It fits!
January 20, 2006
Yay! The physical iPod mount fits with no issues thus far! Now I just need to finish up the wiring… Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow. We’ll see… Regardless, I’m really happy thus far. Pictures coming soon.
Category making things
Tonight iPod in Honda Civic Work
January 19, 2006
Click for more…
Yes, I know that’s not the most impressive photo, but that’s the completion of my work tonight. I ended up making a new and much better PCB with which to tie everything together, mounted the filter and resistor, installed the second grommet in the case, soldered on the previously made Aux In cable, added the power cable, hacked in a fuse for the power cable, and called it a night.
So, yeah. Now the only things left to do are tear into the dash again, finally assemble and bolt in the iPod holder, run the iPod dock cable through the base of the stuff pocket in the console (whoops, need to purchase another 7/16OD x 1/4ID grommet), add the ends to the power cable, plug both the power and aux in cables in, strap the project box to a support in the console, and close it all up. Then, provided things go the way I want, it should just work.
After that I’ll start looking into changing the firmware on the head unit to read IPOD instead of AUX, and I’ll probably start seriously looking more into the Honda Music Link Device. I’ve got a growing desire to document as much about it as I can. Pinouts, high res board photos, and if the board doesn’t have too many layers, I may even try to work up a schematic. Or maybe even read out the ROM. We’ll see…
UPDATE: Oh, I forgot to add this photo of the bottle of acid, namely ferric cloride in water. I had it sitting in a pyrex measuring cup for two days because I wasn’t sure what to do with it. It can’t come in contact with metal at all, so I was having a hard time finding a container for it. While I was at GFS unsuccessfully looking through their cleaning products for such a contain, it came to me that I should just use a 1L wide-mouth Aquafina bottle to hold it. So I did. It’s working out nicely. Now I can save the solution to use a few months from now.
PCB…
January 18, 2006
So, the PCB I made last night? I’m kinda worried about it… If you look at a full res image of it and look attention to the traces, they don’t look completely solid to me. I don’t know if that is from scrubbing it clean with a scotch-brite pad (per the directions) or because etchant got beneath the tape used for the long lines, but it worries me.
I think that I’ll actually redo the PCB today or Thursday. I’m… just not happy with it, and for something that I’m likely to rely on for the next three or four years in my car, I want to know that it is good.
iPod in 2006 Civic EX Update
January 18, 2006
Click for more…
Okay, I did decide to post a shot of the PCB tonight. That’s it, in the project box I chose for making this. It seems like it’ll work out pretty good, even though I likely could have gone with a smaller box. Ah well…
That there is the PCB I made, and this is the solder side of it right after I finished cleaning it up. The etching isn’t perfect, but it meters out solidly. So, hopefully it’ll work.
The components installed there are the 1MΩ resistor to make the iPod pause when the power stops and a salvaged choke (I hope I’m calling that the right thing) to hopefully eliminate any extra noise in the +12v coming from the car.
So, that’s about that… I’m likely going to the auto show tomorrow, so maybe I’ll get back to things on Thursday. We’ll see how that goes. :)
Oh, and all the photos from today can be found starting here and on in (photo gallery retired). Yes, there are lots of the PCB. It was the first I made, so I wanted to document it.
PCB…
January 17, 2006
Well, I managed to etch my first PCB, and it seems to work. Scary chemicals are involved. As in, things which boil and get hot when they are added to water. I guess that’s what happens when you have weird iron compounds in such a situation.
I’m uploading the PCB photos now, and I’ll probably post more tomorrow. In short, I think this project is going to be a success.
iPod in 2006 Civic Update, Part: Whatever
January 15, 2006
Finished custom Aux In connector. (Click for more…)
Well, a bit more progress was made on the iPod connection for my car. Today I soldered up the Aux In connector, potted it in epoxy for strength, shrink tubed it, soldered a 3.5mm (1/8″) connector on the other end for testing purposes, and tested it out. And guess what? It works just as designed.
The connector fits into the factory connector perfectly, tells the Navigation Unit (head unit) that there is something connected to Aux In, and accepts audio in phase on the proper channels.
Also, while cutting the black TuneDok stem to fit, it seems that I squeezed everything so hard that it caused oil to be squeezed out of the vinyl. Wow.
So, yeah. Both the spacer and heads of the bolts are painted, and I’m just waiting for the aluminum plates to dry so I can photograph them. I did get this really nifty photo of wet paint on one of the aluminum washers which I think could do nicely as a flyer photo or something. Well, provided the flyer was printed fairly nicely.
Now all I need to do is order the rest of the parts I need. These should include a cast aluminum project box, PCB etching kit, tin coating kit, and a few other odds and ends which I need to finish everything up. I’ll go order those now, I think.
