Well guys, I just dissected the 07 Type S head unit and I also found the FM/AM antenna connector to connect this head unit to the 04-06 TL. I am waiting on the socket to connect this head unit to my car. I am also considering gettting the auxillary input plug from the dealership so I can have the auxillary input for my portable devices. The wire schematic have those extra wires goes to the auxillary input. I have also mapped out all the wires that is different between the 04-06 TL head unit and the 07 Type S head unit. The extra wires goes to ANC(active noise cancellation) and the Auxillary input. Since the 04-06 doesn't have the ANC, I am just going to disregard those wires all together. But the auxillary input is pretty easy (only 5 wires). Here is the picture of the Dissasembled 07 Type S head unit:

useless tape deck and the audio processing board

DVD changer

Face plate of the head unit where all the buttons are

the Antenna connector. the top one is the one to connect the 04-06 to this head unit:

all the connectors of this head unit



Thanx again for all the people that have helped me

 

Does anyone know how to remove the volume nob and the audio nob on the head unit? I want to swap out the hedious red color of the head unit with the original blue led.

 

Never mind.... I figured it out.... just pull them straight out and they'll come off.... the red background came from the red hat that covered the led bulb.... I am going to swap the red hat with the blue hat in my original head unit and make them all turn blue. here are the pics:

 

i wish i had the knowledge to do all this. keep up the good work

 

Do any of you know a good glue to fix the plastic crack?

 

Thanx.... I sure will. If you're interested, I have also posted some schematics up on the radio head units for 07 and 04-06( https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=159629 ).... I'm only few days away from completing the implementation of the 07 type S head unit into the 04-06 TLs.... waiting for parts took the longest time.... otherwise, I'll be enjoying the new head unit and the extra goodies that came with it.... When I get all the parts, I'm going to disassemble my old head unit and swap out the led hat so it's not the hedious red color of the 07 Type S head unit.... wish me luck

 

i never knew crack came in plastic!

 

I'm excited to see the outcome on this.. Are you also upgrading the nav drive?

 

well, unfortunately that'll have to wait.... I almost got one of the 07 navi dvd drive unit.... when I get my hands on them I sure will .... but for now, being able to play mp3 and additional display background will do for now.... I'm going to also upgrade it to the 07 nave screen... the screen is almost the same except for 1 connector... I'm sure it's not that hard to bridge the wires so I can retain my original connector and get a new one that fit into the new 07 display unit... I guess when I'm done, I'll have extra head unit (sell for sure) plus the display screen... any ideas of what I can do with the extra screen?

 

LOL

 

Anyone knows what I can do with the extra touch screen display?

 

As for glue, I've heard good things about JB Weld epoxy. I think Home Depot carries it.

 

how difficult was the disassembly? and if you're not going to use the red led circuit board, ill gladly take it. =) i like red

 

Sure they're just bunch of red caps covering over the real led. After I disassembled my original head unit, I'm going to get the blue cap and cover it up. It's fairly easy to disassemble the head unit. All you have to do is remove the 2 screws on top and 2 screws on the bottom of the face plate and the face plate comes off. but to get to the led, you need to remove the 2 turning nobs, volume and station select. After you remove the face plate, the 6 tiny screws hold the control board (where all the leds are located) to the actual face plate.

However, I still haven't got a chance to test out the 07 DVD changers with 04-06 head unit yet. I'm not sure that'll enable the 05-06 head unit to play MP3 disks. but if alpine make a different DVD changers that plays actual DVD instead of the DVD audio, it'll be awesome and save us all a trouble to get external DVD player. On that note, I think the DVD video decoder is not built into the audio processing board that's why we can't watch DVD disks. The DVD and the head unit is connected via a single white strip of circuits.

 

Thanx for the tip. I'll use that next time around. I used the super glue to patch up the plastic crack on the lower right hand corner after I disassembled the face plate. Well, they worked as good as expected

 

cool, let me know

 

i thought Type S comes with Navigation standard?

 

So........is this just going to let you play MP3's?

Or are you looking for Nav Traffic when you get the DVD player?

And how much did you get the unit for?

 

Are you upgrading the radio just to have MP3 input?? I don't see a point to go through all that trouble when you can just get an adapter.
Am i missing something or does the 07 have way better sound than the 04-06 radio??
I get my audio input for my carpc through the XM wires which i just cut since the Xm is useless to me. Its 4 wires, L, R , Lground, Rground connected to a 3.5mm audio input jack. I can connect ipod, carputer, watever i want and sound quality is a 10. So why the trouble?

