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CD Changer Cable Question

MedicalFlyer

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Location
Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha
Car
2000 Accord Saloon
Hi Everyone,

I recently got my hands on a 2000 Accord Saloon that's been very well cared for so far. Aside from the usual bits and pieces I've been fiddling with fitting up an Aux in to the setreo.

I've searched and searched and eventually thought I had a solution.

I have the Bose cassette deck with the changer in the boot (very handy as it means no pulling the HU out).
After some reading I found that it runs on the Alpine M-Bus 8pin system and bought an M-Bus to phono adapter and a long phono to 3.5mm cable.
I've connected it in the boot and then fed the 3.5 lead through to the front and have it secreted away reasonably nicely.

On my initial testing (radio was turned off with the cd changer selected) it all worked lovely with CD EEE showing on the display (fair enough)
I switched to FM for a short drive round. Pressing the CD button after this did nothing. It made no attempt to switch over.
Reconnected the changer and all was well. Connected the aux cable again and all fine.

With the aux setup in place it appears that switching source stops it from being able to go back to the changer input.
I suspect then that the AUX adapter is just using left, right, and audio ground. The problem being that either a signal needs to be sent back to the head unit or possibly grounded.

Looking at a pinout for the connector there are the following connections stil available:
Battery (12v constant power), Acc (12v switched power), M-Bus, Bus Ground, and Ground.
MBus_small.gif

Not knowing a great deal about the M-Bus setup I imagine that the M-Bus pin is what sends back the disc and track info to the head unit.
Does anyone know if shorting the m-bus to a ground would do the trick?
If so I can modify the connector I have or make another to fit the purpose

If not my other thought is some form of Y cable/adapter feeding both the changer and aux cable to the head unit. WIthout any discs in I can still select the changer and then it's just a case of piggy backing the audio along.

Any help on this would be great as I can't find the info anywhere and don't want to splash on anything like the xcarlink kit if there's no need.

Regards,
MedicalFlyer
 
So having read and re-read every thread and web-page I could find regarding both the Honda setup and anything relating to Alpine's M-Bus in general I thought I'd take the leap myself and this is what I've ended up with.
This should work for anyone that has the changer and doesn't want to spend out on expensive kit (which is needed if you don't have the changer).

Having already bought an M-Bus to phono adapter I had the choice of never using FM or having to swap the changer back in and cycle the radio any time I wanted to switch back. Using this adapter the radio displayed 'CD EEE' as it cannot communicate with the unit but allowed music to be played back without issue (just a little hiss). This is all well and good but rather annoying.
This is where I got the adapter cable:
http://r.ebay.com/egvoD1
And a 5 metre phono to 3.5mm (perfect length with plenty to spare):
http://r.ebay.com/MKhZAO

Searching for some sort of M-Bus/DIN y-cable was fruitless until I happened across some information about a Yatour adapter for a Volvo sat-nav system. The cable has two 8-pin female connectors and one male. Perfect (sort of).
This is the cable and where I bought it:
http://www.carinterface.nl/yatour-volvo-hu-y-kabel-yt-vhy?filter_name=volvo
From Holland to the UK took a few days but worked out the cheapest for me.

Fitting this had one slight issue. The pins used on Honda's connectors are slightly bigger. I tried to bore out the holes in the y-cable a little but ended up breaking some of the inner plastic away. Also I'm not sure if it's required but getting the outer casings to make contact might take a bit of wiggling and maybe some padding to keep it in place. It's working as intended but mileage may vary.

So with both the changer and the aux adapter in place I fired up the radio without any CD's in the changer. No joy. It cycles all 6 trays and stops with 'CD 0-00' displayed and the audio disabled.
So for the final piece of the puzzle I made a silent disc. 80mins of pure nothing. Put the disc in tray 1 fired it up and all's good. There seems to be a significant reduction in hiss compared to just using the aux cable. With the radio set to repeat the track it should endlessly loop the silent disc while keeping the audio enabled for the aux connection.

Total spend around £15 for a perfectly functioning aux in.
Aside from tidying up I'm very happy with this. Below the radio is a gap in the two trim panels where I've stuffed some of the excess cable and gives me plenty to pull out when I need it.
Pictures:
 
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