Reuse MBP optical drive as a stand alone CD player.

[rafaelborges]

Hi there, folks

As I don't have any CD player in my house anymore, and I want to reuse my dead MBP optical drive to listen to my old CDs, I was wandering if anyone has succeeded in converting a optical drive into a CD player. I always see people on forums and Youtube teaching how to salvage the drive and placing it on a case to use it as an external drive, but I couldn't find any information or data sheets to convert it into a working CD player. I want to use an Arduino to hook it up with a LCD, control buttons and maybe IOT it later. Does anyone know how wire the optical drive to get those signals, or where can I find the schematics of the early 2008 unibody MBP?

thanks

 

[chrfr]

Hi there, folks

As I don't have any CD player in my house anymore, and I want to reuse my dead MBP optical drive to listen to my old CDs, I was wandering if anyone has succeeded in converting a optical drive into a CD player. I always see people on forums and Youtube teaching how to salvage the drive and placing it on a case to use it as an external drive, but I couldn't find any information or data sheets to convert it into a working CD player. I want to use an Arduino to hook it up with a LCD, control buttons and maybe IOT it later. Does anyone know how wire the optical drive to get those signals, or where can I find the schematics of the early 2008 unibody MBP?

thanks

You won't need schematics for the MBP to investigate what you're doing. The drive is just a standard optical drive, either PATA or SATA. That said, these optical drives don't have analog outputs so you can't just wire it up to use with a stereo; what you're looking to do is very different than just moving an internal optical drive to an external housing. You'll need to connect the optical drive to a computer that supports the interface and runs a CD audio player, and has analog outputs.

 

[snaky69]

Hi there, folks

As I don't have any CD player in my house anymore, and I want to reuse my dead MBP optical drive to listen to my old CDs, I was wandering if anyone has succeeded in converting a optical drive into a CD player. I always see people on forums and Youtube teaching how to salvage the drive and placing it on a case to use it as an external drive, but I couldn't find any information or data sheets to convert it into a working CD player. I want to use an Arduino to hook it up with a LCD, control buttons and maybe IOT it later. Does anyone know how wire the optical drive to get those signals, or where can I find the schematics of the early 2008 unibody MBP?

thanks

Seeing as your drive is a standard SATA one, what you're looking to do is a bit more involved.

You'd want a board with a SATA port, some kind of a DAC as well as a means to control which track you want to listen to. At the end of the day, you'd probably end up spending a whole lot more on components than actually buying a CD player.

 

[rafaelborges]

Seeing as your drive is a standard SATA one, what you're looking to do is a bit more involved.

You'd want a board with a SATA port, some kind of a DAC as well as a means to control which track you want to listen to. At the end of the day, you'd probably end up spending a whole lot more on components than actually buying a CD player.

Well it is not only about saving, Its mora about learning and making. As I researched I find an easy way to use it with my Arduino, I would have to step up to a Raspberry Pi, that meaning I would have to hook it put to an actual computer.

Thanks anyway

 

[snaky69]

Well it is not only about saving, Its mora about learning and making. As I researched I find an easy way to use it with my Arduino, I would have to step up to a Raspberry Pi, that meaning I would have to hook it put to an actual computer.

Thanks anyway

A raspberry pi + usb enclosure you get you closer, you still need some kind of a screen to control the whole thing though...

 

[chrfr]

Well it is not only about saving, Its mora about learning and making. As I researched I find an easy way to use it with my Arduino, I would have to step up to a Raspberry Pi, that meaning I would have to hook it put to an actual computer.

Thanks anyway

The bottom line is that all you're really doing is moving the optical drive from one computer to another.