jazzymt

Well...without knowing all the pinouts for the stereo, I'd have to honestly say I don't know...hence the very specific instruction on how to correctly plug in the ribbon cable. I can only guess that whatever engineer designed this had enough foresight to know that the odd assembly person would screw this up and made the reverse pin for the power not connected/used so that it wouldn't do anything, but that's a generous guess. Just don't do it eh?

Well I'm glad everyone's happy with their board so far, and that the few people that have installed them went well. My goal of course was to have everything go as smoothly as possible with good instructions, but you just never know how it will turn out for sure until a few people have tried it. Hopefully everyone else's install goes smoothly too. Any comparisons for others on sound quality? Anyone ditching an FM mod to put this in?

Well, at first I was thinking all of the above, but now I'm thinking maybe that's too much & not universally useful enough (since the total demand is not v. big to begin with). Sooo, I was thinking of something that can autosense audio and would switch off radio or CD (I know this is possible because inserting a CD will take over the radio, so it can be done from the CD I/O even when on FM/AM). I could even display something like "Aux-in" on the face (possibly) while it's in use, but I'd probably ditch the idea of displaying track or serial text info. The interface would add too much complexity for something that isn't universally useful. If I got this whole thing to work, I might consider making small runs of specialized boards at even higher cost for Ipod & carputer users, but that's not where I would start. I'm beginning to doubt there's even enough interest for a "universal" board... (new) doteleven - I may take your advice on upping the price a little for the "simple" board...it's a bit more work than I expected and if the damand increases, I'm going to loose all my weekends! j/k Good reviews is a big reward for me too though, even if it's not as easily measured in dollars...glad I can help out.

...um...that's exactly what the "next generation" would be for...a CD-less aux in that auto-selects the aux source when there's sound on it. It would interrupt both CD & radio and then return to previous source when the sound stopped. I could probably even have a jumper setting on it so that you could set the delay low or high (you'd want it high for music for example, but low/quick for GPS/nav.)

Well I'm glad it got there anyway. Most of them should arrive today & I'm sure someone will not be able to wait & take the plunge

I should have added that to my post. I said it awhile ago, and I still stand by it: If I do create a "next generation aux-in", and I do want to, but that is still a critical "if" because of the time & money required. Anyway if I do, I would discount it the full price of what I consider to be my temporary solution. So, essentially, if you're on board w/spending $250 for a fully featured board (assuming that's the end price, and I think it is probably close), the $35 version is the equivalent of a down payment & then it would only cost an additional $215 (for example) once I figured it out. I'm certain this "next gen" idea can become a reality, with enough time anyway...it's just a question of, is there enough interest at the higher price to justify working on it? ...or is 90% of the interest taken care of with an inexpensive, simple, silent (or non-) cd approach?

Anyone get their toys yet? I'm dying to see the first install. Priority is supposed to be 2-day to most places...we'll see I guess. I checked my mail over lunch & did not receive the parts unfortunately, so it will be another day's delay. I would be very suprised if they didn't show tomorrow though. Friday ship date is still what I'm shooting for on the next run. After that I should have stock on hand. I'm still debating on whether to put money into the whole "next generation" thing. It seems there's more interest in a simplified universal version that allows no-cd spin and probably auto-sensing on the audio than one that allows control & display for only an ipod. The more universal idea I like since it would work better w/GPS guys that just want "Turn Left" and then back to their music and it would work well for XM & 'other' mp3 players too...oh yea, and the carputer guys obviously Anyway, I'm guessing I'd have to sell such a device for a lot more, like $250 ea. to pay for the vastly more complicated parts. If that sounds insane (it does to me...but I'm cheap) I'll probably just forget about it, but if sounds reasonable, and there's interest, I'll buy a bench radio and start working on it. Thoughts?

You can get them off of digikey.com Part numbers, lengths & prices/ea: HF14U-02-ND : 2" : $3.15 HF14U-03-ND : 3" : $3.38 HF14U-04-ND : 4" : $3.60 HF14U-05-ND : 5" : $3.83 HF14U-06-ND : 6" : $4.05 HF14U-08-ND : 8" : $4.50 HF14U-10-ND : 10" : $4.95 HF14U-12-ND : 12" : $5.40 HF14U-18-ND : 18" : $6.75

Heh. Well, hopefully tomorrow people will be raving about the boxes they received and not just the emails. I got shipping confirmation on the other parts yesterday night. Hopefully they'll be here tomorrow, but probably not until Thursday. Anyway, I'll be sure to ship everyone else's order Friday at the latest. After that, I'll make a couple extras and try to keep a few in stock so that I can ship future orders immediately on payment. For those that haven't paid...if you're no longer interested, please let me know so I can cancel your order. If you are interested and want one on this next shipment, you should probably pay soon. If you're still interested, but you want to wait awhile, you're fine doin' nothing. Well, I should probably get some real work done. 'can't wait to hear from the first install.

