[How-to] connect your iPod/DJ/MP3/anything to your ~01 w/ Infinity
muteki
11-12-2005, 05:05 PM
OK, here is a *cheap* fun way to add a headphone jack in your stock Infinity system so that you may connect any personal audio player and play it through your car's speakers. This does not involve replacing the headunit or or losing any functionality from your existing system. Takes a good afternoon to do, and results in good quality, no-fm static sound. Also note that with the exception of the passenger seat and a couple others, all the screws are the same size, making things easier to remember. Also this won't in any way trigger the anti-theft system on your head unit, so don't worry if you don't know the codes.
I have done this on my '01 w/ sun/sport infinity system, though I imagine other years models have a similar setup. You will just have to do some testing.
You will need the following:
1 phillips screwdriver
1 flat headed screwdriver
1 adjustable wrench
1 headphone jack cable
-Radioshack catalog No: 42-2483, though any cable w/ a headphone jack will work.
1 good pair of wire strippers
1 knife/pliers/leatherman/something
1 spare wire (any kind really, and not that much)
The rest isn't really required, though it certainly makes things easier/nicer:
1 general purpose multimeter
1 soldering iron & solder
2 female 9-pin D-Sub connectors (RS 276-1502)
3 male 9-pin D-Sub connectors (RS 276-1501)
Step 1: Accessing your audio system.
-Remove the center dash plate (2 screws just above ash tray)
-Use the flat-headed screwdriver to remove the center glovebox/cup holders
-Remove center console by removing 4 screws revealed in above step.
-You will need to disconnect the wire for the power side mirrors
-...as well as the 12V socket in the center glove box.
-(There isn't much to remember here, the wires only attach one way)
-Now remove the front/center console w/ the ashtray.
-There are 4 screws holding it in place, 2 on either side
-Also 2 push-pins towards the front. Pull the center out first, then the whole pin.
-Now remove your headunit from its bracket
-There are 4 screws holding the outer bracket in place.
-Dont disconnect anything yet, we will get to that in the next step. Just be sure you have access to the connections in the back of your head unit.
-Now remove your passenger seat.
-there are 3 plastic covers hiding the bolts that hold it in place, 1 in front and 2 in back, these can be easily pulled off.
-use your adjustable wrench to take the 4 bolts holding the seat in place, then take the seat out of your car. You should see your amp bolted to the floor.
Step 2: Removing the audio cable
-At the back of your head unit you will see several wires, the thickest black one with the right angle connector is what you want to go for, unplug it. It should have 6 pins.
-You will see the other end of that wire going into your amp (the black one). Unplug it (also 6 pins :P)
-Here is a semi frustrating part: getting the wire out of your car. you will find several locations where it is secured to the frame by plastic wrappings. Use your knife to cut these and free your cable. There are ~2 on the center frame, 1 on the center floor, and ~2 under the carpet. You may need to unscrew your amp to access the connectors under the carpet. Eventually you should be able to wrestle the thing out of there.
Step 3: Modifying your audio cable
-Your 6 pin wire carries power to the amp and the signal to go to the speakers. We will need to separate these.
-Cut your wire, inside you will see what looks like a mess. Inside is the following:
-The Power/Control side of things:
-Orange - amp power +V
-Black - amp ground -V
-The Audio signal:
-Blue wire - Front Left speakers
-Yellow wire - Front Right speakers
-Green wire - Back Left speakers
-White wire - Back Right speakers
-A silver mesh outside. This is signal ground.
-A gold mesh inside. This is common with the silver mesh (same thing)
-Cut your cable and separate all the inner wires on both sides of the cut so you have easy access to them. First work on the amp side of the wire.
-Connect the Power/Control signal to one of the female D-Subs. Remember where you soldered them.
-Connect the other half to the other female D-Sub. Remember again (a sketch pad is handy :))
-Now, do the same thing on the other side of the cut with 2 male D-Subs, making sure the same wires will connect to their mates on the female end. Once this is complete, connect the whole wire back together.
-Either test the pins on either end w/ your multimeter to ensure good connections, OR:
-Go ahead and hook the thing back up to your car. Your radio/CD player should play just as good as before. This will ensure you made your connections right.
Step 4: Modifying your Headphone Cable
-Compared to the last one, this will be easy. If you bought a similar wire to the one i did, it will have red and white connectors. Red = Right, White = Left.
-Cut the wire as far down to the RCA jacks as possible, to give you some slack to work with when you are running your wires later.
