Stereo and Ipod question

[nikv]

No. Sony aftermarket, but it fits most car models and I believe they have one for the SAAB. Its basically the connection cable thats different. The circuit board provided does the rest and requires you to add firmware downloaded from the web site to convert the signals for the particular audio system.

The aftermarks supported inlcude: Alpine, Becker, Blaupunkt, Kenwood and Sony.

I will check the particulars with Dension for SAAB and post.
Nik.

[CleveSaab]

Thanks but don't bother. Denison has NOT made anything for the factory HU.

[DavidCV]

I came across with these two auxiliary input solutions through the CD changer controls, is there any simpler solution?

http://users.adelphia.net/~jlehome/aux_input.htm
http://www.aberrant.org/~dkane/myPictures/iPodMod/

[DavidCV]

I have a 2002 9-3 SE and would like to connect my ipod to it through an Stereo Auxiliary Input Adapter. Does the 2002 have the same Clarion branded OEM stereo as the ones mentioned in the previous threads, or has the Pioneer one?

Thanks,

[CleveSaab]

They are Clarion throughout the range. The 9-3's got a different model, but it's still a Clarion.

[Edison517]

Here's simple directions for adding aux input to the stock system, if you're not faint of heart at soldering on your radio...

http://www.sethevans.com/auxinput.html

Seth
'00 Viggen, 50k

[DavidCV]

Seth,

I looked at your page and the one on your link, they are really useful. I just ordered the parts from Saab, and I am going to buy the rest of the things on the weekend. I have a Saab 9-3 2002 with OnStar. . . but I will disconnect it since I never use it.

German mentioned that he purchased from Saab a OEM phone connector, but he never mentioned that he used it. Can I use this cable and avoid soldering? Also, if that works, would it give me a steareo signal? By chance, do you know what is the main purpose of this OEM Phone Connector Harness cable and how you connect to the celphone, and how does the Phone Kit works?
Please advice,

[Edison517]

Originally Posted by DavidCV

Seth,

I looked at your page and the one on your link, they are really useful. I just ordered the parts from Saab, and I am going to buy the rest of the things on the weekend. I have a Saab 9-3 2002 with OnStar. . . but I will disconnect it since I never use it.

German mentioned that he purchased from Saab a OEM phone connector, but he never mentioned that he used it. Can I use this cable and avoid soldering? Also, if that works, would it give me a steareo signal? By chance, do you know what is the main purpose of this OEM Phone Connector Harness cable and how you connect to the celphone, and how does the Phone Kit works?
Please advice,

I believe that German did use the phone connector, per the photo he has of the circuit board he designed & built (you can see a female phone-type jack, which I think is the same thing as an ethernet jack, on the board). I had mentioned to someone else (can't remember which forum, or if it was an email) about doing this mod via a cable (such as German's). I haven't investigated this much, but you might want to contact German and see what he says.

Regarding the phone interaction/operability w/the radio, I don't know much about that because I don't use mine. My car came with a Nokia module installed (which I'm going to remove; I hate Nokia) and possibly replace w/a Sony Ericsson. Apparently, this phone interface is universal...??? So I guess you can install a hands-free module/kit for whatever phone brand you have and it should install easy...but I'd take that w/a grain of salt.

Good luck w/your mod!
Seth

[buck_henry]

I took apart my radio last night to see if the NG head unit has the same circuit board. It unfortunately doesn't. I see several candidates for a tel-in but never as a pair, I'm getting worried it may be real mono on this head unit.

Has anyone done this to the NG-900? It's possible and all but a good photo of where to go on the circuit board would be great.

thanks,

bh

[Edison517]

Originally Posted by buck_henry

I'm getting worried it may be real mono on this head unit.

That's very possible, but I wonder how bad it would really sound if you did hook up an input there...I would think that the sound would still play through all the speakers, you just wouldn't have any control about separating the channels. It might be worth a shot. Anyone wanna be a guinea pig?

[buck_henry]

I was talking to an electrical engineer about this last night. He quickly realized how little I know when he asked "have you had any problems with the impendence?"

I think my blank stare and stammer gave away my lack of knowledge .

Anyway I'll take it apart again tonight and take some photos of the board and maybe someone around here can tell me where the possible inputs are. I'm more than willing to be a guinea pig but I want some help!!

I already made a switch and 1/8 input jack, they just have to be soldered to the head unit. I made a slight modification though, I have some blade style connectors for all 5 wires a foot in back of the stereo. This will work like a harness and allow me to remove the head unit completely without removing the aux-in from the dash.

here are pictures of the aux-in jack and the connectors (it's the same deal for the mute switch but one less wire).

[buck_henry]

another quick question. you listed an spdt micromini switch for the mute, that has 3 connectors. wouldn't you use an spst with 2 instead? (ground and mute) I suppose you can use the spdt but i don't know enough to know which of the two connections to use! (i'm a complete amateur here).

