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

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iPod + Civic Brainstorming

January 10, 2006

Some ideas…

– Find a way to safely / easily / reversibly remove the door on the aux audio connector (probably pin + spring friction fit) and use a right angle connector.

– Trace pinout on cable between Nav unit and Music Link adapter box.

– Identify pins used for power. Likely pins 9 and 10 of connector E ‘BLU (SAT ECU BUS (+))’ and ‘PNK (SAT ECU BUS (-))’. May also be pins 1 and 11, ‘BLU (+B GA-NET)’ and ‘BLK (GA-NET GND)’.

– Adapt one half of 08A31-0F1-000 (BUS HARN 2PORT) to provide power to iPod (hopefully is +12v, otherwise cancel idea) and use other half to Honda Music Link. Probably wire-wrap / solder two pins in connector and heat shrink for insulation. Harnesses are cheap and readily available.

– Mount Belkin TuneDok in left side of storage area in front of gear selector. Use threaded sleeve from center of cupholder cut out and braced with large (trimmed?) washer. Bolt through bottom of stoarge area.

– Buy Belkin Auto Kit (Black) from eBay to acquire dock connector cable.

– Small PCB in project box holding 1MΩ resistor (to emulate Belkin Auto Kit and pause on power off). Probably will also patch audio from dock cable to 3.5mm plug and power from wires leading from BUS HARN 2PORT to dock cable.

– Appears to be space in console in front of gear select to mount small project box. There is a medium sized structural tube to which it could be cable tied (with padding, similar to how Music Link box is mounted).

– RF chokes on all audio lines inside of project box, just to be sure.

End result should be all-black mounting hardware. No changes to any factory wiring. Audio fed through factory connector, power pulled from the same place as iPod charging power is currently acquired. Power to iPod should be nice, clean power, filtered by whatever filters the power in the head unit making for no noise.

Before doing all that, I need to take my vehicle in and get the resonating sound I’ve been hearing when the engine is running at 1400-1500 RPM checked out. I think this is a common problem. I also need to get my iPod taken care of at some point, because I think the disk in it may be dying.

Okay, end of rambling.

automotiveelectronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

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.

automotiveelectronicsmoved from livejournal

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.

automotiveelectronicsmoved from livejournal

Contacting Apple re: Honda Music Link

January 9, 2006

Well, let’s see what this gets me. The people it’s addressed to are Jaime Schopflin and Tom Neumayr, Apple’s PR contacts for ‘iPod’ and ‘Manager, iTunes & iPod’, respectively.

From: "Steve Vigneau"
Subject: Honda Music Link iPod Adapter Review
Date: Mon, January 9, 2006 9:20 am
To: jaimes@apple.com,tneumayr@apple.com

Hello,

I have recently come into possession of one of the Honda Music Link iPod
Adapters which was announced in an Apple press release on September 7th,
2005 (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/sep/07ipod_auto.html).

Due to my extreme dissatisfaction with this product I have been
maintaining an ongoing log / review of my experiences with it at the
following URL:

http://www.nuxx.net/hondamusiclink.html

Due to the apparent disparity between Apple's hopeful-sounding
announcement with regards to this product and my actual experiences with
it I wanted to make Apple aware of this information. I am also interested
in any comments which you may have with regards to my experiences with the
product.

Thank you,

Steve Vigneau
admin@nuxx.net

acquired thingsautomotivemoved from livejournal

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…

electronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

Painting…

January 3, 2006

Blah. I kinda screwed up in painting part of my MAME monitor. I didn’t paint enough of the bezel, so when one looks into the monitor at a very low angle, there is still some beige visible. I’ll have to fix this another day. :(

making thingsmoved from livejournal