Attention Blitzsafe users - info needed

[D'Ecosse]

It's solved - skip on down to post #6

I'd like to poll those of you who have the Blitzsafe HON/ALp V.1D adapter installed.
I've seen many posts from people who have had varying degrees of 'success' with this module.
I am also concerned that a couple of user have had to swap pins (or use an ACUALP adapter) while others don't appear to have found that necessary (although that just may be they haven't noticed an issue)
I have seen several references that the plug is very difficult to insert & that the quality of this device is less than stellar. However it is still the only adapter (to my knowledge) on the market that will allow plug n play connection of both CD Changer and an auxiliary device.
See these posts for reference:

http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40750

http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40556

http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42550

So can Blitzsafe users please feed back your findings.
Be sure to include the following information:
A) V.1 or V.1D? (V.1D has pass-through for Changer)
1) where it is connected (at the head unit, trunk or ?)
2) Did you use an ACUALP adapter?
3) DO you have a CD changer - OEM or Alpine mass-market?
4) Performance - does it sound 'normal'? Can you get true left & right stereo from your aux device when you adjust the balance control?
5) Smartenna - yes or no; did you find a way to enable it to work
6) Any other relevant info??

Thanks in advance for your feedback - I'f like to get this information confirmed so we can maybe have it put in a FAQ.

 

[Joshs]

I'd like to poll those of you who have the Blitzsafe HON/ALp V.1D adapter installed.
I've seen many posts from people who have had varying degrees of 'success' with this module.
I am also concerned that a couple of user have had to swap pins (or use an ACUALP adapter) while others don't appear to have found that necessary (although that just may be they haven't noticed an issue)
I have seen several references that the plug is very difficult to insert & that the quality of this device is less than stellar. However it is still the only adapter (to my knowledge) on the market that will allow plug n play connection of both CD Changer and an auxiliary device.
See these posts for reference:

http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40750

http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40556

http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42550

So can Blitzsafe users please feed back your findings.
Be sure to include the following information:
1) where it is connected (at the head unit, trunk or ?)
2) Did you use an ACUALP adapter?
3) DO you have a CD changer - OEM or Alpine mass-market?
4) Performance - does it sound 'normal'? Can you get true left & right stereo from your aux device when you adjust the balance control?
5) Smartenna - yes or no; did you find a way to enable it to work
6) Any other relevant info??
Thanks in advance for your feedback - I'f like to get this information confirmed so we can maybe have it put in a FAQ.

I've got one that I purchased in July 04 from logjam for $130. It's now down to $99.

1) I have used it successfully both at the head unit, and from the trunk with no discernable difference in performance.
2) I did not need the pin-swap or adapter
3) my cd-changer is OEM (Says ACURA on it)
4) Sound was good, left and right balance seemed fine.
5) I have a smartenna but after installing the blitzsafe (which disables the smartenna) I disconnected the power to the motor to stop it from getting 'excited'.
6) I found the female din connector on the blitzsafe to be less than a perfect fit, a bit shallow. I also had trouble switching between the aux and cd changer, but the 'back' button on my stereo is a little sticky, and I think for a while I was trying fwd-fwd-back instead of just fwd-back. I currently have it installed sans cd-changer, and tried recently and was unable to get it to switch, but I suspect that's normal behavior when no changer is attached.
A) From the receipt: Blitzsafe HON/ALP V.1D HONALPV1D 1 129.95
Dual Purpose '91-'98
Honda-to-Alpine CD
Changer & Auxiliary Input
Converter


Since I don't use it anymore I just sold it (disclosing all these issues of course and allowing for a return if it doesn't work), so we should have another data point soon.

-Josh

 

[D'Ecosse]

Thanks Josh!
I am confused that yours works fine without an adapter (as others have similarly) while some have found the adapter necessary?
I don't know what to think any more!
Incidentally I added another question for whether V.1 or V.1D is applicable

More inputs please!

