Greetings gang!!!

just wanna share some pictures and installation steps of a pretty nice mod discovered by CarTronics, original thread posted here:

https://mbworld.org/forums/audio-ele...ml#post4727535

its pretty straight forward, only thing different after numerous testing is leaving a blank/used cassette in deck and left the motor connected; disregard picture with "motor disconnect"

in the link above, CarTronics used RCA L/R jacks though ive used 3.5mm stereo jack female instead, pics are below

 

more pictures

 

last set of pictures, i will post a youtube video tonight once my camera is charged with my netbook connected with wifi streaming a youtube video, thanks for viewing folks!!!

 

Just curious why you left a cassette in? Our customers have found the noise of the mechanism to be distracting. Great post BTW.

 

lol my comand must be faulty then, the cassette ejection face keeps going up and down.. also when left in play with cassette motor disconnected, it displays the "NO TAPE" message..

but i actually dont hear the mechanism noise (the physically motor noise i can hear but i play the music somewhat loud,) overall this mod is the cheapest and most effective mod ive done by far, thanks again for this discovery and its actually really easy to solder.. remember folks, u dont need alot of solder, just enough to get it to stick then be gentle from there, use zip ties.

 

perfect for the Video In Motion or HDTV kit by Cartronics

http://cartronics.com/MBD2B.html

 

Well said... When it comes to solder.. Less is more

 

how much is this mod if I send my unit in? I cant do it myself

 

tusabes - it takes them about 30 mins once the unit is out but in the other thread Cartronics say they charge a minimum of 1 hr labor, either way its the cheapest alternative for high quality sound..

im assuming $100-130 including shipping both ways

update: i figured id give it a try again with disconnecting the motor and removing the cassette, now it works all of a sudden, maybe i rotated the motor to far forward for the mechanism to recognize the tape, resulting a "NO TAPE" display.

 

Good deal!! That is the best way to do it. Although the cassette is ok, it is a setup for other failures in the future.

We charge $75 + shipping to do the mod.

 

It would be helpful if you post the video on you tube as promised.
Good job, excellent, thank you very much.

 

youre welcome, the video is just showing proof that its a working mod, i didnt have my hd cam at the time so i went with pictures, let me know if u need any help its quite simple actually, just a process of dismantling everything.

 

I tried what was described here in this thread but to no avail. Worse now i have no sound from the radio which was the only working thing left :-(

I did it with a monster cable and used the brown and green as ground and the blue and red as left and right. Where might i have gone wrong or what looks to be the cause of the result of no sound at all?!

Thanks For Any input!

 

The only thing I can think of is the fiber optic is not plugged in.

 

Its A weird case. the fiber optics is definitely plugged in but the ring is still open because when i access the secret menu i can wake up the fiber optics which usually just works when the loop is open!

 

try leaving the cassette motor plugged in AND use a cassette tape to get it going, at first i got a "NO TAPE" and ejection face kept on going up and down.. after it worked, i tried again with disconnecting motor and without cassette and it suddenly worked, it seems like it needs to be recognized in the first place?? weird stuff

 

Ill be sure to try that! But first! Any ideas on how to get the sound back?! Radio had worked before but then i disconnected it again to check my solder and that everything was in its right place but when i reconnected it no luck!

 

go make sure to careful insert comand back into car as wires could get disconnected or unplugged by forcing unit in - dont worry ive spent a week straight disconnecting my comand wondering why the ejection face kept going up and down lol

 

I Shall! I have twice since then! Quite fun lol. I just wanted to know if the pictures maybe spot something i did wrong Driving with no sound is terrible and i wanted to see if it can be fixed or if i should start looking into another command. Thanks for the quick responses by the way! Really appreciate the help

 

So today before class i disconnected the battery and it worked! Well sound came back on as the radio and CD changer work once again. But as far as the tape goes I reconnected the motor and i placed a Monster casette to aux also. I figured either the if the tape read or if the soldered connection works i would have an AUx point one way or the other but still to no avail. I see the casette spinning but no sound. It just says no tape. What should i try now?

 

I could not see from yOur pics. Maybe cut wrong trace? Mechanism must be down and locked to activate switch to change over to tape

 

I dont think so. The 2 traces are in the same place and it is locked in the down position. Either way shouldn't the cassette to aux atleast work?

 

Not with the traces cut. Cutting those removes the head and amp from the circuit to eliminate noise from the modded circuit.

 

so u got it to read the tape and play, try using a regular cassette or blank cassette.. its most certainly that its the solder connection and/or monster cable...

i used a really cheap radioshack 3.5mm stereo female, i couldnt find wiring diagram for your monster cable, u should post link or picture maybe

 

I used monster iCable 1000 for the ipod and i posted pictures of the soldered connections. I guess i should try again with a cheap aux to red and white? Or aux to aux might work?