[s-cars] iPod BTDT or High Performance Music

[Airbil at aol.com]

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Yo ..Folks,
Another venture into uncharted territory for myself.  I believe it was early
august that I had the "brilliant" idea to connect an iPod windows version to
daBose in the Avant.  Not bad; < two months from idea to reality.
This install will allow you to toggle between the CD player and the iPod.  =
If
you do not have a CD player, keep reading as this will provide some excelle=
nt
hints on what has to be done and see my "best guess" in the YMMV end sectio=
n=2E

(My) reasons for choosing the iPod over other mp3's:
Its cool, very cool looking.  Great look and feel.
One touch tuning.  All thumb controlled.  Back lit; I can read from drivers
position w/o spectacles:)
Maximum portability.
10GB version holds a couple thousand songs  (+$100 for the 20GB), searchable
by artist, song, playlist, album (I think?)
Syncs automatically with Music Match upon plug in  (for windows, Mac uses
Itunes).  So, whatever music is on your inhouse PC, is now portable.  Very
very easy.
Good 60mW (30 per channel) power output w/no distortion.
Has a clock, possibly allowing future boost gauge install in the S car clock
position.
Syncs with Palm for names addresses and phone #'s.  (since my wife has a Pa=
lm
Pilot and I don't; now I can have the family database always on board.and s=
he
does the work.)
Coolly laser engraved w/my email address and "urS6/RS2 Avant" just on the o=
ff
chance that whoever finds it  " May "  return it, or whoever steals it May
always feel a little guilty.
And finally; there's always the off chance that Shania Twain may wanna ride
with me some time.  Can I be packin Southern Comfort too??
But I digress...

Engineering Goals:
Look as oem as possible.
Easily removable.
Easily hidden and stored (hopefully securely; a followup project.)
Be able to tune from fixed position.
Be easily removable for driver or front passenger to tune in hand.
Have it charge via the car power supply.
Have best sound possible, thus requiring it to be hard wired into the Bose
head unit.

Hardware / Tool Requirements:
Rat Shack -  Crimper and small crimp connections.  I got a small bag of
yellow ones.
                 Wire, I believe I got 22 gauge.  Get 3 or 4 different
colors.  I didn't and did alot of head
                 scratching wondering what went to what.
Electrical tape
Wire cutter/stripper
3M Dual Lock Reclosable Fastener, sold off the roll from Ace hardware.  Get
two feet of it, you'll  like this stuff.
Cell phone holder from here: $ 39   <A HREF=3D"http://www.virtual-vendor.co=
m/v3/100028/www/products/100001/au52%2D92.html">
http://www.virtual-vendor.com/v3/100028/www/products/100001/au52%2D92.html<=
/A>
  Since I dont have pics yet, please visualize an iPod placed on this inste=
ad
of a phone, cause thats pretty much it:)
Prewired switch/relay unit from here:  $25  <A HREF=3D"http://home.attbi.co=
m/~jbipes/ttr/auxin1.html">
http://home.attbi.com/~jbipes/ttr/auxin1.html</A>     (3rd pic down IIRC)Yo=
u will
have to email Jeff Bipes to purchase this switch from him.  This will save a
good bit of parts chasing and soldering.  Ask him to label all the wires for
you which he prolly will anyway.
Firewire cigarette power supply  (w/coiled wire) <A HREF=3D"http://www.ever=
ythingipod.com/searchresults.tpl?command=3Dsearch&db=3Ddbs%2Fproducts.db&ca=
rt=3D10358476411372744&group1field=3DPRONAME%2BDESCRIBE&max=3D8&eqAVAILdata=
rq=3Dyes&wagroup1datarq=3Dpower">
http://www.everythingipod.com/</A>
Socket wrench.
Drill

Steps:
Dremel or cut some stiff metal piece like an old hack saw blade into your
radio removal tool.  This should be about 3" long x 3/8" wide + cut a 45
degree angle on one end.  On the S6 there is a small almost invisible slot =
on
each bottom side of the radio.  Push your the angled end of your tool in
there, insert your tool, uhmm well anyway.... as you push it in there, pull
that side of the unit out by grasping the cassette slot.  You'll be amazed
how easy your radio can be stolen.  Pull head unit out w/o disconnecting the
wires and lay it facing down on the shift boot.

Next, lets remove the frame for all those switches.  Carefully using a flat
blade screw driver, pry out each end piece and the 3 slugs.  Remove the top
bolt on each end and the bottom bolt on the right side.  You can now
carefully pull this whole frame out.  Really.  It may catch a little on vent
up top or radio frame on bottom but it does come out enough to move the rig=
ht
seat heater switch as left as possible.
This switch comes out by taking your flat balde screw driver and gently
prying the plug off the back.  The seat heater switch then kinda unsnaps.
Just yank it out towards the back.  Relocate the switch over to the left and
plug the connector back in.   The three open slug holes may serve as a secu=
re
ez iPod storage compartment.

