So on our last road trip I moved my Axxess adapter to the CX-7 and have been too lazy to move it back. I decided the other day that I needed to come up with something to be able to have my iPod/pandora on the phone/whatever in both cars, so after a bit of searching and fiddling, heres what we get.
An AUX input for FREE!!! Or at least, less than $5.
Difficulty = 3
Tools = screw driver, 10mm ratchet with at least a 3-6in extension,
Cost = $0-$5
“O” Factor = 7 free=good
Heres what you need:
Old headphones
An old CD-ROM audio cable (if you don't have one of these, its ok)
Thats it. Tools:
Phillips head screwdriver
10 mm socket and extension
soldering iron and solder (preferred, not required)
Now lets get to it
Remove the console. If you have done this before, skip along, otherwise, here you go:
Alright, first step, remove the cup holders and shifter surround. There are no screws, just clips, so just pull up on both to remove them. On the back of the ashtray are two plugs. The one attached to the cigarette lighter just needs to be squeezed like most other automotive plugs, but the light simply would not come apart for me, so I unscrewed it from the back of the ashtray.
PUT THE SHIFTER KNOB BACK ON to avoid scratching the delicate surround.
Next, remove the glovebox. Open it, and on the right hand side you will see a string. Remove it by pulling down on it (under the clip)
Behind the glovebox, you will see a single 10mm bolt attached to the radio. It will be behind the radio/below the lcd. Remove it.
On the bottom of the center console are 4 screws attached to the bottom of the radio surround. Remove the top two, the bottom two can stay put.
Once all the screws are out, give the radio surround a yank, and it should pull straight forward.
On the back, you will find a plethora of connectors. One of these is clipped to a piece of metal. Using pliers, squeeze the plastic tab sticking through the metal, and it will come right apart. You really only need to disconnect the large main adapter and the antenna (in addition to pulling the above one off the tab).
The plug we will be using for this is the white one on the right next to the antenna input (not the one underneath that we used for the Axxess install)
Thanks to chisss on another board, I was able to get the pin-out for this (this is his pic of the connector with numbers assigned to the pins)
1 - ground
3 - right
5 - left
7 - signal
13 - media button
We're gonna use pins 1-7 and 13.
If you found a CD-ROM audio cable, this comes in handy. We need to jumper pins 1 and 13 to activate the "Media" button, so what I did was cut one end of the cable about 3 inches from the connector. I then connected the first wire to the same color on the other end (in my case white). Then, to hit pins 1 and 13, I moved the wire on the connector to the third slot (which can be easily done with a tiny screw driver or pocket knife by prying up gently on the little black tabs. Take the other three wires out completely.
Heres what it looks like (obviously I soldered and taped that connection later):
Once that part is ready, grab your old headphones. Cut the ear buds off before the Y so that you have a single wire with a 3.5 MM jack on the end. You'll want as much of this wire as you can spare.
Peel back the jacket a little and you should have three wires. A Red, a blue or green, and a bare copper. Red is for Right, Blue or Green is Left, and the copper is your signal wire. To correlate them to your connector:
Red should connect to the second wire.
Blue/Green should connect to the third.
Copper should connect to the fourth.
Once you have those secured with solder or butt connectors or wire nuts, heres what you should have (once again, mine wasn't done in this pict):
Now to connect it, all you have to do is line up the pins with the bottom row of connects and just push it on. Make sure your second connector stays in the right orientation so that the wire is in the third slot (hitting pin number 13).
Of course, I forget to get a pic of this part....
Now, at the beginning I mentioned that you don't need an audio cable. Heres what you should get if you don't have one:
Its a D-Sub connector from RadioShack, female, crimp-on. Item 276-1428. You can use the crimp-on pins from this instead of the audio cable, and you can actually just attach the headphone cable directly to the headunit if you use these. You'll still need a way to jumper 1-13 though, so you'll need some spare wire. Cost on this bag was $1.99.
