Has anyone tried to tie in an Ipod to the Aux input of the stock stereo? If so, how? The Belkin Tune-Dok works great in the cup holder but the I-trip transmitter is fair at best

 

Go to a good custom installer and ask them about a Blitzsafe conection. It worked on my wife's MDX.

 

Check with Tuan at TLelctronics he is a forum vendor and I beleive he sells the harnesses to plug in an ipod.

Also check the Audio electronics section of this forum as there are people who have installed these here.

Good luck.

 

I was interested in doing the same with an mp3 player a while ago. I sent an email to Tuan Lee asking about what would be needed. I don't have the CD Changer, just the stock indash am/fm/cd player. There is one item you will need that is not listed in his email. It is a converter cable that converts from RCA connectors to 3.5 MM single pin (that fits your ipod or other mp3).
I will past the email we exchanged below:

Email sent to Tuan:
Tuan,
I have been interested in setting up a portable mp3 player to play
through the c5 stereo without using an FM transmitter. In checking
the websites, including yours, I am a little confused as to what I
need to do this. I was planning on setting the portable mp3 player in
the center consol compartment using the 3.5mm -RCA plug adapter. Can
you give me some advise as to what is needed? I have a 2002 C5 with in dash CD but without the CD Changer in back.

Reply from Tuan:
In order to connect any devices with RCA out into your C5 Corvette
headunit you will need the GM10-AUX adapter and the cd-changer wiring
harness (GM-COR-HAR). The cd-changer wiring harness connects to the
cd-changer port in the passenger foot well. After that, the GM10-AUX
adapter plugs into this cd-changer harness and coverts it over to RCA
input. From there, you can hook up any devices with RCA out.

Here is the link for the GM10-AUX http://www.tlelectronics.com/webstor...roducts_id=154

And here is the link for the CD-changer wiring harness (GM-COR-HAR) http://www.tlelectronics.com/webstor...roducts_id=157


Hope this info helps. I have not installed the needed equipment yet, but plan to in the near future.

The posting this was contained in is as follows: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=715991

 

OK, so you plug the GM10-AUX into the CD Changer harness in the back of the car.

But the GM10-AUX doesn't look long enough to connect to a device in the front of the car.

Am I missing something?

 

If you don't already have the CD changer cord routed to the rear of your car you can easily just run it to the center armrest console, or anywhere else in the car, it is plenty long enough. Connect the RCA input adaptor and 'hide' it under the carpet behind (or under) the passenger seat.
:cheers:

 

Yeah, but the car came with the CD changer. $600 worth of useless crap.

Isn't there some way to plug directly into the head unit? Yes, I know getting to the back of the head unit is a PITA, but so is pulling my interior to run a cable.

 

Yes. Tuan is the man :yesnod:

I used both those devices to add my Neo 35 MP3 player into my existing factory system:

 

I wanted an MP3 player for the trip to Nashville last year so I bought the Neo jukebox first and installed it where the 12 disk changer was. The first one fried immediately. Smoked when it was turned on. The second and third cooked in the heat of the cubby hole within a day. I got absolutely NO help from SSI America when trying to hook it up. I was told installation was my problem.

The iPOD can be used as a PDA, can be taken out of the car and used for other things, and it 150% more user friendly than the Neo.

 

As we used to be one of their dealer, I can definitely vouch for their crappy cust. service (or lack of). It was the worse vendor we ever dealt with.

 

I think this is because the NEO is a British made unit that is imported into the US. I bought mine with the HD already installed. It has worked perfectly for over a year now (fingers crossed - just to play it safe). :crazy:

One other option is the Kenwood Jukebox Keg. It has removeable media.


[Modified by Mike Mercury, 11:58 AM 3/12/2004]

 

I do not see the reason of using COR_HAR, what happens if you just use GM10-AUX and some converter for the tip?

 

I have no clue whether you could make your own adapter up or not, but I do have an idea of how absolutely awesome hooking an iPod up to your factory stereo is as opposed to the alternative of having a cd changer (seems so antique now)... Some of the pics can be found here:
http://stingrey.com/guitars/ipod/

The rest can be found here:
http://stingrey.com/guitars/vette/ipod/

The first link has pics of both a Vette install AND a Trans Am install (my old baby) and the second has pics of the wireless RF remote that I use to control the setup. I am thoroughly pleased with the results! In the Vette, I have a windshield antenna, in the T/A I had a power antenna, thus the big red button to disable the antenna from popping up and down for no reason... Anyhow, any ?s, ask 'em here. This thread comes and goes like every three months, not sure if there is any info in the faq, but if not, we need to post some info there.

Rey :)

P.S. Tuan IS the man to talk to, very patient with customer ?s, and that by itself is ALL of the reason to buy from him. Just imagine any other service or product you pay for and how people that work there treat you, and bar none, there is not any better service than Tuan's!

