ipod Mini Installation -=- Long but hopefully helpful -=-

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1 ipod Mini Installation -=- Long but hopefully helpful -=- ** Disclaimer: INFORMATION ONLY. Not responsible for damage caused to your vehicle by following the same procedure. My electronic and fabrication skills are different than yours and therefore do not condone or support you doing this to your car. This is where it all began. An ipod Mini that I wanted to put into my car. But I didn t want to see any wires and wanted to make it as stealth as possible. I considered many things. Buy a wireless transmitter (but I hate to do things wirelessly). But I can t hardwire into any inputs on the CD Changer because there isn t any and I don t want to hack up my radio like centerpunch did so I decided to hardwire through the antenna. But wait, Subaru doesn t like to make anything easy so they come up with an ingenious proprietary antenna connection. I have one of 2 options and depending on time, I hope to use the second. 1.) Splice the Antenna wire but then I am hacking it up and making it difficult to restore to stock. 2.) Get the connectors from Hirose and make my own connector. That s all the way out to February 14, Today is January 17 th. I do have some fabrication to do so I am going to wait and keep an eye on shipment date changes. If it gets pushed back any further then I will splice. Enough intro for now. I am going to start by showing you pictures and hope to continue documentation so that you can do something similar or use it to come up with your own creative solution. If you have any questions/comments/problems me at mvigneau(at)comcast.net.

2 The start of a beautiful friendship. Since there is no smoking in my car, I thought it would be perfect to fabricate the docking connector into the ashtray. So here is the docking connector and ashtray again. They are slowly becoming familiar with each other. Don t they make a cute couple? Don t look now, the docking connector has stripped. The docking connector all by its lonesome. It must feel used to be a male end for the female ipod. Here are some of the installation pieces. Starting from top left going right. Top left: Docking outside plastic where ipod plugs into. Middle Top: Ashtray. Top Right: Docking guts. Bottom Left: Motorola V710 (Don t know when you may need to call in reinforcements.) Bottom right: FM Modulator that will be used to interface with the radio. Stupid people, they used a standard antenna connection, guess that will have to change.

3 This is a very important piece. It is part number MC7812ACT. It is a voltage regulator that inputs anywhere up to 30V and outputs 12V at 1A which is what the ipod s input voltage requirements are. This should take care of voltage spikes in the car and provide a much cleaner signal. Here is the schematic of the power interface for the ipod and the various components (LEDs, Capacitors, etc). The LEDs are there just for looks and will light up when the lights come on. The ipod s dock will receive power so that when I dock the ipod, it will charge the ipod. Here is the ashtray and cigarette lighter as well as the shifter section. This is covered up so that it won t get scratched. I just used electrical tape.

4 This is the cigarette lighter apart. I will use the positive and negative connections on the back to power my power regulator, ipod and LEDs. So here is the Breadboard with the connections to test to make sure that they work. They do and the output is 11.9V with an input of 12.9V. This is the ipod dock connector taking out of the ipod dock. The cable that is used is way too delicate. It is one of those conductor cables and not even soldered onto the thing. This is the ashtray after slight modifications for the ipod dock connector for the correct angle. This is a test fit for the ipod dock connector inside the ashtray. It seems to be alright. Hopefully it will look better than this.

5 This is another test fit with the cut down dock casing. It looks good and will make for a better fit and finish altogether. This is the back of the ashtray with a cutout for the back of the dock connector. It has a dock connection as well as an audio connection on it. This is 2 finish pieces which will help to form the dock and make it look better..

6 This is the test fit to make sure that there is enough clearance. This is the back of the ashtray after putting on the finish piece. Looks a lot better. What not to do. This is after I tested the dock connector and it didn t work so I tried taking it out, but that didn t work. So I had to trash it to try and get the dock out but no luck so I bought 2 new ashtrays and a new Apple Mini ipod dock.

7 Here is Dock #2 and Ashtray #2. Hopefully this one will go better and actually work. This is to make sure that the ipod mini still fits. Yep. But it requires some shaving and some more cutting to get it to fit flush. Nothing major. I had to get power to the LEDs, so I used a custom made mono 1/8 mini jack so that I would be able to run power to it. That is what that extra connection.

8 This is where the LEDs are mounted on the top so that it kind of backlights the Guess what. That previous ipod dock still didn t work. The dock part worked but no audio through the back of the dock!! DAMNIT. So I decided to go with a 3 rd party thinking that it might be done less precisely and lo-and-behold it was. Here is the Dock#3 but fortunately I was able to salvage Ashtray #2. This is the front of the new dock. It uses actual wires so I will be able to tap off the 12V+ power to power my LEDs (which have in-line resistors).

9 Success!!!! The 3 rd party dock and ashtray are finally together. They worked together successfully and the audio actually still works. 3 rd times a charm. I definitely suggest NOT using the official Apple Docking Station/Cradle since it is so delicate. If you barely move the wires, it causes problems. So a 3 rd party docking station/cradle like the one I purchased is made by Insten and is much more robust and forgiving. This is the back of the new ashtray/dock/cradle. It has a firewire and audio out connection on it. Starting to finally come together. A couple of more layers of bondo and some paint and she will look as good as new. This is the back of the console. I have glued in the firewire cable and 1/8 mini stereo to RCA connector. This way whenever you dock the ashtray, it will receive the connections and allows removal.

10 This is what you will see if you look through the console without the ashtray. Not pretty, but functionality can t be beat. This is the painted dock/ashtray. I chose white to match the Apple ipod docks original color. It is less in your face when installed. The left picture has what I like to call the condom for the ipod dock connector while the right does not. This is the back of the ashtray/dock which shows the firewire connection as well as the 1/8 mini connector.

11 This is the bottom of the cigarette lighter where I got my power from for the ashtray/dock as well as the FM Modulator. I didn t have to modify the car s electrical in any way by doing it this way and can be removed without being noticed. Here are the PC Board to make my voltage regulator. The Heatsink is for the voltage regulator IC. They are available at your local Radio Shack for less than $5. This is the finished product of the voltage regulator PC board. It is kind of tight but everything works and outputs 12V. Shouldn t get too hot with the heatsink on there.

12 Here are a couple of pictures of the ipod docked into the ashtray with the LEDs backlighting it. After months of waiting, the parts finally have arrived. I will make my cables for the RF Modulator and then installation will finally take place! Here are 2 pictures of the radio with my custom scratch protection. Ok it s just electrical tape.

13 Here is a picture of my crimped connectors and the finished FM Modulator with the finished connections on it. Only thing left to do is cross my fingers and install the thing. Then take pictures and enjoy music in bliss. Here is another problem that I ran into. Clearance issues trying to close the ashtray because of the 1/8 mini stereo connection. So I found a 1/8 Mini Stereo to RCA cable and dremeled the extra plastic off. It now barely fits. After that it was just installing the thing and everything worked fine. Here are some pictures of the actual installation of all the accessories.

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