Disco 2 CD changer problem....

Just fitted an original type radio to the car (C42), as the rather garish JVC it came with wasn't really my style and didn't connect to the steering controls. 'New' unit all seems to work bar the CD changer - put the cassette in, it shuffles through all the disc trays and then says 'no disc'. A crushing blow...

The CD changer is the Alpine XQE100120 version, and I know the car originally came with a C42 head as I got that with car as well (albeit dead). Has anyone here seen this problem and found a fix for it?

I'll have a delve inside it later but it seems more likely to be electrical rather than mechanical. I don't suppose anybody has a circuit diagram for one? I know - very unlikely!

I appreciate that there's always the thought of "if it's fitted I'd like it to work", but in the case of the CD auto-changer I'd be tempted to just leave it where it is and look for a different source for your sounds.
In the absolute maximum case, with the six disc cassette you're talking about 130 to 150 tracks, it only plays audio CDs not .mp3 discs, whereas you're electrictronical type of .mp3 players, even the one on your mobile phone can contain a couple of thousand, and all will be your favourites.
At first I used a Veba FM Modulator to inject the audio output from my phone into the aerial of the radio which was quite satisfactory, I then changed the system to a DAB converter which also used the same injection method for my phone but also a Digital Audio Broadcast system.
This is how I did mine:

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/dab-in-the-disco-2.298913/

The full description is in the .pdf file attached to that post.

Well the main reason for going back to the original style head unit was a quick fix for the steering controls (the JVC didn't have that facility even as an option) but also aesthetics - there's got to be a market for a modern car radio that doesn't look like it came out of an alien spaceship! The FM injector module is a possibility in any case, I looked that up when you mentioned it before on here. A DAB version is even more attractive - I'll have a look through your linked post.

However, as the changer is already there I thought I'd see if I could get it going. If it's stuffed then it can stay out of the car.

I was at the point you are now and went the other way. The radio/steering controls were fine but the CD Autochanger never seems to go for long before it either didn't recognise there was a caddy inserted or else it got stuck changing a CD.

Appreciate what you say about the 'alien hardware' look of modern units but I have gained bluetooth to use my phone for calls or music plus USB for charging/music. I did get an adaptor which is supposed to interface to the steering controls but without success. Maybe when I get a few more spare pennies I may try a different brand adaptor.

I guess it is down to what you feel more comfortable with but if the CD doesn't work for you then your entertainment options are pretty limited.

Leomas said:

I was at the point you are now and went the other way. The radio/steering controls were fine but the CD Autochanger never seems to go for long before it either didn't recognise there was a caddy inserted or else it got stuck changing a CD.

Appreciate what you say about the 'alien hardware' look of modern units but I have gained bluetooth to use my phone for calls or music plus USB for charging/music. I did get an adaptor which is supposed to interface to the steering controls but without success. Maybe when I get a few more spare pennies I may try a different brand adaptor.

I guess it is down to what you feel more comfortable with but if the CD doesn't work for you then your entertainment options are pretty limited.

Click to expand...

The system mentioned in the link in post #2 above will work with all of the "as fitted" Land Rover facilities but will also include DAB. By using something like this bluetooth adapter then everything including the remote controls on the steering column will continue to work.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-0-Wireless-Bluetooth-Stereo-Audio-Music-Receiver-Car-AUX-Adapter-Dongle-3-5mm/291879952226?_trksid=p2045573.c100506.m3226&_trkparms=aid%3D555014%26algo%3DPL.DEFAULT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D38661%26meid%3Da0a81783a16d47d790c9079080a575f2%26pid%3D100506%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26

As I said in my write up, I could have used a bluetooth adapter but since I was plugging a power lead into the phone anyway, I might as well plug in an audio lead at the same time.

Well I got the CD changer out from under the seat (which wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be!). Pulled the casing off and it looks to be mechanically OK, the discs are spinning and the laser carriage moves, so it not that anything is stuck. Laser might not be working though, so that would be the next thing to check.
One thought occurs though, this head unit actually came from a Freelander, and I was assuming there was no difference between their radios and the Disco (although the land rover numbers are quite different, the Philips numbers for the two are only different in the suffix - 22D597/F or R), but I'm wondering if the head unit has to be 'told' it has a CD player attached before it will connect to it. I'm probably thinking this is more sophisticated than it really is, but there is a communication bus between the two units. I'll also check this for activity.

Well, that was embarrassing...it works just fine if you press the right button.

Having stripped it down and checked that the laser carriage and the disc mechanism all worked, and even had an oscilloscope on the serial link between the head unit and CD changer (plenty of activity from the radio side, but nothing from the changer while disc checking, which didn't bode well), I was about to give up.

I thought I'd have one more trawl though the archives on here and D2BC, and found a little nugget of info that says if you have the roof mounted DVD player (which I do) then you can toggle the cars speakers between DVD soundtrack and CD output by pressing the 'speaker' button on the DVD (which I had no idea you could do - I thought it was headphones only). So I cobbled the CD changer back into the car, tried it and lo, it works!

So I think the output from the CD changer must be routed via the DVD player, so that it can insert it's own audio on the wiring back to the head unit if selected. The reason why the head unit says 'no disc' after having looked at all six slots in the changer was that it was referring to the selected source, i.e. the DVD, which didn't have a disc in.

I didn't have the DVD in my old Disco, so it never occurred to me that it might be involved, but it's all there in the seperate DVD handbook when you know what you're looking for.

So there it is - a classic case of 'RTFM'