HOW-TO: Add an auxilary jack to your car
posted June 14th 2005 2:50PM
Hello readers and welcome to another HOW-TO article. I originally was planning on doing the CVS Disposable Camcorder Hack, but it's only 90% done. To answer questions of can it be reused?: Yes, it can. But if you want to see it in action, I'll have it out and working at the first ever Hackaday meetup on Thursday. Come on out and see how it's done or if you can't make it, I'll have it up next Tuesday for you guys.
But now we're talkin' audio. Sweet crisp sounding liquid music....coming from our iPods/DAPs of course. A lot of us are still probably using an old school tape deck and cassette adaptor to hook up our iPods to our car. However, with some modding, a few bucks, and a car of course, you can make a permanent auxilary jack for your car.
So how? Well, it�s easy enough. It just depends on your stereo situation.
If you have an aftermarket head unit, it probably has a good chance of having auxilary input for your PS2, iPod, or whatever. If this is the case, read on:
You�ll want to find a good spot on your dash near your stereo for the jack. Just pick up an RCA red and white audio to minijack (1/8� whatever you wanna call it). Then get a minijack extender so you now have a female minijack port to plug your iPod/Minidisc/Monkey into. Finally, get some kind of washer/bolt mechanism to lock the minijack into place. Superglue works if you�re dead broke too.
Using a dremel or similar cutting tool, drill out and sand out a nice little hole for your input jack. Once done, hook everything up to your car stereo and test it to make sure it works fine. You don�t want to have to keep going back in. Then, disconnect the red and white RCA ends from the head unit. Mount your minijack port properly and make sure it�s secure and that you like the way it looks. No turning back now! Finally, reconnect your RCA red and white cables to the head unit, hook everything back up, and you�re good to go. You can just run a basic minijack to minijack cable from the iPod into the Auxilary jack. It�s now clean, crisp, and you won�t have wires everywhere. You can even rig up a dock if you�re good with power and how it�s distributed, but thats for another rainy day.
Now. If you don�t have a head unit with auxilary inputs. You have a few options still (though they�re a bit trickier):
Option #1: Go out, buy a new head unit. $150 will do at Best Buy for a pretty good basic CD player w/ auxilary.
Option #2: Go all out hardcore and follow this method. It�s a nice way of doing it but not all of us can solder and do the hard work.
Option #3: If your car�s head unit has a seperate CD player like this guy�s Toyota Corolla, then you can basically workaround the CD player to allowed a different input. In this case, an iPod. Much easier than above but not as pretty in the end.
Whichever choice you decide is yours. But by now, we should all start thinking about this considering how much we use our iPods and DAPs nowadays. Enjoy!
does no one realise that that isnt realy an ipod but rather one of the knock offs?
in response to #49. Posted Jun 16, 2005, 2:37 PM ET by eleongonzales
don't know what you'd expect from best buy, they pay their salespeople to be clerks, not have any product knowledge whatsoever. in the seattle area, try innovative, magnolia audio/video (watch out, best buy owns these guys now), or car toys (listed in order of likelihood you will find somebody who knows what they're talking about ;). out of the area, trust your instincts, and don't expect anything out of best buy beyond good prices.
pioneer head units with cd changer input (IP-Bus) can be hack - get a IPBus cable and a 3/8 headphone jack.. there are some diagrams about on mp3car.com
for sadpanda - on my HU i need to turn on the aux source but holding the function button for 3 sec while the HU is off.
Pioneer has manuals available on the web
benhc911: it's not a knock off. it's just first gen. how soon we forget...
i love my aiwa head unit. aux in right up front. if your head unit is shite and if you have the means, i highly recommend one.
i noticed something interesting while on vacation in texas this past week. I rented a boat that had a very cheap stereo in it and it had an aux input jack. Kind of strange how the cheap stuff has the good extra features but looks bad, while expensive stuff doesnt have it but looks good
I did a version of this for my VW Golf's Beta radio
http://jondean.100megs34.com/bgb/archives/2005/06/adding_an_auxil.html
enjoy!
I have a 1997 mustang with the OEM radio. I was able to find left and right chanel and patch into them off of the cd player, but I couldn't find a "mute" to the radio for me to add a switch on.
