HTC Incredible :: Latest Customization - To Car Stereo Via XM Radio Hookup

So you have a car that had the free XM radio for 6 months... The free 6 months runs out, and you dont actually purchase XM... So you have an unused XM stereo. There's a way you can use the XM inputs on your stock car stereo to be able to listen to your digital music from that stock head unit.

Bottom line is... you gotta have a car stereo with an XM hookup that is inactive and you don't plan on using it again.

It would take a little digging on your part for your car model...

Mine is a 2006 GMC Canyon. Here is the instructions I used to accomplish this: (Thanks to canyonfans.com ):

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This radio has two buss connectors on the back, the one coming from the XM tuner has 5 wires going to it. They are purple, bare(wrapped with tape), black/white (common), brown/white (left channel), and green/white (right channel). Since I never intend to subscribe to XM radio (the following procedure will disable the audio channels coming from the XM tuner) I tied my mini-stereo jack into this connector.

Remove the connector from the back of the radio and cut the black/white, brown/white, & green/white wires. Cap each of these wires that go back to the XM tunner (hidden elsewhere in the vehicle). On the connector side you simply connect the left channel from the Ipod to the brown/white wire, the right channel to the green/white wire and the common for both channels to the black/white wire. Plug the connector back into the radio.

Now plug the the stereo mini-jack you just wired to the connector to the headphone output on the Ipod. Tune the radio to either XM1 or XM2 band and you will hear the Ipod if it's on and playing. I didn't see the need for a line-input signal booster either, it was plenty loud.

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So what I did was take a 3.5 mm stereo jack (obviously the one that fits the incredible.

See the wikipedia article for pin out info for the 3.5 mm plug: TRS connector - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Basically its like:

Plug XM Stereo Bus Connector

tip ........................... Left Channel ........ brown/white
ring .......................... Right Channel ...... green/white
sleeve ...................... Common Ground .. black/white

After cutting the 3.5 stereo wire, there'll be 2 insulated wires, and a whole bunch of strands... the bunch of strands is ground (sleeve). There was a red and white wire, the red if I recall was LEFT, and the White wire was obviously right.

Simple 10 minute solder job, and voila! MP3 music, pandora, radiotime.com , etc whatever... from your incredible right through your stock XM equipped car stereo!

Your mileage may vary, I accept no responsibility for you blowing up your stereo, or worse, your incredible, ipod, or other cell phone...

Just saying, it worked like a champ in my case!