dbkelly,


That is great news, congratulations.

Looking forward to check out the details and schematic.

 

DSF-S2k,

Yes, I simply open the rear speaker circuit using a DPDT relay (with a diode across the coil). The headunit is surviving for now! I did quite a bit of testing when I had the dash pulled using the mute button to ensure the headunit didn't get hot, explode, that sort of thing. It didn't! If the headunit eventually dies, then it's be a good excuse to get an aftermarket one. Is my solution the absolute best, no, but it mutes the rears like I wanted, so I'm happy!

 

My new Alpine head unit offers "Mute" and "Interrupt." The "Mute" button (on the head or on the remote) quiets the sound by 20 db. The radio or CD keep playing.

The "Interrupt" button pauses the CD and quiets all speakers and subwoofers. "Interrupt" displays on the head.

I wired the S2000's dash "Mute" to the Alpine's "Interrupt" with a Radio Shack reed relay Part Number 275-233. This little thing has four leads, is perfect for the job and only draws 10 milliamps through the coil so it won't burn out the dash mute circuit.

I don't think this part would work for muting the rear and front speakers on the stock head.

I know this thread is for guys sticking with the stock head and trying for a work-around for the stock head only muting the front speaker outputs.

I encourage you to forget it and replace the head. I was hesitant because I didn't want to lose the dash controls and I thought the PAC SWI-3 solution was kludgy, but the PAC SWI-3 is great and every aftermarket head offers a significant advantage over the stock head.

Other things I like about the Alpine CDA-7876: tilt of head (1 tilt position is perfect for the S2000's radio location), significant power gain, significant gain in control over tone with adjustable tone controls and high pass filter, CD text feature so that I get album title / artist displayed or song title displayed.

The CD text only works with CDs recorded with CD text info and I haven't found any that are. However, my laptop has CD-R and CD-RW and I can copy my CDs onto cheap CD-R discs and add CD text info. The discs cost about twenty cents each at Walmart so I have twenty or so copied and stored in my S2000.

 

I don't see why the headunit would get hot or explode simply by adding a relay.

This car's mute supplies a 12v current branched off the ACC before it taps the car radio. You run mute to one side of the coil, ground to the other. Lay a diode across to prevent voltage transients going back up the mute line when the power is cut/coil colapes.

You can build in a circuit to create a true mute rather than open the circuit on the rear lines. But it all comes down to why. Why bother with the expense and time to build something for a wimpy radio to begin with?

Since the Pac unit can't use the mute line, Barrys solution is ideal. You have the mute power the relay, when it switches, you have the ground and radio lead touch.

 

Barry -

This is slightly off topic but can you change the color of your Alpine display? What color is it normally? How does it look relative to the digital dash?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by pittpanther
[B]Barry -

 

I was not being literal with I said the radio might explode. Opening the relay will cause an open cirucit while under load. If the radio is unable to handle this, it will either get hot or stop working. I was trying to explain that before I put everything back together, I made sure the mute can be switch on/off without adverse effects on the radio including getting hot and/or stop working.



David

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dbkelly
[B]I was not being literal with I said the radio might explode.

 

DBKelly, are you sharing this info or selling it? I'd like to install rear speakers with the mute option.

Thanks in advance for any info.

 

Installed Lucid's rear speaker panels with the mute switch option today. The speakers sound great and the mute switch works as advertised--when playing the radio, the effect is the same as before; when playing a cd, pressing the mute switch turns the radio off; pressing it again turns the radio back on and the cd picks up where it left off, although there is a little lag time before the music resumes.

Lucid's approach works. Not that others wouldn't as well, but I say, "If it works, don't fix it."

cal