Another question on the '50 lincoln I'm working on. We're doing a 12V neg conversion because the owner wants to have an ipod ready hidden stereo system. He also wants the original 6V + ground Lincoln radio to still be functional. Is there a way to do this without running a seperate battery? Thanks for the help.
As I understand it, if the radio has the original vibrator it is not polarity sensitive. But if it has a replacement solid state vibrator it is and the vibrator would have to be changed. Naturally you have to use a voltage reducer.
Another question on the '50 lincoln I'm working on. We're doing a 12V neg conversion because the owner wants to have an ipod ready hidden stereo system. He also wants the original 6V + ground Lincoln radio to still be functional. Is there a way to do this without running a seperate battery? Thanks for the help.--------------------------------- Would it not be easier, cheaper and maybe better to leave the original electrical system and use a 6v DC to 12v DC converter for the new stereo system? All you need to do is insulate the new stereo system from the car body/chassis.
There are several radio conversion companies that can convert the original radio to a modern stereo including the Ipod. It's not cheap but probably cheaper than buying a stereo to hide and changing the original separately. They said it was no problem to convert this after market 2 piece radio from the 30s into a modern stereo.
If you are considering having the radio converted to 12 volt. I have had mine converted by these people. I now have AM/FM stereo with provision for an Ipod. (although a little pricy) http://turnswitch.com/
You have to change the Vibrator (from 6V pos gnd to 12v neg gnd) and the tubes and lights (from 6v to 12V). Go to www.tubesandmore.com and http://members.cox.net/dcosby1/Autoinfo.htm.htm
another thing to consider is the chassis of the radio the "ground" if it is then the radio antenna will also ground to it, f you could isolate the radio chassis from the cars ground, you could simply use a 12 volt to 6 volt converter, providing it has a floating ground. as far as the antenna you can use a couple of inductive windings to isolate the antennae from direct contact from the chassis. I need more details on the setup, is he using the original speaker? or wants to use the old radio with newer hidden speakers? if he wants to do the latter, get a line level box from Schoche, you can set it to common ground, it will isolate the radio speaker which will probably be common ground, to an isolated line out signal which can be run into a small hidden amp or into a line level input on the hidden radio. as far as making one set of speakers work with two radios, use either one or two 4pdt relays ,depending on whether you have two or four speakers, the commons on the relays goes to the speakers, the normally closed sides go to the speaker input for the original radio, the other contacts go to the speaker input from the hidden radio, the hidden unit should have a remote lead out, this goes to the relay coil. when the hidden radio is turned on,the speakers switch from one radio to the other automatically.
No expert claims here and no, I didn't write it. Just trying to share what I found out there, you hostile SOB.
Nothing made of wire will isolate DC. Capacitors (condensers) isolate DC. Coils of wire will isolate AC. AC as in radio signals. OldBuzzard---Electronics instructor when this stuff was everywhere
exactly,i was referring to isolating the radio speaker output from the radio so it can be used by modern equipment, it's an inductive coupling. Didn't these old radios actually operate on ac? if you know the ac voltage into the radio itself after the power supply, if it's isolated, you can use a transformer with 120 volts input and use one of those power inverters they sell to get ac power from the lighter plug, just mount it permanently. in other words convert the radio to a plug in radio, then isolate it from chassis ground and antenna ground.
440RoadRunner Wrote: "MY POINT is, what you posted might not be correct." Well that's a whole lot more civil than: "People like you who post shit like this piss me off." isn't it? Again, I was trying to be helpful. My point (and the point of the link I posted) is that the WRITER of that link seems to know what he's talking about and he says: 1. Change the vibrator 2. Change the tubes Now if you're better at this than I am, so be it, and I can respect that. What I don't respect is a hostile flame job on me for trying to help.
right,if it was a negative ground, but if the radio itself if a positive ground, then you would need to isolate the entire chassis and antenna to use in a negative ground system. I still think if the power supply is isolated to the ac input stage and an ac transformer and power inverter were used, it might work, unless i saw the circuit diagram it's hard to tell over the internet,without looking at it. I was forgetting that a lot of the old radios changed the dc input to an ac power supply. I don't know if it would help, but i have a tube inverter used to change aircraft power into high voltage ac to run the airplane radios, very much like what a lot of antique radios used to do, it would be a lot more efficient to do what i sais earlier though, use a transformer and one of those inverters.
.............................as far as the antenna you can use a couple of inductive windings to isolate the antennae from direct contact from the chassis............. .................... I thought you were talking about the antenna.
Thanks all for the info. What I'm getting is a definate "maybe." If it's not polarity sensative, that would solve a whole bunch of my problems. If it is polarity sensative and I plug it into the - ground system(with proper voltage of course), what is likely to fry?
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