Hi all,

Since a few months, it's increasingly difficult to play a CD in the car, it keeps jumping. Initially it did that for a short while, then stopped ; eventually it was pretty much constant. After disconnecting the battery for another operation, I noticed the issue was gone... for a short while.
A cleaning disc did not help, nor did removing the unit and blowing the dust and stuff (yeah, the last resort, in case pulling and reconnecting something magically solves an issue, y'know. Which it does sometimes in fact).

My guess is that the laser cell is worn and the unit is beyond repair, so the best course of action is to get another cd changer over ebay or something. Problem being, perhaps the issue is with the head unit itself, or elsewhere in any case. I ain't a specialist in the audio/electrical matters, so unsure my diagnostic is valid.

Anyone had a similar issue?

Thx

 

Most probably the laser head. They have a limited life span, somewhere in the order of 5-10,000 hours. The player may have the same laser head as other CD players by the same manufacturer (including home players). If you can carefully take out the laser head assembly, you may be able to find one by comparing the pictures of the heads by that manufacturer with the head from your player. There should also be a part number somewhere on the laser head which you can also use when searching.

 

Years ago, I was having this issue with shuffle play. I stopped using it & just play entire CD from 1st track to last & then let changer move to CD #2 & so forth & eliminated the issue.

I have the Alpine system with the 6 CD changer.

BTW, since you have removed & reinstalled the CD changer...
I recall reading that there is an AUX input on the back & you can run a cable from that into the center console & connect a phone or iPod/MP3 player so you can play digital music files.
IDK if true.

Might be a better solution vs. try to replace or repair the laser in your CD changer?

If there is an AUX input & you do this, please post photos & describe what cable you used & how you routed it. Also, how you operate via the head unit. I'm guessing you set it to play CD but, there is no CD loaded so, it plays your Digital music files from the AUX input.

 

You're decidedly skilled in everything related to that car I'll check it out.

I tried leaving it to play for a long while with the volume at zero, but didn't change anything..

As per the aux input, I don't recall having seen anything. I'll check further, although I doubt it could work so easily.
I'll advise if I find something.

 

Sooo.
As I thought, there is no aux input, or any input in fact.

I disassembled the whole thing, until I could reach the laser head.
I don't really see how to specifically replace it, it's soldered to those very thin cables resembling an IDE connector, although much smaller.

After remounting it all, I'm getting the NO DISC error, so I'm guessing the lens is toast. I double checked, everything is plugged in properly.

I'll try to find a replacement laser head and solder it. Not much to lose anyway.

 

I searched & these 2 threads MAY have been what I recalled seeing years ago:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-r-last-11943/

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...armrest-11886/

 

and
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...de-easy-46489/

 

I don't think you will need to solder anything as the laser heads normally come with the "IDE" pigtail which you just plug-in. The pic below shows one of the Alpine CD changer laser heads.

 

I see. I couldn't pull that from the main circuit board, didn't want to try too hard yet, I'll try again. Maybe just need to remove that board actually.

This is actually interesting, I will definitely give it a try and update. Too bad the posts are old and the pictures are missing though.

However I found this file which describes a procedure, as of page 12. I'll check it out in more details when I get some time.

 

The easiest way to add an MP3 player is a cigar lighter bluetooth FM transmitter. You tune it to a "quiet" frequency on the radio FM range. I bought these two (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bluetooth-F...YAAOSwk1hc0q3H and https://www.ebay.com/itm/Car-Cigar-P...YAAOSwG1xc-2F-) and they both work very well, good quality sound, when I play music from my Sony Walkman.

 

Yep, I'm aware of those... Keeping them in mind if I can't get anything else to work.

I found the laser lens from that device, however not sure it can be replaced : it comes with a dual cord, while on the one in place the cords are merged with others. I really don't think I could adapt it, too small cables to work with.

I'll investigate the ai-net method to connect some other player before buying a spare cd changer, looks promising.

 

Good find!
10-15 years ago people were saying the they were able to connect phones & MP3 players. etc.
It does not look simple though.
But if you are good with reading a wiring diagram....

Too bad there is not an AUX input on the back of the CD changer or the amplifier.
Actually, where IS the amplifier? Maybe that is what I recall reading about that had an AUX input?
I don't remember exactly, it was long ago. I do remember the you had to run a cable some long distance so, it was not coming from the head unit.

