Car Stereo 1

I just got an '03 Accord. The stereo is in that time period between when people had cassette players (for which you can get an aux input adapter, like this) and when everyone had mp3 players and the cars included a direct aux input.
FM transmitters suck; they are too expensive, break easily, are a pain to use, and above all, are awful quality. Surely you can plug a Research shows there are basically 2 options for installing one yourself: Blitzsafe and PIE. You won't find either for less than about $75. This is obviously a bit excessive, since there is a 14-pin output on the back of the head, which surely has at least the left/right/ground audio wires accessible.

A little more research, and I found a pinout for the connector (once I find a copy of it again, I will post it), although I have no idea if it is right. I also did a little delving into Apple's iPod cable pinout. Sure, once I had the audio wires, I could also wire up the cable to play audio and charge an iPod, but is that really enough? For docking stations, etc, Apple uses a proprietary Accessory Protocol, which is very well documented. The pinout from the car appears to use a serial connection of some kind. Wouldn't it be cool to have the car's stereo controls control the iPod? I looked at using an Arduino to handle the translation between the car and the iPod. LCD screens are surprisingly cheap; I could even get a screen to display the track info. I haven't really worked with Arduino before (though I had heard all good things) so I hadn't realized how huge the community is. Not only was there already library for controlling an 16x2 character LCD and for serial input/output, there is even a library for controlling iPods via AAP!

This removes most of the technical work of the project (especially the programming). I ordered a y-cable adapter for the 14pin output (at a freaking $20, car parts are too expensive) and the other parts necessary (Arduino, iPod breakout board, etc). I went ahead and asked Honda support for more information about the pinout on the stereo, but I am pretty confident that they will never get back to me (prove me wrong, Honda!). I am expecting to have to test the car's input/output on my own, connecting the pin to HyperTerminal or something and pressing all the buttons on my stereo. Once I have all the materials and info, I will post my results. In the meantime, I am driving around with a big hole in my dashboard.

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One last note of interest, City and Color (that's Alexisonfire's Dallas Green's side project) released his new album today, Little Hell. I am listening to it at this very moment, and am fairly impressed. Check it out.