

The completed installation! Note the line about 1/3 of the way down my part.

I didn't want to mount it on the windshield so I removed the suction cup, filled the cup mount with Bondo, and then used more VHB to affix it to the dash.Īt first I had a lot of digital noise coming through the audio channel, there's usually some, but this car has a whole bunch of digitally addressable modules on a Car Area Network (CAN) and they were awfully chatty! Fortunately the Ground Loop Isolator linked above eliminated 99.9% of this distracting noise! I used 3M VHB mounting tape to attach the dock to an old GPS mount. Note: print in ABS, PLA will melt in a hot car!

If you'd like to make your own just grab 123D from Autodesk and this file, export to STL and print. I did find a cable that did that (see Amazon link below) so I designed a 3D printable dock that would accept this cable in Autodesk's 123D Design. I wanted a nice dock for the iPhone but I have never found one that simply broke out the audio line-out and USB. It worked very well! You do have to keep a CD in the changer though, but it doesn't have to be blank if you cut the audio path etches. Then I closed up the radio and put it back in that dash. I don't use CDs at all anymore so I didn't bother to add any way to re-enable the CD. I soldered a length of an old headphone extension cable with a busted male plug to the ribbon cable and cut the etches on the circuit board. I do love it when manufacturers list pin-outs right on the board! LOUT, ROUT, and AAGND were the ones I used. I took the radio out and separated the CD changer. It sounded fantastic but there was no auxiliary input! Remembering this story I saw on Hackaday a little while ago, I decide to tap into the CD changer audio-in. The car came with a Satellite Navigation radio with THX certified sound. (Jump to 7:20 in the video to get straight to the tutorial)Ī couple of weeks ago I bought a new vehicle, a 2007 Lincoln Town Car. Autodesk 123D Design iPhone dock tutorial and 2007 Lincoln Town Car SatNav Radio Audio-in hack.
