First off, if any of you guys have a zune, you know how 'cool' it is to first hear your songs being transmitted through your "Zune Car Pack" FM transmitter. Now, the transmitter that microsoft puts together is poorly made in my opinion. The range, if you are in a car is horrible, as it only seems to work well in cars with the antenna in the front seat to pickup your zune's FM Transmission.


Now, after doing this mod, from the ~5 ft. range I had with my FM transmitter, the transmitter can now do 100ft easy, and still be in reception range (with some light static) at 150ft.


All that is required to do this mod are the following:

• Soldering Iron
• Kitchen Knife (Perferably a Butcher's knife)
• The Zune FM Transmitter (Stock)
• Some Insulated Wire
• A screwdriver
• A Zune, of course <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/wink.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Wink">
  

Alright, now for the mod.


Step 1) What you need to do is take your kitchen knife, and insert the blade in the crack between the top and bottom of the FM transmitter and softly lift to seperate the top and bottom of the transmitter and expose the pcbs.


Step 2) Now you should have two peices of the transmitter, both having circuit boards attached. You want to mess with the one with the zune connector on it, put the LCD side away for later.


Step 3) On the opposite side of the zune dock connector, there should be two plastic beads along the side of the casing of the transmitter, cut those off and trash em'.


Step 4) Remove the black casing that is around the front of your zune dock connector by pushing the two plastic tabs through with a flathead screwdriver and removing the shiny black casing.


Step 5) Put your screwdriver down one of the sides of the CB and apply some pressure, and it should pop out of two of the black peices holding it down, do the same for the other side, and it should be free to remove from its casing now.


Step 6) Flip the PCB over.


Step 7) Look for marking R96 on the PCB (it should be in the center right under the zune dock connector). Once you have located it, make sure you remember where it is, its tiny and easy to forget what your doing if you have ADD like me <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/wink.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Wink">



Step 8) Pull out your solder, iron and your wire.


Step 9) Make sure that your wire is at least 3 inches long depending on what you are doing. I used a three foot wire, so I could do what I wanted with it after the mod was completed with no fear of running out of wire length.


Step 10) On the top side of capicator R96 (The side closer to the zune dock connector), solder the wire. Make sure you did a good job and it is a sturdy solder.


Step 11) Take the smallest drill bit you got (Big enough for the wire + insulation to pass through though, but make it as snug as possible), and cut a small hole in the top right hand corner of the casing.


Step 12) Run the wire through the casing, and a few times on the bottom of the casing to make a 'bed' for your pcb.


Step 13) Reassemble.


Your done!


Your range will be drastically improved and if you live in a large city and were experiencing problems while in your car of not being able to hear your zune through the fm transmitter that problem should be resolved if you have a good length of wire coming out.


Heres a picture of my zune after the mod, I plan to make some housing around the wire and attach a small antenna or something if I can find one to the side so it looks stock and awsome. Currently, there is just a wire out of the side though. My range is HUGE now compared to stock and it looks so much cooler.


<img alt="" src="http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/4452/dsc02628ae3.th.jpg" style="border:0px solid;">


<img alt="" src="http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/6291/dsc02629rj5.th.jpg" style="border:0px solid;">


<img alt="" src="http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/2563/dsc02630px9.th.jpg" style="border:0px solid;">


<img alt="" src="http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/953/dsc02631rc5.th.jpg" style="border:0px solid;">




Some things you can do to addon to the mod:


Idea #1) You can take an antenna and connect the wire to it, and use that to even more boost your signal.


Idea #2) You can run the wire around your car to ensure you get AWSOME reception.


Idea #3) You can leave the wire hanging out and tell your friends you hax0red your zune.







Thx for checking this out