madman
Enthusiast
It all came as a simple idea to hook (somehow) ipod with my stereo. It ended up (as usually) tearing up the car apart in order to do it right.
Over Ebay I got RB1 nav unit and factory DVD changer with AUX inputs. The whole package came at $1100.
Replacing stock radio with RB1 was a simple switch - remove the dash panel, take out stock, plug in RB1, put back dash and that was it. My car had navigation in 15 minutes.
Adding DVD changer was a little more difficult since I did not know where to put it. First I wanted to place it in the trunk. If the Titanic was build the way the Viper is it would never sunk - the whole car is divided into a fiberclass compartments with no connection between the cabin and trunk. To make long story short - for me there was no way how could I run cables to trunk without cutting the holes into the car and/or taking down body panels and fenders. Then I looked under the driver's seat and decided to put the changer there.
Since the DVD changer had AUX in I could hook my ipod with it. The AUX in was anyway the primary reason why I got this. I figured that for PIE adapter I would pay around $100 with uncertain results (some folks reported problems) so paying $175 extra for factory based solution seemed to me like a good proposition.
In order to take care of wires, cables and the placement of the changer I had to remove the mid console and remove the driver's seat. Removing the mid console is quite time consuming since you have to remove the front panel, take out shifter, disconnect window switches, dismantle the leather hand brake cover, disconnect cigaret lighter, take out the plastic (mid console front), unscrew the 2 screws keeping the console with the plastic back panel, unscrew the 4 screws in mid panel compartment, 2 screws in front, slide console back, lift it, disconnect rear acc and airbag switch and that was it I guess.
Then I had to figure out the cabling. The changer requires battery and ground and I had no idea where to get these since I could not go to a battery and had no idea which cables were which. Why the cars are not coming with the manuals I don't know. The software for $50 has one, why the car worth 80 large can't have one? Anyway, through a bitter experience (frying up the accessory relay) I learned that the power for DVD changer can't be drawn from the radio.
BTW figuring out why all of the sudden there was no power for the radio while there was power for the rest of the car took me several hours of investigation. The problem was that everything worked in the test layout and I was drawing the power from the radio. Then I disconnected everything, made the install, put everything together and ... my radio was dead. It got no power and there is no fuse on this thing. The power is managed through the relay and the reason for this (I guess) is that the relay stores in the memory the last selection of the radio feature (last channel etc.) I am thinking that because now I had to bypass the relay to power the whole thing and the radio always starts with AM 530 like it would run for the first time. I think this will change when I will run by dodge and replace the relay (it's like $20 item I guess)
Anyway - back to the install...
The final choice was to draw the battery from the cigaret lighter input since it gets power only when acc is on the same way like the radio gets power. This lead me to a mod which I think should be done by factory. There are two 'cigaret lighters' (acc inputs) - one up front and one the compartment.
The one in the compartment is on all the time while the one up front only when the acc is on (key). Which is little silly or at least it was not good for me since I planned to have my ipod hooked up al the time to a charger in the mid console compartment and this could lead to a battery discharge. At the same time I thought if I would need to draw the power from the car for compressor, camera, laptop and alike I might want to draw that from front lighter without having the key in. So I switched the factory cables and now my compartment lighter is powered only when the key is in while the power in the front lighter is available at any time.
Ok, so I figured out the power. The next thing was to figure out where to lead the cables so they won't melt since our dear snake is one huge and powerful heater as all we know
. I decided to run the cables between the carpet and the heat insulation.
The next thing was to run the audio cable (RCA out on one end and minijack on the other) from the changer in the insulation (see pic above) to the midpanel compartment (little cut through on the side of the inner plastic container) and put everything back together.
As a result I have navigation in my car, can play CDs (will check out DVD audio whether the changer can read it or not and let you know) and have my ipod readily available so I can choose the songs when driving. 'Tested and approved' during the Sunday drive to Santa Cruz on Hwy 17
As you can see from the picture below the cables are long enough so that I can have everything connected all the time.
At last - adding a CD changer seemed to me like a straightforward operation. Well it turned out to be a small weekend project with all tests and investigation. Now when I know what and how to do it would take me maybe 3 hours. So I thought to share my experience so that others won't have to go through the same discovery process.