[Edison517]

Originally Posted by buck_henry

another quick question. you listed an spdt micromini switch for the mute, that has 3 connectors. wouldn't you use an spst with 2 instead? (ground and mute) I suppose you can use the spdt but i don't know enough to know which of the two connections to use! (i'm a complete amateur here).

No, you're probably right. I just used what leftover parts I had laying around, which happened to be a 3 pole SPDT switch. But that goes back to my comment, "any switch will work".

Don't kill yourself over the technical stuff, everytime someone mods their stuff, it's custom to make it work

BTW, Good idea on the spade connectors for a quick disconnect; the thought never even crossed my mind...but to improve upon a good idea, I'd try to find a molex or amphenol connector that had 5 (probably easier to find a 6) pins so you wouldn't have the possibility of reconnecting them wrong upon installation...just my $0.02 (I'd love to see pics of your installation when done)

[audioddude]

Hi everyone,
I'm new to this forum and was reading about the Ipod issue. I bought the Itrip and am not happy with it also. I was thinking about a solution and have come up with an idea. In my 93 900 I installed a after market cd changer. It has an FM modulator that connects to the antenna cable. When you turn on the CD changer it takes over the fm signal. So, I think you can simply connect the fm modulator to the antenna cable the Modulator has audio inputs that you can connect an RCA to Mini cable and power it and it should work. Haven't tried it yet hopefully tomorrow. I'll let you know it it works.

[CleveSaab]

Took my 900 radio apart yesterday. Well, tried to. I stripped one of the screws and now I can't get the cage off of it. I'm such an idiot.

ALSO *NOTE*
While I was removing the screws from the heatsink something popped. I saw a blue flash from inside the radio. No idea what that was all about. Thought I fired it but thankfully I didn't. Capacitor discharging??? Should one remove the radio fuse before removing screws?

[buck_henry]

cleve, i'll re-take apart my ng900 head unit tonight and post some pics. it's definietly more complicated than the 93. There is no "bottom panel" you essetially have to disassemble the whole thing all the boards get removed to get to the bottom of the bottom board. it's not too bad. I'm going to post a pic of the circuit board so we can get some ideas of just where to connect to.

that blue flash doesn't sound good though, were you using an anti static pad? maybe shuffling around in wool socks on a nylon rug? I know you guys just had snow in the land of cleves.

btw it was 75 and sunny here in seattle yesterday. it's a shame isn't it?

[buck_henry]

ok cleve this is how I got the radio apart on the NG900.

I included the shot of the proper screwdriver for the job

pics of the board soon.

[buck_henry]

ok time to enlist all you more electronic types out there.

Here are the photos of the bottom of the main NG900 head unit circuit board.

Any ideas on where to tap in with the Aux-IN?

I think a great idea would be to ditch the entire tape unit (it's removable) and just tap into it's inputs. Too bad I don't know how to do that. I guess you would still need a switch to simulate the tape player kicking in (or maybe the "tape" button would suffice) as well as the L,R channels.

Thanks from all us NG900 owners,

BH

[Totoole]

OK. I have been working on this for the past two evenings. I have an official iPod connection using a combination of Seth's and German's instructions.

I soldered wires according to Seth's diagram and cut the trace between the left and right TEL inputs. That worked but I could not get stereo sound. More specifically, no sound from the right channel. So, I cut the trace from the TEL R that goes to the original preamp input (as German describes). Now I have stereo and the sound is clean, but the volume is not sufficient, even using the headphone out on the iPod and the iPod cranked.

If anyone has any ideas please share. My wire runs are very long, probably 5 feet at the moment, but I can't imagine it would cause that much degredation.

My next move will be to follow German's revised simple mod http://gatoalfa.calipso.com.co/radio...bRadioMod.html. I just need to re-work some solder points and add the inputs at the harness.

By the way, does anyone know how to get the wires out of the harness?

Thanks for any assistance you may be able to provide.

Tim

[cleeland]

Originally Posted by buck_henry

ok time to enlist all you more electronic types out there.

Here are the photos of the bottom of the main NG900 head unit circuit board.

Any ideas on where to tap in with the Aux-IN?

I think a great idea would be to ditch the entire tape unit (it's removable) and just tap into it's inputs. Too bad I don't know how to do that. I guess you would still need a switch to simulate the tape player kicking in (or maybe the "tape" button would suffice) as well as the L,R channels.

Great photos, Buck. Saves me some time of pulling mine out and my wife asking me what I'm doing :-)

I didn't see any clear place to stuff something. I still think that the best option is to try to come in from the CD inputs and figure out a way to convince the head unit that there really is a CD changer hooked up. I wish I had a logic analyzer or high-impedence oscilloscope to use, because I think we could capture some of the data coming out of the C-BUS comm lines when the "CD" key gets pushed on the front panel and maybe figure out a way to craft the correct response to fool the HU into thinking there's a CD changer.

Actually, if somebody who had a changer could eavesdrop on the "conversation" that occurs between the two units at button press and while an "empty" track is playing in the CD changer, maybe we could create a simple emulator.

-cj