I had a few requests to hear about how I hooked my ipod up to my Stock Bose stereo in my 99 Max. Here it goes....

First, for power, I use the Belkin Auto kit. Its just a plug in charger for cigarette lighter outlets. The Belkin unit is nice though because it also provides a Line out feed, which is a much better sound source than the headphone output at the top of the ipod. Also, it had a built in amp to amplify that line out feed. Also, when the car is turned off and the unit loses power, it pauses the iPod, it dosen't sound like much, but its a handy little feature.

I hard wired two additional power sockets in my car, they are stuck behind the dash next to my 5spd's shifter where they are easily accessable. I use one for the Belkin plug and the second for my radar detector.

The key ingredient in hooking up the iPod is an auxiliary input adapter built by a company called Soundgate (www.soundgate.com). The part number is AUX-NISS. I bought mine from a website called www.discountcarstereo.com. They supposedly have them at www.logjamelectronics.com, but they were out of stock when I bought mine.

The AUX-NISS is supposed to work with any Nissan stereo that has a cd changer input in the back of it, it should be easy to tell if your stereo has this or not, because you'll have buttons about disc switching etc. on the stereo.

This plugins into the back of the stereo, and the only wires you have to worry about hooking up are a constant power source and an aux/switched power source. I used simple wire taps to hook these up.

The adpater also comes with the wires to provide a RCA plug type input into the unit. All you need is then another plug that has a rca plug to headphone plug type to go from the belkin unit to the wires for the AUX-NISS.

Also, I got a group loop isolator that I am fooling around with, because I have a small, barley noticeable audio tach problem that I suspect is because I might have not gotten a good connection between the wire taps, I am still trying to figure out that problem, but it really is very very hard to notice. The unit works great and provides better sound than either the iTrip or tape adapter I have tried.

 

nice. ive been wondering how to do something like this using something other than an FM transmitter

 

Nice to know, thanks. I thought only www.pac-audio.com made things like this.

 

could you post a few pictures of your setup?

 

What kind of pictures do you want, the only thing that looks different than a stock max is the white cord coming out from under my cupholders. Do you want inside the dash pictures? I could try to take a few if thats what you want as long as someone can host them for me. let me know what pictures you want.

 

Does anything happen, when you press the seek buttons with this setup? No, right?

 

I guess I'm unclear where you're setting the ipod in your car, and what you're plugging in to the ipod (power and audio, or just a single cable?) I too am curious if the radio seek controls work.

 

Unfortunately, you have no control over the iPod through your headunit except for volume obviously. No buttons have any effect. This system isn't like the one Alpine has out.

The only cable I have coming out of my center counsel in relation to the ipod is about a 18 inch length of the Belkin auto kits cord that plugs into the dock connector at the bottom of the iPod (sorry first gen iPod users, your SOL). I keep my iPod in a black Contour Showcase brand case, and it sits in my cup holder. I dont want to mount the ipod anywhere, because its too hard to ready the small display with it mounted anywhere, and it lets passengers play dj while im driving.

 

"it lets passengers play dj"
That is why I would mount the iPod ))))

 

thanks for the iPod install info. my stock bose HU is on the sh*ts (i think) and i'd like to convert my setup to work w/an iPod i'll be getting soon!

 

I'd know that I dont have a bose head unit because it doesn't have 'BOSE' plastered all over it and the speaker covers right?? (5th gen)

 

i think that's correct.

 

Supposedly this unit will work with all Maxima Stereos, Bose or not, as long as your car is a 98-04, and it doset have a SAT button. I have the full list of which cars this will work on at home in the instructions that came with the thing, if you all are interested, I will type that up tonight when I get home from work.

 

dang , that auxiliary input adapter costs $96 , thats a lot of money for few wires and plastic box

Nick.

 

from the sounds of it, all of these devices hook up through the cd changer port on the back. I dont have a changer in my car, but do I still have this port on the back on my head unit? I dont have a 'disc1', 'disc2', etc button but the input controls are FM/AM, TAPE, and CD/CHG. Does this mean I could hook up a changer/ipod adaptor? (sorry if thats a dumb question, but I'd like to know before ordering a $100 part. I've got a picture if I'm making no sense.)

