Friday, November 19, 2004

iPod2Car

I just installed one of the iPod2Car adapters in my GMC truck.  Installation was extraordinarily easy -- the kit comes with the correct plug to go into the back of the factory stereo CD changer input, a black box with dip switches to configure for the particular make and model of the vehicle, and an extremely long iPod 3G or 4G adapter cable that both provides audio output to the stereo and power to the iPod.  The trick is to ensure that you provide power to the yellow cable that is left hanging out from the harness; the instructions say that this does not need to be done for my vehicle, but it does indeed need to be done for the unit to work.

Once installed, I found that I could shift through tracks using both my stereo and steering wheel controls.  The only thing that's really missing is the ability to cycle through playlists and the ability to see the ID3 tags on the stereo display.  Aside from those small shortcomings, the sound quality is amazing -- if you have the means to purchase one of the direct input kits, I highly reccommend it over a FM modulator.

12 comments:

Lise said...

Any update on your experience w/ the Ipod2Car?

Thanks!

Ross said...

No problems with the system at all. The only mistake that I seem to have made with my GMC is that I wired the electrical into a fuse that shuts off when the engine is turned off; GMs typically do not shut off the radio until the door is open, so if I am sitting in my car after I've turned the engine off, I lose the ability to listen to my iPod.

Sound quality through the unit is spectacular; when I was using a FM modulator, I had to crank the volume up about 1/2 way to hear the music, but with the iPod2Car the music is at the same volume as a CD playing in the built-in headunit.

It is kind of a bummer that you can't see any of the ID3 data on the radio display, but I primarily listen to playlists, so that isn't too much of a problem for me and shuffle works well too.

There is one interesting thing that happens: on the screen of the unit (because it is plugged into the disc changer slot) it displays D1 (disc 1) T1 (track 1). The iPod2Car does not have the ability to pass back to the headunit when a track has changed. Consequently, I can play a 200 song track list, but the headunit will continue to display D1 T1 unless I actually use the up or down track button on my steering wheel or headunit.

Overall I am very happy with the unit and would certainly reccommend purchasing one. If you are not comfortable with doing work on your car yourself, I would suggest having the unit professionally installed.

Best of luck. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

Ross

Lise said...

Ross Thanks for the detailed post! Much appreciated!!

Anonymous said...

ross , i have a GMC 2003 denali i was thinking of getting this product , but the thing is i dont wanna lose my XM radio . could i play both ? i dont mind to lose the CD changer ..

Rupert Thankx

Ross said...

Rupert,

The device plugs into the CD changer port, not the XM port, so as long as you are ok with losing your changer, I think you should be fine.

Ross

Anonymous said...

I am in the middle of installing one in a 2001 Yukon. This has been a huge pain because the head unit won't recognize the iPod when everything is hooked up correctly. However, if the external tape deck is also attached with a tape playing, the IPod will play. If I then unattach the tape deck, the IPod will play by itself until I turn off and on the power to the head unit.

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In a seperate but much more annoying case, I tried to install one into a 2001 Chrysler 300M. If I plugged in the IPod-2-car, the car would die after running for 2 seconds and all climate controls would malfunction. Even if I only had the cable plugged into the cd changer and did not plug the other end into the box, it would still happen. Guess it was messing with the keysense resistance so the computer thought I was hot wiring the car. Crazyness. AAMP tech support could not help since all of the smart guys are at CES show in Vegas this weekend. They coudn't even give me a wiring diagram.
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On a lighter note, they work great in civics.

Anonymous said...

ok anonymous with the 2003 denali, unfortunately ross is mistaken, if you go with the pxdp model, you will have to lose your xm unless you follow the tech brief provided by peripheral at their website. fortunately we have released a new model ipod adapter part #PXDPGMT that allows you to retain all factory auxiliary sources. pretty cool. so from now on instead of listening to these people "blogging", why dont you just call the manufacturers for the correct info?

Ross said...

Wow, that's sort of a nasty response -- why be anonymous?

Anyway:

1. You'll note that I used the phrase "I think" in responding to the 2003 Yukon owner. I'm just a consumer and don't work for the iPod2Car manufacturer or for GM.

2. Blogging is a proper word, so you don't need to use quotes around it. Perhaps you just don't understand it, which leads to point 3 . . .

3. The very fact that I blogged about this product makes it appear in the Google search results -- Google likes fresh content. I'm guessing that the only reason you found my blog post is because you used some keywords from the post. Luckily for you I invest the time to write about things and give you the ability to express your opinion so that others that read the post can read your opinion.

4. You appear to represent either GM or iPod2Car or perhaps some sort of competitor. In any event, you may wish to rethink your approach; it seems to me that you could have conveyed the information in your post in such a way that it would seem less like you being a pompous asshole and more like someone that truly wanted to help.

You know, the part number that you reference is manufactured by Peripheral electronics, the parent company of iPod2Car, which leads me to believe that you either work directly for them or you are an installer/reseller of their parts. Either way, it makes me consider ripping the iPod2Car out of my vehicle simply by knowing that short-sighted people like you are involved with them. Thanks for providing the fodder for a future blog post.

Ross

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry if i seemed nasty Ross. I just want everybody to have the proper information. Alot of people get info from these forums, and then get mad when their ipod2car product doesn't work properly.This in turn causes bad word of mouth advertising for the manufacturers.Once again I apologize for my poor choice of approach.

Anonymous said...

ok isee how this works. you let people see what YOU want them to see. so therefore my explanation will go unnoticed. I'm the short sighted one---don't think so.

Ross said...

Actually I just got back-logged on updating comment postings; unfortunately there are lots of people out there that post tons of comment spam on blogs, so the trade-off between allowing comments and minimizing spam is the fact that I have to review each comment before it is posted. In this case I simply hadn't checked the comments account for awhile and for that I apologize; in order to keep meaningful dialog between those of you that leave comments and me, I need to check comment moderation more frequently.

In any event, I certainly understand your frustration at a lack of immediate posting of your comment. Furthermore I do appreciate your taking the time to respond to my initial comment and hope that my delay in posting some of your comments does not sour you on the overall blog comment interaction experience.

As you may notice with other posts on my blog with comments, I approve any comment that is not blatant comment spam and even will post comments that contain links to competing products provided that the comment and link are on-topic with the original post.

Respectfully,
Ross Hollman

Anonymous said...

Thank you Ross; I'm glad we got this hammered out.
Sincerely,

Ernie Hartman
Technical Advisor
Peripheral Electronics