Sony XA-300 issues

**Magpie** · 04-07-2004, 08:19 AM

I'm probably posting this in the wrong section but I guess I have to start somewhere

Now that I have my carputer working in the car I have run into some "unforseen" issues when using in practice. This is mainly to do with the SONY XA-300 (auxiliary input) to the head unit.

Whenever I change the source of sound say to the Sony radio during the playing of some MP3's from the carputer the Winamp install fails to reconnect to the XA-300 when I resume listening to the MP3's on the carputer. Just so you know I am connecting to the XA-300 through the USB connection.

In test, everything works fine providing I quit winamp before changing source or turning off the head unit.

First question is: Has anyone else seen this probem before?

Second question is: How can I work around this? (Could be a software thing)

My input here is I think I have found a work around which requires a very small modification to the XA-300 which is to make the USB circuit be 'on' constantly so that the PC and winamp does not lose the USB connection when changing source.

Thing is I don't want to start opening the XA-300 if there is some alternative workaround especially if this is going to be a software fix

**tom2112** · 04-09-2004, 07:43 AM

Magpie,

I have a Sony XA-300 too. My whole carPC is not installed yet, but I did some testing of the unit with my laptop. I found that the Sony XA-300 was recognized as a USB sound device ONLY when my head unit was using it. In other words, if I switched over to the radio or head unit's CD player the USB sound device in the XA-300 was turned off and windows would act like I had unplugged the XA-300. This sucks because winamp dies without a sound device to play to. Sometimes my laptop would switch over to it's built in sound and keep playing, but it would not switch back when I set the head unit to the XA-300's USB sound.

So, I think I will end up changing over to one of the other inputs (RCA jacks) and just use the regular audio output from my motherboard. That won't screw up Windows every time I switch between the audio sources on the head unit.

If you do figure out how to get the USB to stay "on", let me know. I am all over it. I would rather have the digital sound all the way to the XA-300.

Thanks,
Tom

**Magpie** · 04-09-2004, 02:46 PM

I have found a way to make the USB stay on even though you change to the radio. I still have to test it but it should work without issue. The solution is to open up the XA-300 and find the transistor used to power the USB chip. Once you find it you need to solder a link across the collector and emiter of the transistor. The transistor you are looking for has the code name of Q301. I hope the name is printed on the circuit board.

This transistor (through a couple of other transistors) is switched on to supply power to the USB chip by the main processor chip. At the same time the main processor switches a couple of relays to direct the sound to the output ports. This is the clicking you will hear when you select USB. So, what should happen is the USB chip will always de-code the sound but you will never hear it until the relays switch over. I have also found a way of making the USB port always play through the headphone port rather than AUX1 if you are interested. I was going to do this so that I can connect a small speaker, that way if I am listening to the radio I can still hear the directions being spoken by the GPS software.

So, this would solve one problem which is losing the sound card by Winamp. The second issue I have is going to standby which also appears to kill it. I'm going to play around with winamphelper to see if that would solve the problem. Do you also get the same issue when going to and from standby?

**tom2112** · 04-10-2004, 08:40 AM

Sorry, dude. I haven't had a chance to finish my install, so I haven't been trying hibernate/suspend with the XA-300. I think I will just use the regular audio inputs on the XA-300. They'll work no matter what I do to the PC. The USB on the XA-300 is just one more hassle I don't feel like dealing with.