continue...

- Disconnect both blue connectors, by pressing in the center of the connector and pulling, also remove antenna cable and put away radio for now.

Inserting your aux wires into the CD changer connector
- As you can see the changer connector has sort of clip things on both sides which hold the wires in. use a very small flathead and pop this clip to open up the sides.

- The only wires we are concerned with are the Red, White and Black wires.
RED= Right Channel / White = Left Channel / Black = Ground

- So take a thin wire, strip off very little from the end, about 2-3mm maybe. One at a time insert one wire in front of the signal wires in the connector.

 

continue...

- After they are inside the connector, close the latch of the connector, and the wires should be tight. Check continuity with a tester to make sure, you got the contacts right.

- Take the 3 wires now and connect them to the audio speaker cable you have.

- Tape up the wire connections, or solder them together if you want.

 

continued...

Finishing up
- Connect all the connectors back to the radio
- Install radio back into place
- Run your aux wire from the back and under the shifter console or where you want to hide it
- Put in stereo back the way you removed it. Remember to reconnect the 12v lighter socket’s connector back.
- Pop the trim bezel back on, screw everything back in.

Go here and download the silence mp3 file. Its a 75 minute long file, extract from the 350kb zip file and burn as a Audio CD.
http://rapidshare.com/files/270398058/silent.zip.html
or
http://download258.mediafire.com/eqp3tf2zyxyg/zdgidoi2yn0/silent.zip
The radio reduces the volume by maybe 10% for a second every time the track repeats, or changes the track. So it would be best to have a long silent track.
If you have the Audacity (Free music editor), you can generate your own long silent track, and burn it to a CD.

- Put the CD in the changer, connect your ipod to your aux connector, select the silent CD, and play your ipod music. Adjust the volume of your mp3 player to about 50-75%.

 

Continued... Advance AUX into Tuner

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you do not have a CD changer, then you can still get an AUX into the factory radio by splicing into the L/R channels of the radio's internal audio signal. This involves opening the radio, and soldering 3 wires for the L/R/GND to the points on the radio's board. In order to silence the radio's own signal, you would have to solder an extra wire from one of the Tuner's pin to ground to get it to mute.

I tried this and it does work, but I cannot figure out how to automatically get the radio's own signals to Mute when I plugin my Ipod. There would have to be some kind of relay transistor type of thing that would detect the audio signal and automatically connect the mute point to a ground. Another option would be to cut the 2 traces of the audio signals on the board and splice in between a switch or one of those switching audio jacks.

Following are some pictures of the radio's internals and connecting points:
TOP of Radio http://i29.tinypic.com/33fe344.jpg
Location of Signal and Ground Mute Points http://i32.tinypic.com/2mrrxa9.jpg
Signal Wires Soldered (I know, bad soldering ) http://i31.tinypic.com/2e0pysp.jpg

There are also line audio signals in the cassette module. Audio signals could also be connected here, but for some reason the tape hiss was still there when I tried, because a tape had to be playing for these inputs to be selected, and even with a dummy tape there was hiss noise. So i ruled out this option. I suppose you could also disconnect the tape's head so there is no hiss signal, but you would lose the cassette player functionality then.
Here is a picture of the back of the tape module:http://i29.tinypic.com/35atyx2.jpg

Finally for those who want to do some hacking of their own, here are scans of the top & bottom of the radio's main board:

 

Wow. Nice writeup and nice mod.

Cheers,
Bryan

 

Do you mind if I give my own two cents?

If someone is looking for a cheap (not free) way to add aux input easily with cd quality without the hassle or risk of a major mod, a simple cd changer adapter has been made for the factory head unit (here). If you want true iPod control on your OEM stereo, try this. Both of these items would require that a factory CD changer not be installed.

As far as the silent cd idea, wouldn't it be easier to run a source selector like this? (or something similar, like a switch) That would allow you to play any cd you wished but still only hear what was comming from your mp3 player. Just a thought... You put alot of work into this.

 

Actually, I liked his solution better.

