I need some help wiring an AUX input to my honda civic.

First off, hello allaboutcircuits. This is my first post in the forum. I found this forum doing research for this project and it seems there are many here who are well informed and willing to help. So here it goes...

I have a 2002 honda civic and after some research I decided that I should be able to wire a aux input to the car myself. I took apart the stereo and wasnt really sure where to wire everything.My stereo has a radio and a cd player, no tape deck. Im fairly new to electronics. I did a couple years as a physics major but never any real hands on experience with circuits.

So there were two circuit boards in my stereo. The main board and one attached to the actual cd drive. The pins where the cd drive attached to the main board are all clearly labeled. I figured Id wire my aux wire to the L,R, and S-GRND pins right there. I hooked everything back up and to my surprise it actually works! As soon as I connect my mp3 player the cd stops playing and the mp3 comes through.

There is a problem though, actually two. For one every couple of minutes it stops playing all together. It seems like its checking for a CD (there is a cd in there). Its kind of annoying, but even if I couldnt fix this Id still consider the project a success.

Second, I get no sound out of the left side of my car. The left side works with the radio but not with the aux or the cd player. This may have been a bad soldering job (again first time Ive ever soldered anything) or it may have just come loose while I was putting everything back together. I know this is easily verifiable, Its just that last time I took everything out I blew a fuse under my hood. All day yesterday I was really disappointed thinking I had broken my stereo till I woke up this morning thinking to myself "duh, check the fuse box." What can I do to avoid another blown fuse? Disconnect the battery first? (I know, I should have done that anyway)

So...basically I want to know is there a better place to wire the cable so that the track doesnt stop every couple of minutes? Is there possibly another reason that the L channel isnt working besides a faulty soldering job? Here are some pictures (ctrl+mouse to zoom in):

here is the front circuit board. CD drive hooks up to the black input thing on the top left:
http://img823.imageshack.us/i/img0271z.jpg/

Here is the back. On the bottom left you can see the pins where I soldered the cable. I used L,R, and S-GRND.
http://img534.imageshack.us/i/img0274gx.jpg/

Here is the cd drive board
http://img819.imageshack.us/i/img0269wg.jpg/

and here is a picture of the cable I used
http://img248.imageshack.us/i/img0278kt.jpg/

its a 6ft gold plated male to female stereo cable from radioshack. Cut off the male end and stripped the wires. I used electrical tape liberally to avoid a short. I dont have a picture of the actual solder job.

thanks in advance.

Just get one of those aux FM transmitters. You simply plug your aux device into that, plug the transmitter into the cig lighter and tune your radio to 89.1 or whatever. done

ive had one of those before, theyre not always reliable. Id much rather have a dedicated aux line in. besides all the work is done, just need to work out these couple kinks..

Also, Im pretty sure the skipping is due to the cd switching tracks since it is still technically being read in the background.

I just want to avoid another blown fuse and a trip to the store before I reopen it and check the soldering job.

and plus, why buy when I can have fun tinkering with it myself =).

One member here has added AUX inputs to stereos before, every model is different. Maybe edit your title to "Honda Stereo" rather than Honda Civic, it will get more responses from those who add AUX inputs to radios.

hmm i cant seem to edit the original post...

Can you get the board with the amplfier on it out of the unit to get a very high res image of both the front and back? Putting the board on a flatbed scanner at 300dpi usually does an excellent job for a PCB/SMD image.

Otherwise, a clearly focused, well lit 5 megapixel image of the front and back of the board with the amp on it?

https://www.yousendit.com/download/T2pFek9rdGpRWUpFQlE9PQ

the pictures were taken with a 14mp camera. didnt realize the host resized them. heres a .rar with the originals

A switch could serve the purpose, if added to what you have already done.

The loss of the left side audio is probably in your connection.

Simply switch the left and right audio and place the amp input on the common poles of the switch. When thrown one way it will give CD audio, and thrown the other way will select the MP3 audio.

Awesome! That seems to have done the trick. Thanks for the help

Although I do get some crackling out of the lower frequencys. Can I assume this is just due to a poor soldering job? Or the cable?

Does it make the "crackling sound" when no audio is playing, or does it only distort a song?

Helllo....

daim the link for the rar file expiered. can anyone post it again?

@Kermit2 : How can i locate the amp input pin?

Do not hijack the thread rkhela.

Follow the forum rules