Making A Bluetooth Headset Into A Wireless Music Streaming Device

This bluetooth headset hack, although simple, may provide some hacking inspiration. Turning a Bluetooth headset into a wireless input for one’s stereo is definitely something that makes one think “why didn’t I think of that?” It’s also good if you’ve got a tight hacking budget as there’s not a lot of stuff to buy.

In addition to a possibly broken headset, a 3.5mm stereo plug and some wires are needed for this. Throw in some tools that every good hacker should have around like a soldering iron and glue gun and you’re ready to get started. [Dex] does a good job of describing the process, from disassembling the headset to wiring the stereo plug to it. When making the conversion, one must remember to bridge the left and right output channels, as most headsets only output a mono signal.

There’s not a whole lot else required to do this hack.  Could be a good beginner project. For another Bluetooth-based hack using scrounged equipment, check out this Cellphone controlled retro-radio hack.

9 thoughts on “Making A Bluetooth Headset Into A Wireless Music Streaming Device

  1. Nice job, and I always appreciate some reverse-engineering, but just in case anyones looking to replicate, you can find stereo bluetooth receivers for $13 online with free ship if you look around a little, and then you aren’t listening in mono as well. :-) And as added bonus, incoming calls wouldn’t be routed to your radio as they would be in this case since a ‘stereo bluetooth receiver’ doesn’t pair as a hands free device by default (unless you specify it to) Not knocking the hack any, nice job!

  2. I did something similar to this with a really nice deck that the tape had gone bad in it. The motor was using a belt to power the tape mechanics, so it was really finicky in the first place. Then the belt went, and it apparently took out the motor with it… It was so old, that nobody had parts–so it sat unused for years. It held up my CD Changer and my Amp in my stereo.

    Then a stereo bluetooth headset broke the charging circuit, but it worked fine when plugged in to the power source. After removing the battery, I found that it was pretty small and I could find the line-out on the BT headset pretty easily and it clicked in my mind.

    So, I spliced in the line-level audio source from the BT to the tape deck’s reader, tricked it into thinking there was a tape in there all the time (jumper a single wire) and found +5v somewhere on the board (I think the preamp circuit had it) and then it was suddenly my bluetooth receiver from 1979 with all of it’s fake-wood paneled glory!

    That thing always sounded so sweet before hand, now it continues to rock on for as long as BT continues to be a ‘standard’.

  3. Got one at a car boot sale for all of £0.50

    I did find something interesting though, some SE phones with water damage can be recovered to recycle into LCD projectors if you take off the display PCB and pickle it in acetic acid and 9% peroxide to convert the oxides back into metal.
    Once cleaned and dried the display works but sometimes the lights stay on and drain the battery.

  4. I have a broken old pair of Logitech bluetooth stereo headphones with bluetooth stereo transmitter sitting on my bench right now, waiting for just such a project. I just got an odd replacement Li-Ion battery. Biggest issue is a professional-looking enclosure.

    1. @Dex: I like it; just the replacement battery has to fit inside, since the original has expired. I could put the outside cases together clamshell-style and run the output socket out where the headband used to be. I will definitely save the speakers for later use. This old model (980397-0403) had a characteristic failure, splitting in the middle of the headband. My other idea was to hack this into an active noise-canceling headset (cup-style).

  5. I recently did this exact same project in order to bluetooth audio to my treadmill which is controlled by audio signals (audio signals control the speed of the treadmill). Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to figure out a way to send a bluetooth signal from my iphone to both the treadmill AND my bt headset (cheapie bt earpiece from Big Lots for $8 hacked to work with earpods)simultaneously. Anyone know a hack for that?

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