Taking the theory, I was able to add a switch and wire in an aux-in line in my 93 GMC pickup with a seperate tape deck from the head unit. Thanks for the inspiration!
Taking the theory, I was able to add a switch and wire in an aux-in line in my 93 GMC pickup with a seperate tape deck from the head unit. Red & White (& ground) wires matched up to audio jack.
I put a switch between the two blue wires coming into the deck and this made the aux audio mode kick in without having to run a tape.
Thanks for the inspiration!
hey i just got a panasonic (cq-dp383u, that is) that was sitting on the clearence table at soundtrack. i saw it had an RCA input labeled cd-ch in which i later found out it stood for cd changer, and then a port for the controls of a cd changer or whatever. im trying to listen to my mp3 player, but i think the deck needs to have a cd changer connected to recieve signal from that rca input. does anyone know how i can make it "think" that there is a cd changer connected so i can listen to anything through that rca input. i hope this makes sense.
I have a Subaru Outback '96, and I currently hook up my iPod using the Monston CarPlay Plus, the sound is ok if I play the music low, but for really hearing things it sucks. I'm wondering, if I take the time to install an aux input for the iPod, is it really going to make THAT big of a diff in terms of sound quality?
My '05 Honda Element came with this installed. In fact, I think that all Honda Elements have one of these in them stock because it certainly was not an option.
I have a 1994 Chevy Suburban that I wanted to hook up. It costs an extra $170 in installation to get a new unit from best buy so I took creative action. I uninstalled the tape deck, spliced and sodered the outgoing audio cables, and hooked up a spliced end of a male headphone cable. Now it's great, the stereo thinks a tape is in there, and plays my ipod. Its awesome.
i've added a few notes to the how-to, including some possible safety concerns that someone emailed to me, so if you're thinking of doing this, check out the updates.
http://www.mattgilbert.net/carstereoauxinput/
Another option is going to Circuit City and buying a USA Spec aux adapter for $60. Would have liked to DIYed it, but I dont see how this proj can be adapted to a BMW
hi i was looking into getting the FM Modulator and I found the audiovox FMM100A for 50 at circuit city. Im not too knowledgeble about car audio stuff. would it be hard to install that? any other comments or suggestions are appreciated.
i go over how to do all this stuff in my book, geek my ride, which you can pick up at amazon.
a few notes:
* if you have a saab (and this applies to other cars as well) stock radio, you may have to have the dealer enable the aux-in feature on your car (for a nice little fee, go fig).
* if your stereo doesn't have an aux-in, get a stereo transmitter, like the belkin icast, or one of the new monster solutions. monster just release a neat product that is designed specifically for each specific car and for ipod use.
* while a jack on your dash is a decent place to put the jack, you may actually want to keep the a/v in your center compartment, where you can put your ipod and just let it play, then keep it in there, out of the heat and out of view, when you leave your car.
best,
-auri
author, geek my ride (http://www.geekmyride.net)
sorta related, here's how to add a usb hub to sync portable digital music players in your car with a carpc:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1790867,00.asp
I did the changes to connect my iPod to a Pioneer head with cd charger like this guy have done: http://www.gutterslide.com/ip-bus_hack
Unfortunately, I couldn't hear anything because the head do not change to "CD listening" when I push the power. It acts as I haven't a cd charger in the car. I think I should connect other pin to say to the head to listen to the cdcharger input.
Can anybody help me?
Thanks a lot.
Marcio, from Brazil.
oh my god. you don't relise how long i have been looking for a hack like this. i thought i would come here to see if anything is new and then i spotted this hack.
thanks heaps.
I'd like someone to add a hack...or additional hack, for someone like myself where I don't have the port to come off of. I have an early 90's chevy and the radio has no input source at all, just the built-in tape deck, am I screwed to the fact that I can ONLY use FM Modulation? I've tried and it sucks. If anyone could help...that'd be a great part II to this wonderful hack.
wcs50371@hotmail.com
wcs50371,
I don't know if you have skill enough to handle with electronic stuff.
You could open the head, looking for the gain button in the point where its middle tap goes to the board (circuit). It should be the input for the head's pre-amp.
