View Full Version : Docking station not working with Alpine KCA-420i
My setup looks something like this:
-Alpine headunit with AI-net capabilities
-Alpine KCA-420i
-iPod docking station
-iPod
(-other things too, such as two 10" Alpine Type R's, a JBL 1200.1 amp, two Alpine 4x6"s, two Alpine 6x9"s, etc etc :D)
Before I wire everything in for good, I'm just making sure everything works. For the most part, it does... except when I try to use the iPod through the docking station.
Everything is sitting in my center console, and I'd like to have it so I can just stick my iPod into the docking station and pull everything up through the HU (headunit). The problem is that when I put the iPod into the docking station, the HU just says that there's no iPod. However, when I connect the iPod directly to the KCA-420i (so I'm bybassing the docking station) it works just fine.
Now what could the problem be? I'm going to be pretty upset if I find out that this won't actually work :mad:.
az1324
04-29-2005, 03:56 AM
Well the problem is the dock connects one of the pins on the ipod to ground through a resistor. The alpine also tries to connect this pin to ground through a different valued resistor.
What to do about it?
Open up the dock and desolder the resistor. Then connect the pin (21) coming from the top connector on the dock to the connector on the back where you are plugging in the alpine.
It won't work unless you pass this pin (21) through to the alpine connector.
Good luck.
Hmmm... any further detail on this? I'm not too experienced with soldering and whatnot, so some pictures or a more detailed description would be helpful :-D
Am I asking for too much?
az1324
05-03-2005, 04:54 AM
Yes because i don't have a dock nor have i done the mod myself but if you open yours up and take some detailed photos i can draw it in for you.
DrewT
05-03-2005, 07:58 PM
you'll also need to pass the audio through....dock dosen't do it....
-Drew
Damn. You're absolutely right. Is there any solution to this? I'd rather not have a wire dangling around.
Is there docking station alternative? I've seen good looking stuff that other people have done to their cars...
audioscience
05-03-2005, 10:26 PM
How about disasembling the docking station you have, removing the plug part of the dock and replacing it with the plug that comes with the KCA-420i?
It would require some tools and some glue but would be an option.
DrewT
05-03-2005, 11:04 PM
I'm gonna use the cradle from the icelink and splice it into my belkin auto kit (and eventually hide everything behind the dash, nice and neat)
-Drew
bsramin
05-21-2005, 05:57 AM
Originally posted by az1324
Open up the dock and desolder the resistor. Then connect the pin (21) coming from the top connector on the dock to the connector on the back where you are plugging in the alpine.
It won't work unless you pass this pin (21) through to the alpine connector.
Good luck. [/B]
Please explain how to mod docking station to make this compatible with Alpine iPod Interface (420i).
I Have iPod mini and the Docking Station from apple.
I Sent you in PM the photo of docking station.
ramin.it/ipod_alpine/1.jpg
ramin.it/ipod_alpine/2.jpg
ramin.it/ipod_alpine/3.jpg
ramin.it/ipod_alpine/4.jpg
ramin.it/ipod_alpine/5.jpg
deggy
05-21-2005, 12:32 PM
Has anyone here managed to work out the modifications needed on an iPod photo dock? I have a 60gb Photo iPod so am pretty stuck with having the photo dock, which is different to the std dock.
az1324
05-23-2005, 02:30 AM
Ok well here is a better photo:
Now what you are going to need to do is desolder the resistor R1. You can see that the right solder pad that was connected to the resistor leads to pin 21. You will need to pass this through to the other connector. I am not sure if there is a solder pad available on the other circuit board that you can easily connect to. You will have to trace this. Then you will have to pass through the R,L audio pins which are labeled on the photo and have easy solder pads available on the iPod side. On the output side you will have to find them as well or solder them to the line out connector. It looks like there are a lot of solder pads over there so probably most of the pins are traced out.... its just a matter of finding them. As for the photo dock, I've never seen one inside so I'm not sure if the process would be similar.
w w w.ipoding.com/albums/album07/dock_con_labeled.jpg
this url restriction is lame