Using an iPod with a car radio?

Anyone on ZG with hands on experience of using an iPod with a car radio?
(the car radio specs state mp3 compatibility using a USB key, but say nothing about iPods or similar)

 

What head unit do you have ?. I use a Alpine unit which has a direct feed but most need an external box to use the ipod or use an aux mini din connector.

From memory the ipods usb doesnt allow remote control directly.

 

Get an iTrip, tune your radio to its frequency. Bob's your uncle.

 

My iTrip isn't very good, I'm seriously considering lashing out the £100 for the adaptor for my car, trouble is I can't use the CD changer in the boot then, mind you why would I want to......?

 

I've got a Kenwood h/u for which you can get an adapter enabling 2 changers to be fitted. Kenwood also do an ipod adpater which fits in to a changer socket, hey presto changer and ipod

Jeff

 

I tried the itrip and the belkin equivalent and didnt get on with either.
Its why I changed headunits - but the new one has DVD with mp3 support so thats 4gb of mildly compressed music for the car which is plenty so the ipod isnt used.

 

Thanks for your input.

To make things easier, the car - and the car radio by the same token - are in Brazil. I know the car radio is a Tokai LAR-203-MUC and surfed the net to find more about it to no avail so far. It does have a USB connector on the front face, which does not mean it will accept the iPod. It seems to be a very complex problem, some radios will accept USB keys, others will accept iPods, but not all types of iPods, others will accept mp3 players, but not iPods ... . And I can't find anywhere whether this particular car radio has a line-in jack somewhere.

I do have a FM adapter I used to use with a portable CD player before cars had built-in CD players, but I will use it as a last resort solution as the sound is not too good, and the car being a big 4WD I guess the background noise must be something.

 

Would you not be happy using a 2GB USB stick (about £25 I think) and filling it with your driving music?

 

It would be more than enough if it were for a one- or two-day trip. But this is a one-month trip and what I had in mind was the iPod 80GB to take along as much of my music as possible.
Also it seems that some car radios with a USB connector will accept 256 or 512 MB but nothing bigger and I cannot check it beforehand.

 

My solution with a Blaupunkt radio that has a connection on the back for an external CD changer was simply to find a lead on ebay that is changer-connector to mini-jack. The lead emerges from the back and the iPod just hangs off the jack when I want to use it. On the radio panel I just press the button for external CD changer. OK you don't get any control options but it is simple and the seatcover will understand how to work it

 

That would be an interesting solution. I'll try and find out whether the Tokai radio has a CD changer (or line-in) input. But so far I haven't been able to find detailed specs on the net.

Edited: Found it at last. One website says the Tokai radio has an AUX jack on the front panel. I guess I can connect the iPod there.

 

True, some French sites confirm the aux in. But I don't think the Aux in is on the front panel AFAICT from the pictures, so you might have to yank it from its slot to get at the back panel, which could be tricky if you don't have the right tools. Then you have to find a way to lead the cable out. Just being pessimistic

On the optimistic side, you could fit 400 tracks on a 4GB SD card even if each file were 10 MB

 

Thanks for your comment's SteveC, you are probably right. I also have my doubts as to accessibility. Another thing I read is that the front face flips open to give access to the CD player or something of the sort. The Aux jack might just be hidden there?
I've asked the friend I'm taking the trip with (he owns the car) to try and remember if he's seen anything like an Aux jack. He just can't check in the flesh as the car is in Belem and he's in French Guiana...
As for the "right tools", what would you recommend?
Being in Paris, I might just be in luck and find a store that has the unit on display.

As for SD Cards, I confess I don't know what they are. I suppose I'd need a deck of some sort just to load up the tracks?

 

By tools, I meant that some (maybe all modern?) radios come with two U-shaped stiff wire things that you shove into small holes on either side of the front panel to remove the radio. The have ends like crochet hooks and when you shove them in they engage, release clips and allow you to pull out the radio. I suspect they are a DIN thing and don't know how universal they are.

SD cards are small digital media cards that you will need a PC and suitable reader to fill up. I only mentioned them because I have never heard that a device can read only up to a certain size SD card, like 512MB, whereas you say that certain radios can only read up to a certain size USB.

 

get yourself something like an archos media player instead of an ipod. most of them have the ability to upload / download data to / from usb devices such as mp3 players, cameras, memory keys etc. this way you can fill the hd up with music (and movies) and then watch or save off what you want - also if you take pics with a digicam then you can copy them onto the hdd. i took one to thailand for a month a while ago and it was great.

 

I have just bought one of those cassette-with-wires thingies that slots into the deck and connects my mp3 player. This saves having to bring a pile of cds into the car (single slot loader). Only problem is that the sound is not particularly good. I probably need to play around with the two volume controls and the bass and treble to get it right.

Better choice of sounds in the car now though...