Plug n Play Aux-in mod for 2005 6cd radios

[jazzymt]

you taking payments yet?

Well, I'm taking orders via. PM's, but I was holding off on charging people until I had boards in hand to ship. Would everyone prefer to just pay now though? It occurs to me it might be considered an inconvenience to 'make' you wait until "I'm ready"...I guess it doesn't actually make much sense to wait until the last second anyway. I could send out invoices & then you can all just pay when you feel like it eh? Thoughts?

[bemani]

Sure, you got my pm, send me the invoice. I just want the thing asap.

[Rollin Wes]

I can pay now or pay later! Whatever is easiest for you to get them out in the mail. Thanks Again

[jazzymt]

Ok, I sent everyone that has an order (that gave me their email address) an invoice. I don't want anyone to think I'm doubling back on my earlier offer, this is merely for convenience. It won't make your board ship any faster/slower than if you wait until 9/18 to pay, unless there *is* a problem, then we can straighten it out before I have a board in hand waiting to ship to someone...but I expect everything should go pretty smoothly from here. If you'd rather pay & forget, just wait for your board, this is for you...if you'd rather wait, at least you know I have your info, and you can pay whenever you're ready. Thanks again for your support for the project everybody.

 

PS. I'm ordering some of that clear HS Rony. They got back to me right away on price/order details. Hopefully it works well.

 

~edit~ Also, if anyone didn't receive an invoice, PM to let me know.

[meatwad]

Aye...so smart I requested a quote on some of the clear stuff. I'm suspicious it will work as well as opaque HS, but whatchugunnado? You really should be able to see the board. OHhhh...it's gunna be a long week waiting for the boards to arrive... /sigh I guess I should whip up a test fixture to make sure I'm shipping everyone working boards eh...that oughta take a day or two...mmmmkay, I'll get right on that

 

We use the clear HS for video/audio/network cables here at work. I would recommend a heatgun over open flame esp. for the clear as it tends to brown easily.

 

The clear comes in handy for covering lables that we apply to the cables themselves.

[rony]

We use the clear HS for video/audio/network cables here at work. I would recommend a heatgun over open flame esp. for the clear as it tends to brown easily.

 

The clear comes in handy for covering lables that we apply to the cables themselves.

 

Yes, shrink it with heat gun, open flame is bad....

 

Btw, sent you payment, so that I will not forget.

[05_Sport]

sent my payment today as well....

[jazzymt]

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.

[S4]

What's the deadline for payment or at least saying I want one? This would be really cool.

[jazzymt]

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.

[emlevins]

Thanks jazzymt - I'll be in soon too I expect. Thanks again for helping us all out. Splitter will do it for me...I need both XM and Rio input. You deserve to make a few bucks on this and I hope you will.

 

Cheers,

[ProjectS15]

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.

sounds good, just got my paycheck handed to me so you'll b getting my PM soon

[jazzymt]

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.

[bemani]

Apple should thank you ... I'm about to buy an Ipod just for this.

[jazzymt]

Apple should thank you ... I'm about to buy an Ipod just for this.

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.

[ProjectS15]

oh man, the ideas start flowing now

[jazzymt]

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.

[Spinjockey]

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.

It only displays the Filename or foldername, however this should be enough. It doesn't auto scroll when the text is too long, but I'm guessing the CD controls that (rather then the radio buffering it) so that the radio modules could be identical between the MP3 and non-MP3 versions.

 

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.

FYI I've got one of the MP3 ones, so I'll verify that the adaptor works. I seriously doubt they'd change it since they'd have to redesign the radio for the MP3 version.

Jazzymt, I thought I read somewhere that you were trying to determine what the other pinouts were on the ribbon cable, any luck with that? Is the mute a single line or digital?

[bemani]

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.

 

I understand your pain. When I was working on a power supply for my car computer I spent so much money making various versions. I still have a whole lot of left over parts. And it was all for my use, no chance of making anything back on it

 

The stubborness of refusing to use an inverter

[jazzymt]

It only displays the Filename or foldername, however this should be enough. It doesn't auto scroll when the text is too long, but I'm guessing the CD controls that (rather then the radio buffering it) so that the radio modules could be identical between the MP3 and non-MP3 versions.

 

FYI I've got one of the MP3 ones, so I'll verify that the adaptor works. I seriously doubt they'd change it since they'd have to redesign the radio for the MP3 version.

Jazzymt, I thought I read somewhere that you were trying to determine what the other pinouts were on the ribbon cable, any luck with that? Is the mute a single line or digital?

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.

[mlrtime]

I just read the other aux-in device thread, what exactly is the difference between these two approaches? Couldn't you guys work together on a single device?

 

.02

[poncherello]

Jazzmt,

 

I want to thank you so much for your time and effort. I'm telling you, there is some serious money to be made here. You need a website and merchant account. You should be able to set this up cheap with SBC small business plan or something along these lines. You could be up and running in a 3 days. I'm sure if you got the word out there on enough Subaru websites you could mint a small fortune.

 

This is not just for Legacys but for the whole subaru lineup. Hell, subaru should be working directly with you to add this as an accessory. But alas, I doubt they would as they seem to be clueless that people actually want MP3 and aux in capability.

 

I wish you all the best in with this project. I'll be buying one in the near future.

 

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.

[jazzymt]

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.

[mvigneau]

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. [/Quote]

 

Yeah...my solution is stage 2 of his, only I started at that stage. Very nice explanation of the differences. I only have one correction in that when playing a CD with multiple tracks, the audio will not get muted unless you manually advance tracks and it will mute for the second or so.

 

Let me explain (hopefully). If you are listening to the Aux-In and the CD is playing and goes from track 1 to track 2 by itself, the Aux-In will never mute until the radio changes CDs. If you hit the next/back track buttons, then the audio will mute.

 

Hope this clarifies. I don't want to hijack this thread which is why I haven't said anything prior to this and started my own thread.

[jazzymt]

Yeah...my solution is stage 2 of his, only I started at that stage. Very nice explanation of the differences. I only have one correction in that when playing a CD with multiple tracks, the audio will not get muted unless you manually advance tracks and it will mute for the second or so..

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!