Honda ‘Auxiliary Jack Assembly’ Connector
January 15, 2006
Connector for ‘Auxiliary Jack Assembly’ on Honda Wiring Harness
(Click for more…)
Ahh, I think I finally figured out exactly how I would make the connector for inside the dashboard of my car for inputting audio into the connector which originally plugged into the rear of the Aux In connector on my dashboard.
What I ended up doing was taking a PCB salvaged from a 2x CD-R and an old CD-ROM drive controller and pulling the long pins off of the CD-R’s PCB and the plastic .100″ spacer from the CD-ROM controller. I then straightened the pins and assembled the pins into the connector, first bridging pins 1 and 2. (This indicated to the head unit on Honda cars that there is something connected to the auxiliary input.)
I then fit everything into a random (probably the VESA connector) header on an old video card and ensured that there is 3/8″ of pin hanging out the non-wiring side of the spacer. After getting everything aligned, I applied a bit of epoxy to the back (wire) side of the spacer to hold the pins in place.
So, tomorrow, likely after the epoxy has cured, I’m going to cannibalize another MIDI cable for it’s nicely made wire assembly, and I’ll use the red / white / green wires and connect them to the left / right / return (ground) pins on the newly made connector. Then I’m going to attempt to pot the entire solder/wire portion of assembly in epoxy. This will provide a nice bunch of strain relief along with ensuring that nothing in this connector shorts out.
Even though I only need three pins, I think I’ll use a DB9 connector for the other end, the one which will connect to the junction box. It’ll be shielded, easy to solder, unlikely to fall out (screws on the connector), and quite solid.
So, yeah… It’s shaping up nicely thus far. Now it’s bed time or something.
Working With Metal
January 14, 2006
Metal Plates for the iPod Holder
(Click for more…)
Well, I’m getting rather excited about the iPod mount / adapter which I am fitting into my car.
Well, if you compare today’s test fitting to the Jenga-like one from earlier in the week it’s pretty obvious that this new solution with the aluminum plates are a great deal better. Sunday or Monday I’ll finish it up by trimming the dark gray stem from the black TuneDok, taking it all apart, and painting the plates, spacers, and bolt headers. Hopefully that’ll go well, too.
Second Version of iPod Connection in 2006 Honda Civic EX
January 11, 2006
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Up there is some of the test pieces I stuck together in order to see if I like how I’m going to mount my iPod in my car.
That photo shows a the original grey and white Belkin TuneDok from my Grand Am with most of the cupholder-supporting bits removed. The remaining vinyl bits into which the iPod holder portion threads is sandwiched between two metal plates and set on three spaces. In the final version the plates will (hopefully) be aluminum, there will be a plate on the bottom of the assembly, and that all will be bolted into the very front of the center console of my car, in front of the gear select area, set so the driver can clearly see it between the gear select lever and the accessory power outlet, and located within arm’s reach.
In the finally mounted version I will have most of the bits of a black Belkin TuneDok there instead of the dirty, old white one which is pictured. This will be mounted by running three bolts vertically through all three plates, the vinyl piece (it’ll be a darker grey), and the spacers, then bolting through the plastic tray in the front of the center console, with a washer, a lock washer, and a nut on the underside. I’m also hoping to give all metal pieces (except for maybe the screw heads) a light coating of black paint to help hide it all. If I’m thinking right, it’ll provide a nice, solid physical mounting point for my iPod.
The other half of the problem to solve is that of the electrical connections. Those were mentioned previously, and the only thing I have left to do is find +12v in the audio bus (or whatever it is called) connector on the back of the head unit (I really hope there is a full +12v here) and get access to that. Then I have to somehow safely (and without changing any factory wiring) get to the back of the in-dash Auxiliary Audio Input and get some use out of this. In this I wish to close the switch which indicates if something is hooked up to the Aux In, then run the iPod’s audio into the Left / Right / Common lines.
I think I’m also going to etch a PCB and mount it in a shielded (probably solid aluminum) box which will tie this all together. This will give me experience etching PCBs, and it’s a really simple project to start with. The box will be mounted somewhere beneath the iPod mount. There is a bracket inside the console which appears like it may be good for tying this to.
Just as when building the first version of my iPod adapter for this car, another MIDI cable will likely be sacrificed for making the connection to the Aux In. I’m not sure what I’ll do for power wiring yet. That’ll have to get figured out later. Maybe some random 18 gauge or 20 gauge or whatever I’ve got laying around the basement twisted together with some shrink tubing or tech flex over it or something. < shrug >
Oh, and completely unrelated to everything else I’ve mentioned in this post, I also updated yesterday’s LJ post which mentions Bell’s Sparkling Ale with a non-screwed-up photo. You can see that photo here if you would like.
Lowel ego
January 11, 2006
Wow, the Lowel ego looks like exactly the kind of lighting setup I need.
Then again, I could probably make something similar for a bit less… But it at least gives me some ideas. Maybe a nice diffuse lighting kit will be my next project after the in-car iPod mounting and the MAME machine.