DIY aux input UK mini cooper - pics

[jamesk]

Hello!

Ive just installed a DIY aux input in my 04 mini cooper, since I got the ideas and info from here, I thought its only fair to share some pics!

I was intending on buying one, but theres no way I was paying £40 for a wire that costs £2 in parts!
So, being an A Level electronics student, I decided to DIY it!



btw before you ask, I diddnt use the hacksaw!!

[jamesk]

...

[jamesk]

My first cable was a direct 3.5mm jack to header. To do this I found a CD-ROM audio cable and took the plastic ends off the cable. I then superglued them together to make a 2x4 header connector. Make sure if you do this you align it right! ie the sides with the little clippy things are on the outside.

One problem I ran into, was I couldnt get to one of the screws on the side of one of the columns, All the photos I had seen had the pop out knee bolster, however mini had the little cubby hole, and i convinced my self it was screwed in! Eventually after looking up with a torch and realising there were little hinges, I got the courage to try tugging it and it came down like I had see on another thread! Woohoo!

After getting to the back of the radio, i gave my cable a test, diddnt work, not surprising really, but since others have used a capacitor based circuit to get the headunit to reconise the cable, I tried, out of curiousity gripping the jack connector with my thumb and finger, and huzzah, I could get to Aux!

I then put the following circuit into my wire:


I diddnt have a 300k resistor, so I used 3 100k's in series.

And what dyou know, it works!

I had a female 3.5mm jack lying arround, so I decided to mount that. Unfortunatly, I accidentally snapped the plastic tray bit under the console, so I decided to hold it in with 4 tie wraps. Sounds dodegy, but you cant see it and you cant really see the tie wraps either, so its fine!
(in one of the pics tho, you can see my crappy attempt to mend the crack by melting the other side together with my soldering iron! the revealed side looks fine now , phew!)

Anyway, hope you enjoy!
Anyone wanting an aux input on their mini should do this if they are confident enough to do this and are able to make the little circuit. Its much better than fm transmitters, I can tell the difference, especially with the HK. £40 for the proper cable is a joke!

James

[MiniMuenchen]

Thanks for posting this-using yours and the Neeshil site (can't post links yet, Google neeshil and miniaux) was pretty straight forward. Only changes made was the use of a small PCB (mini circuit board) for putting the capacitors and resistors inline. A friend of mine did the soldering and he got too frustrated trying to do it without it.

I was also able to connect the cable without removing the stereo-just popped the panel down on the left side and squeezed my hand in. I had done this on my first Mini with the factory cable, it's a bit tougher without the full plug but if you feel where the pins are with your finger (look at the Neeshil site for a bigger pic of the pins) you can line the plug up with the side of the slot and push it right on. Took me 5 minutes.

Great solution and costs ~10€ in parts, cheaper if you have an old headphone plug/jack and cd audio cable sitting around.

-Tom

[SiBradbury]

You boffin!
I have no intention of doing this as I have an aftermarket headunit, but I thought i'd post saying how I think its cool that you've taken the time to share this! This is what forums are all about!

[c.gray2008]

thats some clever stuff!
cant say il be copying that as thats waaay over my head,
tho i did change my dash lights to blue haha, still quite proud of that one

[tups]

Thanks for the really helpful post that got my cable working over the weekend.

For anybody else looking to build their own cable I ordered part 61.11.9.157.153 from BMW thinking it was the cable in this post. It turns out to be similar with the correct connector for the head unit end but the incorrect connector for the iPod end and no capacitors/resistors.

If you decide to use this cable instead all you need to do is:

1) Attach the head unit plug to the cable (both included in the pack from BMW) by inserting the yellow cable to slot 3, clear cable to slot 4 and black cable to slot 10.

2) Chop off the incorrect plug at the iPod end.

3) Wire up a 3.5mm socket as per jamesk's instructions.

Works great and only cost less than a tenner

[a5dsr]

Anyone know if the Alpine Boost CD has the AUX input available?



Cheers

[elitetech]

Well, I've copied this circuit and mine still doesn't work! Tried it on both the small and large button radios!

Is it possible to damage capacitors with the soldering iron, ie shall I start again?
Cheers

[jamesk]

I don't think soldering irons can damage capacitors that much, The only thing I can think of, is that provided the wire and circuit is fine, is that you have it in the wrong pins.

Its a while since I did this, and i've just realised I diddn't state the pins to put it into (my bad) but from what I have re found:

The pin out is here http://www.mini2.com/galleries/data/..._hu_pinout.jpg
It is the TV L+ TV R+ and TV L/R- connections on pins 3, 4 and 10 respectively.

Hope this helps.

[elitetech]

hmm, i used pins 2, 8 and 9 just like in your photo in your first post. (CDC inputs)
are you sure you used 3, 4 and 10?

[jamesk]

AHHH I think I know where the problem is!
If you look at the pin out picture in my previous post, you can see there are 2 groups of pins on the bottom, B and C. In my photo, there is a connector into the group B, which goes into the CDC inputs - this is the CD changer pre-wiring done by mini (or at least I assume).
The inputs I used are on the group C (which it the free set of pins in the top left of my photo of the rear of the headunit) and this is where the TV inputs are.
I should have put the pinout on my original post, I did it a bit on a whim (I remember having some work to do!)

I'll post a diagram in the next post:

[jamesk]

The photo of the back of the headunit in the top post is upside down to this. Hope this makes sense!!

James

[Thoro]

Nice job jamesk, very helpful thread. Just want to fill in with some information to those of you who bought the $40 Aux Audio cable, and can't make it work.

Bought mine from MiniCarParts.net (Atlantic British Ltd.), but no joy getting up AUX on headunit. Sent 3 emails to them for advices, but no respond. So I had no other choice then to open it up and compare it with your project.

What I found was the resistor was at the input (minijack) side of the capacitor, not on the headunit side as yours. So I used my old soldering iron to swap the cables, and problem was solved.

Just wanted to bring it up, maybe some of you who are stuck with non working Aux Audio cable can have the same issue.

[elitetech]

Quote: Originally Posted by jamesk (original)

Attachment 159488

The photo of the back of the headunit in the top post is upside down to this. Hope this makes sense!!

James

All sorted, used the inputs suggested by James rather than the CDC inputs and it works! And that's using a small button radio made April 2003 too!
Cheers all!