 

[sjones]

Okay, I'll post some info from what i have found out so far.

First thing is the combination to switch from aux to changer and vice versa is 1-4-1. Press without holding any other buttons and it switches fine.

Second thing is my smartenna is currently working with the blitz unit. I have the smartenna plugged in the trunk right beside the antenna connections and the blitz unit plugged in the trunk as well beside the cd changer.

A) V.1D
1) connected at the trunk.
2) ACUALP adapter fixed my cd changer playing in mono muffled sound
3) OEM CD Changer
4) Performance - i have true sound with the XM radio as well as AM/FM/Tape. But my cd changer is muffled and playing in mono. Hopefully the ACUALP adapter will fix this.
5) Smartenna - yes, it works. See info above.
6) Other relevant info. Don't work on your radio for hours and hours without occassionally starting the car up. It will kill your battery.

 

[Osiris_x11]

some insights...

I was the lucky guy to acquire joshs' Blitzsafe HON/ALP v.1D.

I have the OEM head-unit, OEM Alpine cd-changer w/ ACU/HON-ALP, and plan to add a RCA-input Mp3 player.

I had called up a few retailers of the Blitzsafe HON/ALP v.1D ( www.enfigcarstereo.com offers it for $89.99). The owner/customer-support tech. mentioned to me of pins #2 & #6 needing to be swapped inside the box. We conversed a bit and that was about it. As joshs had mentioned to me, his Blitzsafe HON/ALP v.1D worked fine w/ the OEM cd-changer. Just the 8-pin adapter's fitment was slightly off.

 

[D'Ecosse]

I'm now fairly certain of how the various pin-swaps play with each other.

It appears that the Blitzsafe auxiliary device introduces a 'pin switch'

By connecting at the CD changer this would be after the original pin-switch that is in the OEM system, So it now needs an ACUALP adapter to switch it back again. Note that if a mass-market CD changer was used here, the ACUALP would now not be necessary.
It will require an RCA extender cable to run from the trunk back into the cabin if that's where the auxiliary device is mounted, but small price to pay to get functionality on everything including Smartenna. Note that if the Blitzsafe device is connected at the head unit (the plug does not fit properly here anyway) then a Smartenna will not function if it is connected in the usual location in the trunk)


This is how it goes:

Standard set-up

For Smartenna compatibility, connect the Blitzsafe at the rear and use RCA extender to return to front.
Because of the additional pin-swap inroduced in the Blitzsafe, it will require the addition of an ACUALP adapter for an OEM changer (or removal of it if a mass-market changer was utilized):

Without Smartenna, Blitzsafe can be connected at the console - however - note that the Blitzsafe will not be a 'perfect' fit in the head unit - the array of the pins is a slightly different shape. It can go in if forced, just not ideal fit. The same logic applies re pin-swap requirement adapter for changer.

 

[Inexcess]

So can Blitzsafe users please feed back your findings.
Be sure to include the following information:
A) V.1 or V.1D? (V.1D has pass-through for Changer)

V.1D

1) where it is connected (at the head unit, trunk or ?)

head unit connected

2) Did you use an ACUALP adapter?

No

3) DO you have a CD changer - OEM or Alpine mass-market?

mass-market alpine
4) Performance - does it sound 'normal'? Can you get true left & right stereo from your aux device when you adjust the balance control?

Sounds great, better than great.
5) Smartenna - yes or no; did you find a way to enable it to work

Yes, no longer works
6) Any other relevant info??

Do not have any issues with mine.

 

[TyraNSX]

Ken, couldn't one of you smart guys use an ohm meter or something to test the pins on the cable in the trunk and the cable from dash to front wall of trunk & see if they do swap over? If an input on one pin is coming out the opposite pin (not it's counterpart on the other end of the cable) on the other end, wouldn't that confirm the switch over location? So couldn't you just hook the Blitzsafe to the end of the cable where it enters the trunk and hook the CD player & other device to that? Which sounds like what you are describing. I'm just trying to understand & it seems like a simple test could confirm your suspicions.

