kevinh Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 And that plugs into a new 05 Subaru with a 6-disc CD changer? -KevinH KevinH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c_hunter Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 Yep, I have an 05 Outback XT. [url]http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2901[/url] edit: I am confused, didn't you just tell us that you also are using an FM modulator?? CRaig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted December 12, 2004 Share Posted December 12, 2004 Any new news on an AUX input for XM/iPod/DVD, etc.? I am considering purchasing an '05 Legacy GT Limited and would very much like to listen to my XM Radio and iPod. thanks -- good info guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikewolff50 Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 Thank a lot for the info. I have an Ipod and it was driving me crazy with the FM transmitter. One thing to note is that the gain level is a bit annoying to adjust. There is also that analog shhhh that you always will get at high gain levels. I don't know if I will keep this but it is a great improvent from what I had. Thanks again! Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n8gray Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 mikewolff50: Which solution are you talking about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikewolff50 Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 The FM modulator and radio ant. splice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtnTopSteve Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 I have a 2001 Legacy Limited. I don't know how long Subaru has been integrating the head unit with the climate controls and whatnot. It would be great to just plug the iPod into the head unit and enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wirraway Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 Hi Well done - great effort. I looked inside my Matsushita/Panasonic head unit a week ago and tracked down the same flat cable, but since i didn't know the pin connections, went ahead with a hard-wired FM modulator. Car is an MY05 Subaru Forester XT, and here in Australia the MY05 has a head unit almost identical to the one described in this thread, although it has steering wheel controls as well, operating through an 8-pin connector on the radio. The FM modulator I use is sold in Australia by Neltronics (a NESA NFM-8) and has the nice feature of being auto-power-on. Works pretty well, although I'd expect the hard-wired AUX to be better!. I will get some of the ribbon cable and connectors for next time I'm feeling adventurous! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spieldawg Posted January 9, 2005 Share Posted January 9, 2005 I'm about to purchase a new legacy, that will probably have the legacy subwoofer/amp. I was thinking, if this actually acts as an amp for the rest of the speakers (which I don't know for sure), would it be possible to hack into the input to the sub? Anyone have any info on this? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centerpunch Posted January 10, 2005 Author Share Posted January 10, 2005 [quote name='spieldawg']I'm about to purchase a new legacy, that will probably have the legacy subwoofer/amp. I was thinking, if this actually acts as an amp for the rest of the speakers (which I don't know for sure), would it be possible to hack into the input to the sub? Anyone have any info on this? Thanks.[/QUOTE] It does not act as an amp for the main speakers. But, good news for those who want to use a FM modulator wired into the antenna connection. Metra has announced a cable kit just for that, their item 40-SB30. (Although it's not on their website [url]www.metraonline.com[/url] yet...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvigneau Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 I e-mailed metraonline and received a response very quickly (less than 30 minutes) but unfortunetly this is the response: Those parts have not started shipping yet. When they do start shipping you will be able purchase them at your local car stereo dealer, like Circuit City. You can also buy those from online dealers like [url]http://www.lafayetteradio.com[/url] . I don't know when they are going to start shipping. Mike Brechue Product Specialist Metra Electronics 800-221-0932 ext.282 [url]www.metraonline.com[/url] Include all previous e-mails when responding -----Original Message----- From: Vigneau, Mike Sent: Monday, January 10, 2005 3:06 PM To: Mike Brechue Subject: 40-SB30 I am looking for an Antenna cable that I can use to hook up a hardwired FM Modulator into my 2005 Subaru Legacy GT LTD. It has a non-standard antenna connection and I was given that part number on the legacygt.com forum. I would like to order one ASAP. If you could provide me a way to do this or tell me when you expect it to be available on your website; that would be helpful. No Silent CD Aux-In Solution Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centerpunch Posted January 20, 2005 Author Share Posted January 20, 2005 Just an update. After many months, this iPod solution is still working great. I disconnected the light in the above-radio cubby and that seemed to eliminate the area getting so hot. Also, there was some electrical noise in the audio between tracks, you could kind of hear the hard drive working. I finally put one of the radio shack audio isolators inbetween the ipod and the radio and the problem went away (meaning it was a ground loop). