Hello everyone. Any help will be much appreciated. Today I installed AuxMod Basic and a Harmon Kardon Drive + Play (series 1). I made sure to buy and use a PAC SNI-1/35 ground loop isolator so I would not have to go back in the HU. If I connect my iPod directly to stereo, I get absolute great sound. However, if I go through the Drive + Play, I get alternator whine that goes up with volume and rpms. I tried the iPod port and the aux port on the drive + play just to see what happens. Whine for both. I even tried using a radio Shack ground loop isolator (from in my house) to connect to the aux port in the drive + play, which did not help. I am using the hidden compartment cigarette lighter to power the drive + play. I tried the one in the ashtray and got the same result.

Is this a defective drive + play?
Should I use a direct power connection? ( I do not know how to do this)

Thanks in advance.

 

We work better with diagrams. Let me get this strait... you get noise when you go from

[iPod] -> [Drive+Play] -> [Ground Loop Isolator] -> [Auxmod]

Is the above correct?

 

[iPod] -> [Drive+Play] -> [6 Ft 3.5mm Cable] ->[Ground Loop Isolator] -> [Auxmod Basic]

The Drive + Play and iPod are powered by the cigarette lighter in this scenario, leading to alternator whine.


[iPod] -> [6 Ft 3.5mm Cable] ->[Ground Loop Isolator] -> [Auxmod Basic]

In this scenario there is no whine, even when iPod powered by cig lighter.

 

Sounds like the Drive+Play is your problem. I'm not sure why though... The Ground Loop Isolator should have taken care of it.

You can try:
[iPod] -> [Drive+Play] -> [Ground Loop Isolator] -> [6 Ft 3.5mm Cable] -> [Auxmod Basic]
Basically put the isolator before the cable as opposed to after. That's pretty much how I have my sirius setup. I can't guarantee this will help you though.

 

I emailed the AuxMod guys and got this reply...

"With some setups, there's not really much that can be done. If the iPOD
runs fine with battery power (no GLI noise), then you really don't have a
lot of options, other then considering a different type of GLI, or
shortening the power cables used to power the iPOD/drive+play."

I shortened the Drve+Play power cable from 6 ft down to less than 1 ft. It helped, but not enough to make me want to use it.

 

Maybe run the power cable to your fuse block and find a better ground?

 

This is an option I am considering. The problem is I am not totally sure how to do this. I love learning new things and am a big do-it-yourselfer, but have no experience in this. I think I would rather have it tap into the stereo directly, using the same ground. With 3 wires I do not think it is that hard, but would rather not have to take the car into the shop because I messed up. Should I find an experienced friend to help me, or can i just learn this myself?

 

I would start by just moving the ground to the cig lighter. If that doesn't solve your problems, you can take it from there, but start with the most obvious solution.

 

So I finally took the time to move the ground from the hidden compartment cigarette lighter to under the rear passengers seat. This helped, but did not solve the whine.

 

There is an optional power cable to hard wire the harmon kardon drive + play to my car. My question is: can I hardwire it to the 12v accessory socket in the hidden armrest compartment? The outlet has two wires, black ground and green power. The harmon kardon wire has 3 wires, one of which could use my new ground. Can I connect the 2 other wires to the one power wire from 12v outlet?