CD Multichanger

[Huw_L]

I have a 2001 3.2S. It has the CD Changer Prep option (the wiring in the frunk), but never had the actual CD Multichanger itself optioned.

I decided I quite fancied the luxury of not having to swap CDs manually from the driver's seat, so purchased a 2nd multichanger. 

I've plugged it in, and the unit is obviously getting power as the CD Cassette pops out when you press the eject button on the unit (it doesn't do that when unplugged).

However, when I cycle through the available sources there is just CD (which plays the CD in the head unit) and FM. There isn't any CD Multichanger available to select.

Is there a step I need to do to tell the head unit that there's now a CD multichanger available? Or should the head unit automatically recognise the multichanger?

Any pointers greatly appreciated.

[GmanB]

Not sure what head unit you have, but on my factory Sat Nav double din I have separate CD and FM/AM buttons to change the source. I have to press the CD button a second time to change it to the auto changer. Failing that, I'd try disconnecting the battery so the head unit resets and does a proper reboot.

Edit: Leave key in position 1 if you disconnect the battery to stop the alarm sounding 

[Huw_L]

Sorry, I should have said ... it's a CDR22.

[Jon61]

1 hour ago, Huw_L said:

Is there a step I need to do to tell the head unit that there's now a CD multichanger available? Or should the head unit automatically recognise the multichanger?

Any pointers greatly appreciated.

I don't know the definitive answer to the question, and I don't know if this will work as I never had that specific unit in my 2001 S, but a different one from the same series. On that, there was a hidden installation menu, not documented in the manual, that you reached by holding down the TP (traffic) button for at least 8 seconds. As I recall, this gave access to various on/off settings that you could configure, so it's possible that the presence of the changer might be one of those settings that you need to switch on.

By the way, if it works, what you should end up with is another on-screen input option of "CDC" to refer to the CD changer, with "CD" still referring to the single-disc player.

[trustytris]

Can u get a Aux option to come up as that may be it!

[Huw_L]

2 hours ago, Jon61 said:

I don't know the definitive answer to the question, and I don't know if this will work as I never had that specific unit in my 2001 S, but a different one from the same series. On that, there was a hidden installation menu, not documented in the manual, that you reached by holding down the TP (traffic) button for at least 8 seconds. As I recall, this gave access to various on/off settings that you could configure, so it's possible that the presence of the changer might be one of those settings that you need to switch on.

By the way, if it works, what you should end up with is another on-screen input option of "CDC" to refer to the CD changer, with "CD" still referring to the single-disc player.

Thank you.

This did bring up a hidden menu, but the only option was to turn on/off an Aux input.

Turning it on allowed it to be selected from the Source button, but selecting Aux got me nothing but silence.

[Huw_L]

17 minutes ago, trustytris said:

Can u get a Aux option to come up as that may be it!

Thanks.

After accessing the hidden menu mentioned above, I could get an Aux option ... but that gave me nothing but silence.

[trustytris]

40 minutes ago, Huw_L said:

Thanks.

After accessing the hidden menu mentioned above, I could get an Aux option ... but that gave me nothing but silence.

I take it u have both the power cable plus red & white plugs for sound!

[Huw_L]

Yes, all 3 plugged in.

[trustytris]

23 minutes ago, Huw_L said:

Yes, all 3 plugged in.

then i dont know' You need a Hi fi geek to help u me thinks now !!

[Jon61]

1 hour ago, Huw_L said:

Thank you.

This did bring up a hidden menu, but the only option was to turn on/off an Aux input.

Turning it on allowed it to be selected from the Source button, but selecting Aux got me nothing but silence.

The Aux on/off setting is to allow to use the changer audio connections as an Aux input if you don't have a changer connected - with that setting 'on', it allows to you select 'AUX' as you've noticed, and it would then play any audio received via the changer's audio connections. But you're clearly not able to tell the changer to actually start playing the CDs and send the required signal. You want that setting to be 'off'. I thought there might be a different setting for changer on/off, but the more I think about it, I think the head unit should just be able to detect the changer's control signals on pin 7 once it's powered up to know that the changer is present.

I was going to suggest checking the connections, but you've done that, and anyway, I believe the control signals to the changer are through the same plug as the power, so if your changer is getting power (and accepting/ejecting the CD cartidge) then that sounds as if it's OK.

You don't say what changer you've fitted though. For that generation of head unit I would have expected it to be a CDC-3 6-disc changer. I think that should have a green 6-pin plug (C2) for power, clock and control signals to/from the changer, and a blue 8-pin plug (C3) with just audio left/right/ground wires  connected (pins 18, 19 & 20, though the same plus could potentially have two telephone connections on pins 13 & 14). If you have a separate amplifier, the green and blue plugs should fit into the head unit next to an existing (yellow) C1 plug with the line-out connections to the amp (if you don't have a separate amp, this C1 plug probably won't be there and the speakers will instead be connected to a separate 8-pin plug B). Does that match your setup? If so, I'd have a good look to see if there's any reason that all 6 pins in the green plug might not be making a good connection (bent/corroded pins), or if the wires could be damaged anywhere in between the units. The connections in the green plug are: Pin 7 (blue)=control bus / Pin8 (red)=+V / Pin9 (black)=GND / Pin10 (green) and Pin11 (yellow)=Clock / Pin12 (purple)=Reset, so I'd look particularly at 7 & 10-12.