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvigneau Posted January 20, 2005 Share Posted January 20, 2005 I was thinking that if they make a female connector, than we could just put the connector on the bottom of the PC Board and make it a plug like connector. That would eliminate the mounting issue. As to RCA's, I think that depending on space you could just get surface mount 1/8" jacks (which would take up less space) and then buy RCA to 1/8" cables to run to the PIE switch. Then you would have to find a location for this switcher, plus who knows if this will actually work the way you want. What about RF interference and such. We would probably need capacitors to absorb rogue signals as well as resistors/diodes somehow to keep the pieces from getting damaged (which we would hope would be part of the PIE Switch). mmmm....pie....apple pie!! No Silent CD Aux-In Solution Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvigneau Posted January 21, 2005 Share Posted January 21, 2005 I don’t see the need to do it to get the extra 10% better connection. An MP3 only provides a certain amount of sound reproduction and even a CD can’t reproduce the sound wave perfectly anyway (you need analog to do that). So if you want a perfect reproduction, then why don’t you hook up a cassette tape but then people have complained about tape so why not a record player, but then again that is just a reproduction of the original sound so why not put a full orchestra/band/artist in your… Wait.. that’s the solution, just put the actual artist in your vehicle and then you wouldn’t have to worry about anything else. But seriously, the way I am going about it is the best (IMHO – In My Humble Opinion). The radio itself is not implicitly bad and is actually good for a stock radio (sans MP3 support, but I could buy the $700 Outback radio that is a direct replacement that plays MP3s on CDs). Of course the speakers are not that great of quality, but good enough for stock although the frequency response doesn’t seem to go below 150Hz (maybe even 200Hz). But that can all be changed. I think that if you upgraded the speakers (at a later time) and added a Subwoofer that would help but then you would have to do some sound deadening because sound deadening in the car is setup for stock and if you upgrade the speakers, you would have to upgrade that as well. The MP3 connection that I am thinking doesn’t void the warranty and has the best looking presentation to it. Like I have said previously, I am amazed by how much work centerpunch put into making the silent CD and hacking in the iPod cable but then he just has the wire hanging there and has to physically connect it. Not that bad but it looks jury rigged although he did some basic reverse engineering. Similar to the iPod-BMW connection where you have a wire in the glove compartment. Although with that you control the iPod from the stock stereo which is better (but restrictions include having 5 playlists with a maximum of 99 songs on each playlist and you can’t have the navigation system plus you can’t see what the name of the song is all you see is CD1 – Track 1 or whatever). The Alpine solution that is out there now allows control of the iPod through the Alpine radio plus it displays the ID3 information. So if people took the time needed to reverse engineer the radio to make sure that you don’t damage anything by just splicing the wire (I know you aren’t physically splicing, but you get the point) you could spend the time making a nice connection for MP3 or just a set of RCAs where you can plug what you want into it. I have talked to a couple of EE guys at work and they said without looking at the radio they would be leery of it because you are interfacing to the data bus and that is going to have much more information using some sort of Frequency Modulation or Time Shift Modulation or whatnot. There are things like CD Skip Mute Sense, CD Change, Track Change, Eject, Pause, Load, etc…the list goes on and on. So I think that if you want to reverse engineer the radio, then truly reverse engineer it and create a schematic and just remove the HVAC section from the rest of the radio and create a replacement unit where you can put in your own aftermarket radio and such. But then, that is what metraonline as alluded to be working on. I guess that is enough ranting for now. I am not trying to discourage, just trying to bring up some information to consider. No Silent CD Aux-In Solution Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustinw Posted January 21, 2005 Share Posted January 21, 2005 [quote name='mvigneau'] I have talked to a couple of EE guys at work and they said without looking at the radio they would be leery of it because you are interfacing to the data bus and that is going to have much more information using some sort of Frequency Modulation or Time Shift Modulation or whatnot. There are things like CD Skip Mute Sense, CD Change, Track Change, Eject, Pause, Load, etc…the list goes on and on. [/QUOTE] I doubt the audio signal coming from the CD portion of the OE deck has in band signaling on it for control functions. More than likely it's out of band on those other wires. I think technically this fix is safe, and isn't likely to have any issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikewolff50 Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 Does anyone know why they opted to put the mp3 playing stock unit in the outback and not the GT? The FM modulation splice I did is adequate at best but it is amazing to me that subaru didnt consider this in the engineering of the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deer Killer Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 [quote name='mikewolff50']Does anyone know why they opted to put the mp3 playing stock unit in the outback and not the GT? The FM modulation splice I did is adequate at best but it is amazing to me that subaru didnt consider this in the engineering of the car.[/QUOTE] management droids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuth678 Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 The new B9 tribeca has MP3 playback too. The upcoming forester redesign should also have it. [url]http://www.subdriven.com/news/publish/Subaru_News/article_330.shtml[/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iyamdman Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 It looks like the 2005 Leg has a major Sound System issue. If you want more than what Subi offers, you are stuck with a lot of work. 1) Try to slice into the FM chanel in the radio. 