what does the back of stock HU look like?
 

I have a 2002 Protege and was wondering what the connectors are for the MD/TAPE input jack. Is it RCA connectors or 3.5mm

I was planning to attach a cable that runs out of the dash, so that I can easily attach a tape walkman/laptop/mp3 player or whatever I want on the fly.

Also is it a standard signal... or do I need to preamp it or somethng more complicated.


Thanks.

Re: what does the back of stock HU look like?
 

It's none of those - the MD/tape is a modular unit - there are no "cables" - it's more like what you see when you remove the faceplate of a detach-face deck - just a "connector", not even a harness.

so is there any way to what I want? (attach it to RCA or 3.5mm)
Is there an adapter I can buy?

Or could I buy that connector and splice the wires or something?
Is this a MAZDA-specific connector. Because I heard about this guy who did the same thing for his HONDA factory stereo.

Any Info would help..

thanks.

Well, with some electrical knowledge, you could probably tap into the deck wiring and hook up RCAs or a 3.5 plug - but I have no idea how.

Anyone?

can anyone provide a closeup picture of the cable connector.

That would be super helpful!

thanks.

Auxiliary input
 

I am attempting the same thing so let's share info. There is a black 15 pin connector on the bottom of the HU that interfaces to the top of the optional MD/TAPE. As previously stated, it resembles a removable face connector. I don't know the pinout for this connector... anyone? This would be the more elegant solution as our aux input would be selected by pressing the MD/TAPE button, though there may be serial data transmitted though here as well telling the head unit when a MD/TAPE unit is present.

http://www.lvcm.com/liam/assets/images/radio1.jpg

There is also a 16 pin Molex type connector on the back of the HU which I believe is for interfacing a CD changer. If we could get the pinout for this connector (again, anyone?) we could interface our aux input connector through here. We would probably have to put a switch across two of the pins to enable the unit to switch back and forth between looking at the internal, single CD drive, and the external aux input. There is 12VDC on this connector as well, I'm sure, so we could use a double pole switch and install an LED as well to tell us which input is active.


[IMG]http://www.lvcm.com/liam/assets/images/radio2.jpg