Best. Invention. Ever.

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:03 pm

First, a quick background story thingy: I've been thinking about getting a new stereo for my car (simple tape deck with AM/FM radio) but it is hard to wire up (it's an '85, so it would be kinda hard to do) costs money (probably ~$100 for a decent cd player) and it does not have the one feature I have only dreamed of: using a USB flash drive. If it did, then it would probably be pretty expensive. Then I found something in the paper today:

http://beforeyouknowit.blogspot.com/

go to the 1/13/05 entry. This is one of those FM transmitters we've all seen and love, you know, plug it into your cd player and it makes a small radio signal. Tune the radio to the right station, and you hear what your cd player is playing. This is like that, but with a slight twist: you can plug in your own USB flash drive with MP3's on it and listen to those. I got one of them today, and it's amazing. It saves me from the wiring stuff, and sounds great, even with terrible speakers like what I have. Quite nice for the $30 it cost

Post by **Sparkfist** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:10 pm

Funny the first half of that your post got me thinking of the car adapter thats going to be released to work with the iPod, and offer you to use the radios controls for changing things like track and what not.

However. Yeah thats something cool to have. They also have something just like that for cell phones.

scherzo · Post by **scherzo** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:35 pm

Hye, Sponge, where did you buy that thing for $30?

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:41 pm

Checker Auto Parts. They may have them at Wal Mart or Costco, according to the blog thingy. I got the last one, too

scherzo · Post by **scherzo** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:48 pm

Thanks. That is truly a nice device, especially with all the time I spend driving. I mean, I have a 5 disc CD changer but 1) That's not enough variety and 2) I don't wanna keep writing CDs for my own compilations. I'm going to look for one of these tomorrow for sure. Thanks for pointing out their existence. Oh, is its transmitting frequency configurable? I live in Chicago and there are tons of stations here. I'd be worried about interference.

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:59 pm

yeah, I think there are 7 or so stations, starting at 87.7 and going up 200,000Hz (that's .2 MHz to you

)

The one thing I don't like about it is that it defaults at 87.7, and my stereo only goes as to 87.9. Oh well, pressing one more button won't hurt any.

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 10:04 pm

oh yeah, I forgot to mention: it also has an input and a cord if you want to plug in things like your MP3 player or something.

Post by **benheck** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 10:22 pm

When is somebody gonna make a car deck that has a hard-drive... or maybe Apple could make a deck you slide your iPod into.

I've been thinking they should make sure a thing for YEARS now... I wish I knew more about that stuff, I'd have a go at it!

MajorLag · Post by **MajorLag** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 10:27 pm

Didn't some luxury car come with a built in iPod base station or somesuch?

Post by **gannon** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 10:30 pm

If you want I can give you the schematics/pcb design for one Ben

SgtBowhack · Post by **SgtBowhack** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 1:17 am

Well, if you can just find an interface that looks like a flash drive in one of those hard drive enclosures, this thing would work...
But I don't think that's all too likely.

cennar · Post by **cennar** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 1:39 am

jam a mini mac and an ipod dock in the center console.

Post by **Black Six** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 5:15 am

MajorLag wrote:Didn't some luxury car come with a built in iPod base station or somesuch?

Yeah, some BMWs have an interface, I think it'sin the glove box, and then you can control the iPod from your stereo. Alpine also makes a series of head units compatible with a proprietary 'black box' that you can plug your iPod into for the same features.
This adapter seems nice, I just got a free 256 MB flash drive, I'd have to change the music every couple of days, but it's easier than burning CDs.

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 6:32 am

benheckc wrote:When is somebody gonna make a car deck that has a hard-drive... or maybe Apple could make a deck you slide your iPod into.

I've been thinking they should make sure a thing for YEARS now... I wish I knew more about that stuff, I'd have a go at it!

It's kinda funny, I just saw a commercial less than 2 minutes ago for a Chevy Uplander. One of the features of this thing is an MP3 player. Not sure if it's a hard drive or flash drive or how big it is, but it's there.

makuraken · Post by **makuraken** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 7:39 am

I think the same people that do zip drives and disks made one for the car a while ago. I remember seeing something about in PC Magazine or something like that a year or so ago. it was really neat too. A 20gig harddrive that you click into a dock (which was shown in the trunk, it was pretty big). Keep in mind I think that is true. I am not sure.