@ gainead

Sadly not. If the solution was this simple I wouldn't have spent half a day ripping apart a perfectly good CD Changer to get MP3 connectivity !

When the head unit and the CD changer power up, there is a handshake that takes place between them. This handshake is primarily there to stop the cunning owner from buying a plain vanilla Alpine CD Changer and connecting it to his Jaguar stereo. What they want you to do is to buy the Jaguar CD changer..... made by Alpine, but 3 times the price. If the headunit doesn't get to talk to a proper Jaguar CD Changer at power up it will not activate the AI-NET input, so anything that just plugs into the back of the head unit will not work.

I also tried this....

http://www.discountcarstereo.com/detail.aspx?ID=321

..... which seemed like it had potential to work as it maintained the original connection to the CD Changer to allow the handshake. Although the CD Changer would work ok with the switcher in series between it and the head unit, it wouldn't switch to the MP3 aux in source. I spent about a week emailing back and forth with a very helpful customer service guy from PIE (who make the switcher) but at the end of the week our joint conclusion was that it wouldn't work.

I then started down the FM modulator, tape deck adaptor route, kind of knowing that I would never be really happy with the sound quality...... then I stumbled upon the other thread.......

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ight=bluetooth

...... which was actually about installing a bluetooth handsfree kit, but had the magical info from Jim Roal on how to hack into the CD Changer.

The rest as they say is history. I did it about 2 months ago now, then did the bluetooth handsfree kit as well and so far everything is perfect. Just makes the great XJ all the more fun to live with.

I just added the same functionality (bluetooth handsfree and MP3 input) to my project XJS by simply buying a Sony stereo that had all the features included. Somehow that wasn't as much fun as the XJR projects !

 

Gotta say thanks a million for all you have posted on this project. I just installed my iPhone 3g into my '01 XJ8L using your method and it came out fantastic. I have charging, great sound, and the option of backseat video with the iPhone/iPod dock connector kit I ordered from Installer.com. Since I have net-radio on the iPhone I have also disabled the antenna also so it stays down, which is nice. Steering wheel controls work and it is plenty loud. There was a buss connector for an extra cigar lighter in the glove console so that power/ground connection was easy with two male spade connectors. I don't smoke so I pulled the other cigar lighter and downsized the fuse to a 5 on that circuit for safety.

Soldering the AI connections is not for the ham handed and I ended up with more bulk than I could get back into the changer ( which still works). I just wrapped up the buss board well and attached it outside the case with a wire replacing the ground connection since the screw was no longer soldered to the board and screwed down.

Anyway, it is so nice to get it done in a day with no wires showing. Lord knows what it would have looked like doing it without the details from your install... Thanks!

 

@jaginblack

Nice to hear it worked for you too !

Now you need to do the bluetooth hands free kit next :-)

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=11547

 

@ SARC

How has your mod held up over the past year? Any new lessons learned?

 

@ 3 down

It's been purrrfect. Has never given me any trouble at all. I wonder now how I managed to survive 1 year with the car before I did it.

Only down side is that my g/f can now bring her ipod into my car and subject me to her musical tastes but I guess you can't have everything :-)

Let us know if you try it and need help

PS : In terms of lessons learned, I was discussing with Jon500 on another thread that I think the AUX switcher I bought and tried and failed with would actually have worked if I'd connected it in between the CD changer and the amp. (I had actually connected it between the head unit and the amp, which was wrong). So I guess if I was starting out again today I would try that method first. The downside is that it's more expensive (The switcher is 60USD) but the up side is that you don't need to do any butchering and fiddly wire soldering

 

Interesting. You're talking about the auxiliary cable, correct? I'm not sure this would benefit me as my car has the standard radio without the amplifier.

 

If you have a CD changer in the trunk, you can do what they are describing, amp or not.

 

I went with the "butcher" techinique; works as advertised. Awesome work SARC/QUAD, thanks for the detail in your posts.

 

@ 3 Down

Excellent. Glad it worked for you too. However, you only have a Silver Star currently. You don't get a Gold Star until you've done the Bluetooth phone mod also (but I see you're active on that front from the other thread!)

 

Gee! Does that mean I get a gold star?

 

Quad, you probably deserve a Platinum Star, as you also have the relay switcher :-)

 

Aw, shucks... Thanks.

