Multi play CD changer set up??

[Chris Wilson]

As no one seems to want my mega miles Soarer I have decided to keep it. I have fixed the heater, the only other thing is the boot mounted Carrozeria (Pioneer?) CD player. It had no power to it, now it whirs and tries to do something. The little dedicated display shows the remote will change disc and track OK, but no sound via the car stereo. I know NOTHING about in car sound stuff, it either works or it doesn't... I had a look and it seems to send its output into a splitter box in the radio aerial lead, so I assume the radio sees it as another radio station and its output is on the VHF FM frequency? Or is it AM?? I can tune in to a white noise sort of channel on VHF FM, which disappears when the CD is powered off, and back on when power is re applied. No music though... It may be that it doesn't like my home written CD's I suppose, haven't tried a "proper" one yet. Is there any easy way to diagnose if it has an output? Jane had one in her Soarer, but we can't recall just how it worked, it just did :-)

 

Thanks.

[matt]

I agree........ try a real cd first

[Dave R]

is the changer from the UK? is the headunit from the UK?

 

now im not 100% but seem to recall that a Jap headunit uses a different FM range to a UK headunit, so im thinking if the changer is a Jap item then the modulator will put out a signal in the Jap range rather than the UK range? Trying a real CD sounds the best option though to start.

[Chris Wilson]

Originally posted by Dave R

is the changer from the UK? is the headunit from the UK?

 

now im not 100% but seem to recall that a Jap headunit uses a different FM range to a UK headunit, so im thinking if the changer is a Jap item then the modulator will put out a signal in the Jap range rather than the UK range? Trying a real CD sounds the best option though to start.

 

It is probably all jap, and apparently was working. The heater blowing the fuse intermittently was a buggered car phone install from ages back shedding its insulation and shorting to earth behind the dash, now removed. I am 99% sure the units happily talked to one another at some stage. I'll try a commercially made CD tomorrow. Could be something simple like that, perhaps I'll get lucky with it! How much is a basic CD changer unit, nothing fancy at all, absolute basic thing that works and plays music? I am not a hi fi fan, just want a means to soothe my jagged nerves out on the road :-)

 

Thanks for the replies.

[Dave R]

for a headunit and changer you can pay anywhere from around £250 - £500+, varies noramlly down to the quality of the head unit and the features it has. Each manufacturer tends to produce 2 or 3 changers that the entire range uses.

 

Might be worth trying to replace the leads on the existing items if the genuine CD doesnt solve it, these tend to be pricey and im assuming hard to locate if its Jap equipment.

[Terminator]

I thought Carrozeria were the top of the range in Japan. So it should be worth fixing. Matt H may be able to help you out Chris.

[Gareth Davies]

Chris, i've got a full Pioneer Carrozeria system in my supra... they're >very

 

The unit I have in the boot (a silver box) is infact a DVD reader for the navigation data and nothing more. The Audio CD is in the head unit (double din). The slot being behind the facia (press the eject top left to get at it). The multichanger in the boot has a special bus cable between it and the head unit. They play CD-r's fine though.

 

However I think it was infact the name for their entire range of top end kit. I can have a poke around if you want to know what goes where if that'll help. Matt H really is the master of this domain.

[Matt Harwood]

Hi Chris, as you rightly said, Carrozeria, is the Jap version of Pioneer. By your description it's an FM modulator CD changer, probably due to the complexity of changing the radio in a Soarer.

Assuming they have worked ok together in the past, it should just be a case of retuning the radio to the output of the changer.

As has been said already, try a pre-recorded CD in the unit first. If the unit is more than 3 years old, it wasn't designed to play CD-R's, (they usually do, but they weren't designed to).

If you can't get it to tune in, check that a frequency expander hasn't been fitted which is stopping the original radio from going down, (oo-er), low enough to pick up the signal.

If you know where the modulator box is, they usually have either a variable control or multi position switch to change FM frequencies in case of another radio station sitting beneath the CD when playing - This should tell you what frequency you're looking for.

 

If all else fails, I think, (going by memory), I can get a complete new one for around £125 + Vat. - UK units work around 88-90 mhz, so you'll be able to recieve this frequency either way.

 

Good luck:)

[Chris Wilson]

Thanks for all the replies. I found a "Channel 1 / Channel 2" toggle switch on the back of the boot mounted CD player, changing from 1 to 2 then tuning the radio found the output and it's now working perfectly, even on home brew CD's. Many thanks.