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Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

Category: automotive

Honda Music Link iPod Adapter

November 28, 2005

Well well… Looks like I may end up getting one of these instead of the adapter I was thinking of making. I wonder how well it’ll work. Hmm.

Honda and Apple Offer iPod Music Link Accessory
TORRANCE 09/07/2005 —

American Honda announced today its new Honda Music Link iPod(R) adaptor in conjunction with Apple. This Genuine Honda accessory was developed to enable Honda drivers to utilize their iPod directly through the audio system in the all-new, redesigned, 2006 Honda Civic.

Honda Music Link enables consumers with iPods to select their music by artist, album, genre and play list through the Honda Civic’s standard controls on the audio system head unit. In addition, this system is the first of its kind to offer synthesized audio voice feedback when searching through the iPod music library with the vehicle’s audio system controls.

“We are very excited to partner with Apple and offer the Music Link accessory to our Honda consumers,” said Stony Furutani, manager of Honda Accessory Marketing. “The new 2006 Civic features the newest in many technologies, which are further expanded through the addition of the Music Link iPod system.

The Honda Music Link adaptor provides outstanding sound quality while charging the iPod at the same time by a cable conveniently located in the glove compartment. The adapter will be available starting this December exclusively for purchase and installation at Honda dealers. Suggested retail pricing for the Honda Music Link will be approximately $250 plus dealer installation. Honda Music link is backed by a full Honda factory warranty. Consumers should check with Honda dealers for specific restrictions.

Apple’s iPod units are available in the U.S. through the Apple Store(R) at www.apple.com and at selected retailers.

# # #

For more information or downloadable high-resolution images of the Civic and other Honda vehicles, please visit www.hondanews.com. Consumer information is available at www.hondacars.com.

Wow, and this article at Ars Technicia says that it’ll offer voice recognition for browsing. Damn.

acquired thingsautomotivemoved from livejournal

Phase 1: Done

November 27, 2005


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Ahh, phase one of the project to ‘properly’ connect an iPod to a 2006 Honda Civic is done. In short, I built this box and the cable running to the iPod. The box contains a filter to (hopefully) cut down on car engine noise and the break-out to provide the audio signal as two RCA connectors.

Inside of the shell of the iPod connector itself is a 1MΩ resistor which signals to the iPod that it has a car adapter connected so it should pause the iPod when power is disconnected, as this would typically happen when the car is shut off.

For now I’ll use this bundle of hardware to connect the iPod to the new car. It’ll power/charge the iPod, pause it when things are disconnected, and provide audio into the ‘aux in’ connector.

The next phase of the project is to wire the box (or perhaps just the iPod cable) into the car itself, either via factory-compatible connectors or straight hard wiring. My goal is to have the iPod powered from a keyed, filtered accessory line and the line-out to run straight into wherever the aux in connects to. I also want the iPod nicely mounted in a good location, within arm’s reach, and easy to navigate while driving. That kind of fitting (along with the factory-type connectors) I can’t do until I have the vehicle.

But, yeah. At least this much is done.

automotiveelectronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

It Works

November 27, 2005


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Well, the damn thing works. I got the connector wired properly, closed it up, and tested it with a 12v supply from the car. The iPod charges, and if it is playing and the power is disconnected, the iPod pauses. Tomorrow I’ll go get the stuffs to enclose the power filter and end-of-iPod-cable junction in a box. I’ll also stick a pair of RCA jacks on the outside of the box so that I can get audio out of it all.

I should have left the DIN5 on the far end of the cable for the time being so that it could have simply been plugged into the project box, but that’s okay.

The end result of this should be a temporary single cable iPod hookup which I can use until I get the car’s wiring figured out, connectors ordered, etc.

Earlier while working on this I became pretty frustrated with myself because after screwing up the first connector I made a second. Everything was going absolutely great until I realized that I’d wired it backwards, mixing up pins 1 and 30. And it was going so well, too. Ah well, at least it’s set for the time being. I’ve already got the RCA panel connectors, so I just need a project box. That shouldn’t be too hard to come across, I hope.

Now, I just wish I was tired. I thought the coffee I grabbed on the way home from ‘s place was a bad idea. It was. I’m nicely awake.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention what a pain it is to solder inside of these connectors. They are 0.6mm pins spaced 0.6mm apart. To make it a bit easier I took to removing unneeded pins from the last connector used, the one that was properly done.

