Hi,
I bought an XC90 a year ago (in Switzerland) and had asked about connecting my existing MP3 player. We all know the story:
- Volve 'forgot' an Aux input on their audio systems...
- Volvo jukebox not supported on XC90, no date on when something might come out for XC90
- Volvo does not disclose the specs on the optical link, making it impossible for aftermarket to come up with something
- aftermarket does not appear to have anything today - not clear when something comes out either (they have to do serious reverse engineering)
- Volvo does NOT support the standard car radio DIN shaft on XC90 (you can get this in V70 for instance).
When the car reminded me that the year service was due, I realized that the problem still had not been solved. I got really #$%^& and asked my volve dealer to remove the car radio. There is this beautiful Dension standard shaft tuner with built in removeable hard drive. I would just do the mechanics somehow. All I need is 12 Volt, the Antenna input and speaker wires.
Well - that did not work. First, I could not find the Antenna nor speaker wires where the radio controls are. In fact, the radio is in at least four parts. There is the display unit with the controls in the dash, right below is the CD drive, the amplifier is under the passenger seat, and God knows where the tuner is. And yes, it is all connected up through an optical wire.
So I told the dealer to put the radio back in. But I got an idea: Amplifiers use analog signals for the power stages (Guess what, I'm an EE). So, I unscrewed the amplifier from under the passenger seat, opened it up (this was actually fairly difficult), and using a scope figured out where the signals are available.
Then I soldered a 2$ Aux input cable to the amplifier, put everything back.
I have my AUX input working on my XC90!!!
Now, you will need to know what you're doing when you attempt to do this yourself
1) the power leads on the amplifier are always supplied with 12 Volts, even with ignition key removed. I conclude the amplifier has a solid state power switch on the inside that causes it to turn off.
2) the amplifier is turned ON with ignition key in lock, even when the radio is off. This is because the speakers are used to signal the beep when your seatbelt is not fastened. They (Volvo) actually did somethiing smart here.
This picture below shows the opened up amplifier from below, with red circles for the AIX input wire connection. R and L indicate Right and Left inputs.
(see bottom left thumbnail)
The next picture shows how the wire is connected to the points of the previous picture. Note how the ground is soldered to the large ground square.
YOU MUST INSERT a series resistor (1kOhm) and capacitor (10 uF) for each channel. You can see the cap in the detail picture, the resistor is inside the isolation. The + terminal of the cap must be connected to the circuit board terminal.
(see bottom right thumbnail)
To listen to my MP3 player, I simply connect it to the cable, turn the radio volume down to zero, and enjoy MY music. Traffic announcements still come thru, which is what I wanted. Interestingly, the MP3 player just is heard equally well when the radio is turned off, and can be heard until about a minute AFTER the ignition key is taken out....
Disadvantage: I need to use the volume control on the MP3 player. None of the radio controls work (volume, balance, fader, equalizer). I only connected up the front speakers could have done more, but for me it's good enough.
Advantage: Superb quality! No noise, simply does not even compare to an FM modulator (yeah, I tried that too...)
When you do this, you do this completely at your own risk. I do not accept any liabiliti when you try to replicate what I've done. I post this for people who know what they're doing. You have to know which end of a soldering iron to hold!
Good luck.
Ronald Gadget