-Inside you will find:
-A Red wire - Right :)
-A White wire - Left :)
-A gold mesh - Again, Signal Ground
-Now we have to split the left and right signals into front and back ones. Take some of your spare wire and simply create a "Y" connection for each side, so you will now have 2 lefts and 2 rights. Still only one signal ground though.
-Now connect these 5 wires to your last remaining male D-sub. Make sure the 2 Lefts will connect up with the blue and green going into the amp (it doesn't really matter which) and the 2 rights with the yellow and white. Make sure the signal ground matches up too.
Step 5: Almost there!
- now try everything out. Go to your stereo with the full 6-pin wire connected from the head unit to the amp.
-Disconnect the D-subs containing the signal half from the CD player, and replace that with your freshly made headphone connector.
-Plug in your mp3 player and start her up.
-Now, as long as your head unit is on, no matter what it is doing, it will power the amp. Instead though, the audio will be coming from your mp3 player.
-You should hear a clear signal though your car speakers. If your mp3 player has an Equilizer, experiment with some settings to find the best sound. From now on the signal quality will be determined by the mp3 player.
-Disconnect the headphone wire and reconnect the CD player's to make sure it still works.
-YOUR DONE! Find a creative way to run the wires back. Make the CD player one go back where it came, and put the headphone wire where you want it. I have mine coming out of the console in between the air cond controls and the small pocket there where I keep my cd's.
-If it doesn't work:
-Check your connections. Make sure all the appropriate wires match up. Use masking tape to label the wires throughout the process so that you can remember where they go and what they are for.
-Switch your multimeter to ohms and make sure all the pins match up on both ends of the CD-cable. Each one should match up to the one in the same position on the other end (R=0).
As of right now, i have the cable connectors sitting on the right side of the passenger seat. I plan to make a switch that will do the same action w/o having to plug/un-plug wires as soon as I can find one good enough for the job.
In the end, you should have this:
-A fully functional mp3 player working in your car as long as the head unit is on
-A fully functional head unit and center console display
-Static free sound from your mp3 player that has good quality sound across the board. Exact quality will depend on mp3 player and mp3 player's settings.
1 Headphone wire - $7.99
5 D-Sub connenctors - $1.89 each
Total Cost = 17.44 +tax :)
If anyone wants a more detailed descriptions or diagrams or general questions let me know :)
I have done this on my '01 w/ sun/sport infinity system, though I imagine other years models have a similar setup. You will just have to do some testing.
You will need the following:
1 phillips screwdriver
1 flat headed screwdriver
1 adjustable wrench
1 headphone jack cable
-Radioshack catalog No: 42-2483, though any cable w/ a headphone jack will work.
1 good pair of wire strippers
1 knife/pliers/leatherman/something
1 spare wire (any kind really, and not that much)
The rest isn't really required, though it certainly makes things easier/nicer:
1 general purpose multimeter
1 soldering iron & solder
2 female 9-pin D-Sub connectors (RS 276-1502)
3 male 9-pin D-Sub connectors (RS 276-1501)
Step 1: Accessing your audio system.
-Remove the center dash plate (2 screws just above ash tray)
-Use the flat-headed screwdriver to remove the center glovebox/cup holders
-Remove center console by removing 4 screws revealed in above step.
-You will need to disconnect the wire for the power side mirrors
-...as well as the 12V socket in the center glove box.
-(There isn't much to remember here, the wires only attach one way)
-Now remove the front/center console w/ the ashtray.
-There are 4 screws holding it in place, 2 on either side
-Also 2 push-pins towards the front. Pull the center out first, then the whole pin.
-Now remove your headunit from its bracket
-There are 4 screws holding the outer bracket in place.
-Dont disconnect anything yet, we will get to that in the next step. Just be sure you have access to the connections in the back of your head unit.
-Now remove your passenger seat.
-there are 3 plastic covers hiding the bolts that hold it in place, 1 in front and 2 in back, these can be easily pulled off.
-use your adjustable wrench to take the 4 bolts holding the seat in place, then take the seat out of your car. You should see your amp bolted to the floor.
Step 2: Removing the audio cable
-At the back of your head unit you will see several wires, the thickest black one with the right angle connector is what you want to go for, unplug it. It should have 6 pins.
-You will see the other end of that wire going into your amp (the black one). Unplug it (also 6 pins :P)
-Here is a semi frustrating part: getting the wire out of your car. you will find several locations where it is secured to the frame by plastic wrappings. Use your knife to cut these and free your cable. There are ~2 on the center frame, 1 on the center floor, and ~2 under the carpet. You may need to unscrew your amp to access the connectors under the carpet. Eventually you should be able to wrestle the thing out of there.