See? Top · Bottom

An easier way to think of it is in regards to mechanical pencil lead. Most mechanical pencils that people use are either 0.5mm or 0.7mm. Most rollerball pens that people use make a 0.7mm wide line. That should give you an idea of what I was working with. Soldering one (or sometimes two wires) to something that small is a bit interesting.

automotiveelectronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

No More Music!

November 25, 2005

Well, I just finished removing the head unit and parts used to connect my iPod to it from my car, returning it to the factory stereo. I guess I’ll be listening to CDs for the next few days.

Then it’ll be time to figure out how to properly connect an iPod in the new car. It ought to be interesting, to say the least.

At least I’ve got the old Belkin dock connector / charger / line out thing which I can base the new cable off of. I just wish I had black dock connectors. Ah well.

automotiveelectronicsmoved from livejournal

iPod in Car

October 14, 2005

So with getting the new car, I’m going to need a way to mount the iPod. In my searching I came across a company called Pro-Fit International who makes a product called the miMount which seems almost ideal. With the description on the page I’m having a hard time telling how thick of an iPod it’ll hold. So, I called the mfg… Well, the person answering the phone didn’t quite have this info, so she gave me the cell phone number of the designer, and said that he takes calls. (!!!) Well, hopefully he’ll be able to get back to me with the maximum iPod thickness for this holder… It seems like a nice design, and I think I could make it mount nicely beneath the dash, just in front of the parking brake.

acquired thingsautomotivemoved from livejournal

Sunday Driving

October 3, 2005


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Up until a few minutes ago I had great plans to make some sort of shiny template for my photo-centric posts. Well, likely due to the carbohydrates currently making me feel sluggish, I’m just not up for that. So I’ll offer a quick summary of my day yesterday, and this (photo gallery retired) link to a bunch of photos taken then.

I had initially left my house hoping to visit Bloomer Park in Rochester Hills and wander along the Clinton River to the former crossing of the Huron Clinton Canal, but with the $6 entrance fee, I decided to skip it. I drove Bloomer road west, eventually ending up in downtown Rochester, at which point I decided to head north. I wasn’t sure of where I was going, but I figured I’d end up someplace interesting.

And… I did. While driving north on Rochester Road, after passing through some quite drastic construction I came across a fireman standing in the middle of the road, stopping traffic. As I passed I realized that it was because the Oakland Township fire department was having their yearly open house. I turned around, parked, and went to take a look at what all was being offered. Well, there was quite a bit to see, including a demonstration of various hydraulic tools being used to cut, pry, or otherwise disassemble vehicles in which people have been trapped.

After that I headed over to downtown Lake Orion (don’t ask me how I got there) and found that there is a dam beneath M-24. Then I headed north on M-24, and somehow a while later I found myself at Big Fish Lake in the Ortonville State Recreation Area. I wandered around there taking pictures, then I headed over to Round Lake where I did some more wandering alone in the woods.

Oh, I forgot to mention this, but it seems that yesterday was the start of bow hunting season for deer. Whoops… Probably not the best time to be wandering along in the woods. Ah well, I’m still alive.

After visiting Round Lake, I headed west and came across the Ortonville Bridle / Snowmobile Trails, where I did a bit of wandering on what were clearly marked as horse trails before getting back in the car. Then I headed a bit further west (I think) and stumbled across Eaton Cemetery where I poked around for a bit and took photos of almost every headstone there.

After Eaton Cemetery I headed a bit south, eventually happening upon Bloomer #3, where I did a bit more wandering before I suddenly had pangs of nearly-passing-out-ness from low blood sugar. At that point I turned my car and headed towards home.

Ending up in downtown Ortonville (I think) I stopped off at a place called Frosty Boy and picked up (after a lengthy wait) a medium vanilla ice cream cone in order to tide me over. Needless to say, it was quickly eaten. Feeling a bit re energized, noticing signs for Indian Springs Metropark, and having a Metroparks pass on my car, I decided to pay this new (to me) metropark a visit.

It turns out that this park is located almost right next to NOAA DTX (Detroit / Pontiac) location. This was pretty made pretty obvious by the looming white radar dome in the distance. Oh, and this park seems really promising as well. There is a new Environmental Discovery Center being built there which will even have what appears to be an acrylic dome stretching off the back of the building into a pond of sorts. This could be really cool.

Beyond the Environmental Discovery Center, there is also some rather interesting playground and waterpark equipment, including what, from a distance, looks to be a prison camp. Yes, it is a large maze constructed of cyclone fence, complete with observation platform. It’s a bit foreboding, a bit frightening, and also extremely cool. I can’t wait to see it once it’s done.

