iPod cable for a car stereo

drjayphd · Post by **drjayphd** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 12:54 am

I don't know how anyone gets by with an FM transmitter in the car. I bought a fairly cheap one for my iPod (2G Nano) and it. sucks. out loud. It's a titanic pain in the ass to find a clear frequency here, the one I found gets taken over by a conspiracy theory-spouting pirate radio station from time to time, and it craps out if I'm in certain areas (where they don't even HAVE another station on that frequency). I'm thisclose to tossing it, but I kinda need it. They had the iPod interface for my brand of stereo on clearance at Target, but I'd need to buy another $100 part to hook it up to my actual stereo. Anyone know how to wire up a cable from a dock connector? I don't need to control it from the stereo, but I'm more than willing to sacrifice the transmitter.

johnbjuice · Post by **johnbjuice** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 1:03 am

do you have a tape player?

buy a tape adaptor.

problem solved.

HazmatB · Post by **HazmatB** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 1:10 am

All the info you need should be here:

A car install:

http://home.pacbell.net/vsim/

Dock pinout:
http://www.hardwarebook.info/IPod_Dock

Post by **bicostp** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 8:50 am

You'd probably be better off patching into the line-level side of the audio amp circuit and hooking up a regular headphone jack. (If you set up a DPDT switch you should be able to completely sever one of the connections for a clean signal.) That way it will work with anything you can plug in there.

http://donn.dyndns.org/projects/carstereoinput/

This person got lucky and found regular RCA jacks on the back of their head unit:
http://www.instructables.com/id/My-Car- ... d-Enabled/

Or if you have a tape deck, get a tape adapter.

drjayphd · Post by **drjayphd** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 4:51 pm

The tape adaptor's not an option. Don't have a tape deck. However, the head unit does have RCA inputs (it's a Sony CDX-MP30, specifically). So that Instructable should work.

But as an aside, if I'm going to hook it up in the car, I might as well provide power. That car install HazmatB linked should work for that (although I don't know entirely about how I'd hook that up), but how many volts would the iPod take, 5V or 12V?

HazmatB · Post by **HazmatB** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 6:42 pm

I would recommend just getting a lighter adapter, it won't be stupendously pretty, but it is the easiest way to get power, and is garunteed not to kill the iPod.

But I wouldn't settle for that, so I don't expect you to. If you check the iPod pinout I linked to before, it will tell you thins info.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:19 pm

drjayphd wrote:The tape adaptor's not an option. Don't have a tape deck. However, the head unit does have RCA inputs (it's a Sony CDX-MP30, specifically). So that Instructable should work.

Are you sure those are inputs? I googled that model, and I couldn't find anything about inputs.

drjayphd · Post by **drjayphd** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:10 pm

vskid wrote:
drjayphd wrote:The tape adaptor's not an option. Don't have a tape deck. However, the head unit does have RCA inputs (it's a Sony CDX-MP30, specifically). So that Instructable should work.
Are you sure those are inputs? I googled that model, and I couldn't find anything about inputs.

Amazon sez yes, in a review. The installation manual (on Sony's site) says it's a bus audio input, then points to a CD changer.

Although upon further review, this thread says it only works if a Sony device is hooked up to the bus control in. Which means grievous bodily harm towards various Sony execs is in order.