connect a external mp3 in this way, ok?

Hi everyone,

I am a new comer to this car audio field.

My car is Honda Civic Ex Year 97, and it came with a radio head unit and a separate cassette player. I want to connect my MP3 player to my car stereo system.

The circuit board shown in the picture is from the cassette player. The 8-pin din male is the connector to the radio HU. In my understanding, the audio signals from cassette unit will be transferred to the radio HU, where they will be amplified and then output to speakers. I believe there must be three wires, left channel, right channel, and ground, among the eight.

I would like to find the three wires and connect them to the earphone of my MP3 player. And use the control of original cassette player to make the system work. Of course, I will use a cassette without type to eliminate the signals from the cassette player.

My questions are:

1. Is my plan feasible? Is the signal level from the three wires the same as the output of a MP3 player?

2. I did not find the diagram of the cassette player. Is there anyone who can tell which three wires are left, right channel, and ground? Or how should I do to figure it out?

Thanks in advance.

David

Thanks dwarren,

I think if my plan is feasible, it would be more interesting and less costly.

Anyway, thanks for posting.

David

Yes, you are correct and I don't discourage what you are doing, just thought I'd mention it if you aren't successful.

Good luck!

The 8 pin chip to the left of the plug is an op-amp.  The outputs are pin 1 and pin 7.  Pin 1 is the top right pin.  Pin 7 is the 3rd pin from the left on the bottom row.  (Using the picture).   I am guessing that they go to the red and white wires.    In order to verify, you could cut the wires one at a time and check to see if you lose audio on the cassette.

No idea what the output level of your cassette is, turn the volume all the way down on your MP3 player when testing for the first time.

There may be other op-amps on the board.  If the op amp in the picture do not go to the plug.  Look for other op amps that are not in the pic.

I assumed that the black wire is ground and connected to the negtive of the MP3 output, then connect the MP3 positive output with each of others. I found that four wires can give sounds through the car stereo speakers with different volume level. I picked the green and white one, which gives higher volume, to complete the work. Sound is OK but significant low in volume compared with the original cassette output.

Anyone can give advice?

Thanks,