, and on the headset so it wont fall out of place. The only downside to the way I did this is the charging slot it on the inside, so I have to take off 3 screws to charge it. It isnt that bad considering it lasts for about 8 hours before dieing.

Here is the final outcome and a video of it working!

ENJOY!

Brian aka Spastik

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j226/spastikthedj/carphone/carphone11.jpg

YouTube - Old School Car Phone with Bluetooth (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1iHT4Zo708)

[580z]

good deal, I have been looking for an old school phone to do something like this with......I need an old at&t brick if you know of one laying around......zack morris style........

[RunninWild]

that is rad. Wanna do this to the car phone in my lexus?

[microsteve40]

This is rad Brian! Is this the one you did a while back, or did you do another one?

[spastik]

same one, but this section is lacking threads

[Jserman]

you have WAY to much time on your hands....LOL....

[spastik]

i even stated it took 2 hours to do. and thats from nothing to that. it was cake

[Rob]

Hahahahaha, freakin awesome. I love weird little gadget projects like this. Well done good sir. I will say though, since you already have it wired for a 12v input why not make a small power board that would allow that same input to power the head set electronics as well. I don't know what the operational output voltage is of it's battery but I would think it'd be doable with the right components considering I can't imagine it being more than a few watts worth of draw at most.

[580z]

having it battery-powered and not affixed to the car will allow him to move it from car to car with ease, or even carry it into restaurants just to fuck with people.......i think its better that it is battery powered

[spastik]

easier as well. im not sure you can use it when its plugged in as well

[isboosted]

Haha. That is wull of fin.

[MacDrizzle]

You are a mad mad mad scientist. Good work! Do you by chance build ECUs?