So far: AZ CA CO CT GA MA MI NJ NV NY OH OR SC TX VA WA WI WV 11 to California (not all paid), they're by far the biggest demand.

Heh, you know...soldering the boards is about the only step I sort of enjoy, and with perfectly sized thru-tinned holes, soldermask and a good iron, it really is not that hard. I figured out that I soldered 1104 holes this weekend. Not bad. The grunt of the work is pretty much all in packaging. Folding & taping the boxes, heat shrinking and then cutting access holes in that heat shrink is really tough...that's probably the step I like the least...and not one that's v. easy to export unfortunately. It doesn't sound like much, but it's a PITA to carefully razor cut small access holes in that heat shrink (it's thick!) without cutting anything else...especially me. I'm sure you don't know, but my "profit margin" is also pretty damn small. If I sent anything out of house, I'd have to raise the price not to loose money and I'm just not ready to do that...at least, not on this board, not yet. When I have the time & money to reverse eng. this stereo and make the fully featured digital board, I probably will have the whole thing done by a pro, but that's a whole other ball of wax. In the mean time, I'll just grin & bear it It's the numbers really, I don't expect to be making this many every week either, it was just to catch up to 3 weeks of demand...of course...I could be wrong... How long do you think it will take to sell the "first batch" anyway? I bought 100 boards?!

G' morning fellow scooby owners. Well, it was a long Sunday night and quite a bit more work than I anticipated to solder, heat shrink, cut openings, burn CD's, copy instructions, tape, package, tape & label all these dang orders. Whew! Anyway, for several of you, your order will ship today. Once I've actually shipped them out via. USPS over lunch, I'll send you an email to let you know your package is on the way. Included in each package is a paper set of instructions, but there's also a PDF copy of them on the Silent CD for your reference as well. And now for the bad news. For one, I ran out of capacitors, so I'm only shipping 2/3 of the orders that have paid. If you didn't pay, your order definitely isn't going out today, and if you ordered in the last few days, you're probably going to have to wait a couple more days while I wait for parts. Sorry. I tried Radio Shack but they only had like 2 capacitors and they wanted $1.30 each for them. Screw that. For two, I totally botched the test platform for testing these guys...not that it would have proved there wasn't going to be a problem, but I would have liked to have taken that extra step. Anyway, I ran out of time and I didn't think you'd want me to delay shipping just to set my mind at ease. All boards are v. carefully inspected and I'm not expecting any problems, but if there are any, obviously I'll replace your board at no cost. Other than that, I hope you all have a good week. I'll keep you updated as soon as I receive the rest of the parts and will email all those that have orders going out today after lunch.

No, the heat shrink is included, but if you don't like it, it's very easy to cut off...and yea, I just left it "floating" inside. Between the two ribbon cables and the aux patch cable, it's so small that it pretty much stays wherever you put it.

Someone asked me if the US radios are the same as AUS today, so I'm posting a pic & model number to help figure that out. The 6-CD non-MP3 I have is "P-201UH" & here's the pic.

Great, but I'd prefer to organize it with paypal invoices for now...you'll get my return address when I send you the email/invoice though. Just PM me your email (no reason to post everyone's name + email on the boards where it can be stolen/attacked by scripts).

I'm glad you like how small the boards are c_hunter. As is the case so often when you're working things out on a computer, you can forget how small (or big, for the machinery I normally design) what you're working on really is. It definitely helps to use a magnifying glass while soldering since they're this small. As far as using FM, I actually debated using an FM modulator w/no signal to simply mute an FM channel and use the aux in on that (since it's always active)...but, I don't actually have a separate FM modulator, just the one built into my XM, and that wouldn't be a clean, silent signal. It would just superimpose bad sound on top of good sound, so I ripped it out and just use the silent CD, which I don't even notice to be honest. So, for another update: I finished the instructions today & had them reviewed by a friend. ...doesn't mean there isn't a mistake in there, but I think it should be fairly informative. For anyone that wants them *before* you get your board (paper version will ship w/the board) I can email it to you. Once I get my website up and running (might be awhile) I'll post it there obviously. I also picked up shipping materials to send out the first orders Monday; boxes, tape, packing peanuts (biodegradable), labels, etc. So, everything's on track. Most of the orders so far should arrive Wednesday. Tonight I'll work on the test fixture and will run all the boards through their paces on that tomorrow before shipping them on Monday.