 

Ah, i don't have the premium setup actually, so no amp for me.
I considered fitting a used one, but it doesn't seem to be an easy task either...

 

Ok so, it's been a while but I actually have worked on this matter. I managed to fit an alternate audio system, hacking into the AI-Net cable.

First off, the system requires the CD changer to be present, otherwise the audio bus isn't open by the head unit or something -- so the changer is there, magazine out, and the HU displays "no magazine" but there can be audio. (there's a way to remove it but it requires building an emulator to fake its presence, way above my skills).

I built an audio player out of a raspberry pi zero with a 64 Go micro SD containing the OS (Raspbian) and the music, and a mini DAC (hifiberry audio dac+).
The system is powered by the AI-Net 12V cable -- with a converter to get 5V and not fry the pi --, the audio cables and ground are connected to the relevant pins on the dac.

I added 4 buttons to control the music player (Audacious), enabling to play-pause/stop/reboot, forward/reverse, toggle shuffle/switch playlist/shutdown (through a small Python program), a status led, and a switch to power off the whole system at the tension converter level and avoid killing the battery. I don't think it drags a lot of power, but it's best not to keep it powered on constantly.
(switch playlist so that I have a "soft" one for when the family is with me, and another with mostly heavy/black metal for when I'm alone )
Volume, bass/treble/etc, are still managed by the HU.

The whole thing is under the armrest, with the buttons fitted just below the lock -- that way, the fingers fall "naturally" on them. Also, they're not visible at first sight, which is best because it is aesthetically, huh, well.

The audio quality is surprisingly good given the very small cost of the hardware (pi zero = 5 €, DAC = 25 €). I'm guessing I could improve it further by replacing the speakers with others that aren't 20 years old, but it's not a priority.
It does take a fairly long time to boot though (1+ minute), because the pi runs a full Linux after all, and it has a small CPU. I'll replace it with Raspberry Pi 3 at some point, maybe. When it's running anyway, there are no performance issues and it can play flac audio without any glitches.

 

Hi, I bought a CD player off of Eaby last year Aug/Sep2019, as the jag didn't have one, it was ok until Christmas. Then after a couple of months it would not play a CD fully, then it would not recognise certain cd's in the carrier even though it was full, then it would only play certain cd's and not others, then error messages appeared and it could see no cd's, so I stopped using it and started listening to the radio and used the cassette player, yes desperation.

I decided to have a look after seeing a thread about one of the small gears getting jammed or misaligned, so I took it apart to see what I could do. I found the small gear, the thread was talking about, there was some play in it linearly, up and down the rod that it slid on, but not laterally. After turning the large black cog which drove this small white gear I notice it would jam or stop rigidly and not move, if I let go and moved it again it would start moving again, I could see nothing that indicated a jam up anywhere. However when you look there are a lot of moving parts, especially sheet metal parts and linkages, also some guide rods, so I greased everything with some light white grease, anywhere sheet metal plate seemed to rub, linkages and rods that moved the cd selector carriage up and down.

Put it back together and put it into the car, and so far, its working again, sees all cd's, moves from one to another, moves along the tracks.

Great to have Music in the Jag again, hope this helps others, and if It fails again ill pop a message back on.

jagger98

 

Yes, it failed, I put it back together after making sure everything mechanically moved properly and it played one CD and then failed as before.

SO........ i have bought another one off of ebat, I will see how long it lasts, Will look around to see if there are any alternative fittings for this head unit,

jagger98

 

Hopefully you'll get one without too much mileage, and it'll work on the long term.

I had found a tutorial on how to add a USB connector to the head unit, so as to plug a mp3 player. Looked difficult though.

I'm happy to say that my raspberry pi system has been working flawlessly - even added a small oled screen recently, displaying the current track

 

Hi, thank you for the reply, have you got the link for the USB, I will have a search though.

Jagger98

 

Here you go

However: it's in French, so possibly not too useful for you, and I gave it a quick look and remembered why I didn't try it.
Awfully complicated (requires programming and soldering a microcontroller...)

 

Remember to shortcut solder the laser/reader. Place is in it's ribbon cable. If repairer does not solder it. Any even small static electric will fry the lens instantly. Shorting the lens grounds it and lense is then safe to remove/install. Remember too to unsolder it.