 

You guys are being too kind :blueangel:

 

I heard that corvettes come with the adapter whether it is opccupied with changer ot not! How can I check if I have it or not.
I guess this mounitng will cost more than I imagined.
$10 holder + $50 leather platform to put the holder on + 140 Cables from Tuan. Any cheaper methods than just using earphones? :eek:

 

First of all, I think you are right. The problem is that I have already tried running a cable from the front of the car to the back of a car (different car, but same idea) and it was no fun. You have to know where the cable runs to, how it is tied down, and where to clip the ties... I heard the cable is there already, too... It was in my Trans Am anyhow, there was a cable that ran to the trunk to hook up my changer. That part is best left in place anyhow if it is there in case you ever decide to go back, if you don't want the hassel of wasting three hours finding out how to get the cable out of wherever it is, and if you aren't sure what cable it is you are looking for to begin with. I had the same problem, Tuan took pictures after I got my pie adapter and (hey, that sounds funny by the way) showed me where to look. Then someone else told me that the two cables needed to be plugged into the pie adapter were 1) bolted or "clipped" onto the thing on the right of the big black box, and also on the right under the carpet a little towards the level part of the footwell compartment taped to a different cable that ran to the back.

Being that mine was taped to the cable, I bet there was no pre-existing cable running to the back for a changer in my car, but if it were plugged into something, then I'd think maybe the cable was there already. In other words, the small percentage of people who say they had the cable there to begin with may have 1) lucked out and had it there TO BEGIN WITH, or 2) bought a car that originally came with a changer who removed and sold the changer, which is unusual but possible. I did the reverse on the WS-6, found they were prewired, found the changer on eBay for $178 shipped and like new versus the $1000 factory changer option price, and installed it myself. THEN I got smart and tried hooking up my iPod. The changer is old school, takes a few minutes to load the cartridge, scanning each cartridge for a disc first... Then you are able to play music, and even then, it is limited to your limited array. If you love a variety of tunes, this is the way to go, whether iPod or XM or any other mp3 format even. I chose the iPod though because that is my preference. The cables to me were minimal as far as an investment is concerned, because they are EASY to do yourself. Ask Tuan, I only asked him questions until I figured out which cables were the ones I needed to plug into and that was because I didn't wait 'till I got my AUX-10 yet! Had I waited, I could have matched up end to end on sight alone. Thanks again Tuan and you other guys who helped, for not yelling and instead helping!

I'll take some better pics of the cables when the sun comes out again, it has rained every weekend almost and the past weekend where it was sunny, I didn't even think to take pics of the setup. For all who do not know, the passenger area under your floor mat has a removeable panel where both cables can be found, and if your aux input source is small enough to fit into your console, that is SIMPLE to do. I did need a drill, and I could have done a better job, and I DID. The pictures in the link I provide show my crappy drill job, but I finalized it by cleaning up the circle attempt and installing a grommet that Circuit City GAVE me when I asked 'em for one versus paying the install fee that Custom Sounds here in town wouldn't even take on a weekend since I was wanting something installed that they didn't sell. Screw that, I will never go back there again as a paying customer. I used to get everything installed there, and if they had spent a minute to look up my install history, I have dropped $8k in parts and labor which isn't much to them I guess. That is another story, though.

Anyhow, I need to take more pictures to show how easy this is so you guys can do it too. The armrest console part has four nuts to remove, two are in the back when you open the console, and I can't remember but I think two are in the front. The ones in the back are under some little black covers that can be removed by hand. When you remove all four, the console slides back and up, which allows easy access to drill through the sheet of plastic think divider to the right of the pre-existing lighter socket in the console area. I did it right in the car, to be vacuumed up later. It didn't take but a matter of moments to do, but it did take a bit more time to perfect afterwards when I put the grommet on. I'm talking like 45minutes though. Anyhow, plug in the pie adapter, plug in the cor-har (the trickiest part, since it is so long you have to hide the cable somewhere... I snaked mine ALL into that area in the footwell), and the stereo to mini jack adapter found at radio shack for all of 8bux. That is the part that ran into the console allowing me to hook up ANYTHING with a stereo headset adapter, iPod now, who knows what later. To me, the headphone jack has remained consistant over the years so no matter what comes along that I need to plug into the adapter, I am prepared. Friend wants to take portable XM unit along? Great! Hook it up!