 

If your stereo has a button saying cd/chg, then the back of the head unit will have a port to plug into. Thats how mine was, I didnt have a changer installed either, but the same stereo is used in either application.

Im still trying to track down my ground loop problem if any one has any suggestions, I dont think its my powersupply. because I wasnt getting the problem with a tape adapter or the iTrip. Maybe I will try to email the tech support at soundgate and see, but if anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them. This weekend I replaced the wire taps I used with just straight soldered connections.

 

What about something like this: http://www.pac-audio.com/products/sni1.htm?

Or are you looking at another way?

Question: What does the display on the Bose HU look like when you're playing the iPod through CHR feature? Currently, either the CD in the HU displays track and running time info OR if the changer is on it displays CD number, Track and running time info. I just was curious what the display is when playing the iPod. Is it just blank?

Thanks again.
Eric

 

I have a ground loop isolator already installed, its a radio shack model instead of the PAC audio model. From what Ive been told and found on other web sites, is that the 12v outlets arent grounded very well, because the automakers dont intend them to be used with the audio system. I guess the Belkin is especially inclined to have ground loop problems. I am going to go some tests tonight using the dock and some other line out feeds and see what I can figure out, I might have to get a different power source.

As for what the display reads on the Bose while the iPod is playing. It says its playing D2Trk1. You can use the disk skip buttons and run up and down 1 through 10, and itll play the same, but when you turn off and on, it always says disk 2. That must be programmed in the input adapter as the default disk to start on.

 

1) Good point about the 12v grounding issue.

2) Did you have a CD changer before the iPod that you removed? I wonder if you did, if D2Trk1 was the last CD you were playing?
**EDIT - JUST READ ABOVE POST. NEVERMIND**

 

has anyone ever found anything that will work with the 95-96 BOSE system? it seems strange that these adapters wouldn't work with the 95-96...

 

Is the AUX port easily accessible? Can you plug the adapter in without taking the dash off?

 

so i got the bose system with navi...and cd changer...will this work with my system or the maxima doesn't have two inputs?

 

This is to replace an external changer on pre-2002 cars (with the changer option only).

 

im sorry, maybe im stupid, but i didn't understand what u meant

 

Ok. You have a 2002 Maxima. Your CD changer is in the head unit (you keep all 6 CD's in the stereo in the dash).

2001 and earlier Maxima's do not have that feature. We have only 1 CD in the dash. Our changer (available as an option) is external and mine was mounted in the trunk. There is a cable and harness that goes from the CD changer to the back of the head unit.

The Soundgate box plugs into the slot where the harness I metioned above would plug into. So, I had to remove my CD changer (and harness) and plug the Soundgate product in where the CD changer harnes was.

Since you don't have the slot on the back of your head unit, you can't use the Soundgte product because you have no slot to plug it into.

 

Have you figured out your ground loop issue? I now have the same issue. I unplugged the iPod charger (from cigarette lighter) thinking it was interferring with my RCAs next to it, but it didnt help. I'm going to plug that back in but maybe look for a better way to ground it.

I have the AUXNISS2 wired to the Alpine amp in the trunk. I may change this. (Reason for this wiring is that the remote wire from the PAC AOEM-NIS2 [which I bought to add a sub] doesn't work when CD is on. Since I already ran the remote wire and the other end is next to the power wire, I just used that wire and inserted it under the power wire.)

I'm going to look at everything again tonight. What puzzles me is that everything is fine when the engine is not running, so when I was testing all this out the first time, I thought I had no problems. On the way to work, I noticed the whine and buzz. I've been reading on other car audio forums and it seems the number one response it to check grounds.

 

Based on Raw Toast's write-up for the iPod, I bought the AUX-NISS to use with my Delphi SkyFi. I hooked everything up and with the ignition in the ACC position (i.e., engine not running), I got an annoying electrical interference noise in the background. It makes the "tape hiss" sound from the FM modulator sound pleasant by comparison. With the system still on, I unplugged the RCA's between the SkyFi and the AUX-NISS and the noise went away. Based on that result, I think I can conclude that the SkyFi unit is the source of the noise. Yesterday I ordered a PAC noise filter (SNI-1) to plug inline between the SkyFi and the AUX-NISS. I'm hoping that will kill the noise from the SkyFi before it gets to the AUX-NISS.

