Resetting/Hacking Sony Car Stereos from Japanese Tuning to US...service manuals?

Resetting/Hacking Sony Car Stereos from Japanese Tuning to US...service manuals?

Hi there...

I was wondering if someone has any idea if ANY of the Sony "WX" series of double-din car stereos (japanese or usa models) can be "hacked" so that their tuners can be changed from japanese fm tuning to us/uk or world tuning and vice-versa???

I recently purchased a Sony WX-C88REC double-din cd/md recorder from eBay. This is a japanese market deck and is factory set for japanese fm tuning. However, the design and physical layout of this deck is very similar to other US models (such as the WX-4500X and the WX- C5000, as well as the WX-C55 which looks nearly identical). I'm nearly convinced that there MUST be some way to hack the japanese models so that their tuners can be "switched" to us or world frequency range tuning. I find it difficult to believe that Sony would design two distinct different tuner hardware modules for japanese and american versions. Problem is, I have no clue HOW to "hack" this feature. I don't have a service manual for ANY "WX" series stereos, but I'm thinking that it may possibly be an option in a service manual for ANY of the "WX" decks. Again, I find it difficult to believe that this isn't "set-able" some sort of way.

Does anyone out there have an idea? Does anyone out there have ANY service manual for ANY "WX" series Sony stereo? Or, for that matter, does anyone have a service manual for ANY Sony car stereo that addresses in ANY way setting the tuner for different tuning freqency bandwidth?

I realize there are adapters available to transpose the FM frequencies. I've used them before, always with poor results (stations usually overlap and are weak). I mainly record off the radio with my MDX-C800REC's in my other cars, but always thought it would be cool to be able to dub cd's quickly in-dash digitally without having to mess with a cd changer. But, radio recording is my primary concern...and the adapters don't provide the quality I want for recording.

PLEASE help ANYBODY if you can steer me in the right direction or help in ANY way. If anyone has ANY Sony service manuals for ANY stereo, please let me know...perhaps if setting the tuner IS an option, maybe it is a standard procedure to set ANY Sony stereo's tuning in a similar fashion.

Thank you VERY much! Jeff

Reply to
gggoattt
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Resetting/Hacking Sony Car Stereos from Japanese Tuning to US...service manuals?

Hi there...

I was wondering if someone has any idea if ANY of the Sony "WX" series of double-din car stereos (japanese or usa models) can be "hacked" so that their tuners can be changed from japanese fm tuning to us/uk or world tuning and vice-versa???

I recently purchased a Sony WX-C88REC double-din cd/md recorder from eBay. This is a japanese market deck and is factory set for japanese fm tuning. However, the design and physical layout of this deck is very similar to other US models (such as the WX-4500X and the WX- C5000, as well as the WX-C55 which looks nearly identical). I'm nearly convinced that there MUST be some way to hack the japanese models so that their tuners can be "switched" to us or world frequency range tuning. I find it difficult to believe that Sony would design two distinct different tuner hardware modules for japanese and american versions. Problem is, I have no clue HOW to "hack" this feature. I don't have a service manual for ANY "WX" series stereos, but I'm thinking that it may possibly be an option in a service manual for ANY of the "WX" decks. Again, I find it difficult to believe that this isn't "set-able" some sort of way.

Does anyone out there have an idea? Does anyone out there have ANY service manual for ANY "WX" series Sony stereo? Or, for that matter, does anyone have a service manual for ANY Sony car stereo that addresses in ANY way setting the tuner for different tuning freqency bandwidth?

I realize there are adapters available to transpose the FM frequencies. I've used them before, always with poor results (stations usually overlap and are weak). I mainly record off the radio with my MDX-C800REC's in my other cars, but always thought it would be cool to be able to dub cd's quickly in-dash digitally without having to mess with a cd changer. But, radio recording is my primary concern...and the adapters don't provide the quality I want for recording.

PLEASE help ANYBODY if you can steer me in the right direction or help in ANY way. If anyone has ANY Sony service manuals for ANY stereo, please let me know...perhaps if setting the tuner IS an option, maybe it is a standard procedure to set ANY Sony stereo's tuning in a similar fashion.

Thank you VERY much! Jeff

Reply to
gggoattt

You could change the PLL crystal but the displayed f will be wrong and may loose some stations at top or bottom of the range

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

formatting link

Reply to
N Cook

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote in news:1177480175.901817.45440 @o40g2000prh.googlegroups.com:

In the olden days of PLL, one used to be able to play with option diodes that were somehow tied into the keypad scan circuits.

Newer radios may have a service menu or secet key combo, or a setting on an eeprom you have to manually adjust by reading the eeprom to a PC, modifying the data, and writing it back. Worst case scenarion, the controller is hard coded for the frequency format you do't want, meaning you will need to replace the micro with one coded for your locale.

That is generally though. I can't say specifically for your model.

And that is for the display. A Japanese tuner front end may not be able to tune all of American FM well, or vice versa.

Reply to
Gary Tait

What are you? Gay???

Reply to
Brittany Martin

"Convertors" are readily available in the UK to enable JDM car radios to work in the UK, they simply shift the frequency down by 10,12 or 20 MHz. You can,t get full coverage of the UK FM band with a fixed frequency convertor,( the one I have switches between two crystals) as the Japanese band is narrower.The Frequency readout on the radio is wrong of course, but once you have stored it in the memory its not a problem. The one I have works well. Some JDM car radios have diversity receivers so you would need two! There is no other practical way to do it.

--
Neil J. Harris
Reply to
Neil J. Harris

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