Bought a USB/Aux/chip dongle to plug in the back of the stock NC headunit. The dongle will live either in the net or the glove box, depending of Distaff preferences.
It matches the limited CD playing capabilities of the headunit, and emulates a 6xCD player, so when using the buttons on the headunit to look for tracks it allow 6 folders each containing up to 99 tracks. This means building the track lists on the chip or USB stick accordingly. It does not have Bluetooth (about £20 more expensive), but then we don’t use that for anything anyway.
However, the Aux input allows a much smarter device with intelligent track selection across greater depth of folders to plug in, and then the headunit emulates a pair of big loud headphones, as normal.
The USB can supply up to 500mA.
Knuckles a bit skinned this afternoon going in through the glovebox aperture, but I did not need to remove the headunit having made up a little tool to squeeze the Accessory plug clip last time I played with it, although with hindsight I should have - it would probably have been quicker.
I forgot to take pictures in the car yesterday, here are a couple of it working today, this one off the Aux with an earplayer
and this off the SD chip, screen showing 3rd folder selected with Disc up/down arrows on headunit and track 10 on steering wheel up/down button
Mode button on steering wheel steps through the usual options and now includes the CD emulator. It is slightly flakey in which input the emulator chooses, and it is better to select directly on the headunit.
I now have the old Mazda iPod adaptor and a more recent earplayer lead going begging.