Not having $100 to waste on this I find his approach very useful. Actually on mine I spent $6 for an FM transmitter from China. That $6 included shipping!!! I dont worry that the sound is not perfect. As someone said about 50 years ago when Hi Fi and Stereo were just becoming the thing, "Putting Hi Fi into a car is akin to putting a pair of $200 speakers inside a garbage can and then climbing in with them and it doesnt make sense, so save your money."

I will echo, "Save your money."

 

AUX into the radio can be done many ways. The above, is chosen because its the cheapest (FREE) way.

Here is a list of alternate ways w/cd changer:
- audio selection Switcher ($16)
- Remove cd changer signals completely, but would loose ability to play other CD's in the changer (Free)
- Switching audio jack Switches audio automatically when headphone jack plugged in. ($2 from radioshack, but requires 5 minutes more work), (was going to do this way, but mounting the external switching audio jack would require more work.. )
If you dont have CD Changer then:
- Buy Honda AUX Adapter (like $50)
- Solder pins directly to Internal Tuner (more complicated, requires a manual switch to enable mute or a transistor to auto ground mute when audio signal sensed)
- Solder pins directly to Tape audio channels. (has complications)
- Use navi l/r ch inputs, w/navi mute signal (not confirmed yet,but if works, probably needs external switch to enable mute)

So this method may not be the simplest, but surely is the cheapest, because all you need are 3 pieces of wire and a computer speaker cable, and a blank cd. (All scrap parts basically)

 

Great hardware hack!

If you added a switch rather than connecting your input to the CD output you
1) wouldn't need the silence CD and
2) you wouldn't be shorting two low impedance line outputs together.

If you dont have CD Changer then:
- Buy Honda AUX Adapter (like $50)

There must be a way for these adapters to fool the head unit into thinking there is a CD changer and routing the CD changer input to the amp. We should be able to do whatever they are doing.

In your second post you show part of the connector pin out drawing. Do you have the rest of that drawing? The labels might give some clues how to do this. From the photos, it looks like there are only 4 or 5 additional wires.

Thanks,
-Mike

 

I have modified the original post with a different silent mp3, which is 75 minutes long.

 

It worked

Thanks a lot! Soldered to the tape pins and de-soldered the head. Works flawlessly! The only disappointment is that the tape motor should stay on and you should have dummy tape in the player - I used the cassette adapter minus the head and wire part

 

is the sound better feeding the analog audio signals directly into the receiver than going through Ipod -> Tape Adapter -> Tape Head -> Receiver ?

 

Yeah, the sound seems to be much clearer. After disconnecting the head, the background noise is all gone - that was the real problem when using the receiver on a louder setting. The same background noise was the problem when using the receiver>adapter>mp3 player setup.

 

Also, I think I can get rid of the dummy tape as well - there are three micro switches on the board that probably sense the tape and can be jumped to fool the electronics.

 

It would be interesting to look into that box, but than again - you will need $50 to do that. I spent quite some time with Google looking for the changer protocol, but his forum page is the most comprehensive place I've seen so far. May be, some japanese sites have this info, but nothing in english.

 

The part about

- Pull out the radio trim bezel; carefully go around the edges popping out the clips.

seems a bit of an understatement

I tried to get in there today and couldn't get those clips open. I made a tool to compress them, but that only worked on the 2 of them that you can see. According to the service manual, there are 11 clips.

How did you get them off?

Thanks,
-Mike

 

well It did seem hard the first time removing it, because when you are pulling it, it feels like you are going to break the plastic or something. But once you pull hard and pop off all the clips, you realize the strength of the bezel and plastics and know how hard you really have to pull for subsequent times you have to remove it.

while I was removing it, I had in my mind, I could always get a replacement from a local junkyard for $10 if I break it, so that made me pull harder

But anyway, it is pretty hard to pull the clips, just try pulling close to where the clips are and they pop out... Be carefull

 

well It did seem hard the first time removing it, because when you are pulling it, it feels like you are going to break the plastic or something. But once you pull hard and pop off all the clips, you realize the strength of the bezel and plastics and know how hard you really have to pull for subsequent times you have to remove it.

