MR2 Roadster Owners Club

The Workshop => Audio / Security / Electrical => Topic started by: Anonymous on November 5, 2006, 17:03

Title: Standard head unit's line-in
Post by: Anonymous on November 5, 2006, 17:03
I've now got a 2003 MR2 (i.e. not with the Sony stereo).  I'm looking for a way to connect an MP3 player to the head unit.  I assumed that there would be some way to connect the MP3 player's line-out to the head unit's CD changer connector, but I can't find much information about the connectors, pinouts, etc.

Has anyone got any information on how to do this?  Thanks.
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Post by: FireFury on November 7, 2006, 20:08
(Replying to myself incase someone else finds this useful)

After a lot of Googling, I came across some information that looks like it has potential.

(http://gsb.bulldoghome.com/pages/gsb_bulldoghome_com/GSB/PICT0626.JPG)
Looks like the bottom-right connector on that photo is the CD-changer.

There are pinouts for the connectors at http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=78577 and it looks like this is probably correct for protocol details: http://www.softservice.com.pl/corolla/avc/.

The question now is can I actually be bothered to go through all this effort or just buy a new head-unit...  s:) :) s:)
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Post by: markiii on November 7, 2006, 20:26
so you have 2 accounts?
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Post by: FireFury on November 7, 2006, 20:32
Nope - I've registered twice before and my account has vanished a few days later on both occasions (and my posts have become "Anonymous")...  I'm hoping third time lucky.
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Post by: markiii on November 7, 2006, 20:34
now thast iodd, if your account had been deleted it should have come up as a Guest post
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Post by: aaronjb on November 7, 2006, 20:35
Quote from: "markiii"now thast iodd, if your account had been deleted it should have come up as a Guest post

The original post here does - at least it does on my screen...
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Post by: markiii on November 7, 2006, 20:36
for me it says that teh rank is Guest, which isn't the same
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Post by: aaronjb on November 7, 2006, 21:06
Ahhh - Ok, I see what you mean  s:) :) s:)   Yep, Anonymous user with a rank of Guest - it's said that the last few times pr0n posters have been deleted as well, though, I think.
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Post by: proeliator2001 on November 7, 2006, 21:07
The US headunit has different CD connector sockets for some odd reason so make sure whatever you follow is for the UK spec version.  In the end I found it easier to buy a new Alpine full speed head unit   s:roll: :roll: s:roll:    Though I think the thing is excellent so I'm not complaining.
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Post by: FireFury on November 8, 2006, 09:48
Quote from: "proeliator2001"The US headunit has different CD connector sockets for some odd reason so make sure whatever you follow is for the UK spec version.  In the end I found it easier to buy a new Alpine full speed head unit   s:roll: :roll: s:roll:    Though I think the thing is excellent so I'm not complaining.

Yeah, I spotted that the US and UK sockets were different, but one of those links gives the pinouts for both so that shouldn't be a problem.  Although I'm probably going to just buy an in-line FM modulator in the end - I don't want to buy a new head-unit (my bank account is feeling a bit delicate after buying the car  s:) :) s:) ) but I don't think I can be bothered with building a LVDS driver circuit and programming a microcontroller to pretend to be a CD changer...

Still, I thought it was worth posting the links here incase anyone else was interested in them - it took quite a lot of Googling to find any useful information at all.
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Post by: Anonymous on November 8, 2006, 16:48
I was intending to do the same as you with my aftermarket JVC headunit, but i happend to be in hellfrauds one day and noticed that autoleads already make up a conector which is phono plug to CD changer, thus allowing you to use the CD changer as an AUX unit. I use it with my iPod and find the sound quality to be great, much better than when I used an FM Modulator.

HTH,

Richie.
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Post by: FireFury on November 8, 2006, 16:56
Quote from: "Richie"I was intending to do the same as you with my aftermarket JVC headunit, but i happend to be in hellfrauds one day and noticed that autoleads already make up a conector which is phono plug to CD changer, thus allowing you to use the CD changer as an AUX unit. I use it with my iPod and find the sound quality to be great, much better than when I used an FM Modulator.

Mmm...  I might pop into Hellfrauds and see what they have, but I don't think they'll have anything for the Fisher Price unit at a sane price and I don't want to fork out for a new unit...

Is an FM modulator really that bad?  I used to use a FM transmitter (rather than an in-line modulator) on my old car and that caused some nasty high pitched resonance so I'm not going back to that...
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Post by: Anonymous on November 8, 2006, 17:22
Quote from: "FireFury"Mmm...  I might pop into Hellfrauds and see what they have, but I don't think they'll have anything for the Fisher Price unit at a sane price and I don't want to fork out for a new unit...

Is an FM modulator really that bad?  I used to use a FM transmitter (rather than an in-line modulator) on my old car and that caused some nasty high pitched resonance so I'm not going back to that...

I thought that the connector for a CD changer was the same for most modern units. Is this not the case? I know that the connector i bought for my JVC unit did fit the pre03 sony unit but im unsure about the fisher price.

I used the transmitting type of FM modulator (iTrip) and found it to be terrible for interference, distrotion, etc however I have no experience of the inline types.

Richie.