Omicron

No that would be COOL info to have. Just imagine the possibilities! Caller ID on cellular calls... radar detector output... :D

Insulated, micro-sized aligator clips should allow you to get at the connector pins without shorting anything out...

eXentric

The nano-robotics store down the street from me just closed down. Any ideas where else I could look for those things!? :p

Rx-Appreci-8

RX-8-Tobi

To answer your question, Canzoomer is an incredibly prolific contributor to this forum. You can purchase RX-8 accessories from him including a custom performance tuning kit that helps the RX-8 get back the lost horsepower.

Check out these threads
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=14823
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=15950

bobclevenger

<waving hand in air> I can do that. In fact I was curious about that and already did it. I adjusted the balance all the way to the left and waited for my extremely verbose nav system to sound off. The left channel music was completely muted (silenced) while the nav was talking.

Rx-Appreci-8

Thanks Bob, that's interesting. Now I'm wondering if the System Mute signal in Tobi's diagram mutes both L & R channels or just left. If I am going to use it with my hands free cell phone adapter I need to to mute both left AND right channels.

I guess I'll pull it all apart again after Christmas and check. I want a decent NAV, radio, display and steering wheel button interconnect schematic (that makes sense to me) so badly that I'm going to probably need to unwrap the harness and ohm/trace out a schematic myself.

Brett

Sputnik

That is the connector on the NAV unit, not the head unit. This is not a straight through cable that only goes from the NAV unit to the Head unit. So what is one pin on the Head unit will not line up with which pin is used on the TV Tuner, or the NAV unit, etc. etc.

Previously, it has been VERY difficult for consumers to get connectors like that, and it's even harder to get only one or two connectors (instead of in bulk). Mazda part dealers normally don't carry the connectors separately, but the whole wire bundle instead. Now, if we find out that this works, one of the vendors might be able to get something in bulk and put together a pigtail adapter like Canzoomers, but in the meantime, we'd almost have to tap into the existing wires instead of putting together another connector.

---jps

Rx-Appreci-8

Bob & Sputnik

You inspired me to play with my NAV voice on my drive to work this morning.

As Bob stated, the NAV completely mutes the channel, but it isn't just a L/R thing as I originally thought because as I play with the fader and the balance, the NAV voice only affects the left FRONT speaker in my car (no change to left rear or right front or rear).

Apparently the NAV either seizes the line to the front left speaker or it seizes the channel after the preamp put before the main amp for the front left channel. I'm assuming AFTER the preamp because the radio head volume control changes FM/AM/CD/cassette volume but doesn't affect the volume of the NAV voice.

eXentric

Thats kind of what I expected since the most recent diagram has speaker in and speaker out pins. I think the nav just hijacks the line-level controls en-route to the amplifier.

Can someone with a Nav clearify where the nav unit itself hooks up? Does it connect only to the small port that we've been discussing or does it also somehow tap in-line between the head unit and the rear amplifier?

I'm going to try some way to make a pin header this weekend (hopefully) I don't have any ideas as of yet other then messing with connectors I already have or trying to fabricate one out of hardening clay or wood.

If someone with a NAV is willing to tap into their exisiting header, please do so and let us know.

Thanks!

bobclevenger

I have the nav and I am willing to experiment. I will have to wait for two things though. First, I'm still trying to get my nav to work right (voice feedback won't shut off) and it's going in to the dealer AGAIN on Monday -- I can't play with it until the dealer gets it fixed. Second, I need good instructions on how to remove the nav unit (and/or the stereo head unit) without breaking anything. I don't think that's TOO much to ask.:D

eXentric

Well, here's my best effort. I bought some modeling clay from a local craft / hobby shop and molded a pin header. After baking it for about 40 minutes and letting it cool, I used a Dremel and a very small bit to widen the wire holes.

eXentric

After that, I got out a 9-pin female serial port kit from Radio Shack. I pulled out the female pins and had to squash them a bit with needle-nose pliers so that they'd make a good connection.

Next I used the diagrams in this thread to put wires on the right pins.

eXentric

Finally, I slid the pin header I made down over the wires to make sure that none of the pins would ground against each other.

eXentric

I took it back out to the car and wired everything up. I tried only the left signal + and - connected to a small RCA Lyra MP3 player. I tried shorting 'system mute' (2B) to 'power ground' (2A), 'signal ground' (2G) and to the radios chasis. No combination would cause the head unit to mute or to switch to the playing Lyra.