 

[D'Ecosse]

Sure - I'd need a car with a changer though.
The reason I believe that the pin swap is in the extension is because I had a mass-market changer in my car that was hooked directly to the front left corner with no ACUALP adapter. This was when I first had the car & reading all the wonderful knowledge on 'Prime. It said I needed an ACUALP so tried it & it failed miserably!
I can't find the post now but I saw a similar report form someone else that also conformed my conclusion.
The Blitzsafe appears to also have a pin-swap (may have been designed to accommodate the original pin-swap in the Honda/Acura) - what confuses me is guys like Tom (Inexcess) above reporting it was not necessary to add adapter (yet working perfectly) while others clearly have!

3) DO you have a CD changer - OEM or Alpine mass-market?

mass-market alpine

Inexcess - which model changer? Do you have this wired up in the traditional rear right corner, with the OEM trunk extender cable? Did you also use an ACUALP cable to connect the mass-market changer?

 

[markc]

Hi D'Ecosse,

I raised a couple of comments/issues when I installed my Blitzsafe adapter in this thread.... http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56221&highlight=ipod+blitzsafe

To answer your questions...

A) I have the V1.D
1) Connected at the head unit
2) No ACUALP adapter used
3) I have the "Gathers Honda Car Audio" GZC 9108 6 Disc changer. Factory fit in my JDM Type S as far as I know
4) Sound is excellent. Full Left, Right control
5) No Smartenna
6) I have trouble switching between AUX device (iPod) and CD Changer using the << >> buttons

Hope the info is useful

Cheers

Mark

 

[sjones]

Hi D'Ecosse,

I raised a couple of comments/issues when I installed my Blitzsafe adapter in this thread.... http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56221&highlight=ipod+blitzsafe

..................................................[snip]
6) I have trouble switching between AUX device (iPod) and CD Changer using the << >> buttons

Hope the info is useful

Cheers

Mark

Mark,

Try 1-4-1 or <<, >>, << if you are using the stock headunit to switch from AUX to CD.

 

[Inexcess]

Inexcess - which model changer? Do you have this wired up in the traditional rear right corner, with the OEM trunk extender cable? Did you also use an ACUALP cable to connect the mass-market changer?

My changer is an old one (610?) that I originally had in a 92' Legend, then a MB E420 and now the NSX!

My NSX never had the OEM changer with the extension cable in the trunk. I think (getting too old...) I made a small extension cable following the pinout diagram that was in the FAQ which If I remember swaps the two pins. Whatever I did it worked the first time.

This is what I followed: http://www.nsxprime.com/FAQ/DIY/sound_system.htm

 

[surferX]

Why not just remove the Smartenna and pull the power on your main antenna motor? The NSX has 2 antennas and you will pick up radio signals just fine with the power antenna mast disabled!!!

 

[D'Ecosse]

Why not just remove the Smartenna and pull the power on your main antenna motor? The NSX has 2 antennas and you will pick up radio signals just fine with the power antenna mast disabled!!!

That's a ridiculous statement - why would you pull the thing when it will work as intended?
Besides, it depends on where you are & what frequency you are trying to tune - if one or the other was intended to be redundant it wouldn't have been there in the first place.
I just don't get the point when someone has a functional device that you recommend they should just unplug it???

 

[creative338]

Hi Ken,

Reading this thread peaked my curiosity. In the past the pin was changed to Honda's configuration on the back of the head unit and the changer matched, so there was no pin swap in the extension cable. I believe the pins swapped from Alpine's configuration is right signal and signal shield.

The fitment issue with the male, female plugs (Blitzsafe adaptor) are that Honda's plug is not exactly the same as Alpine. On the Honda plug the outer pins are shaped like a horseshoe whereas the Alpine is more circular. That should explain fitment issues probably from trying to put a factory Honda end into the Alpine end. Most of the quality adaptors I've seen use a Honda male to go into the headunit and have an Alpine female for an Alpine extension cable and changer.

