PDA sound through car stereo?

[longwori]

Does anyone know how to do this cheaply (without having to buy a mount with an FM transmitter) if your stereo does not have an Auxilary input?



Thanks, Ian.




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TomTom Go 520, HTC Wildfire with CoPilot Live Premium UK & CoPilot Live Standard USA

[Dave]

Yep, just purchase an FM Modulator on it's own. They are sold seperately too.



Personally the best one I've found by far which I use on a daily basis is the one from the CM656 which is removed from the mount and wired in down by the hand brake.

[MikeB]

I did this using a cheap cd-cassette converter which just happened to be lying around. Real cheap nothing. you can probably pick these up from Halfords or you local Argos store.
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Mike Barrett

[longwori]

Unfortunately? the car came with a CD player so I am a bit snookered there.



I think I am going to go for the Arkon powered multimedia mount as I dont yet have a car power adapter, want a neat solution and need the volume to hear anything in my car!! I just wanted to check if there was a cheap easy way of tapping into the stereo somehow

before I took the plunge.



Thanks for the replies,



Ian.




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TomTom Go 520, HTC Wildfire with CoPilot Live Premium UK & CoPilot Live Standard USA

[brimar]

Please forgive my ignorance but what is an FM modulator? I am in the process of setting up an Ipaq 5450 for GPS use in my car and would welcome advice on increasing volume. Regards Brian
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Brian

[Pc-Mobile]

Why has no one thought of using a (or pair) cheap PC (active/powered)speakers?

You can use just one of the pair and can easily be powered from car.

Alternatively, you can also use a battery powered one, which was so popular (for PC) some 10-15 years ago!






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Pc-Mobile
http://pc-mobile.net/gps.htm

[theendisnye]

I have just purchased a cheap $11 battery powered speaker from Radio Shack whilst out in the States.
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Steve

[Dave]

Brian, an FM Modulator (sometimes known as an FM Transmitter) plugs into your headphone socket and is usually powered by batteries or in-car power and you dial an FM frequency which is clear in and it will transmit the sound a few meters to your car stereo and if you tune in the same frequency it will let you listen to MP3's or voice navigation. You can get quite a bit of static from neighboring stations so you do have to adjust the FM frequency on both a little now and again.

[nicknick]

The biggest problem I see with the FM modulator is no radio - you can't have your directions and also a radio station on at the same time.



So I've currently gone for the battery powered speakers option.



If they make a modulator that interrupts (like the traffic reports) the current radio station, then that would be good



Nick

[Dave]

That is the downside, same goes for playing CD's you can't have both.

[longwori]

Yes, I thought about the active speaker option and I am sure it would work well. Argos sell them for £10-£15 butI struggled to find somewhere I could put one in my cockpit so that it wasnt an eyesore and wouldnt get in the way.
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TomTom Go 520, HTC Wildfire with CoPilot Live Premium UK & CoPilot Live Standard USA

[nicknick]

Well it depends on the hastle level you want.



I have mine (bought from Argos) stuck onto the dash with velcro (the stick on kind) which allows me to move them between cars). You could use the same method and just remove them when you don't need them



Nick

[Adrian Head]

Longwori - take a look at http://www.connects2.co.uk/ they provide an Aux connector which may do the job for you.
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Adrian<font size="1">

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GPS Setup=HP 5450 plus EMTAC BT plus 256MB SD Card plus TomTom 2 plus PCMCIA Sleeve plus 5GB HDD plus Arkon Multimedia Mount <font color="red">plus Understanding Wife <img border="0" src= "sm

[longwori]

Thanks. Adrian, I had a look and that sort of thing may do the trick but they dont do one for a Mazda unfortunately. I have ordered an Arkon multimedia mount now that this avenue seems to be exhausted!
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TomTom Go 520, HTC Wildfire with CoPilot Live Premium UK & CoPilot Live Standard USA

[DavidW]

I had toyed with the idea of adding some circuitry to the interface between my Nokia car kit and my Vauxhall OEM stereo to mix in the audio from my iPAQ, but my feeling currently is not to bother.





I have the Nokia car kit wired to the carphone connector in my Zafira's loom. That connector carries the audio mute and a mono auxiliary audio input to my Zafira's CD player. It also provides power for the phone car kit (as well as a slave cigarette lighter socket that will power my Brodit mount) and allows you to connect to the Zafira's integrated microphone. The details are on my web site here. Microsoft Word 2000 format - one day I hope to convert it to a proper web page.



The document needs some updating, not least because I've now figured out the microphone, also there's a few details that have changed in more recent Zafiras to do with the fuse, antenna connector and microphone wiring.





The bulk of the information in that document should apply with minor modifications to all Vauxhalls with a phone wiring loom option. Even though the wiring probably exists on all models that have the phone wiring loom option, some features (particularly the microphone, audio isolating transformer and built in GSM/broadcast radio aerial) are only likely to be fitted if the car was factory ordered with the phone wiring loom option. It is also the case that some of the very basic stereos don't support the audio input - if there wasn't a phone wiring loom on your choice of stereo when there was on other stereos for the same car, that's the problem.





My feeling currently is not to bother developing the circuitry to add in an audio input from my iPAQ. The big problem is that I'd need to use a VOX circuit to pull the mute line low for navigation audio (which I'd have to mix with the phone audio). The stereo can be pretty slow to respond to the mute line going low, particularly if it's switched off.



I can see me losing the beginning of each voice command if I do this! I know I could add a tone to the beginning of each command as I'm using TomTom Navigator 2 - but as I have an adequately loud iPAQ 3970 anyway, I don't think it's worthwhile.



Hooking up the iPAQ to the stereo would also make listening to the stereo very bitty in areas with lots of navigation commands - the CD would keep pausing or the radio would keep being muted. I tend to drive, particularly in cities, with the radio off. My advanced driving training (currently RoSPA Advanced Driver's Association silver grade - I hope for a gold grade next time) has shown me that if you really are taking proper observation, you need the radio off a lot of the time.





However, I suppose if I did develop the circuitry, I could either connect or disconnect the plug from the iPAQ's headphone socket according to my need at the time. I could also get into the habit of leaving the radio on in traffic bulletin only mode all the time (that is, TP enabled and volume turned to zero - there's a programmable volume for traffic bulletins).





I'll only know when I get my Brodit mount (now due next week <sigh>) whether things are workable using just the 3970's speaker - or whether I should try to build this interface.











David

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