 

The 07 Type S head unit have more functions. The auxillary input have it's own channel. it's not the one that everyone used to connect their ipods ( the one that share the XM port). Plus it's got the capability to play MP3, WMA disks. overall, it's the better version of our head unit. The only one minor draw back is the one connection jack difference between the 04-06 and the 07 type S head unit

 

well, it's going to be doing everything that the 07 type S head unit can do without the ANC(Active noise Cancellation). when I get my hands on the navi dvd player unit, i'll install it...

i got mine off junk yard that parted their 07 type S. few hundred bucks including the touch screen display. the brand new unit cost~1300 and the screen cost ~ another grand. so overall, i got luck out and bag this good deal... look around, i'm sure soon few of those babies will show up....

 

Yep, that's true... that's why i am swapping out my navi screen and head unit with this one... they'll fit just right in my original navi screen and head unit... plus minimal wire change... and i can retain all of the factory hands free function and more... i guess my next part will be the 07 type S navi dvd player... always in hunt for a good deal

 

where is Stockton?

 

california, no worries ill pay for shipping, i honestly dont want to buy a whole new stereo for $1000+ just for the red lighting.

 

off topic.. Sacto here! (there's about 5 - 12 TLs in our parking garage; two TLS)

I can't wait until I get mine

 

the aren't LED's, they are just regular bulbs with red covers, stock TL's have blue covers which make it light up that nasty green color

 

you don't like the stock blue colored background of the head unit? Do you prefer the red color that comes with the type s tl? and thanx again for the tip on the antenna connector. I found one on crutchfield that suits our needs. thanx again

 

i'm talking about the nasty green color thats on all the 04-06 TL's. didn't know the 07 was blue now

 

I C... the 07 type S head unit and the navi screen have red cap that covered the led so the background showed up red like rest of the car. But the red color reminded me of the GM cars that's why i want to swap out the led so it'll have the smooth blue background... I'm picking up the auxillary inpu jack from the dealer tomorrow (~$15)... after that i'm gonna slap everything together... I'll keep everyone posted as far as the progress of the head unit. I forsee no other complications...

 

does the regular 07 tl have an MP3 radio or is it just the tl-s?

 

Those ARE LEDs. 04-06 has always had a blue interior light scheme; for 07 the TL Type-S gets the red scheme, and both models benefit from a more "metal" looking gauge background.

If you look at the pic you can see they are the small flat leds.. there are solder points; you don't solder a halogen bulb to a circuit board. You know damn well the Acura dealership wouldn't have their techs ripping head units apart to solder new bulbs on. =p

All 07 units play MP3/WMA

 

I think the regular 07 TL plays MP3 also. I'm not sure. but the regular 07 TL doesn't have the ANC function that Type S have (in the case of rest of the 3rd gen TL line up). my prediction is that the ANC wires that goes to the head unit are missing in the regular 07 TL. but they all share the same kind of connector.

 

All of the red Dots on that circuit board are LEDs with red cap. In this case, we can put any color of caps on the LEDs and the lighting will change accordingly. all the black dots are the buttons we press on the face of the head unit.

 

man, there needs to be a 'huge testicles' smiley...I would never have the guts to do that, even after your fantastic explanations & pictures.

 

Acura seriously used white LEDs instead of blue and red? Generally speaking the white ones are more expensive.. red is just about the cheapest LED color I know of.. What does the unit look like w/ the caps removed & lights on ?

 

I wanna know what they look like without the caps also.
I think they put the caps on to reduce the hot spots from the leds.

If those leds are white, I'd rather put white caps on them!!!

 

Well you know what they said, if they can put it together, we can take it apart It's actually not that hard just 4 screws. I had to patch the crack on the plastic anyway.... also i got this an extra unit i have acquired to replace my original head unit.... so I have some parts to play with.... and i build computers on my spare time so i'm no stranger to the circuit boards

 

Well, here are the pics. i removed one of the cap off one of the light.





there are 6 screws that hold the board to the face plate. once removed, they come apart. simple.....

 

since you finally removed the cap, you see they are regular bulbs. the only LED's on that circuit board are the ones around the control knobs, and the 1 for the security light, and the other is when the disc is going in/out.

i've been working on hondas for years, and this is how all of their headunits are.

 

yes they solder they bulbs down, i've done complete LED's conversions on honda/acura radios, and they are a bitch to do. if you've ever taken apart one of their radios you would know that.

also the interior lights are green not blue. the only blue in these cars are the light around the control knobs, the ambient light, and the gauge cluster.