"My Run-In with the JDM McIntosh radio"
I happen to work for an audio company. Which one is not important... but I get to play with a lot of OEM and aftermarket goodies. Anyhow, yesterday this little bugger arrived and it looked like it might fit - so I pulled my dash apart and had at it. Mechanically, it fits mounting is no issue - I tried it. Screws match up and everything. BONUS!
Radio-wise it is functional. Everything powers up, and operates fine with exception made to the FM tuner since Japan uses different frequencies than the USSA does. I do believe that the freq's can be changed though since this unit has a "world tuner".
Onto the crappy part.
The HVAC. I can live with "mirror imaged" controls, but when you plug in the connector, nothing happens. Basically there are 5 connections to the USDM radio. An Antenna, a ground pin, a big white audio connector, and two small black 8-pin connectors (assuming that these are for HVAC). The JDM McIntosh radio takes everything that the USDM car has plug-wise, except for ONE of the 8Pin black plugs. I am assuming it is for the HVAC.
Anyone know where I can get the pinout for:
a) the USDM car-side plugs (namely the two black 8 pins)
b) the JDM pin out on the HVAC portion (the plug is on the bottom half of the unit unlike the USDM where the plugs are ALL up top radio side). I am assuming Calsonic makes it since it is badged Kenwood (funny, Kenwood/Calsonic making the control head on the HVAC and Clarion making the McIntosh radio parts... what an odd state of affairs!)
I am confident I can make this headunit work in a USDM vehicle, but I need to get these pinouts in order to do it. This is of course assuming that the HVAC module in the vehicles are running the same data bus as the JDM vehicle.
Why do I want to do this? Couple of reasons. #1 is for the iPod interface. The Clarion iPod box works flawless with this JDM head. #2 is looks. Just look at how dang hot it is! So much nicer finish than the USDM part.
So, stay tuned... if anyone can get me pinouts, I have car and I have part and I have electronics lab, and I am willing to "try it".
I did search for about 3 hours yesterday for the pinouts, but to no avail. Just in case someone wants to say "did you try the search button?"
Anyhow - if I get the pinouts and get it running, I can do a full write up on how to do it... I have no idea what it would cost to do, I am guessing these heads are not cheap - but just being able to "do it" would be pretty dang cool.
-Drew