Now I went a step further into my investigation on my car. It's a stock head and OEM Acura changer in a 97. I unplugged the trunk extension cable and measured it with my meter, all the pins were straight across with no swap.
I then pulled the plastic cover loose on the male end coming out of the changer itself, exposing the wire colors and found the standard Honda wiring configuration where the top 3 pins are left signal, right signal, and shield in that order. I hope that helps you with your cable question. Your experience with Alpine changers working without an adaptor on the factory cable would make me guess some installer changed the pins on the cable at one end or the other (not all that difficult to do).

I hope I made some sense with my rambling.

Take care,
Lance

 

[D'Ecosse]

Please note I have edited this post extensively to take into consideration all the data & information gleaned from various sources & I now believe to be an accurate reflection of things. With multiple devices utilizing pin-swaps it's easy to see how things got confusing but hopefully this is run to ground!

Thanks for ringing out the cable Lance - that is most helpful.
I was aware of the differences in the array of the plug pins at the head end - have actually seen a picture of that before. The Blitz obviously uses std Alpine plug which is why it doesn't fit cleanly. Sjones confirmed, as have others, that he had considerable difficulty in inserting the Bltzsafe into the head unit (understandable!) while there was no issue in connecting it to the extension cable at the rear (also understandable)

So you believe the pin swap is at the head unit itself? I honestly didn't know that - it had always been conjectured that the swap was in one of the cables.

However let's think about this further - most recent data-point I have is in PM exchange & phone calls with sjones;
1) He initially connected the Blitz up to the head unit - this results in a cross-over for the CD suggesting a pin-switch in the Blitz.
2) He connects up after the extender cable in the trunk - the XM works fine and the CD doesn't but is resolved by adding another ACUALP pin-switch cable
3) We know (& you confirmed) the pin switch on the Honda changer itself

From 1 & 2 above, the result is the same with respect to the changer therefor the pin-switch MUST be in the head & not in the cables.
(It still doesn't explain why some people seem to have reported good performance [at least of the changer] with the Blitz connected at the front!!!!)

Here's the thread we spent extensive diagnostics on a couple of years ago! http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6382
I realize now at the end of that I had concluded my changer had to have been a Honda type!
The conclusion from that thread however would still be that the pin switch must be in the long cable or the head unit I suppose.

Also, as I re-analyze this thread - http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63758 - I now realize that the PIE adapter mentioned probably also has a pin-swap similar to the Blitzsafe (to accommodate the OEM head to which it is designed to adapt) which is why I drew the erroneous conclusion in that post! That would also suggest (assuming pin-swap in the PIE) that the original swap is in either the head or the long cable.

Final conclusion (for today at least!) - from reviewing all the above & after further dialogue with sjones, he confirmed that the cd changer response was 'crossed' when the Blitz was installed at the head unit end (similar result as when at the trunk) which would again confirm that the Blitz has a pin-swap but contrary to my earlier belief, the original pin-swap is in the head unit, not either cable. This supports Lance's (creative338) statement. Thankyou Lance!!!!

These conclusions have been reflected in diagrams in post 6 above

For those who installed the Blitzsafe at the head unit without using an ACUALP adapter, all I can think is that they managed to force the connector in successfully to make contact and the resultant XM (or iPOD or whatever) would be correctly phased, however the CD changer ought to be wrong now!

My recommendation at this point going forward would be, regardless of whether a Smartenna is utilized or not, because of the incompatible 'fit' problem of the Blitzsafe connector to the OEM head, it should be installed in the trunk (whether at the end of the first extender or the trunk extender) and an RCA extender utilized to return the feed back to the cabin/console area if required.

 

[creative338]

Ken,

I'm glad I actually helped and didn't add to the confusion!!!!!!!!!

The sad thing is I've owned my car now for almost a year and still haven't finished my stereo.

