inik

I've got a Kenwood Z919 receiver, which was the first in-car MP3 player I set up. Now, though, I've got a 40 GB iPod, and I'd like to jack it into the Z919.

Unfortunately, the Z919 doesn't have the DIN-13 connectors of other Kenwood decks, so I can't use the standard RCA input cable. Instead, it has something labeled as a "BUS Terminal" in the user's manual, which looks (from the picture) like nothing so much as an RS-232 serial connector.

I've checked with Kenwood support and parts, and searched all over the 'net, but I can't find any sort of adapter to get an AUX input on this deck. Can anyone help me out with a pinout for the connector or some method of getting my iPod to feed this deck?

Alternately, if anyone wants to just buy my Z919 (nice little car MP3 player, I paid nearly $700 for it!), then I can just buy a newer deck with a proper AUX input.

--iNik

MP3Car.com

 

djjf

I am in search of the same thing... did you ever find anything??

inik

Nope. Never did.

djjf

darn thanx anyway.... I guess I am just stuck with the Sirius going through the FM modulator....

mattJw

I'm also looking for this info.. Here is a pic of the connector if it helps:

mattJw

Kenwood actually emailed me the pinout for this connector... Does anyone know if I can throw a resistor between two of these ports to make it think a changer is connected?




Thanks,
-Matt

supra661

mattJw,

I'm going to use the pinout you have and try to get this to work!...

Judging by what I see in the image, it looks like there are two pins, bus+ and bus-, which are directly supplying power (I assume that is ~12V power, limited to 0.9A according to an old spec I found elsewhere online). DO NOT short those together!! (smoke will likely be the result, along with a dead radio.)

Next, I notice a bus on and bus off... each has a 1K resistor pulled up to bus+.... I suspect that shorting bus on to GND or bus- (I'll try bus- first) will tell the radio that something is on the bus. Since there is a bus off signal, I'm assuming bus on may only need to be "pulsed" to kick the thing on.

I will probably try this through a secondary 1K resistor first, to reduce the likelihood of anything going wrong (12V across 1000 ohms will draw approximately 0.012 Amps of current, well below the 0.9 Amp max for the bus+, bus - power supply output).

Anyhow, once I get the radio to recognize an auxiliary input is present, I will try connecting an audio input to the AUD L, AUD R, and AUD G inputs (L +, G -) and (R +, G -). As you may note, the left and right inputs will share the AUD G pin as the "-" input for each.... -The diagram shows a capacitor inline with those inputs, so these must be a very high impedance circuit with a capacitor inline for DC isolation. That's a good thing, as you need high impedance inputs for something like an ipod or other MP3 device.

The other audio inputs, four of them plus a common ground for those.... They look like they may be a 4-channel speaker level input much like what would be used to connect the Z919 to a 4 channel decoder or even another car stereo. I have no need to try using that feature, so I'm not personally going to play with that unless someone can determine what the maximum and minimum input power levels are for those inputs.

Once I get this all working on a test bench, I'll try to connect a set of RCA cables to the appropriate connector pins using jumper wires or something along those lines.... I have to do something because I really want to use my ipod with my car stereo!...

Anyhow, thanks for the diagram.

bguild

Guys, did you ever get anywhere with this? I too have a Z919, and would like to get those BUS ports to accept an AUX source.

Thanks,

Brian

bguild

Tigerdirect actually sells an MZBUS cable that could be used for testing, but at $75, you are half way to buying a new headunit.

Kenwood Part # is E30617105

http://tigerdirect.partsearch.com/Pa...17105/New.aspx

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