Well, I managed to fix the ribbon cable issue and got my cd player working again (after I bid on a whole new HU on ebay =/). It involved a blow torch, a razor blade, and about an hour of fixing shorted solders, but it works fine. So, I was able to tackle the aux input project again and got everything buttoned up this evening.
So, here is the low down. First, a list of parts needed to do the job. This may vary depending on how you want to do yours, but I will list what I used. I ended up with a 1/8" female plug on the back of the radio that I plug my stuff into. I used an extension to run from the back of the radio and fed it through a hole on the top of the bin under the ashtray. In that bin, I mounted my Sirius unit and a Sony Bluetooth receiver that I stream my phone through:
- 1. An open momentary switch. I used http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2062508 and mounted it to the panel under the HVAC control unit. Make sure whatever you use has a normal open state connection and not closed. You want the switch to close the circuit when you push the button.
- 3. Higher gauge copper wire. Enough to run from wherever you want your jack mounted to around the back of the HU and then across the HU to the front of the unit. I used a solid core copper ribbon cable that I had handy, not sure of the gauge but it is probablly around 22. You need something small because the solder points on the PCB are minute`.
The process:
- 1. Remove the stereo and HVAC cluster from the car. Going to assume you can do this already, but if you need help, post up or search around. It's not hard, just be carefull when prying out the shifter plate and top vents. This will require some smaller tools to unclip all the plugs from the ashtray, hvac, radio, etc.
- 2. Remove the HU from the cluster. There are a total of 10 screws to do this. There are four larger faced black screws on each side. These were insanely difficult to remove on mine. In fact, I had to use my dremel and cut slots in them so I could use a slotted screw driver to break them loose. Using a philips I was only able to get one of the 8 free...the rest started to strip the head slots. WTF nissan...my lug nuts came off with one hand but these require surgery?!!
The other two screws are located between the HU and the HVAC module. Will require a longer #2 philips to remove...use magnetized driver if you have one so you can lift the screws out. These are used to hold the face plates together and are spaced about 2" apart. Just look down in-between the HU and HVAC and you will see them.
- 3. Once all the screws are removed, you will need to pry and wedge and twist and turn the HU. The holes where the 8 black screws came from are beveled on the inside and sit inside the recessed screw holes of the radio, so you need to wedge the frame a bit to release them. This takes some patience. Also take into consideration that the face plates from the HU and the HVAC interlock a bit. Eventually it will just pop out and you can lift it out of the cage. I think the cuss count on this process was about a 5.
Note: You can instead just remove the ashtray and HVAC modules, which are much easier to remove. The problem is the mounting frame will be attached to the HU and just makes for an obstacle when you are soldering. Also, by removing the HU, it makes it easier to plug into the car when you are testing.
- 4. Once the HU is removed, use a #1 phillips screwdriver and remove the one screw holding on the cover on the bottom of the unit (Its in the middle on the back). Once the screw is out, use a flat blade screwdriver to pry it up around the corners where it is notched to hold.
- 5. With the bottom cover removed, you will be exposed the main PCB of the HU. With the front of the HU facing you, there are a set of pins that the CD player ribbon cable plugs to on the bottom right corner of the PCB. This is where all the wiring needs to be done from to get this to work. There are two rows of pins, 9 pins per row. You should see the labels of the pins printed on the PCB up and to the left of the pins. On the top row, pins 5 and 6 are the "inputs". 5 will be labeled L-OUT and 6 will be labeled R-OUT. Wire your L and R wires for your aux jack to these appropriately. For the ground, I just used one of the studs holding the PCB in place...there is one just to the right of the pin outs.
On the bottom row (with the face of the HU still pointing towards you), the 2nd pin from the left is labeled "RESET". Wire one lead from your momentary switch to this pin, and the other lead from your switch to another ground post.
Here is a photo of all the wiring. The yellow wires are the ones that go to my momentary switch:
I eventually replaced the yellow wires once I got a real momentary switch. Here is a photo of the plug that will connect to the momentary switch. Note: There are 3 wires on this plug, but you only need two and if you use a headphone jack like I did, you can pick whichever 2 of the 3 leads to use. I just happened to have this plug from a previous project so I reused it instead of making a new one:
I cut out a small notch from the bottom cover plate and just ran the wire out of there:
- 6. Once you find a spot to mount your switch, drill away and mount it as needed. I forgot to take a pic of the headphone jack I wired to the momentary switch that plugs into the jack wired on the HU...you will just have to use your imagination.
Here is a shot of where I mounted mine:
- 7. How you run your aux cable is up to you. Like I said, I just ran my cable to the back and wired it up to a small headphone plug. This way, I can just unplug the cable if I ever need to remove the HU in the future without having to tear out the cable running to the cabin. Here is a pic of it. Notice there is no CD player. You don't necessarily have to remove it to do this step and based on what happened to me as posted previously in this thread, I recommend you don't (but if you do, just be careful of that ribbon cable!)!! If you can snake your wires to the back, you can just remove the back plate and install your plug on there.
Really, that's all there is to it. You can now put every thing back together and reinstall. Once you have every thing in place, put in a CD and let it play. Hold the momentary switch for a second or two until it pauses, then plug in your MP3 player and you should hear it play through your stereo.
Finished product with the Sirius and Bluetooth mounted:
And a demo video. Unfortunately my Bluetooth causes some interference but other than that, it sounds great and works really well.
[youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asxIVB67Xoo[/youtube]
If anyone decides to pursue this and has any questions, please feel free to ask and I will help where I can. Good luck!