Over Ebay I got RB1 nav unit and factory DVD changer with AUX inputs. The whole package came at $1100.
Replacing stock radio with RB1 was a simple switch - remove the dash panel, take out stock, plug in RB1, put back dash and that was it. My car had navigation in 15 minutes.
Adding DVD changer was a little more difficult since I did not know where to put it. First I wanted to place it in the trunk. If the Titanic was build the way the Viper is it would never sunk - the whole car is divided into a fiberclass compartments with no connection between the cabin and trunk. To make long story short - for me there was no way how could I run cables to trunk without cutting the holes into the car and/or taking down body panels and fenders. Then I looked under the driver's seat and decided to put the changer there.
Since the DVD changer had AUX in I could hook my ipod with it. The AUX in was anyway the primary reason why I got this. I figured that for PIE adapter I would pay around $100 with uncertain results (some folks reported problems) so paying $175 extra for factory based solution seemed to me like a good proposition.
In order to take care of wires, cables and the placement of the changer I had to remove the mid console and remove the driver's seat. Removing the mid console is quite time consuming since you have to remove the front panel, take out shifter, disconnect window switches, dismantle the leather hand brake cover, disconnect cigaret lighter, take out the plastic (mid console front), unscrew the 2 screws keeping the console with the plastic back panel, unscrew the 4 screws in mid panel compartment, 2 screws in front, slide console back, lift it, disconnect rear acc and airbag switch and that was it I guess.
Then I had to figure out the cabling. The changer requires battery and ground and I had no idea where to get these since I could not go to a battery and had no idea which cables were which. Why the cars are not coming with the manuals I don't know. The software for $50 has one, why the car worth 80 large can't have one? Anyway, through a bitter experience (frying up the accessory relay) I learned that the power for DVD changer can't be drawn from the radio.
BTW figuring out why all of the sudden there was no power for the radio while there was power for the rest of the car took me several hours of investigation. The problem was that everything worked in the test layout and I was drawing the power from the radio. Then I disconnected everything, made the install, put everything together and ... my radio was dead. It got no power and there is no fuse on this thing. The power is managed through the relay and the reason for this (I guess) is that the relay stores in the memory the last selection of the radio feature (last channel etc.) I am thinking that because now I had to bypass the relay to power the whole thing and the radio always starts with AM 530 like it would run for the first time. I think this will change when I will run by dodge and replace the relay (it's like $20 item I guess)
Anyway - back to the install...
The final choice was to draw the battery from the cigaret lighter input since it gets power only when acc is on the same way like the radio gets power. This lead me to a mod which I think should be done by factory. There are two 'cigaret lighters' (acc inputs) - one up front and one the compartment.
The one in the compartment is on all the time while the one up front only when the acc is on (key). Which is little silly or at least it was not good for me since I planned to have my ipod hooked up al the time to a charger in the mid console compartment and this could lead to a battery discharge. At the same time I thought if I would need to draw the power from the car for compressor, camera, laptop and alike I might want to draw that from front lighter without having the key in. So I switched the factory cables and now my compartment lighter is powered only when the key is in while the power in the front lighter is available at any time.
Ok, so I figured out the power. The next thing was to figure out where to lead the cables so they won't melt since our dear snake is one huge and powerful heater as all we know
. I decided to run the cables between the carpet and the heat insulation.
The next thing was to run the audio cable (RCA out on one end and minijack on the other) from the changer in the insulation (see pic above) to the midpanel compartment (little cut through on the side of the inner plastic container) and put everything back together.
As a result I have navigation in my car, can play CDs (will check out DVD audio whether the changer can read it or not and let you know) and have my ipod readily available so I can choose the songs when driving. 'Tested and approved' during the Sunday drive to Santa Cruz on Hwy 17
As you can see from the picture below the cables are long enough so that I can have everything connected all the time.
At last - adding a CD changer seemed to me like a straightforward operation. Well it turned out to be a small weekend project with all tests and investigation. Now when I know what and how to do it would take me maybe 3 hours. So I thought to share my experience so that others won't have to go through the same discovery process.
