Well, I finally got sick of only listening to radio... the 6 stacker has not worked for some time....these have a very high failure rate and mine is no exception.

I acquired a Clarion 2Din unit as a replacement.
I also obtained an AU radio from a wrecker ($30 for a single cd player - they had no code for it so it was cheap), stripped out the front plastic to use as a surround and used some of the original metal work to mount the new unit plus the connectors off the PCB for an adapter loom.
This way I have the option of re-installing the original unit if I sell the car.

Getting the steering wheel buttons working was a must.
I did find the CAT10 but decided to save the $140 and build my own.
That was mainly because I can but also because my remote is not listed in the CAT compatibility sheet and repeated attempts to contact them or anyone who could confirm was totally unsuccessful.

Used a PIC 12F683 microcontroller, decoded the signals out of the Clarion remote, did some programming/cct design, made a PCB, a little box and some connectors and viola !
I mounted the IR-LED by drilling a 5mm hole into the dome light so the LED points at the DIN unit. This Clarion did not have a remote control port so IR was the only solution.

And the sound !! .... HEAPS better.

The Ford radio is made by a crowd in Malaysia.... I discovered when I stripped down the donor unit that it is reasonably cheaply made....uses phenolic PCBs ! Those warp and crack (the Clarion uses a proper fibreglass PCB).

 

 

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nice work dude

whats with the pic of the light??

by the way the radio is made by FMS
Ford Mazda Ssyanong

The little black dot on the light is the InfraRed LED.

This points at the remote control IR receiver on the Clarion 2DIN unit.

When I press the Steering Wheel Vol+, Vol- or Seek buttons the IR LED issues the relevant code (mimics the Remote Control that came with the Clarion unit) and the Volume goes Up, Down or Skips to the next station/track etc respectively..... so the steering wheel buttons work just like original.

IMO - the FMS unit was built down to a price.

Wow your smart.

i am smarter i can wipe my own a***

Yeah, but if I was really smart I'd be rich and retired onto my own island up north somewhere and being waited upon hand and foot by a gaggle of bodacious babes

wow i think your on to something there. lots of people would be interested in the IR setup to use the factory buttons.. thats awesome

There is a commercial unit called "The Cat"... see www.thecat.com.au.

My remote was not listed on their compatability list and I was unable to cantact anyone at The Cat (no contact or email details on their site). Their distributors were unable to help either.

So I did not risk the $140 asking price for The Cat and decided to make my own.

There are about a million different signalling schemes for remotes so is hard to make one unit which would be universal.
However, I have the hardware and software sorted such that I can scan a remote via my cro and then replicate the signalling.

Last edited by muzza on Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

link doesnt work

while i have no idea what all the jibberish was in the first post meant... i think it looks great what youve done, top effort

Sorry .... is www.thecat.net.au

hello

So who sells the cat for $140 i live in adelaide and the closet quote i have got to buy that is $250 bucks.

The $140 price was either from AutoBahn in Airport West or Gary's Car radio in Campbellfield... don't remember which. Rang a couple of other places and one of those advised $180 as I recall. All this was about two weeks ago.
If you get stuck, you can send me your remote, I can decode it and make you one of my units.