Re: ipod hookup on factory installed system
Sorry for missing this before, but I didn’t recall it right away. I dug through my archives, and it turns out a 2004 Crossfire owner ordered an MP3 adapter in January 2005. This was the customer’s initial report:
> The connectors all fit exactly as needed.
>
> When the ignition switch is on (sending power to the radio) I hear the
> MP3 player for a few seconds and then the Radio always turns on and
> starts up and switches out the MP3 player. When I turn the radio off
> the MP3 player never switches back in. Somehow the power seems always
> to be on as far as the adapter is concerned and never lets the MP3
> signal through to the amp. So it's working for a few seconds at start
> up but then the radio turns on which then switches the MP3 signal off.
>
> If I leave the head unit out of the system completely (unplugged) and
> just connect the adapter and MP3 player to the car the MP3 player works
> and sounds great.
As I explained in my earlier post, the adapter turns itself on when the ignition is on but the radio is off. The SLK radio shuts off the control signal to the amp (and powered antenna) when the radio is switched off. The Crossfire does not do this. The customer measured the antenna/amp control signal out of the Crossfire radio and found that it is basically active whenever the ignition is on, even with the radio off.
A workaround would be to add a switch to the adapter to ignore the signal out of the radio and positively switch the adapter in circuit.
MI1XFIRE, if you or someone else would like to give this a try, I’ll send out a loaner adapter with an added switch