Yes, brute force works.
Mine didn't have the pinout photo on the back like yours

while I was removing it, I had in my mind, I could always get a replacement from a local junkyard for $10 if I break it, so that made me pull harder

I think junkyards charge list price - $10 these days

I ended up doing a slightly more expensive option and got a Blitzsafe HON/AUX DMX V.1 on ebay for $35 (total). Sounds great!


Thanks,
-Mike

 

how does that Aux adapter you bought fooling the Headunit to play through the CD changer? Some kind of chip in that adapter which sends a special signal? Maybe you can open it up to let others know how it works, if its simple that is...

 

I don't have the CD changer. The adapter plugs in the the CD changer connector.

If you press the CD button once for the build in CD, then again and the display says something like CD1-99 and the aux input is active.

-Mike

 

would that adapter you bought be easy to reverse engineer or is there some kind of chip and codes to make it complitcated?

 

I'm sure it is reverse engineer-able. I thought about prying the plastic enclosure open to see what was in there but didn't do it.

I searched the web for quite a while trying to find ANYTHING about the "H-Bus" as it seems to be referred to as. My radio didn't have the connector pin out that others seem to have.

The communications between the head unit (radio) and the peripherals (CD changer or my adapter) is over this bus. I'm guessing it's some kind of serial communications (CAN?), so it might require some electronics. The accessory seems to be able to tell the head unit what CD and track it is playing and the head unit can send commands to change disks and tracks, so it's not a simple on/off signal that could be hard wired.

If I could have found any information on the H-bus, I might have tried to build one, but the $35 I got my adapter for made it not worth the time, unless it was just to know how it works.

-Mike

 

Thanks for this info, I connected up my mp3 cord to the radio outputs and added the mute line with an external switch to kill the radio although the MP3 when plugged in tends to quiet the radio signal quite a bit and the mp3 signal overwhelms the radio. I am really impressed by the quiet, no his or static signal provided using this method, and the connections were pretty simple to solder onto.

 

can you provide pictures of where you soldered to intersect the radio signal, and the mute signal?

 

If you go back up this thread you will find 02Insight's original post about connecting to the CD changer plug but if you read further, he indicated you could attach to the radio turner board output, here is his pic of the tuner card and attach points.
http://i32.tinypic.com/2mrrxa9.jpg
I ran the left/right/ground wires to a stereo headphone plug and cable then added an addition ground wire and mute wire to an external switch to kill the radio signal, but it is not necessary unless you listen to the aux input at a very low level.

 

ok thanks, I see you did it that way. I did find another way too, which involves using a Switching headphone jack and splicing into the radio signal wires. But this way, the switching jack automatically switches between the radio or aux signal when the jack is plugged in. See this link: AUX in (IPhone, IPod and another mp3 player) in stock BOSE system is possible!!! - Club RSX Message Board

 

 

Got a question. I am replacing a wrong iPod connector that was from a Kenwood unit, with the correct iPod connector for my Pioneer double-din. I know of removing the glovebox, and I know of the two screws on the right side located inside the glove-box hinges.
Question is, are there/where are there screws on the left side of the radio? You only show the right side, how do I remove from the left side?

 

There are only screws on the right side, and just clips on the left. It will seem stuck, but with some hard pulling, the bezel does pop off and your hands hit something when it does.

Here are better pics of the bezels and mounting points:
http://www.insightcentral.net/forum...fications-technical-issues/17929-making-japanese-double-din-fit-us-insight.html

 

Yes there are left side mounting screws, located under the radio trim bezel that you must remove after removing the glove box and trim screws, check out this thread

http://www.insightcentral.net/forum...ums/modifications-technical-issues/15413-how-add-aux-radio-cd-changer-free.html

 

I just registered to post that i am also in the process of adding AUX to a stereo without CD-Changer or Navi. I have tried to Ground/+V to the Bus Out Pin with no success. I am intrested to know if retepsnikrep has made any progress in capturing the serial data on the Bus pin.
Also, an intresting pdf can be found here