Mp3 Factory?

[Goobz]

aaron's link to the PDF of wiring an AUX input no longer works. :(

Does anyone have a copy of it to put up a link to?

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Here's the instructions. Happy to answer any questions as I am sure are others, it's very simple to do.

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You said you used a second ground, earlier in the thread, to remove any excess noise that others have reported.

Could you explain this and where it would fit in relation to the instructions you've posted?

Thanks

Chris

[Falchoon]

Happy to answer any questions

What happened to following up on how the MP3 player came from the factory?

Thread miner alert!!!

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It would be better to somehow convert it to full DVD capability, that way it can play MP3s, CD-R and CD-RW (have I missed any formats? ) as well. Every time I see Aaron I ask him about this, he reckons it can be done but takes time and money, neither of which he has an excess of.

The X-Box add-on that Aaron has recently done is probably the best compromise. You still need to have a seperate (X)"box" mounted say under the seat, rather than feed the CD/DVDs directly into the ICC.

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Id be interested to know how to do the xbox/ps2 thing, does anyone have instructions on how to do this??

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Suggest you contact aaronmihe

[mickq]

Chatting to the guys who installed my stereo .. they seem to think that the actual laser that reads the disc would need to be changed if it were to be able to read mp3 cd's ... may be a more expensive option if we ever figure out what was/needs to be done.

Am looking at an el-cheapo $129 - 4 in 1 USB (FM, Mic, MP3 and voice record) type thingy .. that may do the job.  Not sure if I really need 20Gb of mp3s   Just want mp3 in the car.  Anyway.

Cheers,

B.

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Nah, the laser wouldnt have to be changed.

The existing laser reads CD-R's just fine. The only reason you would need to change laser is if it didnt read CD-R's and thus needed a different laser. (Some lasers dont read CDR's well).

Since this one does, it would work fine. The fact that its reading data or music doesnt matter. Its all 1's and 0's to the laser...just bumps or no bumps.

[mickq]

Now to throw a spanner in the works. What would be required to make the CD player able to read rewritable CD's?

If a CD player can read CDR's they can read CDRW's.

If you are refering to what is required to read any burnt CD, I believe they have better oversampling and they spin the disk slower as the writeable CD's have a dye that is not as good to read as an origional CD.

Only some very old and nasty CD players will not read burnt CD's and they are usually due to the oversampling (pre reading) this stops them skipping music when you go over bumps.

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No, not true.

CD-RW's use a different standard. The "structure" of the data on the disc is slightly different. A player will only play CD-RW's if it is aware of this structure. Just because it will play CD-R's doesnt mean it must know abotu CD-RW's.

In addition, the dye layer is different. Some lasers do not cope with CD-RW discs as they cant read them properly - despite being able to read CD-R's just fine.

[ZAP]

In theory the T would only need a ICC firmware upgrade with MP3 CODEC's. I cannot see Ford giving us this very useful feature.

In regards to the CD-R/RW thing, it depends more on the quality of the disk and how fast it was burnt. If you burn at 16x or faster you will find that most players will have trouble. If you burn at <4x you will find better results. I have had no problem with slow burn CD-R's but have not tried the RW media.

I have gone with the Ipod and FM transmitter in a cradle that plugs into the power source.

[Draytox]

Firware is definately all that is needed to enable it to load mp3's. The only problem is that the decoding of mp3's requires a processor of some sort, the one in the BA might not be powerfull enough to do this.

[tbearz]

I use my ipod with the Belkin Auto Kit for iPod w/ Dock Connector

link:

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage...oduct_Id=149006

I had both a belkin fm transmitter and itrip, the auto kit is soooooo much better than the fm transmitter pox, I just crank up the amp and its cd quality at the same volume setting on premo sound, ie no need to turn it up to get same sound.

And the AUX port costing 100 bucks?? Back in Jan 2004 when dad got his N/A xr6 it cost 20 bucks :|

[aaronmihe]

Yeah that Belikn thingo is the best.

For killing noise just pick up the ground wire for the audio and link it to a bit of the body. NOT the dash frame but the body. Works in most cases.

The thing about redoing firmwar to play MP3, not possible with the current units in most BAs. While the tech certainly exists, as much as anything there's CD player hardware and CD/MP3 player hardware. It's a bit like saying with a firmware update you could play DVD on a CD player.

What I'm getting at is, Ford are using a chipset in the units that plays CDs, it's probably an all-in-one chip and is a cheap as possible for the task at hand. There are versions of these types of chips that do MP3 as well and some are (apparently) pin compatible witht eh basic items. However you'd have to find donate an ICC to the cause to work it all out. BUT you have the display control thing to work out, which tends to imply that it'll far more complex than just a chip swap.

If _anyone_ has an ICC (premium,. standard doesn't matter) that is completely stuffed or surplus to requirement I will happily pay to freight it to me to play with.

As Falchoon has said, time and more importantly money are things I don't have to play with. And lets face it no-one would cough up the bucks for a conversion that probably takes 3-4 hours of careful ICC handling to get done (drive in drive out) when you'd be covering the cost of prospective failures, development times, bulk purchase of chips etc etc...

As it stands the CD player in my car barely tolerates CD-Rs and is fussy dependant on temperature....

A.

[cobrav8]

So if I am using the standard Ford Aux cable as an input for MP3 player - is the earth from the outer wire of the auiliary cable to the bodywork the extra earting that I need to do?

[aaronmihe]

Cobra... for the Ford cable I don't know. You could use the DIY instructions to work out which wire to ground to the chassis, but I wouldn't have the foggiest about the Ford wiring colours etc to make it easy for you.