CD/ DVD drive

I have several CD/DVD drives for computer piling up. Without knowing much of the digital domain, my question is. Can it somehow be used in some kind of setup to play cds, standalone?
Most old style CD players could straight play Audio CDs on their own, needed hardware and logic built-in.
Look carefully at the PCB, you should find a 3 or 4 pin connector labelled R-GndLL or double Ground, where you plug a shielded audio cable and send that audio to the PC sound card.
For independent (no PC) use, you wire it to an audio connector.

It is NOT capable of playing "coded" Audio formats, such as MP3, WAV, etc. which it considers "data" (hint: NOT Audio) which requires a CPU for processing.
http://ps-2.kev009.com/eprmhtml/eprm/h252.htm

Some popular pinouts:

cdromp.gif


CD-ROM Type 1 2 3 4
ToshibaGnd R L
Sony RGndGnd L
Mitsumi RGnd LGnd
PanasonicGnd LGnd R
MPC RGndGnd L
 
I have seen a commercial CD player - if memory serves, from Audio Analogue - built along these lines. A CD drive with digital audio (SPDIF) output, a DAC and an MCU to control the drive via its ATAPI interface.
I think with programming you can force the CD drive to use lower speeds. But in my build it only would do like 8x and made quite a whirring sound. But it did work :)
 
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