Greetings, electronics people!
I have a Chrysler Infinity IV radio, supplier code 26777. It features an analog 5-band graphic equalizer, internal CD player, detented rotary encoder volume control, and the balance/fader joystick has a slighty-wider-than-high rectangular faceplate.
As I understand, these units were made by Alpine.
Two things:
#1 - The VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display) on this radio is completely dark/blank. I heard this was a common problem with the Infinity IV radios, but I was unable to find an exact "likely cause". People on other sites and forums were saying "Just get an aftermarket radio", but that's not an option for me. I'd much prefer disassembling this radio, finding the fault, and soldering/desoldering the defective part or broken circuit board track or whatever. (Unless of course the VFD has developed a leak and lost its vacuum, or its internal heater/cathodes have burned out; in that case, I'll be looking for another Chrysler radio.)
#2 - I'd like to add an analog auxiliary line input to the radio. Unlike the older radios with potentiometer volume controls (which were almost always fed more-or-less at the de-facto standard -10dBV line level), this is a little more challenging. I need to find an analog stereo line level signal that I can intercept, pre-volume, pre-equalizer, pre-balance, and obviously pre-fader. Is anyone familiar with these radios who can possibly save me some "reverse-engineering" time with this? I already discovered the radio uses a pair of Mitsubishi M5227 chips for the analog EQ (one chip for left channel, the other for right channel), so I was going to start tracing back from their input. But tracing the high-density multi-layer circuit board is rather tedious, and even if the M5227 is the first processor on the audio signal chain, I'd rather tap into the radio's main boards (if possible) instead of the faceplate circuit board. So if someone already knows a good place to tap into the audio signal chain, receiving their wisdom would be wonderful.
And one final thought: The radio has a 2-pin connector (male socket) on the back, but no label as to what it is or what it does. Is this an external audio input? Because if so, that makes my work on this project much easier! :lol: (I know one of the 7-pin connectors on the back has a "MUTE" pin.)
Thanks.
I have a Chrysler Infinity IV radio, supplier code 26777. It features an analog 5-band graphic equalizer, internal CD player, detented rotary encoder volume control, and the balance/fader joystick has a slighty-wider-than-high rectangular faceplate.
As I understand, these units were made by Alpine.
Two things:
#1 - The VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display) on this radio is completely dark/blank. I heard this was a common problem with the Infinity IV radios, but I was unable to find an exact "likely cause". People on other sites and forums were saying "Just get an aftermarket radio", but that's not an option for me. I'd much prefer disassembling this radio, finding the fault, and soldering/desoldering the defective part or broken circuit board track or whatever. (Unless of course the VFD has developed a leak and lost its vacuum, or its internal heater/cathodes have burned out; in that case, I'll be looking for another Chrysler radio.)
#2 - I'd like to add an analog auxiliary line input to the radio. Unlike the older radios with potentiometer volume controls (which were almost always fed more-or-less at the de-facto standard -10dBV line level), this is a little more challenging. I need to find an analog stereo line level signal that I can intercept, pre-volume, pre-equalizer, pre-balance, and obviously pre-fader. Is anyone familiar with these radios who can possibly save me some "reverse-engineering" time with this? I already discovered the radio uses a pair of Mitsubishi M5227 chips for the analog EQ (one chip for left channel, the other for right channel), so I was going to start tracing back from their input. But tracing the high-density multi-layer circuit board is rather tedious, and even if the M5227 is the first processor on the audio signal chain, I'd rather tap into the radio's main boards (if possible) instead of the faceplate circuit board. So if someone already knows a good place to tap into the audio signal chain, receiving their wisdom would be wonderful.
And one final thought: The radio has a 2-pin connector (male socket) on the back, but no label as to what it is or what it does. Is this an external audio input? Because if so, that makes my work on this project much easier! :lol: (I know one of the 7-pin connectors on the back has a "MUTE" pin.)
Thanks.
