ATX Power Supply powered Car Stereo in home

This project was driven by an ATX computer power supply and car stereo laying around the house. With some plexiglas found, connectors bought, and a dremmel tool abducted from my family I was ready to begin. This unit contains the radio and power supply within plexiglas. The two switches turn on the radio and turn on the LEDs. Most of these supplies are recycled, materials such as gold are used in the ATX power supply-which is at a high price right now. 

Disclaimer: this instructable is intentionally vague for a reason. The reason being I don't want people to copy me. I want people to be different, exact copies aren't fun. Deviate from my design and be creative!

Step 1: Supplies

First you gather your supplies:
Car stereo
power supply
speakers
wire (I used gauge 14)
your choice of connectors
fiberglass
assorted tools
Switches
LED lights

Comments

[kdf.inc1969]

i bought a car radio that didnt have the connections coming from the back. payed $1 for it. lol. would it be possible to hook it up somehow to work the way you have yours? thanks

[thault]

You could easily hook your old radio the same way in which mine is hooked up. You just need to buy a wiring harness for the radio, which if you google the radio should be easy to find. Sorry about the delay in response time. Any other questions let me know!

[pfred2]

You copied me because I did this like 20 years ago. I didn't use an ATX power supply though, I used one I'd made. It was OK I guess. I have a much nicer home stereo in my present garage now. Remote controlled, bi-amped, 6 speakers. It is even hooked up to a PC.

See if I can find a picture of that old setup. Ha ha I found it! The speaker box is right off the back deck of one of my old P1800S cars. I can see where I had to cut out for the top of the shocks in it. I had an antenna on the roof for it and everything. Optimum length for FM reception is 32" I hear.

You can see my new garage stereo in the second picture. A Sony STR DE-705 and a Samsung SA-3500 They drive two pairs of Boston Acoustics speakers, and another pair of 3 way 12" speakers. If you look really closely you can see I even have a Technics SL-BD27 turntable hooked up to it too.

Just in case I want to rock out old school.

[thault]

Nice! I used an ATX becuase dad and I are both geeks and had one laying around, and the Sony CDX radio I got from somewhere else. This was meant to replace my crappy alarm clock radio, which just wasn't fulfilling my wants as a music listener. Nice project man!

[pfred2]

I have a lot of home stereos because I know something most folks don't. Seems a lot of people don't know what a switch called "Tape Monitor" really does. They flip it on, their stereo ceases to output sound, and they consequently think it is broken and throw it away. I come along, find said piece of equipment, take it home, flip the "Tape Monitor" switch off and presto it works just fine!

I wish I was kidding but I'm not. I setup the car radio in my old garage before I realized I had this special gift for audio equipment repair. Now if that ain't funny I don't know what is!