I even tried mirroring my pinouts just in case the diagram was for the cable and not for the back of the head unit (I know this was kind of silly). I also noticed that 2G is a N/C pin on the big diagram.

So, at this point I'm really pretty down on my luck. I'm wondering how someone with a nav unit up and running would fare. I'm also wondering if the 'system mute' pin (2B) requires a logic signal (like 5 or 12v) to trigger it rather then grounding it. I didn't have time tonight to test that theory (and I'm a little scared to at that).

So, that's where I'm at. I guess I'm waiting to hear from one of the NAV owners and I welcome any further thoughts.

Thanks all,

eXe

eXentric

Bob,

Please try this thread for good instructions on removing the head unit. This is all you really should need to mess with, since the port were interested connects here. I guess you could mess with it at the nav unit itself, but that may or may not work for everyone.

Either way, any additional information is good.

Thanks

LRTRX8

I know this is a stretch but does anyone have access to the internal schematics of the head unit. IF the area could be located where all of the inputs (CD/FM, etc..) connect prior to the amp this is where we need to be... If we could find this area on the board we could tap in with and AUX input and a custom switch that would switch to the AUX jack...

,Lewis

RX-8-Tobi

eX,

I like your home-made connector. Really looks cool! :p
Bad luck that it does not activate the AUX-INs so far.

Maybe try to connect the system mute to power (+B or acc). That could be the solution then. I know it is a bit dangerous.
Maybe using a low current fuse in the test-cable between the two pins could add a bit more safety.

Good work so far!

Has anyone of you the true Workshop Manual? As I told you, the "Service Highlights" doesn't go much into detail. No audio wiring diagrams at all.

Tobi

Yuhki

This thread is very interesting and very fun to read

For how to remvove audio unit, I summarized in the following link.

http://www.geocities.jp/lase3p/RX-8/...e_audio_en.htm

English is not my mother language, so please correct me if I am using bad English in the above link.

RX-8-Tobi

Hey Yuhki,

great link!
I am also not native speaking English, so I am not the guy to correct your site. :p

The US boys still are sleeping or have some more important stuff at the moment in the news. :p

As you are from Japan, maybe you can tell us where to get the radio connectors? But of course first of all we have to find out how to activate the AUX-IN.

Greetings from Germany to Japan.
Tobi

Rx-Appreci-8

Hey guys!

eXentric, well done. If you DO decide to connect the mute pin to +5 volts or vehicle voltage (12-13.5V) be sure to minimize initiial risk (until we know exactly what is on the other side of that pin) by connecting through a protective resistor -- say, 10K ohms to start off. If it is sourcing into digital logic with high input impedence you should see the voltage on the mute pin go almost all the way up. Initially, 10K ohms will limit the current to 5 / 10,000 = 0.5 milliamps (max) or 13.5 / 10,000 = 1.35 milliamps (max) even if the mute pin is a dead short (not likely).

The worst case power dissipation through the resistor would only be V*V / R = 13*13 / 10,000 = ~0.02W so any small, inexpensive resistor would do fine.

Sputnik

Have you taken a multi-meter to verify that the O and P are in fact B+ and ACC outputs, and that A is actually a ground?

---jps

eXentric

I'll try to make note of all these suggestions and requests and take care of them. Unfortunately, it may be a while before I can get to it (at least next weekend). Unfortunately, the holidays here are always extremely busy and I have family coming from across the states for this one. It's going to be very big for me.

But I will do my best to get to it as soon as possible. Hopefully someone can take up for my unfortunate slack over the next little while.

eXe

bobclevenger

Great directions, Yuhki. It is good to see that in other parts of the world Mazda has provided automatic temperature control! Good for you.

Quote:

English is not my mother language, so please correct me if I am using bad English in the above link.

Your English is very good. There are very few things on your page that a teacher would correct! BTW, in America we call it an "ash tray" not a "cigar box" but I understand what you mean.

Tamas

iTrader: (1)

I do... however, the whole wiring chapter is almost 6 MB in size. I'm not sure how could I send it to those who can make something out of it. The darn thing contains all wiring schematics of the car. I was able to find the mentioned plug diagrams but not being an electrical engineer, it really confuses me :p

bobclevenger

You have it in electronic format? If so, could you upload it to my ftp site?

Quote:

The darn thing contains all wiring schematics of the car. I was able to find the mentioned plug diagrams but not being an electrical engineer, it really confuses me :p

Don't feel bad -- those things confuse engineers too!

Tamas

iTrader: (1)

I suppose so... can you make it available for other "hackers" to access?