Yeah installing in the trunk is next on my list. I multimetered my cable to be sure and I do see continuity on all the pins so I'm 99% sure thats it's good. Just doesn't really make sense. If its passing all the data through it should not matter what end the cable is attached to but who knows. Ill try to get it in the trunk tonight and let you know if that works.

 

I installed it in the trunk and it only recognized the cd player when the rcas were connects together. Is that something to do with the signal ground. I think I may just remake the cane to be sure at this point. Any ideas??

 

There are 2 black ground cables per connector.
Is it possible, that you mismatched them?

 

I think, you messed up somewhere with the soldering/multimetering.
The easiest way to find out what cable color has to be soldered to what cable color is to plug together the 2 connectors you bought and use a multimeter to find out the associating cables/colors. Now you just have to determine the 3 cables that "transport" the sound and solder together all the remaining cables.
It is pretty hard to multimeter the connectors as they are so tiny. With the connectors plugged together it is way more convenient.

I'll attach the note that I compiled to take it to the work-bench where I do the soldering.
So far any cable I put together worked...

HTH!

David

 

Thanks a bunch, I multi metered everything and it all seemed ok. I'm going to just make a new one with your page you made. Should be slot easier!

 

One additional thought - The HU comes with a female connector.
So if you plan on pluggin your cable right into the back of the HU you'll need to solder your AUX/RCA input to your male connector, not - as on my sheet - to the female connector.
Best is to solder one RCA to both of your connectors.
So you are able to use your adapter cable in the trunk as well as behind the HU.


David

 

I remade the cable and tested it last night. Everything worked perfectly! I must have had a bad solder somewhere or a crossed wire. Thanks for all your help David.

 

That's great!
Did you plugged it right into the HU?
If so I would have one confirmation that it workes there as well.
(So far all is theory...)

 

I did install the cable at the headunit and it works perfectly just as you suspected.
A little easier than routing cables from the trunk.

 

I'm interested in doing this from the head unit also but I do have a couple of stupid questions.....

@ Thor: Was your HU cable different to David's in any way? I mean do you still have the RCA cables on the cable? Do you have any pictures of your version?

And if I added a switcher of some sort would I be able to flick between CD & MP3?

I can do mechanical stuff no problem but it can take a few goes to get electrical info in to my head! :P

Thanks So Much For Your Help!

S.

 

I made the cable exactly the same as David's except I put female RCAs on both ends just incase it didn't work behind the headunit. If i want to use the CD then I can just put a small RCA cable in between the two females. Use Davids sheet he attached and you can't go wrong.

One thing that happened to me was one of the AI-Net cables I bought off ebay had different color wires than what Davids sheet said so make sure you have them sorted before you begin soldering.

As for the switch I don't see a problem, just hook up the out on the switcher to the RCAs on the headunit side and the In on the switcher will be from the RCAs on the cable you made coming from the CD player and the other in will be the Aux In. All you have to make sure is what input the switcher takes (female or male RCA) and wire those to the cable you make.

Hope that make sense, was a bit difficult to explain.

 

Here's the perfect solution for you:
The Soundgate Auxiliary Switcher with remote...

 

Thank You Both For Your Help! I will try and make one up when I get a free weekend! Thanks Again. S.

 

Hi David N,

I have a 2004 XK8, apparently with premium sound. I did exactly the same thing as you did (except I butchered an ainet extension cable), but the R channel seems lower that the R channel. Any idea or suggestion?

 

Did a s*it load of reading this past week and decided on the 'hack CD changer' approach. It worked perfectly... so far. I have an '03 xj8 with the alpine radio and I wanted the option to play CDs at some point if I wanted to.

Here's the plan: use 1/8" stereo jack/plug and a dual-pole, dual-throw rocker to select between CD and Aux. Went to RadioShack and purchased a DPDT rocker, panel-mount 1/8 stereo jack, a small plastic project box, dual sided foam tape, heat shrink, and some 22 ga solid core wire (red, grn, blk). $20 all-in.

The key ingredients are the DPDT rocker, panel mount jack and project box:
DPDT Heavy-Duty Rocker Switch - RadioShack.com
1/8" Stereo Panel-Mount Audio Jack (2-Pack) - RadioShack.com
Project Enclosure (3x2x1") - RadioShack.com

Assuming you have some soldering skill, a sharp knife and a little patience, I found it far easier to tap into the AI-Net cable coming out of the CD-Changer than trying to muck around with the little connections inside the unit. The wire colors are the same in the cable as the connector inside, so if you can summon up the frog-dissection skills from freshman biology, you'll be in great shape to peel the layers on the AI-Net cable coming from the changer.