Take care,
Lance

 

[Inexcess]

So the net result of this thread is that I took the car apart again, moved the Blitzsafe to the trunk, connected behind the smarttenna, took out the flipped adapter cable to my non-oem alpine changer and ran yet another wire (mini-stereo extension cable) from the trunk to the center console area.

1) Smartenna works again !
2) IPOD works the same!
3) CD changer that had out of phase connections is now back to normal! (actually I have not used the changer since I've added the IPOD so I did not notice the out of phase condition).

Thanks to all and especially Ken

 

[D'Ecosse]

1) Smartenna works again !
2) IPOD works the same!
3) CD changer that had out of phase connections is now back to normal!

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[markc]

Ken/Shannon,

As advised I removed the CD Changer some months ago when I found I wasn't using it, so my Blitzsafe has been switched to AUX for a long time.
For the record I have a Shark Attack II antenna for the more modern (IMHO) S2000 look rather than the Smartenna.

I hooked up the CD Changer again today and tried switching between AUX and CD Changer using 1-4-1 (<<->>), nothing doing! Nothing I've tried will make the Blitzsafe switch to CD?

With creative and Inexcess's success, I'm guessing that I need the ACUALP adapter between the trunk cable and the CD Changer but this doesn't explain why it used to work, albeit with the foibles described in my earlier post.

I may well be getting myself an ACUALP adapter thanks to a very generous offer from one of the contributors to this thread (thanks Ken) so will be able to complete the testing after fitting it.

Cheers

Mark

 

[D'Ecosse]

I hooked up the CD Changer again today and tried switching between AUX and CD Changer using 1-4-1 (<<->>), nothing doing! Nothing I've tried will make the Blitzsafe switch to CD?

It might be something to do with the poor connection between the slightly different plugs for the Head & the Blitzsafe. A reliable connection can be made between the trunk cables because they're compatible there. Unfortunatley it means removing the console to refacilitate the Blitz to the rear & then additionally running an RCA back to the front. The other method to leave the Blitz at the front with a reliable connection would be to swap the actual connector between the end of the extender cable that plugs directly into the head unit & the one on the Blitz - probably even more work however!

 

[BryanZublin]

Hi guys, thanks for taking the time & extra effort to keep the SmarTenna in the loop and functional. This will help to maintain some demand for this mature product (over 800 sold since 1997) and help me pay my gas bills.

 

[D'Ecosse]

Note that there are also new options for iPOD interface from Blitzsafe that allow direct connection to the iPOD and provide power/charging to the unit:

direct interface available that does not require an RCA cable & incorporates a power/charger adapter.
Note that this model does not allow the (somewhat limited) direct control of the iPOD like the original, all must be directly by the unit itself.

For those who already have the original Blitzsafe auxiliary adapter (with the RCA inputs) you can add this interface.

You should still be able to integrate you Smartenna by ensuring that it is installed in the same (electrical) location with respect to the auxiliary components.

 

[scottie]

D'Ecosse:

I have a 2002 with an OEM head unit and changer and want to add an auxillary input but still keep the changer functional. I went to the LogJam site to order a Blitzsafe V.1D converter and noticed that there is a DMX version that is (supposedly) made for my 2002. The pictures that they have of the two devices show two different connectors (one round for earlier model cars and the rectangular connector for later model cars).

If I order the DMX version (with the rectangular connector)that is made for a 2002 car, what does that do to the setup shown in your middle diagram above?

Do you know what the differences are with the DMX version?

Thanks for the help!

 

[D'Ecosse]

Hi Scottie - do NOT get the DMX version.

The OEM stereo components are essentially the same for all years of NSX

This is the one you need if you plan to keep your changer operational.

I would recommend you install in the rear and use an extender RCA of necessary. Also consider the Smartenna device - it's a nice feature which will keep your antenna lowered when using either your auxiliary source or your CD changer. Available from SOS.

.