DIY car "audio control centre"?

[DJ-Studd]

Seeing as my audio source is going to be an IPod, I started thinking... what's the point of having a head unit? All it'll be doing is taking the auxiliary from the IPod and sending it to the appropriate amps.

Has anyone designed a "distribution system"?
IE:
The audio from the IPod gets fed to the system via RCA. The system allows you to adjust the volume and maybe front-rear positioning. The signals are then sent to the amplifiers in accordance with output settings.

Can anyone help me out here? I'm not exactly fluent when it comes to finitely designed electronics

A quick drawing of the layout:

From left to right: Power button, multi-purpose up/down (defaulting as volume control), multi-purpose button selector, LCD.

It would be nice for the system to have some kind of digital "control". IE, you press up or down and the volume will be set to such a level, with the volume displayed on the LCD.


Maybe I'm droning a bit, it's 3:30AM, but I'd certainly like to develop such a system. Maybe I'll get lucky and somebody else will be able to point me to a system that already exists!

Cheers guys
-- DJ

[speaker]

Originally posted by DJ-Studd
Seeing as my audio source is going to be an IPod,

I'd check here:

MP3 CAR

Lots of hardware builders there. You may find something close to what you want.

speaker

[DJ-Studd]

Thanks mate, I'll have a good look through that site

The one thing that I hate about audio/technology? You never have enough money, even for DIY

Who just spend $500 on a second-hand, 5 year old UPS?

Ah well, it's all worth it

-- DJ

[n00beR]

Sounds to me like you want to build a digital preamp.

I have been looking for a car based DIY digital preamp for a while, but have had no success.
However there is a good thread about hi-fi digital preamps here.
A lot of good ideas could be taken from here and adapted or built on .

Let me know if you have any success.

n00beR

[DJ-Studd]

Cheers, that thread certainly looks interesting.

The idea is:
Source (RCA input) -> Pre-amp (DS1669 digital pot to control level, on/off, balance?) -> EQ -> (RCA) AMPS

In theory it doesn't sound too hard...

Now I need to decide on a decent pre-amp. Do I have one pre-amp for each set of outputs, or do I split the signal after the pre-amp?

I'll keep pondering and posting. Feel free to put in 2c anyone

-- DJ

[DJ-Studd]

On second thoughts...
The IPod would output at line level....
Does that mean I'd simply have to whack a DS1669 in series to it then send the signal to my amps (Rear 6x9+Front Splits, Sub).

Am I right or am I on a completely different track?
Cheers

-- DJ