Now take your cell phone holder and drill holes the sizes of your new toggle
switch and mini LED.  I installed the switch with the LED about 1" above it
on the small extension piece between the base (which is screwed onto the
console) and the plate that will hold the iPod.  (try to locate the toggle
switch as far out to the plate portion as possible.)  You'll see.  With a
tiny drill bit you can simply wedge the LED into place.
You now have your holes but DO NOT install the switch or LED.
Toggle switch up =3D LED lit up =3D iPod "ON" ..nice!

Take the firewire cigarette lighter power supply and cut off the power
supply.  (yep this is indeed a waste so if you are creative enough to obtain
a firewire connector and ascertain which wires to use,,, have at it:) You n=
ow
have one hot wire (red maybe) and one ground wire (black maybe.)

Take a look at the Jeff Bipes switch and your Firewire connector.  Join
together ALL the ground wires including the prolly unlabelled bare copper
ones on the Bipes switch.  Join together all power wires.  BUT wait before
you join em, add about ...uhmm ...2 feet of wire to each (could be less but
this allows some operating room) for the ground and power to facilitate the=
ir
connection to the head unit.   You should now have one power wire and one
ground wire. ...and - There are now four wires left unattached on Bipes
switch, as follows:
                                       To head:  red , white
                                       To CD player:  red, white
We'll come back to this.

Take a deep breath cause now we're cuttin wires.  As your head unit faces
down on the shift boot, there is a joined together series of plugs on the t=
op
left.  Push together the tabs on the left and right and pull this out.  The=
n,
the far left plug can be slid out & removed from the group by pushing the
iddy biddy tab at the back and sliding left connector forward and off.  Easy
with tiny fingers.  Sliding this connector away from the group makes it
easier to work on, but isnt totally necessary.  Look at the wiring diagram
label on the top of the radio.  Far left wires, top and bottom are for the
left and right audio channels.
I had a yellow wire (second wire in on the bottom) for switched power and
above that was the ground, labelled "comm" IIRC.. again, LOOK at your label.
You now need to splice in the end or your two foot power wire and the end
from the two foot ground wire into the switched power and ground wires on t=
he
head unit.

Now back to the wires on the far left (top and bottom.)  First cut away the
heat shrink tubing to expose the wires as much as you can.  Cutting in about
the middle will yield only about one inch on each side to work with.  These
were too small for my wire stripper so I called upon my lionel train days a=
nd
stripped with my teeth cause there is so little wire to deal with, I needed
the finess I thought.  Worked well.
Now crimp on to these four wires, more two foot lengths of wire.  Preferably
in ez to ID colors.  i.e. red for right and white for left.
PAYING careful attention:  Take your two, now extended, wires leading from
the head unit and crimp on to the Bipes switch wires labelled "to the head
unit."
                                       Take the two, now extended, wires th=
at
lead out to the CD player and crimp them to the wires      labelled "to CD
player" on the Bipes switch.

Insert radio 1/4 or halfway into slot to power up and test.
Turn radio on and press mode switch to CD.
Plug in the output jack and firewire connection to the iPod.
Flip up the toggle switch, make sure the iPod volume is up all the way and
marvel at your genius.

Okay it works.  Now fish the switch and LED up through the console.  Cut a
small notch in the console switch frame holder to allow the wire passage to
the cell phone holder.
Fish the fire wire and iPod output jack up and out the first slug hole on t=
he
right.
Re attach switch frame, of course adding the cell phone holder on the
righthand side and then attach the toggle switch and insert the LED into the
holes you drilled.
Cover the face of the cell phone holder with the 3M fastener material.  Cut
four  approx. 3/8" diameter circles of fastener material and apply one to
each corner of the cell phone holder with adhesive backing side facing up.
remove the adhesive backing.  Then center the iPod over the cell phone hold=
er
and press down. This stuff is extremely very sticky & will adhere very well.
Thats why only four small pieces are needed on the iPod itself.
Use electrical tape to cover any exposed wires and possibly make things look
a little neater.
Carefully push/jam all your wires and switch as far back into the radio
cavity as possible and push the radio back into place.
Voila! Done.

**YMMV - small print..  This BTDT is as it applies to an S6 w/Bose Delta he=
ad
unit and CD player.  Earlier urS4 Boses I believe are very very very simila=
r,
and there's prolly enough info here to get through it.
If you do not have a CD player, my guess is that you do not need a switch at
all and simply need to output from the iPod to the CD player input section =
on
the Bose head unit.  This would still mean cutting the same two far left
wires in the Bose CD section and just crimp them to the right and left
channel wires coming from the iPod.  The only power needed would be for the
Firewire which of course just requires the same "hot" and ground connections
to the head unit as outlined above.
 **Also,  usual YMMV applies as while these are for sure the instructions I
wish I had had, they are created out of what alot of trial n error and
thinkin.

I will try to get some pics soon.   Pheww!
Cheers'
Bill M
95 1/2  RS2dalutuned.