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

Category electronics

iPod Stuff

January 10, 2006

Gur. I’m getting tired of the whole Honda / iPod thing. I just want the damn thing to work.

Here’s my current, and hopefully simple, idea. I mount an iPod holder in the console to hold the iPod. Then I figure out how to pull power from the Satellite / CD Changer / Whatever connector in the back of the stereo and do so. I have a spare Y cable for this connector, so I can tap power off of there. I then use one of these (or maybe these, if I am feeling cheap) to shove audio into the 3.5mm jack provided right on the console. Done right, it could be wired fairly transparently and completely non-invasively in the car (except for the mounting holes for the dock, which would be in a rather hidden location anyway).

The power would be pulled from the nicely filtered source on the back of the head unit, the audio would be fed in via ‘normal’ means without any special wiring / cabling / splicing, and the iPod would be mounted in an accessible location.

I’ll look more into making this work tomorrow, but I think it’s possible.

I’m also thinking of just buying a $20 Belkin Auto Kit from eBay in black so I can have one that matches the dock and is known to be well soldered and wee. Then I can just build a tiny PCB to make all the connections I want, mount that up in the console, and call it a day. Hrm. I really do think this is the best way to go… And if I plan it right, it’ll involve pulling apart the dash twice. Once to check / measure things, and another to do the install. I’ll likely go this route.

Tomorrow I’ll probably order the parts.

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Noise Filter

January 9, 2006

Do any of you know where I can get plans or a schematic for a noise filter to put on a 12v DC car power source? I’m now looking into making my own iPod hookup, but the normal Radio Shack filter is physically too large for my purposes.

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MAME Cabinet

January 4, 2006

Well, talking to some #llamasoft people got me thinking… I should just replace the monitor in my MAME cabinet with a real, decent sized one. So I think I’m going to see if the Vision Pro 27″ SVGA Universal Mount Monitor from Happ Controls. It’s US$349.95 for the tube, plus another $13.15 for the monitor bezel. As long as it’ll fit in my cabinet, I think I may go that route… It’d be a great, massive display which would actually accept a VGA signal.

Hrm… That really would polish off the cabinet…

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MAME :(

December 31, 2005

Crap. The sound card in my MAME cabinet just died.

I’ve got plan to replace the innards of the machine, but I was hoping things would hold out through tonight.

Ah well, no MAME cab for a few days…

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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.

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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.

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Gur!

November 26, 2005

Guh! Two solder points away from being complete and I screwed this up. I guess I’ll be redoing it another day.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to solder .6mm connections? to wires, a resistor, and a few other components?

Uggh. I’m mad at myself for this.

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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.

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