As far as placement for your wire, its up to you. I personally used the same hole I had previously drilled/cut for the Axxess adapter in the upper compartment, but you could run it to the glovebox, or center console. Whatever you want.
An AUX input for FREE!!! Or at least, less than $5.
Difficulty = 3
Tools = screw driver, 10mm ratchet with at least a 3-6in extension,
Cost = $0-$5
“O” Factor = 7 free=good
Heres what you need:
Old headphones
An old CD-ROM audio cable (if you don't have one of these, its ok)
Thats it. Tools:
Phillips head screwdriver
10 mm socket and extension
soldering iron and solder (preferred, not required)
Now lets get to it
Remove the console. If you have done this before, skip along, otherwise, here you go:
Alright, first step, remove the cup holders and shifter surround. There are no screws, just clips, so just pull up on both to remove them. On the back of the ashtray are two plugs. The one attached to the cigarette lighter just needs to be squeezed like most other automotive plugs, but the light simply would not come apart for me, so I unscrewed it from the back of the ashtray.
PUT THE SHIFTER KNOB BACK ON to avoid scratching the delicate surround.
Next, remove the glovebox. Open it, and on the right hand side you will see a string. Remove it by pulling down on it (under the clip)
Behind the glovebox, you will see a single 10mm bolt attached to the radio. It will be behind the radio/below the lcd. Remove it.
On the bottom of the center console are 4 screws attached to the bottom of the radio surround. Remove the top two, the bottom two can stay put.
Once all the screws are out, give the radio surround a yank, and it should pull straight forward.
On the back, you will find a plethora of connectors. One of these is clipped to a piece of metal. Using pliers, squeeze the plastic tab sticking through the metal, and it will come right apart. You really only need to disconnect the large main adapter and the antenna (in addition to pulling the above one off the tab).
The plug we will be using for this is the white one on the right next to the antenna input (not the one underneath that we used for the Axxess install)
Thanks to chisss on another board, I was able to get the pin-out for this (this is his pic of the connector with numbers assigned to the pins)
1 - ground
3 - right
5 - left
7 - signal
13 - media button
We're gonna use pins 1-7 and 13.
If you found a CD-ROM audio cable, this comes in handy. We need to jumper pins 1 and 13 to activate the "Media" button, so what I did was cut one end of the cable about 3 inches from the connector. I then connected the first wire to the same color on the other end (in my case white). Then, to hit pins 1 and 13, I moved the wire on the connector to the third slot (which can be easily done with a tiny screw driver or pocket knife by prying up gently on the little black tabs. Take the other three wires out completely.
Heres what it looks like (obviously I soldered and taped that connection later):
Once that part is ready, grab your old headphones. Cut the ear buds off before the Y so that you have a single wire with a 3.5 MM jack on the end. You'll want as much of this wire as you can spare.
Peel back the jacket a little and you should have three wires. A Red, a blue or green, and a bare copper. Red is for Right, Blue or Green is Left, and the copper is your signal wire. To correlate them to your connector:
Red should connect to the second wire.
Blue/Green should connect to the third.
Copper should connect to the fourth.
Once you have those secured with solder or butt connectors or wire nuts, heres what you should have (once again, mine wasn't done in this pict):
Now to connect it, all you have to do is line up the pins with the bottom row of connects and just push it on. Make sure your second connector stays in the right orientation so that the wire is in the third slot (hitting pin number 13).
Of course, I forget to get a pic of this part....
Now, at the beginning I mentioned that you don't need an audio cable. Heres what you should get if you don't have one:
Its a D-Sub connector from RadioShack, female, crimp-on. Item 276-1428. You can use the crimp-on pins from this instead of the audio cable, and you can actually just attach the headphone cable directly to the headunit if you use these. You'll still need a way to jumper 1-13 though, so you'll need some spare wire. Cost on this bag was $1.99.
As far as placement for your wire, its up to you. I personally used the same hole I had previously drilled/cut for the Axxess adapter in the upper compartment, but you could run it to the glovebox, or center console. Whatever you want.
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