bobclevenger

Heck, I didn't even look at it that closely, and I really don't want to take my car apart again right now -- I just now finished putting it back together!

I'll be trying another PIE unit (one that doesn't work on another RX-8) on my car early next week and believe me, I'll be looking for differences as well as seeing if the non-working PIE unit works on my 8 or not. That ought to at least give us some more data.

bobclevenger

OK, I have the beast apart now. I now have two PIE adapter sets on hand: mine which always worked for me and Thew's which won't work for him.
They are both identically wired and both work in my car.
There MUST be something different in the cars that work with this setup!

They both have seven wires and they are connected as follows:
A - White
B - N/C
C - Brown
D - N/C
E - Blue
F - N/C
G - Orange
H - N/C
I - N/C
J - N/C
K - N/C
L - N/C
M - N/C
N - N/C
O - Black
P - Red

OverLOAD

We've got cross-posts on several threads about this, but there is some signigicance here. FMS contracts out the actual manufacture of the HU to three sepate companies: Pioneer, Clarion & Sanyo. It's quite possible, and likely that those with the FMS (Sanyo) branded HU like me, have the problem where the PIE stops ever 30 seconds after switching into CDC mode, and those with other MFGr HU's don't quite adhere to the spec, and work.

Either way, We're getting closer to done..

Regards,

OverLOAD

Slims8

bump

OverLOAD

There's a guy who did a bit of work and figured out how most of the important pieces here:

http://mazda.davidoshea.homelinux.net/radio/

We've got quite a bit more info then he has, but he's definitely on the right track.

Regards,

OverLOAD

Mkolander

Hi there! I have a 2004 mt touring edition and I had a lcd double din installed. Unfortunately it was stolen out of my vehicle and I am now trying to get the stock radio put back in. The radio works however the display is not working. The clip was not the right size so I went to the scrap yard and grabbed the display wire clip. Tried wiring it in but no luck. Can anyone help me??

SilverBulletZ

I hate to resurrect and rehashed anything that has been rehashed, but I have a question.
I have been looking for the DIY AUX input, and I can't find anything that works. I have a cable and the connector, but I can't find a pin out from the head unit that works. I have an '05 RX8 with the Bose system. It has a tape/md and SAT button, but I don't have either option, nor do I have the 6-disc changer. I have been using the pin out diagrams posted earlier, but the AUX still won't work.
Am I missing anything? Or should I just pay $90 for an AUX unit?

MANIACman

I spent a great deal of time looking into this. *Like stupid amounts. Here is the deal as far as I can see. Lets assume you have a smart phone full of music and all you want to do is plug into the radio/cd. There are two connectors on the Mazda radio. The one on the bottom is what you use if you would be bolting on a Tape player or Minidisc. Never RX8s (I guess) have an extra button for sat. Anyway lets assume you don't care about trying to find this weird on purpose connector and you want to solder down the Left, Right audio and a signal ground. If your looking at the radio PCB from the side that soldered (Traces) *I verified a couple of these signals and I think this is the real deal.

BUS+ PWR GND EJECT CLK ACC PWR RIGHT LEFT
(01) (03) (05) (07) (09) (11) (13) (15)
DGND PWR GND ? DATA MUTE AUDGND
(02) (04) (06) (08) (10) (12) (14)


**Viewed from the Circuit Board (traces) side.


A 01 BiPhase Encoded Data Pin
B 02 DIGITAL GROUND (For Biphase signal)
C 03 B+ (PWR)
D 04 B+ (PWR)
E 05 POWER GROUND
F 06 POWER GROUND
G 07 EJECT *Not tied to disc connector
H 08 -LL? *Not tied to disc connector
I 09 SYNC COMM CLOCK Signal for writing to the display.
J 10 COMM SER DATA Signal for writing to the display.
K 11 ACC (PWR)
L 12 MUTE TAPE/MD
M 13 RIGHT TAPE/MiniDisc AUDIO IN
N 14 AUDIO GROUND
O 15 LEFT TAPE/MD AUDIO IN

B+ PWR is the power that runs the TAPE or MD device. Power ground is the ground for that. ACC is power when you turn the key to accessory. *Turning on the radio without having the car running. Right and Left tape are the audio of course. The audio ground is the only one you want to hook up to your phone / ipod. Mute is hopefully control from the steering wheel button. Eject? Something to do with kicking out tapes. Now to one all important signal. Bus + and Digital ground are a bidirection communications link with the radio. And example of what it does is you press the TAPE/MD button and the radio sends "What are you? Tape or MD or maybe nothing???" If it doesn't get a reply it ignores you trying to get audio from the Tape/MD connector. Sucks.... So assuming you do have some simple minded circuit that knows enough to say "I'm a ________ so let me shoot you some audio." So what is the Comm Clock / Comm Data pins all about? These are a different commnunications channel that talks to the Red Battle Stations Submarine display. So depending on what you want to do you have to provide at least some kind of microprocessor to blab with the radio. And there we get to the $100+ little pods that are supposed to plug into one of the free connectors on the radio. Here is the problem with that. You can buy a radio / cd / MP3 / GPS / I dunno what radio on ebay for around $100. Or at least its in the ball park.

There is the DIY (Do It Yourself) have where you solder you right left and ground wires to the place where the CD audio goes to the radio. So assuming you press CD and get it going the speakers are going to blast out whats coming off your phone. Unfortunately it will also be blasting out whatever CD you put in the player. Someone came op with the brilliant hack of making a CD with one very long song that is just silence. Its clever because its way outside the box but its not for me.

I haven't looked into the connector on the back too much but I think the option of just buying SOMETHING is appealing because having a microprocessor just to get AUX in or a CD with nothing on it are just unappealing. The problem is that I'm thinking of buying a new double din radio with all the gizmos. Or maybe I will do the silent CD hack? I think it depends on how fast I get my trunk lid back from the painters.