11 posts tagged “ipod”

IMG00447.jpg

There it is, in all it's glorious glorious glory. All white and glowing and glorious and within easy reach. I could have mounted it in the cup to the left but then my right knee would be bumping it all the time. I usually keep it set to my top rated playlist on shuffle so there's not much need to fiddle.

One thing I noticed is that with this config I must keep the volume on the ipod cranked. If I turn the ipod volume down and crank the car volume up I can hear interference in the background whenever anything electrical happens in the car. Which probably means my ground setup isn't the best it could be.

Here's what I did to install an rca/headphone jack connection in my '99 volkswagen beetle with cd changer so that I may enjoy the sweet, sweet sounds of my ipod without a lousy half-assed tape or fm connection. The job disconnects the line connection from your cd changer. You're not using it anymore anyway, so don't worry about it. First though, before you get going, my disclaimer. If you cock things up even just a little bit, it's not my fault. If it doesn't work or your car burns down or anything bad happens as a result of you doing this, it is not my fault, it is yours.

Here's the stuff I purchased at Best Buy (whom I hate. I hate Best Buy, they are useless. More on that in a later post). I went to the back of the store and got the cheapest versions of the following gear:

1x20' rca cable
1x6' rca to 3.25 stereo cable
2x rca cable extenders
1' of speaker cable (I didn't get this at Best Buy. If you're a real dork like me you'll have some laying around. If not, pick some up at the store)

You'll also need the following:
1x roll of electrical tape
1 wire splicer (or scissors if you've got very mad skills)
You might need a Torx screwdriver. I don't remember what size. Just go get a small set if you don't have them already.

Step 1
Crawl into the back of the Beetle and facing the cd changer, look down from above. Between the cd changer and the side of the car there's two wiring harnesses connected together. Disconnect the one toward the front of the car.

Step 2
Peel back a bit of the electrical tape from the wire harness. Find the white and purple cables. Cut each cable making sure you leave enough room between the cable and the harness for reconnecting your cd changer down the road (because your wife is concerned about such things, like mine is, even though I haven't listened to a cd in the car in years now). Strip a bit of the insulation off the white and purple cables.

Step 3
This really is the tricky part. Cut the red and black connector off one end of your 20' rca cable. As you strip the outer cover off the cable, inside you'll find a colored piece of cable (the red connector side will have a red plastic jacket on the inside, black connector side has a black jacket on the inside) along with a loose piece of unjacketed copper. Splice the unjacketed bit of copper on each cable to your 1' piece of speaker cable. Splice the red piece of cable to the purple cable from step 2, splice the black piece of cable to the white cable from step 2. I used copious amounts of electrical tape to wrap all my splices. You might use fancy twisty things or connectors, use whatever you think is best or feel comfortable using.

Step 4
Here's a very important step. Reconnect the wiring harness to the cd changer connector. I tried this rig out without doing this and the stereo head unit said "no changer", blinked a few times, then flipped back to the radio. Also, put an old cd into the changer. My rig won't work without a cd in there. I'll be working on a hack to this and will keep you posted.

Step 5
As you sit directly in front of the cd changer looking down from above (like the technical god that you are), there's a small bolt on the top of the changer on the left and right side. I picked the one on the left toward the back of the car. Loosen up the bolt from the top. Attach both pieces of speaker cable (it is now your ground cable) to this bolt, then tighten the bolt. Tuck the extra cable behind the cd player.

Step 6
At this point you'll want to test your new rig. Go ahead and connect the rca cable to the rca 3/4" cable via the rca cable connectors. Connect the 3/4" jack to your ipod. Turn on your stereo, hit the CD button. Hit play on a track and you should be in business. If the volume is too low, go ahead and crank the volume on your ipod. There's an alternate way of hooking up your ipod using one of these cables:

Rca_to_dock_cable

it is called an "RCA to dock cable". You can find a few on Amazon by searching for "ipod rca cable". There's a few out there, the one pictured is by Cables to Go. There's another one by NYKO, same cable, $9 but I hear they charge a lot for shipping. The nice thing about using this sort of cable is that while it will not charge your ipod in the car, it'll use the line out signal from your ipod. You'll control the volume of the ipod from the car stereo and I believe it'll save a bit of battery life on the ipod.

If it doesn't work, you suck. Make sure you connected everything correctly. If it kind of works but sounds really bad then you didn't properly connect the ground wires. Not grounding the rig will cause all kinds of line noise. You'll know it's this if you partially connect the rca cable to the ipod cable (push the connectors in half way), suddenly it'll sound good. You don't want that, you want all your cables nice and tight and proper. Go check your work and stop with the half assed "get it done quick and sloppy" attitude that has been holding you back all your life. You'll never get chicks that way.