Heh, no worries, they made it to my house. Damn these things are small, but they are perfect for our needs. To start with, the boards are v. nice. Perfectly sized & spaced holes + pre-tinned + solder mask + good soldering iron = 100 times easier to assemble. Putting these things together should go relatively easily now. On to the install: I've gotten pretty good at ripping my car & stereo apart now, so I'd guess it took me about 45 minutes from start to finish including the time it took to pose at every friggin step and take pictures. You start by removing the stereo from the dash (obviously). I'm going to include some instructions for this with the board, but for the forums, I'll skip it cuz there's already a half dozen or so. Next, disassemble the stereo. Start by removing the two mounting brackets on each side, each bracket has 4 screws. Next, you remove the heat sink on the back of the radio, 7 screws here. Then you take off the two top corner screws & pop the lid off. Two more screws and the hazard switch comes out. 6 (i think) more screws to loosen the face plate, then you gently pry up a few tabs (9 or so) and the whole thing just slips off. Next we want to separate the CD changer from the HU. Looking at the front we revealed by taking off the face (controls), remove the 4 middle screws nearest the top (not the top left & right corners) and the whole changer just lifts out. Carefully unplug the ribbon cable from the HU and you're out. Next, we jack the CD changer into the aux-in board and set that aside for a sec. Now you're ready to route your aux-in patch cable. I chose to run it in through one of the empty plug slots and then zip tied it to the frame for the missing plug. Electrical tape around the plug helps prevent shorts (since this one has a huge bare metal portion). Once we're ready with that, we can put the CD changer & HU next to eachother, plug in the patch cord, and then plug the board's ribbon cable into the HU where the CD changer was plugged in. Now we can slip the CD changer back into place, reassemble the radio, put it in our dash and away we go!

Aha! Ok, very good. Well, that makes the difference/benefit clear. Thx mvigneau. You might want to add that clarification to your own thread too, cuz I was a tad confused too. On an entirely different subject, the PCB fab place just called me & we did some UPS tracking together...strangely the boards do not appear to be on a truck for some reason, so I might be headed out to the UPS depot after work to figure out wtf is going on. I WILL have that package darnit!

Thanks for your vote of support poncherello. I'll admit I wouldn't mind making a few extra bucks, or for that matter, at least enough money to break even, but I'm making an effort not to get ahead of myself & stay small while I work out any possible bugs or problems. This still requires a fairly involved install process, above and beyond what most car audio accessories require, and so I'm not sure if it's really fit for the masses. One of the things I'd like to see before I try advertising anywhere else is how the installs go for the first few buyers here. If we run into a lot of problems, it just might not be practical, but I'm of course hoping otherwise. Only time will tell at this point. mlrtime - The main differences between our approaches is that mvigneau is trying to up the complexity, and features, on his board a notch by using relays to switch the CD audio & aux-in audio on & off respectively. Essentially, he's trying to work at stage 2 and my board is at stage 1. Mine is totaly dumb, just a few resistors & caps to buffer everything, aux & Cd audio are just spliced together and you play a silent CD so you don't hear both aux-in & CD audio at the same time. His uses a switch and relays to actually switch off CD audio when you want to listen to Aux-in audio. The catch is, the radio is pretty smart, and you still have to have the CD playing to use that sound source, and it mutes for skipping, track changes & disk changes...one of which he's turned off, but the other two apparently still persist...bummer. Oh yea, and obviously the price...because of the increased complexity, he's selling his boards at $100 ea. (last I checked) and I'm selling my much simpler version at $35 ea. Feel free to pitch in your own opinion here too mvigneau...I'm certainly not his representative...it would only be fair to ask him the same question on his thread. As far as why don't we "work together on a single device?" I dunno...for one, we don't know eachother...for two, we're nearly on opposite ends of the country...and three, I think we just have different goals. I wanted something cheap, simple and quick so we could all start enjoying better audio now. I think he's shooting for something less half-assed...which I am too, but only in the long, long run. In the mean time, I want to have something that works, even if it's not perfect.

