inboost

Has anyone attempted to add a line input to their factory radio? It seems the Type-3 radio system with the EQ would lend it's self to this quite easily. I will dig into this more, but was curious if anyone had tried this before. Searching didn't turn up any posts.

Here's a picture of the pin-out on the DIN plug for the EQ.



Using a switch or relay, I suspect disconnecting the audio 'in' from the head unit and conntecting this to the new source ought to do the trick.

The System OFF (AUX) intrigues me, as does the System ON (ETR). Anyone know what the book is referring to as 'ETR'?

Getting this set-up to work would sure beat FM modulation for the Archos Jukebox!

N1XRR

When I bought my car one of the previous owners had installed RCA inputs on the back of the stock headunit...lemme see tonight if I can find it, and how its wired up.

Michael

Icemark

You can do the input however, you will need to switch the input output jumpers and the through-put. A multi pole, dual make relay would be required.

Normally you would power up the aux source control by the din cable as well.

inboost

Thanks guys.

Icemark: I was specifically thinking that I would just switch the input LH+ and input RH+ from the head unit to my jukebox while commoning the signal ground from the Archos to pin 5. Using a DPDT relay is exactly the way I would go about it. Is this what you had in mind?

Icemark

Yep, thats it exactly.

Thaniel

How about using the inputs from the tape player or something? I have been wanting to add inputs to mine but haven't got the time to figure it all out.

inboost

Thaniel,

Any Type 2 or Type 3 system ought to be capable of this mod wihtout rferencing the casette player. The problem with trying to dump right into the tape player would be all the mechanical interlocks that are present to sense the tape being inserted and properly threaded. Since the type 2 stereo still has the DIN plug on the back I bet it would work just fine.

inboost

I set up a 5 minute test this afternoon for this mod.

I built a cable that plugged directly into the DIN plug on the back of the stereo and hooked it up to my MP3 player.

I spent the next 2 hours completely disassembling the factory stereo trying to figure out why it no longer worked. I gave up and it back together.

I then drove to Fry's and purchased an install kit and harness for an Alpine CD player I have sitting around. I figured a CD player was better than no tunes even if the lighting was green...

During the install of the harness, I connect the power, speakers, worked out and re-pinned the Metra harness for the factory door speaker amp, and then...

I can't find the ground wire in the harness

The light goes on: I missed the fact that the ground for ALL of the stereo systems put in our cars is supplied only by the radio chassis via the bracket and screws.

My 'five minute' mod is now a sucess!

Tomorrow I'll begin sourceing the parts for the final modification. I'm going to put a DPDT relay inside the EQ and hang a set of RCA females out the rear of the chassis. I'll also run a wire which when grounded will switch over to MP3 via the RCa input I add from the radio/tape source.

I'll take some pictures if anyone is interested

Thaniel

yes pics please.

Does the factory stereo still not work?

jaredcolletti

yeah that would be great.

inboost

The radio works fine, it just took me 5 hours to realise that if you don't have the radio bracket connected to chassis ground then the radio won't work.

On a positive note, my test harness worked great on the drive into work this morning. No noise problems or amplification issues at all. The factory volume, bass, treble, balance, and fader all worked on the input from my MP3 player.

In the next version I will be running through the factory EQ and using the EQ as the enclosure for my relay system. It would no different to add this to a Type 2 radio which has no EQ, you're simply hanging a relay off the back of the radio. The hardest part will be coming up with the 13-pin connector for the job. The Type 2 stereo will acutally have one with two loops of wire on the back of it, so perhaps this could be modified for the task at hand.

inboost

Just a quick note to say that it seems to work quite well! I've placed the relay inside the EQ, and have a pair of RCA female jacks hanging off the back of the EQ now. I plug my MP3 player into those, ground the trigger wire and then I get MP3's instead of tape or radio audio.

I will still need to make a clean install of a switch and 1/8" setero jack for the system to be complete. I also need to replace a few bulbs in the stereo & EQ face the next time they're apart.

I will take pictures and make a formal write-up if anyone's interested.

Thaniel

Very interested.

inboost

Here's a sneak preview:



Note the relay is actually a 4PDT instead of a DPDT which is all that is needed (it's what I had laying around).

The neat thing is that the EQ motherboard has a set of vias for a secondary header that was never installed. I used this to get the +ACC power for the relay coil (grey wire coming off the board in pic). I just ran the other side of the coil out to the world and paired a ground from the back of the chassis with it for testing.

When done there will only be a single black wire as any chassis ground can be switched to the relay to turn on the interrupt.

Thaniel

Your equilizer is much different than mine. What year of car is it from? I expect the concept would work on mine as well though. I'll be watching for updates.

inboost

The EQ I have is the factory Type 3 stereo for a series 5 car. You have the older S4 slider **** unit I suspect. I'll have to look at my older service manual and see if the mod will still apply. It will probably need to be 'outside' of your EQ as it's only a 1/2-DIN chassis.

Thaniel

Yah, I have the series 4.

I have added preamp outs on it already but have wanted to add some inputs but haven't done it yet. It would be easier to buy a new stereo but I haven't found anything I like to fill the hole and I would like to keep the eq as well. Maybe I am just sentimental.

inboost

Thaniel,


Looking at my '87 manual I see that your system has multiple 7-pin DIN plugs between the stereo, cassette deck, and EQ.

The key to having this work properly is to have the input break into the loop after the rest of the source equipment therefore being the only source connected to the equalizer when it's switched into the system.

The EQ plugs back into the radio's amplification stages:

Front Speaker w/ amp
Rear drive amp -> Rear amplified speakers

The problem here is that I think the radio input and the cassette input come in on two different plugs. Internally the EQ probably does the switching between the two units. For example, when you insert a tape then radio source is switched out.

So I'm not sure how to proceed!? What kind of digging around in your stereo have you done? Any clues you can give me?

Thaniel

I have had the stereo out and had the receiver and tape apart. Yes there are cables going from thing to thing. I didn't have the FSM at the time and I couldn't tell what was going where. It almost seemed like all the signal went to the tape then back then the eq then back. It's been a year or 2.

I have thought of inputing the signal at the tape player instead of the eq. If I do it right I should be able to get the power antenna to go down and the radio display to go dark like when a tape is playing. To be honest I hadn't considered using a relay. Does look like the way to go.

I put RCA jacks after the small amp box that is behind the eq. Didn't have enough signal before the box. No longer using the factory amps that were at the speakers.

Thaniel

Ok. I pulled the stereo out the otherday and messed with it. I got the tape player working again so I can use one of those tape adapter things but I found out a few things.

The signal goes from the radio to the eq then back. The tape signal goes to the eq and then to the radio. The tape signal and radio signal are not switched but are actually tied together. When a tape is put into the tape player it cuts the ACC power to the radio so it doesn't play at the same time. In testing things I had them both on and could hear both the radio and the tape. The power antenna is switched by the radio and the radio does not need to be on to hear the tape. (pushing the off button on the radio while a tape is playing only puts down the antenna. Nothing else).

Oh on the chord from the tape player the pin 1 is blue, 2 is black, 3 is white, 5 is red, 6 is yel, 7 is green. Might save someone some time if they want to mess with this.