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.

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.