[Fixins13]

I've seen a couple references to what the 14-pin cable that the XM receiver plugs into might be on other Honda/Acura vehicles as but I've yet to see anyone say "here are the pins for a 2005 Acura MDX non-navigation 14-pin connector," and that's what I'm looking for. I got one of those cheap $20 car Aux adapters from Amazon. It's called "Car Mp3 Player Digital Music AUX in Adapter iphone 5 6 Plus Charging for Honda CRV Accord Civic Element Odyssey Pilot S2000 Fit Acura MDX CSX RDX TSX IPod IPhone Capable Interface OEM Radio 2003-2011 Models."

Let me tell you, their reputation for being awful is very well deserved. First the lightning cable does nothing. I don't think it's even supposed to have the actual audio on it but if it's supposed to, it doesn't. However the lightning cable also doesn't even charge the phone. The battery charging light goes on but then you can watch the charge level steadily falling as the cable does nothing. I've got a charger that plugs into the lighter. Works swell. The 1/4 headphone-type plug is so noisy it's almost unusable. The engine RPMs in high-pitched noise totally pollutes the audio. I suspect the noise is probably the alternator spinning. I tried using a ground isolating audio transformer to clean it up but no dice. Anyway really all I need this box to do is trick the Acura's stereo into thinking it's playing the CD changer and that is the one thing this device actually does do. What I'm trying to do is remove the output of this box and splice in my own audio signal to the back of the radio. I've ordered bluetooth module from ebay and when it arrives from China, I'm going to cut the output of the box and splice in the output from the bluetooth module. I just need to know which wires are the audio L+ R+ and Ground. I could do it by trail and error but if someone had a pinout or could point me to one, that'd save me some time.

Thanks,
Adam

PS, if I get this to work I'll gladly share the details of what I did on here because getting an AUX input into an 11-year-old car shouldn't cost $150. The almost worthless box and the bluetooth module are about $30 bucks total.

 

[Fixins13]

What I can guess is Right+ is on pin 5, Left+ is on pin 6, Right- is on pin 13 and Left- is on pin 14. That would sort of make sense because they're all on top of one another on the connector. Sure. Why not? Once the Chinese Express delivers my goods, this sucker is getting chopped and I'll post the results.

 

[Fixins13]

China delivered! I got my "Bluetooth 4.0 Audio Receiver Board Wireless Stereo Sound Module" and did some work with a multimeter and a soldering iron. I'll save anyone attempting this some time, there are screws in the case to the Aux Adapter. One upper left and one lower right. Once you have the case open, take the cord with the lightning connector and the phono plug and remove it. You won't need it anymore. FYI, there wasn't even a provision for making the lightning cable do anything other than charge the phone which it doesn't do. If you are looking at the board so the cable you removed is to the left, the other cable is to the right. Cut the top 3 wires right after the connector. I gave myself the option of leaving enough wire to reattach the leads if I ever changed my mind but really you don't have to. The top green wire is left channel positive. Connect it to the white wire from the module's input. The yellow wire is right channel positive. Connect that to the red wire to the module. The third wire down is dark blue. Connect that to the black wire on the board. That's all the sound connections made. I used solder and shrink tubing to make and protect my connections. I suggest everyone does that too. Now we have to power Bluetooth module. I was looking at doing a relay off of the lighter and the more I thought about it, the more I decided to be lazy and just steal power from the Aux module. You'll have to decide if this route is the best for you. I didn't feel the Bluetooth module was ever going to draw much power and since I'm not using the Aux adapter's USB charging function (since it didn't work anyway) nor any of its audio processing (since it sounded AWFUL) I figured I had a little headroom before I started popping fuses. I might very well be wrong about this. I'm just telling what I did and why and what happened. If you flip the AUX board over so that the cord we've been working on is now pointing left, solder the ground (black) wire to the bottom most post under the connector. Then solder the positive (red) wire to the 4th up from the bottom. The bottom lug is labeled ground. The other spot said something I couldn't read. ***_ACC? I dunno know. The reason I didn't use the second from the bottom spot is it's hot even when the car is off. Will the bluetooth module kill your battery? Maybe. Given enough time it probably would. I had to find switched +12V. Which I found in the @#!_ACC spot. Whatever that is. At this point, I'm calling this a successful proof of concept. I covered the boards with electrician's tape and put them in a plastic box I had lying around to keep them out of trouble. I turned on the stereo, hit the CD Source button and paired to the Bluetooth module which is called M-DIY-AUDIO. I buttoned everything back up and took the MDX out around the neighborhood and it sounds SWEET!

What works: you can play digital quality music wirelessly into your MDX's stereo with no engine noise. It costs $33.

What doesn't/no longer works: you can't have the bluetooth phone connection in the car working at the same time as the music player so you lose out on that. However, it's not broken or deactivated. If you need it, you can always disconnect the music and reconnect to the phone. I listen to music more than I use the handsfree phone. I think there's a way to add a microphone to the bluetooth board so you could at least use the phone's bluetooth for calls but I haven't looked into it yet. I disconnected my XM module to do this modification. I've seen Y cables you can buy so you could in theory use both XM and the AUX in. I'm planning on adding a mobile app to my XM subscription so I'd be using the phone to receive it anyway. The stereo says CD1 track 3 and doesn't move. I'm fine with that. If you want steering wheel controls and you want the song title to display on your receiver, this isn't the set up for you.

I can do a full write-up with pictures and stuff but I can't post links yet. Not sure how many posts I need first but I'll happily show anyone interested how to make of of these little $33 beauties for yourself.