Car2PC Adapter

Last week, I ordered a Car2PC adapter from InDashPC (link). The shipping time was quoted at between 7 and 10 working days.
I thought I had a week or so to get the rest of the components in order...
Alas no.

The Car2PC adapter I ordered arrived about a week ahead of schedule. :D

From Car2PC Delivered

The Car2PC adapter provides a USB and stereo interface to the head unit in the MX-5 (many other vehicles are supported, in case anyone's interested). The USB connection is actually a serial to USB adapter, so no special drivers are required to control it. Just open the serial port, then read and write data as required!

Given this, the adapter provides three functions;

1. Plays the audio from the PC's headphone jack as an auxiliary input stream (on my head unit, this is "EX" or External CD)


2. Send head unit button presses to the PC via the serial connection (in my MX-5, this even includes the buttons on the steering wheel!)


3. Send audio track information from the PC to the head unit to be displayed on the text side of the head units LCD.

Installation seems easy enough.

1. Remove the head unit


2. Plug the adapter into the CD Changer port


3. Re-install the head unit.

Done!

Unfortunately, it's not actually that easy.

Thankfully, after many hours of reading forums and blogs, I came across an an excellent set of instructions provided on the www.MX-5.com forums (link).

That's one of the most difficult items to acquire and install taken care of.
Provided the rest of the components arrive, I know what I'll be doing this weekend. :D