FAQ: HQCT (High Quality Car Tuner)
Q: What is it? A: It's a USB-Controllable AM/FM Radio tuner with RDS and RDBS capabilities.
Q: What's it for? A: Listening to the radio and getting data from RDS/RDBS on your CarPC (Car Computer).
Q: Who's it for? A: People building their own computer into their car and system integrators doing this professionally. Also people wanting a good radio solution for their desktop computer or mediacenter-pc.
Q: Is it diffirent than any existing USB controlled radio solution out there? A: It definately is. The components and tuner-module used are designed specifically for in-car use (moving, changing signal strength) and high quality audio output.
Q: Will your HQCT-eA be able to pass through sound card outputs via its built-in amp? A: All versions have an AUX input (stereo) so you can connect any sound source to it, there are also 2 mono inputs intended for GSM phone and GPS navigation sound, so the choice is yours Q: What kind of antenna connector is that? I'd love it to be a standard motorola jack A: The connector on the pcb is a PMB connector, compatible with Fakra which is the newer standard for car radios. We can supply an adapter cable PMB plug to Motorola type chassis connector, this way you have a flexible (small) coax inside your carputer 'case' and you can mount your 'normal' antenna connector in a convenient place. Q: So whats the deal with the software and integration, will the driver be open sourced? I need to be able to control the unit in Linux, so I was planning on writing a character device driver for it. A: The HQCT is controlled trough USB, it is configured as a USB HID device, the tuner package will contain the unit, the necessary connectors with about 50 cm (20") of cable, a working control program (exe) and the source code of this program (Delphi 5) + the complete set of control strings and their meaning. This way you can hook it up and try it right away, after that you can write your own control program. We hope we will get ideas, tips tricks and have a complete program soon. The control program we have so far does the basics. Q: AM/FM/DAB support? A: AM FM and Wheaterband, DAB and DRM are the next projects Q: RDS/TMC? A: RDS/RBDS and TMC (which is a part of the RDS-data). Q: Another question: is this module going to have HD radio capabilities? A: Not this one. Q: I don't think my poor little 90watt OPUS can handle powering any more devices. Any official news on the power consumption? A: The unit eats about 180 mA, the HQCT-eA one obviously more, depending on the load. But the 12 V can be taken off the car battery for the HQCT-eA (external with integrated amplifier), only the HQCT-i needs a regulated 5 V DC supply Q: How do you plug a motorola male antenna plug into one of those? A: Using an adapter cable. Q: How exactly does the sound get transmitted to the pc or the amplifiers? A: The HQCT-i has a stereo Aux input and 2 mono aux inputs, it has two pairs of stereo outputs (Front and Rear), on top of that the HQCT-eA has 4 pairs of low impedance speaker outputs (Front Left and Right, Rear Left and Right). Via the controlling program you can switch any input (Aux 1, 2, 3 or tuner) to the outputs. It is possible to mix, to blend, to fade to amplify, to mute, to regulate treble and bass and so on ... Q: On my radio xtreme there is a line out plug that goes to my sound card....I see on these devices there are RCA plugs, USB, and speaker terminals, how would you go about connecting it to the sound card? A: See the connection diagrams on the site (added). Q: I have to say I can not what for this unit!! Do you know if any one has done work on a skin for road runner and this unit. If this unit gets AM, FM and Weather I will have to start a second computer for my boat. A: Get cracking on your boatputer. Q: Does anyone know what the output voltage of the Amplified HQCT-eA is? A: the voltage swing is 24 Volts, AC coupled (so +12 to - 12), minimum impedance is 2 ohm, recommended 4 ohm.
