MP3 player "input" for car stereo.

Step 3 Find the "input"

Depending on the model of Stereo that you have you should have a "ribbon wire" that connects cd player to the main unit. Where the Ribbon connected to the cd player is where you want to look. The image attached is up close.

If you look closely you can see to the right of where the ribbon is attached it says on the board "ROUT" , "LOUT" and "AGND" These are the three connections that we need to make.

I can't say if it is like this for every cd player but it works for mine. This idea here is we are tricking the CD player into thinking that is it playing a CD.

Comments

[carkif]

hi can i get some help please my stereo doesn't have those marks or any that i would think are left and right channels and my camera doesn't focus right so i cant post pictures the stereo is a panasonic CQ1011N any help would be appreciated

[MANinYOURhouse]

I have a D model DB1200 am fm receiver and it doesn't have any solder points labeled Rout, lout, or agnd. can someone tell me what I should look for on this stereo?

[nboulton]

Thanks so much for taking the time to post this hack - very nicely laid out. I have gotten as far as taking apart my pioneer DEH-1550 car stereo and I can see the labels ROUT, LOUT and AGND, but the exact location of their respective connection points is still ambiguous. If you could spare a moment, I would really appreciate some guidance. I have attached a picture to show you what I'm faced with. Do you think my equivalent connection points are "R", "L" and the point between these two (shown just to the right of the ribbon connector in my image). Thanks.

[nboulton]

photo uploader didn't seem to work for me in the previous message. Try again....

[mikeklepacz]

I would say yes, I would solder it, just a tack though and see if you can get it to work before you solder it completely and seal the connection. Get it soldered then put it together and see if it has a signal.

That is what I did because at the time I was really shooting in the dark.

I am pumped that people are still getting use out of this instructable. My stereo still works. After all of these years the cd player stopped ejecting the cd, so the only thing that works is my MP3 connection.

[nboulton]

Sweet deal. Great words of encouragement. I had to work out a way to ground the headphone wires without picking up any signal noise as there was no obvious agnd connection. After trial and error I got there in the end. Road tripping through NZ at the moment and this had made our clapped out banger a much more enjoyable ride. Thanks again for the post.

[ddepaoli3]

Great tutorial! I've just finish it and works!
In my case on the pcb there are no indications about the channels so I searched for the DAC datasheet and i found the 4 outputs. This can be an hints for the people with my same problem.

[SwampFox89]

So I'm in a pickle here. I want to be 100% sure about what I'm about to melt. the AGND label is to the right of the big white ribbon. It's obviously the point between the two small white strips. Now ROUT and LOUT are two the left of the ribbon. Judging by the white boxes drawn in here, I am assuming that the LOUT pin is the one just above the "UG" label, and the ROUT is just up and to the right of LOUT. Would anyone concur or disagree?

If I can tag in this picture, that would be awesome.

[bono80kuriks]

 Just incase you were unaware, the letters stand for Right OUT, Left OUT, and A Ground (there are usually many ground connections throughout any piece of electronic equipment)