Filename or foldername is good enough. As long as there's a method in place for transfering text, I bet you could even scroll text (by manually changing one letter at a time) on the display if you could decipher the code for displaying any text. If there is no version difference on the amp, it should be possible to do the same thing on the 2.5 6CD. Either way, I'd really need a 3.0 6CD to watch the communications when displaying text to know how to do it...unless by some stroke of luck I can find the specs on the control chip online somewhere. That's what I meant by "testing". I'm sure this simple aux board will work fine for both...probably with the one CD radio in the 2.5i too. As far as the mute, I think mvigneau has prooved that the signal line mute is only used for skipping CD's and the change CD & change track mutes are probably digital since he's disabled the signal line mute and (according to him) it still mutes on track & disk changes. I'm not really sure what advantage his has anymore since it will mute every 3 min or so on a normal CD track change...that would get annoying pretty quick & then you're left with needing a one track CD anyway to reduce the muting...? This way-down-the-line, expensive, digital control board would bypass all of that since it would just tell the CD changer to turn off (standby) and dupe the radio into thinking it's talking to the CD player while it's really talking to an Ipod, carputer or even an unintelligent device like XM, rio or other mp3/sound source. Then there's no need to interrupt mute signals, cuz they just wouldn't exist. Of course, none of this could be accomplished w/o some serious work, not to mention more cash.

I called around a few junkyards & the 6-CD from our 2.5 costs around $275. The guy I talked to also had the MP3 version from a 3.0 and didn't know what the diff was so he changed the price from $350 and quoted that one at $275 too...spiffy...I might just pick one of those MP3 version up and then I can swap mine to test both versions. I probably won't buy it for awhile though, I gotta get back outta the red some from all the parts I bought for this board...I'll take a picture later of all the stuff I've accumulated...I'm in almost $1000 now, but the interest seems to be there to bail me out, so I took a gamble...we'll see.

Heh. You know, I may just buy an Ipod for this too. I think it would be pretty cool to make a much more complicated board with the ability to interpret CD commands from the amp/HU and use that to control an Ipod or even a Carputer...depending on what the capabilities of the com bus are I may even be able to display track names on the radio...does anyone know if the MP3 version of the head unit displays track names? If so, I would bet the only significant difference between the two stereos is the CD changer module. Such a board would be immensely more complicated though, and would require at least a single PLC, possibly a command interpreter depending on what format of communications the CD changer uses & and mayby an FTDI chip for USB compatability (for carputers..). Anyway, it would probably cost hundreds of dollars each, and would take months of development, but if I ever do manage to make one, I'll discount it the full cost of this initial board offering for those that have already bought one. I already have the digital storage oscilloscope, a good multimeter, a PLC and some other electronics. What I'd really need to do is buy a head unit from a junked subaru so I could have it on my bench for weeks/months to play with, learn from & test. Depending on the cost & how popular this first board is, I might just do that.

Kick arse. Well, I received the heat shrink today. It's like extra, extra thick shrink wrap...pretty weird stuff & at first i thought I had really screwed up & bought it way too big, so I cut a test piece and shrunk it around a mock piece of PCB. Shore nuf, it shrunk right down with some heat. Works like a charm & fits like a glove. According to UPS the PCB's arrived in town 40 minutes ago, but I guess they're not putting it on a truck until tomorrow /sigh. So close... Scheduled delivery was tomorrow, but what a tease. I'm as eager as the rest of you to tear into it & see how they came out. First order of business is to make one for myself & take lots more pictures for installation instructions while putting it in my car & removing the prototype (yes, I will include how to take apart the console.) I'm hoping to make this a cakewalk for the rest of you w/good instructions. Once I've got that done, I'll start pumping out boards...not sure exactly how long that will take, but I'll keep everyone updated on progress throughout the weekend.

There's no deadline and there's not limited quantities. I'll continue to build & sell them for as long as there's interest...I wouldn't dream of depriving fellow scooby owners from a real aux in...that's just too cruel. I have a buddy working on a website actually to help me better organize this project. Obviuosly taking orders via pm is a tad halfassed...so it's just temporary. Plus, I'd almost rather have a few people actually own, install & review these before I get a ton of orders...it would help answer questions & provide a bit of comfort for others that they really do work in more than just my car. So, no worries. If you want to wait and see how it goes for the first brave few, feel free to wait...I'll still be here to offer more.

Thanks for all the orders & support for the project guys. I ordered the heat shrink today (only 2 days ground from UT, sweet) and I'll be sure to use a heat gun & not a blow torch I also got an email from the VP of Engineering at the PCB fab place thanking me for the accurate & thorough info package. They must get some real crap for submissions, cuz that's the first time I've ever ordered a fab board & felt like I didn't know what the fark I was doing, but I guess I did alright. Anyway, they're on schedule & everything looks good. Parts & my new soldering iron also came in yesterday, so I'm ready to rock come Friday.