Sony Portable Remote Control to BT Adapter?

[DigiTalk]

Hello everyone!

I'm just re-descovering my MiniDiscs, and I have an old Sony MZ-N910 which works perfectly (after cleaning the contacts).

Now I'm wondering: Bluetooth would be great!

There are some projects to add BlueTooth to Playrs, but they are a lot bigger and have more space inside to fit the PCB for BlueTooth.

Now, I had a rather simple idea, but couldn't find anyone who tried it before:

Like most portable Sony MD devices, it has this remote and the apropiate connector to control playback.

How about a BlueTooth adapter with this connector which is able to also relay the skip/play/pause/volume commands from a connected BT headphone?

This should be technically possible, I think.

Anyone with such a project or interest and ability to build one?

Thank you very much!

Best Regards,

David Sallge

[BearBoy]

Sounds like a great idea @DigiTalk. Sadly far beyond my skills to build 🙁

 

I keep meaning to pick up a compact Bluetooth transmitter so that I could use my Minidisc players with wireless headphones but would be reliant on using either the remote or the controls on the player itself.

 

Wouldn't surprise me if someone manages to work something out though. It's amazing the various things people have been developing for MiniDisc over the past couple of years.

[DigiTalk]

Yeah, I'm using a compact BT transmitter currently (this one here, it produces wonderful sound with my Bose CQ45 headphones).

 

And while using it I thought it would be great to be able to skip tracks, control volume, play/pause etc.

Theoretically, as this runs via the Sony remote connector, it should be possible to implement it, even with track name transmisson for car BT connections, given that the remote displays this information as well.

One "just" has to reverse-engineer the protocol used by Sony for the communication...

With the Sony remote connector being a relatively big and sturdy connector it would be perfect as a hard dongle without cables, to just stick it to the device like the additional battery compartments.

 

It has even been kind-of-done with another player by Rojas:

https://hackaday.com/2023/01/29/wireless-minidisc-walkman-has-bluetooth-inside/

This, as an external device with control features, would be perfect for all those MD lovers out there.

 

For whoever is able to implement something like that, here's a rather good description of the protovol used:

https://github.com/xunker/SonyMDRemote

Edited February 27, 2023 by DigiTalk
Added info about Rojas' hack and the remote protocol.

[BearBoy]

On 2/27/2023 at 5:24 PM, DigiTalk said:

With the Sony remote connector being a relatively big and sturdy connector it would be perfect as a hard dongle without cables, to just stick it to the device like the additional battery compartments.

 

Some sort of Bluetooth transmitter that connected like the screw in AA battery compartments would be a great idea!

[asivery]

@DigiTalk - If you're interested in building something like this, here's my project where I managed to clone a Sony remote using an Arduino: https://github.com/asivery/Sony-Inline-Remote-Emulator . Not sure how easy it would be to integrate it with a BT transmitter.

[DigiTalk]

Thank you, @asivery!

it should be possible to put all this together... For someone with a little more practice in those things than I have.

I do have an Arduino mega somewhere, so I could test it...