Extend the Range of Your Zune FM Transmitter

[jacob is gay]

Estimated Mod Time: 25-35 minutes
Mod Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult

**Note I am NOT in any way responsible if you should happen to follow my tutorial and YOU screw up. It is not my fault if you screw up trying to do this, and I will not assume responsibility in any way. Do this mod under your own risk! If you don't know what you are doing, then don't do it.**



Information & Setup
Get all the supplies you will need ready and laid out.
You will need:
A. Zune FM Transmitter
B. Pocket Knife/Leatherman
C. Soldering Iron
D. Solder
E. Antenna Wire
F. Flathead Screwdriver

Step 1
First you want to pry off the top piece of the FM transmitter. To do
this, carefully take your pocket knife, slide it into the groove where the
top piece meets the body of the FM transmitter case, then pull up on the
handle of the knife to pry the top upwards away from the body of the FM
transmitter case. If done correctly, there will be no visible interruption
to the case, and it will still look stock. Try not to break any of the tabs
on the top piece, like I did.

Step 2
After the top cover is off, you want to make sure you don&t touch
or scratch the LCD, because once back together, the LCD will be under a
clear protective layer, and any fingerprints or damage will be clearly
visible and unable to be cleaned. Carefully pull straight up on the circuit
board to pull the top half of the CB&s away from the bottom. Set the
top CB aside for later.



Step 3
Now you want to pull the bottom CB from the body of the FM transmitter
case. It makes it easier if you take out the black plastic piece around the
dock connector. To take this out, take a small screwdriver, and carefully
push in towards the center, and out to pop the tabs out of the holes.

Step 4
To take out the CB, you first need to break off the plastic welds that
are holding it in place. This is easily done using your pocket knife. You
will then need to push down on the dock connector, while simultaneously
pulling the sides of the body outwards. You then want to pull the bottom CB out of the body of the case, shown below.



Step 5
After you pull out the bottom CB, set everything except the CB aside.
Flip the CB over to show the original Zune FM transmitter antenna. It is a
small bent piece of metal shaped like an "S" and is in the middle of the
board.


or the new soldier spot (may yield better results)


Step 6
Now it’s time for some soldering. If you don’t know what you are doing at this point, then you should not even try to continue, instead either learn to solder, or you should get someone who knows how.

Step 7
Take your antenna wire and either solder it onto the antenna that is
already there, or you can unsolder the original antenna and solder on a new wire where the antenna was soldered. Either way is fine, but I don’t like to have extra parts left over, so I soldered my new antenna to the original antenna. It really does not matter.



Step 8
Now is the hardest part. Depending on how you want your Fm transmitter to be, it will affect this next step. You can either run your new antenna in circles inside the case, or drill a hole and run it outside of the case. I wanted to be able to hook up as long as an antenna as I wanted, so for that I wanted to drill a hole and route my new antenna out of the case. Now, you can do whatever suits you best, it just takes some trial and error to make sure everything fits and the dock connectors still line up with the holes. To get the antenna to the topside of the bottom CB, run the wire through one of the beveled off corners of the CB. Make sure the top CB easily fits back on and the new antenna is not in the way of anything.





Step 9
Put it all back together! Make sure it works, it should! If you accidentally broke one of the tabs on the top piece, like I did, there are a couple ways to fix it. You can use glue if you want, such as super glue or any CA (Cyanoacrylate) type glue. Or you can do a little bit of plastic welding. I did the latter of the two. Just take an old pen and melt some of the plastic onto the tip of your soldering iron. Then put the new plastic on the broken tab, and weld the two broken pieces together with the new plastic. If the tab broke completely off, it is a little harder, but can still be done.



Your Done!
Give yourself a pat on the back, you are done! Plug in your Zune, and go for a car ride or something. With this modification I can use my Zune anywhere in my 10x10 room with little static. Also, if your radio is weak when it comes to picking up stations, like mine, you can wrap a wire around it, and then attach the new antenna wire to it, and it will make the signal stronger and clearer for your radio to pick it up.



Cleako's Transmitter:



thanks to zunemods have fun