Head unit smoking while trying to use DIY USB to Jack cable

[Jeyes]

Title pretty much says it all... And to start off I would like to say that I am totally new to car audio systems and I don't know anything, but here's the story.

I just got a new head unit but it didnt have an jack input, only a usb.

I wanted to test it out with some of my own music and not just listen to the radio... For that I obviously needed a cable - which I didnt have. I did have a jack and a usb, but they were seperate, so I cut them open and spliced them together.

The first problem was that there was no audio, but I kept on trying. Suddenly I started smelling something weird, but I didnt think much of it, until I saw smoke coming from the head unit. I quickly turned off the car and unplugged my awesome DIY cable (which took me an hour to make by the way). I took the head unit out and there was lots more smoke.

So obviously that didn't work at all, and I will have to go get a proper cable soon. But I'm wondering, what caused the head unit to start smoking? Could there be a voltage difference or something?

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[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

wrong section. this is the classifieds.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Lol.

 

[garychoffmann 10+ year member]

So wait.... you tried to splice a 3.5 jack into a usb cable?

 

[Jeyes]

While being new to car audio systems I am additionally new to this forum aswell. Where should I post if not here?

 

[Jeyes]

You are exactly right... It didn't go well

 

[ThatChevyGuy 5,000+ posts]

Wow.

 

[WhiteYota]

You do realize that you are dealing with two totally different voltages and signals, right?

 

[big scott]

he knows now...........

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

OK if your headunit is still alive. Do not do what you did again. Search for RCA preout cables on the back of the headunit. If you have a pair that is labeled as "input" all you need to do is buy a simple cable. 3.5mm male audio jack to 2 rca male jacks. Plug the RCA's into the preout on your headunit assigned to input. Then simply use the headphone jack end to plug into your phone/ipod/mp3 player/whatever.