 

From what I've been reading on installer's forums, it seems that filters are just a band-aid to cover up a larger underlying problem. Problem. Maybe a power wire is too close to a sound/signal wire or maybe the grounds are bad. I'm wondering now if my iPod & dock need to be grounded somehow. Before when I used to get noise, it would sometimes go away when I put my hand around the iPod while it was in the dock, leading me to believe there may be a grounding issue.

Granted, I'm no expert when it comes to electronics and I could be completely wrong on my line of thinking.

 

I am going to try and fix my grounding problem this weekend when I finally have some time to look at it. What I am going to do is cut the neg wire running into the outlet and reground it straight to the chassis. My theory as mentioned above I think is that the outlet isnt grounded very well because Nissan never thought it would be the powersource for anything playing through the stereo system, so its grounded somewhere higher up in the wiring harness and picks up a buzz somewhere.

I tried an experiment also confirming it was a bad ground with the powersource. I brought my dock out to the car, plugged the line feed into it and plugged the ipod in, I didnt hook up a power source, so the ipod played off battery power and there was no noise and it sounded fantastic.

I think the solution is easy and hopefully will be figured out soon.

 

What is your outlet powering...the Soundgate box?

My outlet was powering the iPod docking station but even after I unplugged it I still got the buzz. I wish there was a way to ground the actual Soundgate box or the iPod/dock.

I've been too lazy the last couple of days to really mess around with everything. Maybe this weekend I'll look at it if I don't go to the mountains on my bike.

 

Did you guys GROUND your AUXNISS? When I read the instructions I thought both the YELLOW and RED wires were POWER wires. Am I wrong on this?

I posted on another forum and a member suggested one wire was a ground. I'm going to look over the instructions again tomorrow to double check.

 

I spoke directly with a tech at Soundgate to try and diagnose the source of the electrical interference I was getting. During our conversation, he confirmed that I had it hooked up correctly. The red is switched power and the yellow is constant power, so both are power wires.

 

That's what I thought, thanks.

After all this I'm ready to just get the Kenwood DDX7015.


**EDIT**
Just got an email back from Tech Support @ Soundgate. He said, "the ground is in the harness to the HU, so they share a commond ground." Is there any way to isolate this wire, cut it, and re-ground it somewhere else?

 

anyone using this harness?

http://www.pac-audio.com/faqs/aainis.htm

 

I tried regrounding the 12v outlet directly to the chassis and it made no difference. I am really getting tired of this whole problem. What has Soundgates response been when you talked to them about this? when I emailed then, they were blaming any other part of my system except of their adapter.

 

Hmmm...maybe I won't be getting the AUXNISS. I'm looking to get an iPod after Christmas and run it through my car stereo, but it sounds like that adapter is more hassle than it's worth...

 

i emailed the guys at PAC... waiting for reply...

but int hte mean time they have an ipod kit.. that can supposidly controll the ipod from teh stereo controls as well.. so im waiting for the reply....

 

Soundgate said that their unit WAS grounded. But it was in the harness to the CD Changer port of the HU (which obviously sucks since it's powered by two thick wires and grounded with one tiny wire).

I'm still trying to isolate the ground wire in that harness, cut it, and re-ground it to the chassis. The problem is I don't know how to tell which one is the ground wire since there are 12 wires...

 

I have the model where the 6-disc changer is internal/in-dash. Is there any way to connect an ipod directly or is an FM modulator or cassette adapter my only option?

Note: I have the stock HU with a PAC AOEM-NISS2 and aftermarket Amp & Speakers.

 

Simon

I have the same and have been doing research on this for a while and it seems to me that until a company comes out with an aftermarket harness for it:

an fm transmitter, fm modulator, and cassette adapter are the only options.

I really want to know if anyone has tried this thing

http://www.mp3yourcar.com/