 

Sarc, could you describe this aux switcher, I am looking at the best way to wire in an Ipod but I want the cd controls to shift the ipod tracks, I know there are AI Net-Ipod cables where this function exists but I cannot find a way to graft this in without loosing the hanshake from head unit to CD changer.

 

Have a read at this post.... it has a link to the aux switcher.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=32776

You will see on the link to the switcher at discount car stereo that they expressly state it DOES NOT WORK with Jaguar OEM stereos, but if you read the whole post between myself and Jon500, we're both pretty confident it would work, but I don't have a personal confirmation on this.

Note : The best case scenario with this aux switcher is that you'll be able to get the sound from your ipod to play through the Jaguar stereo. I've never seen anything remotely close to allowing full control of an ipod using the existing Jaguar stereo. However, usually when someone says that on a forum post, someone else immediately chimes in and says "You're wrong, I've seen this, etc, etc" so let's see what happens here (but I'm not hopeful). I think in theory it would be possible, as there is a signal going down the AI-NET cable telling the CDChanger to change tracks, but how you could ever interface that with an iPod is beyond me I'm afraid. Based on the fact that you have to manually control the ipod/mp3 player, I mounted mine so it's within easy reach while I'm driving. My friend has an Audi S5 and for sure the concept of just leaving your ipod docked in the glovebox and being able to "drive it" from the MMI centre is great, but remember the audio system in the X308 is 12 years old, and there's been a lot of techy progress in those 12years. I'm just glad I managed to get true quality sound out of my MP3 player, that was hard enough !

 

I have a 2000 XKR with an Alpine multi changer versatile link KCA-410C this simply plugs into the cable in the trunk & is activated by running a wire inside to a switch that will switch from cd to Ipod. This is connected to an Ipod dock station supplied by Navtv, this combined with a video interface I display my Ipod on the nav screen along with a back up camera. This gives me the abality to listen to the Ipod, see all info on the nav screen, control it with a remote & watch music video on the screen as well.

 

@ JAXKR

Looks great. A few questions.

Are you running the factory installed CDChanger through the versatile link ? (and does the bus turn off if you don't have this connected?)

Are you still using the factory head unit ?

When you say "control it with a remote" (meaning your ipod) is that a function of the NavTv dock ?

One of the set backs on the XJs compared to the XKs is the lack of screen..... I guess that means it wouldn't work in an XJ unless you mounted some kind of screen ?

 

I did it! I did the "butcher the CD player" method described above in this thread and the PDF that describes the bluetooth phone install. Took me a couple of hours and I only did one thing different. I hooked up an a/b switch in the trunk so I can just switch between the mp3 player and the cd player. Still have to go to the trunk to do that but it is a little easier and I do use the CD player once on awhile for audio books.

As described above, the wires are very small and difficult to strip so you can make the connections. I used the soldering iron to melt the insulation off - took a little time but there is not much to work with and I didn't want to end up with nothing.

I think I saw somewhere in the thread that you have to crank the radio high to get volume. This is true - to get it where I wanted, I had the volume up to around the 20 to 24 range. That is OK though because the sound is better than what I had (using a cassette). There is no hiss and I don't have to listen to the cassette turning in the player.

The only thing you have to look out for is the volume if you switch to radio or cd - have to turn it down first.

Thanks everyone for all the great information. I could not have done it without your help.

Joe 98VDP

 

One final note from me. I have the switcher Sarc mentions elsewhere for the iPod, that is working great and now finally I have a nice new Garmin GPS in place of the alpine SatNav. fits perfect works great and it actually shows the street I live on (maps can be updated online) I will write some instructions for anybody interested
oh the garmin has blutooth phone connectivity, does this mean I can claim a star?

 

Lux gets a star :-)

@Joe

Glad to hear you got it to work! I have a little Sony MP3 player and the levels on that are quite good. I have the volume at arounf 12 or 13, which is the same as my radio, which is nice. I did notice however that my g/fs iphone had lower levels so if she is playing her songs in my car (something I try hard to avoid) I do have to turn up the volume a bit then be careful when/if I switch back to either the radio or my Sony mp3 player.

I guess you could always use a line driver or a pre-amp to boost the inputs....