Custom Zune dock integrated into Dodge Nitro

[Zunerama Ed.]

From the Zunerama blog:

Head to our blog to see a video of this custom-made Zune car dock, fabricated by Zunerama member lilsalmon.

The finished dock looks totally "factory" on this 2007 Dodge Nitro. He started with a DLO Home Dock, and mod'ed it to integrate seamlessly into his console. The player can be controlled either through the player controls or, cleverly, through an infrared remote control.

Sound is routed through his car sound system, naturally. What impressed me the most, though, was seeing the Zune's video output appear on his in-dash video screen, and simultaneously on his 10.4" rear video screen. Click on the YouTube video in the blog to see that.

Sweet, sweet work!

The finished dock:










... and some construction pics:

[coot66]

That's so awesome! I'm at a loss for words. Seriously, lilsalmon, bloody great job... How much time/money did that take?

-The Docked Coot66

[dr1v3thru]

sweet! that's awesome!

[lilsalmon]

The headunit was around $599.00
The Rear Flip Down was $289.00

The parts for the dock were fairly cheap.

DLO Homedock for Zune :$68
Pac-Audio IR-X: $24.00

You could easily mount a small lcd screen for around $100 versus a multimedia headunit.

-Lil'

[toreen]

Woah, Amazing! I have that song on my black Zune, too.

[pulse]

Great work man, looks factory installed!

[Jander]

<---- Is extremely jealous.  I dream of setups like yours. 

[Lancer]

Wow that is all I can say. I had to regiser for the site to comment on this. I am from a group call Austin Modders and we have done several Car PC's and I am a little jelous I didn't think of this first :-P I am a huge Zune fan and have been looking at putting a PC in my truck but the cost was really high for a touch screen + the PC. Since I already have the Zune and a dremel handy I can make this happen. Do you have a full work log for your project? I would really like to see how you gutted the DLO and how the IR extender install went. Fantastic job again you sir are a Pimp.

[Trastan]

Absolutely amazing. Fantastic work, man; it does indeed look factory-installed. Much better than my tape-deck adapter, haha!

[lilsalmon]

Just a quick run down of how I accomplished the dock.

Items used:
DLO Homedock for Zune.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_e/002-3850550-5313607?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=dlo+homedock+zune
Pac Audio IR-X
http://www.amazon.com/PAC-40kHz-Infrared-Signal-Extender/dp/B000K4YVL0/ref=sr_1_2/002-3850550-5313607?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1182257691&sr=8-2

1. I took apart the dock by removing the 4 screws on the bottom.
2. Carefully remove the top, middle and bottom sections.
3. Slowly remove the circuit board and disconnect the ZIF cable (small ribbon cable)
4. Unscrew the two screws that hold the 'dock port' to the underside of the top panel.
5. Take the top piece with the rear support and use a dremel to shape to the area you intend to mount it at.
6. The 'dock port' piece is what you need to fasten from underneath into the top panel you shaped and mounted in the step above.
7. When you mount the port be sure to keep the angle correct.
8. Next use the Pac Audio IR-X and hot glue the eye to the IR eye on the circuit board of the DLO unit.
9. Wire the IR-X according to the instructions
10. Since the DLO unit actually takes a 12.5V DC it makes it easy to convert to car use. Cut the power wire before the plug. The white striped wire is the positive. make sure you put an in-line fuse of 2 AMPs. Wire the ground on the other end.
(When you wire both the IR-X and the DLO unit try to wire to an accessory lead so its only hot when the key is turned.

Once you have everything wired up run your new IR lead from the IR-X to where you think would be a visible location for your remote. I used a small dab of hot glue to mount mine.

Finally plug in your RCAs cables to the outs on DLO unit and run to you auxiliary inputs on your headunit. Plug in the power and put all your trim panels back together.
and lastly plug your ZIF cable back in.

Enjoy your custom Zune dock.

-Lil'