How To: Make an AUX input for FREE

wannabe

meh
:
16 CX-5, Old: 06 Mazdaspeed6, 08 CX-7, 01 Protege ES/Mp3wannabe
So on our last road trip I moved my Axxess adapter to the CX-7 and have been too lazy to move it back. I decided the other day that I needed to come up with something to be able to have my iPod/pandora on the phone/whatever in both cars, so after a bit of searching and fiddling, heres what we get.

An AUX input for FREE!!! Or at least, less than $5.


Difficulty = 3
Tools = screw driver, 10mm ratchet with at least a 3-6in extension,
Cost = $0-$5
“O” Factor = 7 free=good


Heres what you need:

Old headphones
An old CD-ROM audio cable (if you don't have one of these, its ok)

Thats it. Tools:

Phillips head screwdriver
10 mm socket and extension
soldering iron and solder (preferred, not required)

Now lets get to it



Remove the console. If you have done this before, skip along, otherwise, here you go:

Alright, first step, remove the cup holders and shifter surround. There are no screws, just clips, so just pull up on both to remove them. On the back of the ashtray are two plugs. The one attached to the cigarette lighter just needs to be squeezed like most other automotive plugs, but the light simply would not come apart for me, so I unscrewed it from the back of the ashtray.
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PUT THE SHIFTER KNOB BACK ON to avoid scratching the delicate surround.

Next, remove the glovebox. Open it, and on the right hand side you will see a string. Remove it by pulling down on it (under the clip)
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Behind the glovebox, you will see a single 10mm bolt attached to the radio. It will be behind the radio/below the lcd. Remove it.
On the bottom of the center console are 4 screws attached to the bottom of the radio surround. Remove the top two, the bottom two can stay put.

Once all the screws are out, give the radio surround a yank, and it should pull straight forward.
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On the back, you will find a plethora of connectors. One of these is clipped to a piece of metal. Using pliers, squeeze the plastic tab sticking through the metal, and it will come right apart. You really only need to disconnect the large main adapter and the antenna (in addition to pulling the above one off the tab).




The plug we will be using for this is the white one on the right next to the antenna input (not the one underneath that we used for the Axxess install)

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Thanks to chisss on another board, I was able to get the pin-out for this (this is his pic of the connector with numbers assigned to the pins)

1 - ground
3 - right
5 - left
7 - signal
13 - media button

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We're gonna use pins 1-7 and 13.

If you found a CD-ROM audio cable, this comes in handy. We need to jumper pins 1 and 13 to activate the "Media" button, so what I did was cut one end of the cable about 3 inches from the connector. I then connected the first wire to the same color on the other end (in my case white). Then, to hit pins 1 and 13, I moved the wire on the connector to the third slot (which can be easily done with a tiny screw driver or pocket knife by prying up gently on the little black tabs. Take the other three wires out completely.

Heres what it looks like (obviously I soldered and taped that connection later):
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Once that part is ready, grab your old headphones. Cut the ear buds off before the Y so that you have a single wire with a 3.5 MM jack on the end. You'll want as much of this wire as you can spare.

Peel back the jacket a little and you should have three wires. A Red, a blue or green, and a bare copper. Red is for Right, Blue or Green is Left, and the copper is your signal wire. To correlate them to your connector:

Red should connect to the second wire.
Blue/Green should connect to the third.
Copper should connect to the fourth.

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Once you have those secured with solder or butt connectors or wire nuts, heres what you should have (once again, mine wasn't done in this pict):

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Now to connect it, all you have to do is line up the pins with the bottom row of connects and just push it on. Make sure your second connector stays in the right orientation so that the wire is in the third slot (hitting pin number 13).

Of course, I forget to get a pic of this part....


Now, at the beginning I mentioned that you don't need an audio cable. Heres what you should get if you don't have one:
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Its a D-Sub connector from RadioShack, female, crimp-on. Item 276-1428. You can use the crimp-on pins from this instead of the audio cable, and you can actually just attach the headphone cable directly to the headunit if you use these. You'll still need a way to jumper 1-13 though, so you'll need some spare wire. Cost on this bag was $1.99.


As far as placement for your wire, its up to you. I personally used the same hole I had previously drilled/cut for the Axxess adapter in the upper compartment, but you could run it to the glovebox, or center console. Whatever you want.

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Amazing dude, I will atempt to do it this weekend. Just one question, Will my sirius satellite radio still work??
 
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So how does it sound? may do this not sure. its probably the same for the mz6 hatch correct?

sound quality is great. just as good as plugging it into my portable speakers.

i think it may only work with the BOSE system, but I'm not sure. I'll see if I can find the pin out for the regular 6.

Amazing dude, I will atempt to do it this weekend. Just one question, Will my sirius satellite radio still work??

unfortunately, no, your satellite is plugged into that port already. there may be a way to patch both together, but i'm not gonna eff with that personally....
 
It's confirmed to work with non-Bose as well. Somebody did this on another forum a few months ago, and since then, several people have done it. I have this mod done on my 2007 without the Bose system, and no problems.

It seems to only work with the 06-08 models, though.
 
I did this on saturday, sounds perfect. I spliced in a ground loop isolator and extension so I could get the port in the armrest glovebox. once I get my hands on a dremel or drill I will install the port to make it look nice.
 
Shuirk - its the same thing, just instead of using a headphone cable, you need to buy a 3.5mm stereo connector. thats the route I was gonna go, but decided it was pointless since i would probably just leave the cable plugged in to it all the time any way...
 
I have Sirius for life, but really miss my i-pod. Just might have to do this and then figure out a way to have both. Nice write up - Good work!
 
I did this before the 4th to have my iPod for the road trip, love it! Sounds great. Was easy to do. I installed a jack just like coalman did. I picked up the jack at ratshack for 2.99 and took 45mins to install. Looks clean. Now just need to find the time to mess with the sat radio and see if I can get both to work.
 
i believe most of the ipod adapters use the port underneath, so i'm not sure. do you need to hit the media button for that one? if so, that may interfere...
 
Ok I see! sounds like these two can be buddies.

the Grom uses the "CD" button and goes into the changer port.

I installed the Grom while the radio was still in the car... in hindsight, to avoid the terrible scratches on my arms, and the leg cramps from bodily contortion, I would remove the radio.
 
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