Or do you have a different changer, in which case are you sure it's compatible with the CDR22? Only a couple of years later than your car, Porsche switched to the units with the MOST connections, and although I don't know, I'd guess that those head units (CDR-32 etc) might have used a different changer (by the time of the 987, they were using the CDC-4).

[Gutley]

Blimey Jon, when did you turn in to Richard Hamilton! 😀

[GmanB]

Have you tried a hard reboot yet?

[GmanB]

Don't mean to be condescending at all and I'm not in IT support. It solves a lot of home cinema audio problems for myself. 

[Jon61]

3 hours ago, Gutley said:

Blimey Jon, when did you turn in to Richard Hamilton! 😀

I wouldn't say that, but I did know the pre-fibre audio units on the 986 fairly well from when I worked out how to connect an ipod up to my old one.

[Richard Hamilton]

I hate to state the obvious, but you have plugged the cable in at the head unit end?  It is normally dangling somewhere behind the head unit.

[Gutley]

14 hours ago, Gutley said:

Blimey Jon, when did you turn in to Richard Hamilton! 😀

 

49 minutes ago, Richard Hamilton said:

I hate to state the obvious, but you have plugged the cable in at the head unit end?  It is normally dangling somewhere behind the head unit.

Crikey, Betelgeuse needs his name invoked 3 times. Richard just needs 1😀

[Huw_L]

Sooo ... I'm fairly handy with a spanner, but electrickery goes over my head. If I keep the smoke inside the wires, I'm doing well!

Thanks to everyone who's contributed so far, you've been really helpful.

A couple of points to steer the conversation ...

1. I haven't had the head unit out, so can't confirm what's going on back there. Is it difficult? However, if the CD changer is getting power (evidenced by accepting/ejecting the CD cassette) then surely everything is plugged in as it needs to be?

2. The multichanger itself isn't a Porsche one, but a fairly generic Sony one. I spotted it on Ebay & won it for a fiver. At that price I figured it was worth taking a punt, plugging it in & seeing what happened.

[Huw_L]

13 hours ago, GmanB said:

Have you tried a hard reboot yet?

Not yet. Will do once everything else is ruled out. Had a few problems in the past with battery disconnects causing different issues on other cars, so it tends to be my last resort these days.

[Richard Hamilton]

I just looked at the wiring diagrams, and yes, the CDC is powered from the head unit, so it looks like it is connected. 

However, the only CD changers that work with a CDR22 are the Porsche CDC3 or Sony CDX T65.  Is your Sony that model?

[Jon61]

1 hour ago, Huw_L said:

I haven't had the head unit out, so can't confirm what's going on back there. Is it difficult? 

To get the original unit radio out you need a pair of keys that fit in the small horizontal slots in the front panel, available on Ebay (search for "becker radio removal keys" - they're very cheap if you're prepared to wait for them to arrive from China). They look a bit like this. It's not too difficult though there is a bit of a knack to using them - basically you put the pointed ends in the slots, the hook at the end disengages the latch, and you then use the finger holes to pull the unit out. But I could never remember whether the keys go in with the hooks pointing inwards or outwards ... 

1 hour ago, Huw_L said:

However, if the CD changer is getting power (evidenced by accepting/ejecting the CD cassette) then surely everything is plugged in as it needs to be?

It would appear so, but it's just possible that the power wires are connected but some of the other necessary connections are not - if the plugs are not in firmly, or if the wires are damaged en route somewhere. 

1 hour ago, Huw_L said:

The multichanger itself isn't a Porsche one, but a fairly generic Sony one. I spotted it on Ebay & won it for a fiver. At that price I figured it was worth taking a punt, plugging it in & seeing what happened.

My understanding is that the "Porsche" CDC-3 is actually a rebadged Becker 2660, which in turn is a Sony unit but with Becker electronics (I don't know what difference that makes) , although it's possible its something to do with the speed-dependent volume feature that the Porsche unit had IIRC [Edit: no, it can't be that, that would be a difference in the head unit not the changer]. I presume your car has the proper (CDC-3-compatible) wiring in it, probably from when it's previously had a changer fitted - I can't recall what the connections at the changer end looked like, but if you could fit all of the plugs into appropriate slots on the changer you'd think it was likely to be a compatible unit (eg not one of the later fibreoptic units).

[Richard Hamilton]

The keys I use look different to that:

This is what the Sony CDX T65 look like:

[Richard Hamilton]

On second thoughts, maybe the keys I have are for a CDR23...

[½cwt]

I have a set of CDR22 head unit, CDC, bracket and removal keys. Check your messages...

[Huw_L]

Thanks for the replies.

No ... my unit is not an 'offically' compatible one. It was very cheap on Ebay and had the right plugs on it, so took a punt.

It's this type of changer (not my exact unit, but another auction for the same type) - https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F163803011835

So if I'm reading things right, the fact it gets power means everything 'should' work, and the fact it doesn't it down to the fact it's not a compatible unit (despite having compatible connectors)?

So end result ... I've paid a fiver to roll the dice & lost!