Kenwood Aux in mod (ebay cable)

Sport23

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Contributor
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2003.5 MSP
Here's how I got my ebay aux in cable to work. Here is a similar posting https://www.ebay.com (commissions earned).

Disclaimer: I am not responsible if you injure yourself, someone else, or if you damage or destroy anything while attempting this mod.

First, thanks to nodivisions.com for posting the pin out of an actual Kenwood CA-C1AX Aux cable. Note: The diagram is of the cable not the stereo connector.

Required:
Ebay CA-C1AX aux cable
Needle nose pliers
Glue
Toothpick or paperclip
1/8 watt 10k ohm resistor
Heat shrink or electrical tape and a pin


Out of the box my ebay cable did not work so I compared it to the pin out from nodivisions.com. At first everything seemed correct and left me scratching my head. Both signal lines were correct and so was the return. The 10k ohm resister was also present between pins 3 and 9. I decided to check all of the pins for any cross connections and that is when I found the problem. One of the pins with the 10k ohm resistor was also connected to ground (sorry I can't remember if it was pin 3 or 9.)

I wanted to open up the connector and cut the wire that connected the pin to ground but it is not possible with the ebay cable. Instead I settled on removing pin 3 and pin 9 from the cable. I slid a pair of needle nose pliers into the connector and gave a little push to break off the pins. Next, I applied some glue with the end of a paperclip so that there would not be a short with the resistor I was about to add.

I picked up a package of 1/8 watt 10k ohm resistors from Radio Shack ($0.99 with multiple in the package.) I laid the resistor body along the top part of the din connector on the back of the stereo. Bend the legs so that they run along the top and the left sides of the connector.

Warning the diagram on nodivisions.com is of the cable not the stereo. When looking at the stereo connector it will be a mirror image of that diagram.

Leave enough excess to fit into the stereos connector (it took me two or three attempts to cut one just right which is fine because you have multiple resistors in the package.) Once you have the length right then you can slide a small piece of heat shrink over the resistor so it will not short to other pins when the cable is installed. Alternatively, you could install the resistor and then cover it with a small piece of electrical tape over the resistor and use a pin to poke holes where the tape covers up the sockets for the cable.

Once you have your resistor positioned and protected from shorting any other pins you can carefully plug your aux cable in. Make sure that the resistor will not be in the way of any of the other pins in the cable. If you wanted to you could remove all of the pins from the cable except for 6, 8 and 12 to free up some more room for the resistor but it is not necessary. The aux cable will not fully seat due to the resistor but it will be close enough for a good connection and I have not had any issues with it coming out while driving (I have run mine for about 2 months now.)

Conclusion: Works great and is cheaper than the Kenwood cable. If you are concerned about this mod the Kenwood cable only cost $19 at crutchfield.com. If someone could find the din connector for sale you could build your own cable. All you would need would be the connector with pins, 10k ohm resistor and and old set of headphones or a headphone extension cable. For now this will give you an alternative to buying the Kenwood cable or being stuck with an ebay cable that doesn't work.

Here is a picture of how the resistor (covered with heat shrink) is routed to avoid the pins for the cable. The second picture is the Aux menu that will appear when you are done (it will say DISC-CH for a second before changing to AUX.)
 

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Thanks for the info. My ebay cable had a 10k ohm resistance between pins 3 and 5 and nothing on pin 9. When I put a 10k resistor between between 3 and 9 (the correct pins) everything works as it should. I'm happy. Thanks again for the info, it's much appreciated.
 
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