2) Rip out the old Radio, and put in a new one. The later seems difficult since there is no Double DIN plate for the Leg. Is this correct? Is there a schematic availible for the Radio/Climate Controls? Is there a mechanical layout avalible as well? If you have this, it will be easy for someone with some electonics experience to figure out where the Speaker bus and power connection are? This is all you need to know to make a harness to a Aftermarket Head with Line In for IPOD. Then you can have a plastic or metal front plate made. Right? Has anyone done this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c_hunter Posted February 2, 2005 Share Posted February 2, 2005 On cars with auto climate control, the radio and the HVAC system actually share circuit boards, so it's even worse than you mentioned! I know we could intercept the radio harness wiring and divert it to a new stereo, but you will need to keep the guts of the factory radio to preserve the climate control system. Craig [quote name='iyamdman']It looks like the 2005 Leg has a major Sound System issue. If you want more than what Subi offers, you are stuck with a lot of work. 1) Try to slice into the FM chanel in the radio. 2) Rip out the old Radio, and put in a new one. The later seems difficult since there is no Double DIN plate for the Leg. Is this correct? Is there a schematic availible for the Radio/Climate Controls? Is there a mechanical layout avalible as well? If you have this, it will be easy for someone with some electonics experience to figure out where the Speaker bus and power connection are? This is all you need to know to make a harness to a Aftermarket Head with Line In for IPOD. Then you can have a plastic or metal front plate made. Right? Has anyone done this?[/QUOTE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustdr Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 [font=Century Gothic]Can't wait until all the electronic geeks can figure out a no-brainer method! [/font] [font=Century Gothic]Until then, I am not playing my 6,000+ mp3 collection in my '05 OB XT-LTD. CD's sound fine with the 6 CD changer + subwoofer. Since I hate dragging a lot of CD's around, I tried a small lighter plug-in modulator with a built in USB port for memory stick or any other USB device. I'm plugging in my Lexar 1GB Jump Drive and accessing 13-15 full albums on the road. Yeah, loss in quality, but I am old enough to remember my first 8-Track car stereo, so I can handle it until the electronic geeks get this sube glitch resolved. I do like the easy, quick, music of my choice in any vehicle I happen to jump into (including rentals) at any given moment by just plugging this unit into the lighter. [/font] [font=Century Gothic]See it here: [url="http://www.virtualrealitysoundlabs.com/vr3_fmmod.html"]http://www.virtualrealitysoundlabs.com/vr3_fmmod.html[/url][/font] [font=Century Gothic]The Lighter Plug-In Modulator cost [b][u]24 bucks[/u][/b] at Checker Auto and I already had the Jump Drive to plug into the USB port. For that amount, I can put up with the dampened quality until there is a fix that does not take an electronics wizard or a bucket of money to resolve. BTW, you can plug in audio cable into this unit also.[/font] [font=Century Gothic]Keep up all the great research...[/font] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n8gray Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 Hey Centerpunch, how did you locate the original audio lines on the ribbon cable? Does the stereo need anything more than 12V DC attached to be operated on a test bench? If not, which pins on the back of the stereo are the power pins? If the signal for "cd is playing" is just high voltage on one of the other flat flex cable lines I might be able to figure it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centerpunch Posted February 4, 2005 Author Share Posted February 4, 2005 [quote name='n8gray']Hey Centerpunch, how did you locate the original audio lines on the ribbon cable? Does the stereo need anything more than 12V DC attached to be operated on a test bench? If not, which pins on the back of the stereo are the power pins? If the signal for "cd is playing" is just high voltage on one of the other flat flex cable lines I might be able to figure it out.[/QUOTE] I ran the unit with just 12volts and ground on the bench, then while playing a CD, I probed each of the 14 pins (I drilled an access hole in the bottom panel of the radio, there's a photo of that earlier in this thread), and had an EE friend tell me when we hit audio. I didn't think to probe for a simple high-low line for "cd is playing." All we looked for was audio, and we found it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jp928 Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 Going back a little from Ipod connecting, is there an easy way to connect an FM modulator into the aerial lead on this model head unit please? Is there a junction in the lead from the rear gate amplifier that is reachable without major dismantling? I want to fit an mp3 capable cd changer and pipe it into the system. TIA jp 05 OBW 5MT 2.5i, RHD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jp928 Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 Down here in Oz the head unit is a Kenwood - confirmed by Kenwood tech at their head office.....advised that should not try to tap into it, be happy with fm transmitter. They offer an optional dealer instal external cd changer (sans MP3), but it must have a proprietary cable, as Kenwood make an MP3 capable changer, but Tech told me it cant be connected. C_hunter...did you really tap FM direct into the aerial line, or are you transmitting? jp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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