Well I started the work today to install the bluetooth module in the Jeep! I removed the radio this afternoon and was delighted to see all kinds of extra room around it inside the dash enclosure, particularly on the sides. Then I brought the radio indoors to my workbench.
Here's the RES radio my Jeep came with, which is a little different than the stock image I used above.
Left:
Right:
Back:
I started by removing the faceplate, which comes off by carefully bending back some plastic tabs.
The guts of the radio including and the CD player, I just set aside. The heavy metal box didn't look particularly easy to open, so I didn't bother. What I needed was on the faceplate.
I needed to connect to the inside of this aux jack:
Which looks like this:
There are 5 posts connecting the jack to the circuit board. Using my multimeter, I figured out that the top one is ground / bottom of the headphone jack, the next one down was the white wire / middle of the headphone jack, and the bottom was the red wire / tip of the headphone jack.
The other 2 posts (#3 and 4 from the top) are continuous with the ground #1 when an aux cord is inserted into the jack, but not when it's removed. Thus, I think these posts are involved with the computer knowing if a device is plugged in or not and they don't carry sound.***
The next step was to solder a headphone jack cord to the appropriate pins. I checked the continuity of the lines afterwards using the multimeter and they all checked out.
The headphone wire easily went into a slot in the faceplate so it could come out underneath the radio. The rubber jacket on the wire was nice and snug in the slot so it won't pull on my new solder joints.
Next the faceplate just snapped back onto the radio:
After rigging up my internal aux jack, I turned my attention to the bluetooth module and the 12v : 5v converter. I played around with where I could mount them and the right side of the radio seemed to work well. It's close to my headphone jack, and remember that I said there was all sorts of room next to the radio inside the dash. I used 3m/Scotch poster mounting tape (very high sticky factor) to mount them to the side of the radio.
Here they are affixed to the radio with my aux cord plugged in.
A slightly different view:
The red and black wires hanging from the converter are the 12 volt + power and - ground that will eventually hook up to something on the Jeep. I'd like to find a + wire that is live when the Jeep is in ACC/run but not when it's off. I'll put an in-line 3A fuse on this positive wire to protect the Jeep just in case this converter unit shorts out.
Anyhow, there we are! I'll test it out tomorrow. Got to run to the auto parts store for a fuse holder and find the ACC + and grounding points for it. Other than that, I think we're done!
***One note is, I'll have to have something in the original aux port to trick the radio into seeing a device and enabling the AUX setting. I have a small button-like insert on order (still on the slow boat), but in the meantime I can just use the end of a headphone cord. I thought about jumping pins 1, 3, and 4 with short sections of wire to make the radio permanently see the AUX device, but I wondered if there might be times when you'd want AUX turned off? Anyhow, I can always go back and do this later if necessary.
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2008 Liberty Sport 4x4 Automatic
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AtTheHelm Front Recovery System & Roof RackM116A3 Trailer build thread: viewtopic.php?f=72&t=77997