Upgrading to MP3

A big Hi to all my readers! I've been really busy the last few days,unfortunately it was work related not passion related, so I was unable to post anything new. But now, I will love to tell you about the something I did to my car last summer.
Basically, I got tired of burning CD so that I have some sort of music compilation to my liking, and also, I am one of those persons who get tired of a song pretty fast. So I decided it was time to upgrade my trusty old HU 603 to be MP3 capable.
So I started scouring the net for alternatives, till I found this: 

I know, I know, it's made in China. But I decided to go ahead and purchase it nevertheless against my better judgement maybe because it was readily available in Romania at a relatively low cost and fast shipping.

The installation was pretty easy, requiring only to remove the HU unit (naturally), AC and some other trims. Of course I removed the battery connectors first. As far as cable modifications go, I only had to connect the power cable of this unit to the power cable of the car and isolate the wires (easy job even for an electronics noob like myself). The kit came with a pretty useful manual explaining which wire is the power in my car. This particular model uses a connector cable that fits with the CD changer input jack and requires disconnecting the CD changer (if available) and loosing it's functionality. Trust me, you don't need it anymore after this upgrade.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures about how to remove the AC, HU and other trims, but I'm sure with future projects I will make some.

I decided to place the main unit in the center console, so I had to remove the trims all the way to that place. The plastic trim snapped off easily. The connector which connects the HU to the main MP3 unit was luckily long enough, although maybe it could have been another 10 cm longer. 

Here's the end result:

The MP3 unit can use a USB Stick, a MMC card or it can connect to your mobile phone using a standard 3,5mm jack.

 here is where the connector comes out from beneath the plastic trims. As you can see, no cutting of the trim was necessary 

 another angle

Here is a picture of the cable going under the plastic trim of my gearshift lever

 I draw with a red line the path of the connector under the plastic trim. The most tricky part was to be sure it doesn't impair the gear shift (especially when in reverse).

Now we have almost limitless music in our car. Definitely worth the investment. One last note, it appares that this device in particular can not read very long MP3 (like a MP3 file of a full concert or something similar).

So, what do you think? Tell me if you consider a project like this and, if your answer is yes, tell me how can I help you!

Till next time, safe journeys!