a couple folks sent this in (thanks!)–if you have an xm direct and want to use your pc to control it (and record with some of the apps that allow that) here’s a way to do it without paying $40 to $50 for the cables currently being sold, this one comes in at $15 and it’s a pretty simple project. nicely done jcdillin.
now i’m wondering how long the lawyers ot xm will take to kill this DIY project.
Probably the same amount of time it took for, say, the Apple lawyers to kill the iPod external battery project.
Oh wait — they didn’t.
IANAL, but I don’t believe they are infringing any copyrights or patents in doing this.
micah buckley-Farlee, they are not infringing any patents or anything but the RIAA might have something to say, maybe in a lawsuit? maybe, we’ll wait and see.
I built this cable and it does work great for me. The only problem I had was after I built the cable I tested it with a brand new (unactivated) radio with Frodoplayer, PCRCommander, and OpenPCR none of which did anything. I purchased a TimeTrax box and software, downloaded the software, and installed the software and tried it with this cable and that worked great. Once the radio was activated the cable seems to work with all software, very strange. Now I have an extra TimeTrax adapter on the way that I don’t need and paid extra. Maybe I can cancel the order in the morning.
They can’t kill it off. The XM Direct is their flagship product :) Plus, I don’t think they even give a shit.
So few people will actually build this cable its not worth XM going after it. I thought I might share my xm hack. The cheapest home docking station. cut off the car adapter for the power cable and plug it into your pc on the 5v rail then through the antenna out a window. Images found here:
http://linuxfueled.com/pictures/xm/
Is there another site that shows this cable? I was unable to get to the original site.
I like XM, but the user interface (XM COMMANDER) sucks eggs. I want to make my own, but I need to know the electrical interface to the XM receiver.