Anyway, back to my description... The little part where the traction control button is... That pops up and off too, can't remember if it is clip based or not, but I just popped it up and off with my hands, no tool, it came off easily on one hot sunny day where I forgot to take pictures as I went :) Not sure if that helped it to pop up and out or not, but again, it was easy. Maybe that is where the last screw was, i can't remember. Anyhow, for some reason I had to pop that off, maybe it was to slide the console up and back. The fuel door opener is in there and the power adapter thing is there, so remember you are limited by length of cable as far as pulling up and away, but the good thing is that with any drill, even a versa pak powered one, you can drill through the think plastic wall just enough to make an opening for the stereo adapter. The cable is EASILY run from there since first of all your console is up and away, and second, you are running from there to the passenger footwell area and third you are running three cables each that connect at a certain point... In other words, I was able to run the stereo end (left right jack) up along the carpet area INTO the passenger side easily, then plug in the cor-har end to that, run the cor-har up and about the top part of the passenger area to hide away those cables as much as possible, and then run pie adapter and connect that to the other connector part of the pie adapter. Since the cables broke here and there instead of just being ONE continual cable, it was easy to change plans along the way and with so much cable to hide, you'll see what I mean when you cross that bridge. That is the only thing I would like to be different if I could request it, and that would be a shorter cor-har cable. In this case since the cable didn't need to run to the trunk area, a simple 3 foot or 6 foot max cable would be fine for our application.

Anyway, hide the cables, put the floor panel back, put the carpet back (this is after making sure it works on your headunit of course, and that was the other thing, if YOU install, you have access to the unit if you ever need to unplug/plug back in. who knows how an install shop would do it, if you loose power, the pie adapter may need to be unplugged/replugged again, but I'm not sure.. just am sure I can do it since I know where it is in the cubby) and bolt the console back in place, plug ipod in, enjoy! I used the iPod since you can see in my second link there is an RF remote they make. Makes for ease of use, no opening the lid every time I need music, just hit play! Get home, my equivalent of turning off the radio is hitting play/pause. That puts the music in standby, hit play tomorrow and pick up wherever I left off in my thousands of songs that I picked library! It will take months to hear all of my songs!

The ONLY part I would like to do is make a button where I could control whether or not the cig lighter had power or not. There is a red and black wire I saw going to the cig lighter, I'd like to have it non-constant so I could use the jack in there to just plug in the iPod and leave it plugged in, but only turn on the cig lighter on long trips in the car (usually once/week which is how often I need to charge the iPod anyhow). I'm too lazy to just open the console once/week and plug it in, plus I'm afraid if I plug it in I'll forget to unplug it in the console area and run the car battery down someday. In the T/A, the firewire power cable was hardwired and was only on when the car was on, but I don't want to do that in this car since all those short charges may have had an adverse effect on the iPod battery over time. That is another project for another day, but almost every week I'm adding a song to the iPod anyhow so it gets its charge and song as required. To date that has not been an issue. Anyone who is thinking of doing this, you can do it. I did it, and I did it the hard way. Anyone else who can validate, you don't need to disconnect the battery to install this product. In fact, in my case, that led to another issue altogether. YOU may not want to try this at first, but by the third "wait 20 min, then plug in and hook up battery" b.s., you'll give in. Plug it in while the stereo is on radio, switch to cd/ch (or aux, can't remember) and BAM, it is there. So plug in cables, make sure it works, put back the parts that are held by latches or four bolts, and drill a hole if you want it in your console. Heck, you could even just have the cable come out of where the cig lighter/ashtray are if you don't want to put it in your console. The point is that it is so easy, the "price" of the cables is nothing for the return. I didn't have a changer in my car, and didn't want one, I wanted my library of tunes. Got it! ANYONE who has aux input capabil's per some cables should get it. Trust me, if you like music enough o fill up a changer and have an mp3 player, it is the best option hands down. I just think mine is the perfected version because of the RF remote :) But I'm biassed, I worship the iPod! Candles and all... But that's another story ;) Anyhow, pictures to come, can't promise when, but again, this thread comes up over and over and over and over and over and over and, well, you get the idea. Maybe if it isn't there, an faq should be there. I'm just surprised more people aren't doing it. The T/A following was great when I got it done, nobody else had posted something like it and then everyone was doing it. MD, mp3, etc. Then they came out with a 3 device changer, but it required another remote mount. Plus I only needed one input. Everyone who did it was happy with it, there is no signal loss when you plug your devices in as an aux input, to give an idea, in tape adapter setups, you know how you can crank the device about 3/4 before distortion occurs? The same goes for most aux input setups. The beauty of these cables/adapters in both my C5 and the WS-6 is that the device could be cranked ALL the way up to match the loudness of the radio or stock cd slot without ANY distortion. In other words, it was like running an unamplified source or whatever, not like a tape deck adapter where you had to crank up the stereo and crank down the unit to find the magic mix of power / volume from each device. The way I'm running the new iPod is through some SIK adapter though, and that has the audio coming out of the firewire port unamplified which is even cooler, since before I used to have to crank down the iPod before I removed it from the car to avoid putting it in my earphones and hitting play and BLAM music comes on at full volume. The unaplified output is independent of the volume setting on the iPod so you are guaranteed clean signal in that regard. The remote is made by engineered something or another... Here is the link, copied and pasted after typing the above:
http://www.engineeredaudio.com/products/remote.html

Plus if you have the top down tech product where you can roll the windows down and have the remote remote you can start your iPod also after rolling down the windows! I don't have the top down thing, but that is on the list. The tunes were first on the list, still recovering from that, just sold the older iPod seen in the pictures of the ws-6 not more than a week ago for the newer one only because of this rf remote. Anyhow, good luck to all, off to do something with my rainy weekend Saturday alone here.