After poking around Indian Springs, the waning sunlight told me it was time to head home, so off I went to the Rochester Hills Meijer in order to get some Lazychili ingredients. It’s good, but I think I made it a wee bit too spicy… Ah well, I may just have to make up a pot of rice and eat the chili over rice. < shrug > At least it’s good.

Beyond coming home, making the chili, emailing a (likely overly lenghty) reply to , uploading photos, watching an episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and enjoying both a Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale and a Speakeasy Prohibition Ale, that’s all I did with my night. Quite a busy, relaxing, fun, fulfilling day. :)

(Hrm, those looked like much longer, better paragraphs with all the markup in there. Ah well.)

automotivemoved from livejournaloutdoors

iSight Car Mount

July 12, 2005

[Cross posted to and …]


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While at work yesterday I decided that I’d build a mount for my Apple iSight for my car. This way I could transmit photos of wherever I’m currently at, do stop motion video of driving, and all sorts of other things which the especially nifty iSight allows one to do.

So, as you can see in the picture above, I’ve got a mount built. This is more of my design test / proof of concept mount. I may build another that has a more polished look to it, as well. Probably some matte black paint, etc.

I’ve posted three videos which are the result of testing of the mount. There are two full motion tests which I took last night, and one stop motion† of my drive to work. The mount seems to hold the camera very stable, and the full motion videos almost have a video game feeling to them. Perhaps this weekend I’ll do a stop motion driving around highways somewhere Downtown Detroit, in and out of parking garages, etc.

Regardless, it seems to work as desired. Enjoy the videos. They are encoded with QT7 in 512kbps H.264, so you’ll need QT7 or some other compatable player to view them:

· Car Mount Test 1 – At night, on M-59 crossing old Van Dyke, entering the sunken concrete cavern highway area.
· Car Mount Test 2 – Driving through the parking lot on the southwest corner of Hall Rd. and Schoenherr, ending up on Schoenherr heading north.
· Stop Motion Test 1 – My favorite vid. One of the routes I take to work, start to finish. Each frame taken two seconds apart, played back at 15 frames per second.

† Stop motion footage created by:
1) Use EvoCam to capture a video with no compression, best quality, and best bit depth at .5 frames per second which makes for two seconds between frames.
2) Open resulting .MOV in QuickTime Pro.
3) Export .MOV to image sequence.
4) Open image sequence with QuickTime Pro set to the desired frame rate. In this case I found that 15fps looked best. 30fps was just too quick.

It may be possible to simply change the frame rate at which the QuickTime file is presented, but I was having difficulty figuring out how, so I did it this way.

automotiveelectronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

Car issues…

July 8, 2005

Well, I was unable to resolve whatever is causing the squeaking sound that I hear coming from my front driver’s side suspension. However, I am able to reproduce it when outside of the vehicle. I think the problem is a worn bushing or something squeaking against some metal, serving only to annoy me. There seems to be no issue with the drivability of the vehicle, but I want this damn noise fixed.

If you’d like to chime in about what the issue might be (please-please-please-please-please!), watch the following two videos. They show the two ways I have been able to reproduce the noise and isolate where it is coming from:


Now I guess I’ll go clean up my office and maybe get to work on an automotive mount for my iSight.

automotivemoved from livejournal

Fixed Car and Lights, Woo!

June 30, 2005


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Well, it seems that the new battery has taken care of the problem. Provided nothing crops up with the alternator, things will remain good. Thinking back, my car hasn’t started this promptly in a year or two, so I think the battery may have been going for a while. Whatever the length of time the problem was happening for, I’m just glad it’s fixed.

I also snagged some daylight-color halogen spotlights for the kitchen. One of my old bulbs had burned out, and the GE Reveal bulbs I picked up simply weren’t bright enough. So I swung by Lowe’s and picked up a pair of daylight-color halogen PAR30 spots to take their place. I then returned the Reveal bulbs to Home Depot and picked up two more daylight fluorescent bulbs for the laundry room. I had picked up two the other day, but it turns out that it’s a four bulb fixture. I’d been wanting to replace the standard tubes with daylight ones, but I’d kept forgetting.

Can you tell that I like daylight colored bulbs? Good. I like them a lot. In fact, I try to only use them. Things look proper colors under them, and I’m fairly convinced that bright, daylight-colored light does a good job staving off SAD during winter or just periods of time where I stay inside.

around the houseautomotivemoved from livejournal