Step 3: Modifying your audio cable
-Your 6 pin wire carries power to the amp and the signal to go to the speakers. We will need to separate these.
-Cut your wire, inside you will see what looks like a mess. Inside is the following:
-The Power/Control side of things:
-Orange - amp power +V
-Black - amp ground -V
-The Audio signal:
-Blue wire - Front Left speakers
-Yellow wire - Front Right speakers
-Green wire - Back Left speakers
-White wire - Back Right speakers
-A silver mesh outside. This is signal ground.
-A gold mesh inside. This is common with the silver mesh (same thing)
-Cut your cable and separate all the inner wires on both sides of the cut so you have easy access to them. First work on the amp side of the wire.
-Connect the Power/Control signal to one of the female D-Subs. Remember where you soldered them.
-Connect the other half to the other female D-Sub. Remember again (a sketch pad is handy :))
-Now, do the same thing on the other side of the cut with 2 male D-Subs, making sure the same wires will connect to their mates on the female end. Once this is complete, connect the whole wire back together.
-Either test the pins on either end w/ your multimeter to ensure good connections, OR:
-Go ahead and hook the thing back up to your car. Your radio/CD player should play just as good as before. This will ensure you made your connections right.
Step 4: Modifying your Headphone Cable
-Compared to the last one, this will be easy. If you bought a similar wire to the one i did, it will have red and white connectors. Red = Right, White = Left.
-Cut the wire as far down to the RCA jacks as possible, to give you some slack to work with when you are running your wires later.
-Inside you will find:
-A Red wire - Right :)
-A White wire - Left :)
-A gold mesh - Again, Signal Ground
-Now we have to split the left and right signals into front and back ones. Take some of your spare wire and simply create a "Y" connection for each side, so you will now have 2 lefts and 2 rights. Still only one signal ground though.
-Now connect these 5 wires to your last remaining male D-sub. Make sure the 2 Lefts will connect up with the blue and green going into the amp (it doesn't really matter which) and the 2 rights with the yellow and white. Make sure the signal ground matches up too.
Step 5: Almost there!
- now try everything out. Go to your stereo with the full 6-pin wire connected from the head unit to the amp.
-Disconnect the D-subs containing the signal half from the CD player, and replace that with your freshly made headphone connector.
-Plug in your mp3 player and start her up.
-Now, as long as your head unit is on, no matter what it is doing, it will power the amp. Instead though, the audio will be coming from your mp3 player.
-You should hear a clear signal though your car speakers. If your mp3 player has an Equilizer, experiment with some settings to find the best sound. From now on the signal quality will be determined by the mp3 player.
-Disconnect the headphone wire and reconnect the CD player's to make sure it still works.
-YOUR DONE! Find a creative way to run the wires back. Make the CD player one go back where it came, and put the headphone wire where you want it. I have mine coming out of the console in between the air cond controls and the small pocket there where I keep my cd's.
-If it doesn't work:
-Check your connections. Make sure all the appropriate wires match up. Use masking tape to label the wires throughout the process so that you can remember where they go and what they are for.
-Switch your multimeter to ohms and make sure all the pins match up on both ends of the CD-cable. Each one should match up to the one in the same position on the other end (R=0).
As of right now, i have the cable connectors sitting on the right side of the passenger seat. I plan to make a switch that will do the same action w/o having to plug/un-plug wires as soon as I can find one good enough for the job.
In the end, you should have this:
-A fully functional mp3 player working in your car as long as the head unit is on
-A fully functional head unit and center console display
-Static free sound from your mp3 player that has good quality sound across the board. Exact quality will depend on mp3 player and mp3 player's settings.
1 Headphone wire - $7.99
5 D-Sub connenctors - $1.89 each
Total Cost = 17.44 +tax :)
If anyone wants a more detailed descriptions or diagrams or general questions let me know :)
Replicantds
12-07-2005, 09:59 PM
Dude, I would love to be able to do this. I've bought a DVD player and 5.6' monitor that I want to hook up. I want to use it, but keep my original head unit and recess it in the dash and use the steering wheel controls for it with the monitor in front of it. I sounds good, but it's gonna be tough. Your instructional is good, but I know next to nothing about electronics.
pimpendacavi06
12-15-2005, 11:24 PM
wow that was a lot of what i needed i just have one question can i change out the infinity head unit with any other head unit without doing anything special or do i have to change the whole system ? ? and does the face plate come out without taking out the entire center column?
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