Clarion changers

In all my years of installations, I have never had the opportunity to use the digital optical output of the clarion changer to interlink two changers together. Now, I have a 12 disk that I am using and the old CBus 18disk. I want to interlink them together. Has anyone ever done this? if so, what cable do I get to do it with? I tried the Digital Optical cables from radio shack and they don't fit and I also tried their Digital Audio cables which highly resemble RCAs and they didnt work.

The Optical cables for these are unique to Clarion...and they're about $90. yikes. and to use them you have to have the DPH7500z or something similar. Are BOTH changers CBus or is on CeNet?Mitchell Whitney, Installer/technician

Mainstreet A/V

No, my 12 disk is a CeNet. the 18 disk is a CBus. I am running a Clarion DXZ815MP for my head unit. The 12disk is model CDC1255Z and the 18disk is model CDC1805 (made in 1995 no less!). I am also using a Clarion DPH910 (the cool hideaway eq). Think it would work? I wonder if a CeNet Yadaptor and then a CeNet to CBus data translator would work? probably not I would think unless the head unit is smart enough to discern between the two changers.

the cenet system can support 4 changers cuz if you look on the side theres a rotary selector switch to determine its address on the bus. i dont think the cbus has it. Also i've never seen a cenet to cbus adapter but if youve got an engineering degree, some schematics and alot of time, go for it. (or sell the cbus and get another cenet,,,)Mitchell Whitney, Installer/technician

Mainstreet A/V

Ive taken one of the "optical jacks " out of an old clarion changer and to be honest, i dont think its optical at all. There doesnt appear to be a photo diode of any sort in it. i'm guessing that its more of a Digital COAXIAL setup. I've always been half tempted to shell out the $ to get one of the cables to see whats inside it, cuz if im right you could use RG-6 or Cat-5 depending on the setup and save a million dollars in cabling. I need three of them (one from head unit and two from changers to hook into my DPH7500z). If i ever do I'll post the info on here. I'm also wanting to do a project with Clarions CCA389 cable (video in for tuner, it sells for $50-90)its just a typical a/v cord with a sony style connector (like on their cd changer cables) if i can splice the Sony changer cord with an A/V cord it would only cost about $15 per cord.Mitchell Whitney, Installer/technician

Mainstreet A/V