The AI-Net cable consists of an outer plastic sheath (of course) covering a metal braid. Once you make a shallow cut down the sheath a couple of inches, and push the bundle from within, you can pinch the braid away from the inner cable to cut it without damaging the encased wires. Once you make your circumferential cut, peel the braid back to expose the middle. You will see 2 blue mylar foil wrapped bundles, and a couple of individual wires (those are battery & ign 12v). The wires you seek are a Green and a Blue wire. Pick one of the blue mylar bundles and GENTLY cut the foil ever so slightly to expose the wire color. If you see white or red, you picked the wrong bundle. Once you have the right bundle, make another gentle cut down the mylar to expose the wires. Give yourself room to work. I exposed a good 2 inches or so and cut away the unused foil. Once you open the mylar to expose the green and blue wires, you will also see an unshielded wire that goes along with the green and blue. Don't cut this wire. You will use it for signal ground.

You're almost there. Cut the green and blue wires (stagger the cuts so the splices are not right on top of one another) and solder on a length of wire to each. These two wires are Audio+ and Audio-. The length of wire is really up to you and depends upon where you want to mount the jack & switch. Mine were about 6 inches (15cm) and I mounted mine to the side of the changer frame in the trunk... not convenient access, but I didn't want to cut holes in the trunk carpet and I rarely listen to CDs.

When you are done with the Audio +/- you will have 4 wires, one pair soldered to the wire ends leading to the end of the AI-Net connector (to the Amplifier) and the other pair leading to the CD changer. Next, solder a similar-length wire to that unshielded wire in the bundle with the green & blue wires. That wire is your signal ground. The signal ground does not need to be cut or rewired, it can be shared among all sources. Don't forget to heat shrink or similarly insulate all your solder splices (except the signal ground).

So you have 5 wires dangling out of your AI-Net cable. Congrats! You can now reassemble the cable and seal it up with the electrical tape or sealant du-jour. Be sure to label which pair are 'from CD' and 'to Amp'. I twisted each of my pairs to make the wires manageable. Some say this also helps with mitigating RF interference and improving audio quality, but at audio frequencies, I doubt it does much from a quality perspective.

Moving on to the rocker/enclosure. Drill appropriately sized holes in the project box to mount the switch and 1/8" jack. Feed the 4 signal lines through the big hole where the rocker will be and solder the 'to Amp' wires to the middle tabs on the switch. The 'from CD' wires can be soldered on whichever pair on the end of the rocker switch you like. Note that the side that is connected is opposite the end that is depressed on the switch. Push up, bottom pair connects to middle. Push down, top pair connects to middle. You get it.

Now grab that 1/8" panel-mount jack and, using a couple of inches of wire, solder the audio+ from the remaining tabs on the rocker switch to the 'tip', the audio- to the 'ring' and the signal ground wire from the AI-Net cable to the 'sleeve' connector on the jack. If you don't know which is which, wiki "TRS Connector" and you will achieve total consciousness... which is nice.

Again, don't forget to heat shrink your solder connections! It adds that nice pro look and mitigates signal issues later.

Mount the 1/8" jack and rocker to the enclosure, seal the box and slap it wherever you like.

I took my time and I spent about 2 hrs on this. No ground loops, humming or anything other than a beautiful pandora stream from my phone. Haven't tested the CD end of things yet... should have one of those things laying around somewhere.

Now I have to install the t605 bluetooth module and route the 16 foot shielded 1/8" stereo cable to the center console... save that for the weekend.

Enjoy!

 

I'm having some trouble accessing those pictures in the first post. Does anybody have an alternate source for them?

Many thanks!

Dave

 

David:
Will this work on the 2003 S-Type Alpine with premium sound and no nav? If so, can you please send me your diagrams - they do not appear to still be linked to your post (or I'm doing something wrong).
Thanks in advance,
Mark

 

I just purchased 2000 Jaguar XJ8. I LOVE this car

Could you guys update all links please?

 

Hi all after threatening to install aux in on my 03 XJR for some time now I finally took the pluge and I found myself pulling my hair out, when finding that the CD in boot hack is no good on mine as it doesn't have Nav so there's no screen in the console,just two green LCD screens top one is for climate and bottom is for Radio/ice.
Seems the only way left is in via the cassette tape deck, although most stuff on the net including here isn't for the XJ mainly x type.
Can anyone confirm if it can be done on the XJ? And are the solder points the same?
Many thanks in advance
Pete