Rey :)

 

there's some confusion on the C5 and what harness(es) it comes with from the factory.

The cable that goes from the head unit to the rear CD changer is actually two pieces. The first harness goes from the back of the head unit to the passenger footwell. Then the second harness plugs into the footwell ends and is snaked back into the rear center storage bin.

the latter cable (the one that goes all the way back to the center storage bin) is never factory installed on a C5 that did not have the 12 disk CD changer option.
If one purchased a brand new C5 and it had the rear cable already installed- but not the CD changer - then the car was originally ordered with the changer and dealer removed it to use in a different car.

The first cable - that goes from the head unit to the footwell - has been reported missing on 1997 and early 1998 Corvettes. But since mid 1998 the first harness is installed in all C5's.

The second harness has the footwell connectors on one end and the factory CD changer connectors on the other. The footwell conectors and CD changer connectors are different electrical and mechanical configurations.

The PIE GM-AUX10 adapter that gives you RCA L/R inputs has the same connectors as the factory CD changer. It WILL NOT plug into the footwell harness as the connectors are different there than what they are at the CD changer end.
Granted, one could trace out the electrical connection paths of the second harness and try to wire the PIE GM-AUX10 adapter directly into the footwell harness; but it would be a lot of work. Seems to be much easier to just buy the rear changer harness and coil it up somewhere up front (or run it to the center console as the above poster mentioned).

If one wishes for L/R audio inputs on their Bose headunit - then there is no way to avoid buying the PIE GM-AUX10 adapter and the rear CD changer harness.

.




[Modified by Mike Mercury, 9:15 PM 3/13/2004]

 

So, if one had the factory CD Changer, would you be able to buy that mentioned (PIE?) adapter, and plug in This Kenwood Mp3 Player, and be able to activate it using the stock "aux" button on the factory head unit, and then control it using the faceplate that Kenwood supplies?

Since the required cables are already run to the trunk in my car, the adapter could just plug in in the center bin area where the CD Changer lies, and in the changer's place, I could put the new player?

For a variety of reasons, I want to keep the stock head unit, and this player seemed like the best option to do that, and still have good MP3 functionality.

:cool: :cheers: ,

-Jake


[Modified by JakeL, 11:22 PM 3/13/2004]

 

thanks for help rey! look like Ive got a lot to do!

 

JakeL, I'm not sure how it would work if you had the stock changer, but I am certain that your item would interface directly with the pie adapter! The stereo rca cables would plug right in! Now on the unit, THAT is sweet! If the control could be mounted overhead or in the space where the ash tray/lighter are, you'd have a sweet setup, but I can't tell from the description if the cable would be long enough to trunk mount the item. If you install this item though, forget the changer! This would be so much cooler! Not sure how well the Mac support is on the item, but I've got a backup pc for that... The item itself is awesome, from how it reads, you can wirelessly sync your song library with this item if you use 802.11b :) THAT is elite.

Drive home, unwrap my new cd I just bought, rip some songs (just the ones I like of course), go to bed. Later that night, unit in the car accesses my wireless network, sync's the songs, bam!!! Go to work and by chance, hear one of the new songs! Wow! I am not sure if it would fit, if it is flat enough to mount overhead even, that would rock. Either way, nice item! Remember, the glove box is also right there by the cubby, so if it did fit, or any of you guys if you did want an alternate spot for a smaller device to be mounted without any drilling, that is the spot... Just that you need to stretch to remove the item for charging/updating purposes. And a wireless or wired remote someplace more accessible is a must. Anyhow, on the thanks and being a lot to do, it really isn't. The hardest part for someone who didn't have the changer option is buying the two cables (or three with rca->stereo headphone adapter from wherever) plugging 'em in, and routing them to where you want them. And that takes all of 30 minutes, mostly because of routing the cables. Like I say, could have just ran the audio cable to the glove box, skipped installing into the console, and been done in under an hour, but the console is more natural to me for a storeage place for the pod. Good luck on this one, Jake, the unit is awesome! When I saw it it made me think about selling the iPod for a second :) I'd have to mount the display either right in the spot of the ashtray for hideaway/stock look purposes when not in use, or the display would look great overhead... Would prefer the prior though. I absolutely love the wireless sync feature and the subscription based news updates if you want that option... Not bad at all!

Rey :)