At this point you insert anything (a rele, a switch...) to switch between the normal circuit or the "new" auxiliary input.
Here in Brazil the guys from audio car stuffs do it for a fare of $60.
A bit expensive. With this money you can buy a new head with normal AM/FM band (only) and builtin aux input into the front.
Good luck.
Marcio
Has anyone had made a cable like this for a Honda?http://www.geocities.com/blhobbs.rm/Mazda_stereo.html
Has anyone had made a cable like this for a Honda?http://www.geocities.com/blhobbs.rm/Mazda_stereo.html
I had a question, I have a 2004 Ford Mustang, V-6 with the Mach 1000 system. It has an indash 6 disc cd changer. Okay I want to add an AUX input to it to hook up my mp3 player. The factory head unit has a "cd/aux" button and a "sat" button. I was woundering if I could use one of these but I cannot find nothing on the ciruit board to help me out. Thanks
There's a good hack of a Subaru radio at Subaruoutback.org
Sorry try here: http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2527&perpage=15&highlight=iPod&pagenumber=2
Like Marcio From Brazil (Number-72), I also did the changes to connect my iPod to a Pioneer head with cd charger like this guy have done: http://www.gutterslide.com/ip-bus_hack
My Pioneer type is DEH-P5650MP installed at My Toyota Corolla 1993.
Unfortunately, I couldn't hear anything because the head do not change to "CD listening" when I push the power. It acts as I haven't a cd charger in the car. I think I should connect other pin to say to the head to listen to the cdcharger input.
Can anybody help me?.... I am very eager to connect my Ipod Mini 4Gb to the car Audio, because in my country, Indonesia, South East Asia, the Pioneer IP-BUS to RCA Aux-Input connector was very-very-expensive??...
I amvery appreciate your reply to my email: aribowo@mtp.co.id.
Thank you very muhc,
M.S.Aribowo
JAKARTA - Indonesia, the greatest archipelago, and Bali is one of our thousands islands.
Like Marcio from Brazil, I also did the changes to connect my iPod to a Pioneer head with cd charger like this guy have done: http://www.gutterslide.com/ip-bus_hack
My Car Audio-Stereo head type is Pioneer DEH-P56560MP.
Unfortunately, I couldn't hear anything because the head do not change to "CD listening" when I push the power. It acts as I haven't a cd charger in the car. I think I should connect other pin to say to the head to listen to the cdcharger input.
Can anybody help me?...I am very eager to connect my Ipod to the Pioneer DEH-P56560MP, with minijack and RCA.
Thank you, please reply to me at aribowo@mtp.co.id.
M.S.Aribowo,
JAKARTA-Indonesia
South East Asia
I got an answer why my DEH-P5650MP IP-BUS convert to RCA does not work??...
Some body told me, because my Pioneer Head-Unit was "initially" setup the AUX menu was OFF...
To turn the AUX to ON, during the power OFF, press FUNCTION-Button until the AUX menu appear, and then set the AUX to ON. Thats all, and everything work perfectly...
M.S.Aribowo
Does anyone know how to turn on the AUX input for an Alpine head unit? Specifically the CDM-7861??
I looked all over the web and in the owners manual (yes, I actually found it!) and I can't seem to find the option.
When I hold down the FUNCTION button, all I get is "1 SUBW ON". I assume the next option on this menu would be "2 AUX OFF", but I can't find the right button to make the menu advance.
Any suggestions?
Does anyone know how to turn on the AUX input for an Alpine head unit? Specifically the CDM-7861??
I looked all over the web and in the owners manual (yes, I actually found it!) and I can't seem to find the option.
When I hold down the FUNCTION button, all I get is "1 SUBW ON". I assume the next option on this menu would be "2 AUX OFF", but I can't find the right button to make the menu advance.
Any suggestions?
Sorry.. I failed to mention that this was for an Alpine HU (CDM-7861).
I have the same HU as you Corey, and the same problem too. Any ideas, or have you figured it out?
I want to hook my ipod to my panasonic headset(they dont make anything), it has a aux input but only for a cd changer or XM radio hookup, I havent been able to find anything to be able to connect it yet if someone could please post something I would love it...or email me bigjohn21786@yahoo.com