Step 7
Now that everything is working (and your life is in order), by whatever means you see fit, go ahead and string that cable to the front of your car to where your ipod will be mounted. I recommend putting the end of the cable where you want it eventually to be then working backwards from there, leaving the slack under the back seat. I have just the very end of my cable coming up from the front end of the middle console under the dash forward of the three cupholders. I unscrewed the middle console with a torx screwdriver and tucked the cable inside making sure I didn't interfere with the shifter, emergency brake, or center power connector. I then tucked the remaining slack underneath the back seat.

Step 8
Install one of these in one of the three open cupholders:

Belkin_TuneDok

The Belkin TuneDok comes with a variety of bottom cupholder adapters designed to fit into any situation. Think about it, the cupholders in cars are designed to be within easy reach of the driver. A car cupholder is the perfect place to mount an ipod. These things are very well built, hold the ipod securely, and have an opening at the bottom for a charger connector or that rca to dock connector. I had one of these that I used with my 3G ipod that even fit while in a Vaja case.

That should be it. You're all set. Rock on there with your bad self. Don't you feel so much better that you only spent around $42 bones to do it yourself?

Q&A

"But Art, I won't be able to control my ipod from my stereo, right?"
That is correct, Grasshopper. There's stuff out there that will do this with some cars but only in a halfway decent way with aftermarket stereos. I'm installing this on my factory stereo. There's a VW iPod kit that you can have put in but folks seem pretty disappointed by it. You have to setup playlists on the ipod then scroll through them using the presets on the stereo, and they wire your connector into your glovebox. It's a whole half-assed rig that will cost way too much and it's a pain in the ass to use. This way is the best way.

"But damnit I won't be able to see the song names and other fancy crap on my stereo if I do it this way, right?"
Right. No other fancy connectors out there will let you do this either, so why bother? You can always just look at your iPod screen anyway. But really you should keep your eyes on the damned road and not be looking at song names and fancy schmancy album art. What's wrong with you anyhow? Eyes up, hands at 10 and 2 soldier!

"This won't charge my ipod too, will it?"
No it will not. One thing you could do is use the headphone connector then get a dock to cigarette lighter cable for long trips. If your iPod runs out of juice on the way to work it could mean one of a few things. It could be time for a new iPod battery, or time for a new job closer to home.

"What iPods will this work with?"
Any ipod with a headphone jack. Which means all of them.

"Can I use this with other stuff besides an iPod?"
Anything with a headphone jack.

"I don't own a Volkswagen Beetle, how do I do this with my car?"
Well, I don't know really. Depends on your car and your stereo and whether you have a cd changer or not. You might want to check your owners manual to see if you've got an aux out somewhere built in. Or maybe you've got an aux out headphone jack sticking out of the front of your stereo. Google that shizz, see what comes up, and good luck.

Last night I was still a bit sore from lifting a few days back so I jumped on the recumbent bike. I watched an episode of Battlestar Galactica ("Unfinished Business", an ok episode) then switched over to music. Not sure what happened but all the songs I picked were really good and got me into quite a good frame of mind. I rolled for two hours for a grand total of 32.6 miles, a new personal best.

I'm thinking I might ride across the U.S. on my bike by plotting my mileage on a map, maybe start in Maine and ride to LA. Could be fun. Might be a good idea for a Google Maps mashup.

beam that shizz

I have really no space on my desk for anymore toys. I just couldn't pass up this season 7 Jean-Luc Picard. I set 'em up and just kind of dumped his accessories out back there. I've got just enough space to mouse about to the right of my keyboard. I'm not one of these "keep it in the box" cats that don't play with their toys. As soon as I get my stuff home or to my desk I tear into the box with xmas morning zeal.

Yeah it's totally Monday. I'm super busy at work, under a real crunch, lots of stuff going on and all I really care to do is post here. Believe it or not I'm actually getting a lot done. Anyway. I've got these Sennheiser HD 280 Pro Headphones that I've actually had for awhile.

Hd280_pro

I've always been a Sennheiser fan and was looking for a new set of cans that would cancel outside noise in a passive way, meaning no digital noise cancellation. These work just great. The reason I'm posting is at the moment I'm listening to the new Amon Tobin album and I've noticed I can feel the bass in my elbows on my desk. It's very slight but I can definitely feel it. I don't have them cranked or anything, weirdest darned thing.

They sound very good while hooked to my iPod without any headphone amplification and I don't have to crank them real high to drive them properly. They're comfy enough to wear all day which, lately, I've been doing everyday. Just thought I'd share. Now, all of you, back to the salt mines!

It's weird but so much is going on I've completely not mentioned anything about my whole workout thing. I've been working out regularly for two years now. I was lifting weights pretty regularly until the beginning of October then kind of layed off on stuff because I wasn't feeling well.

That's when I found out about the whole stomach thing. The doc told me I needed to get back to working out, specifically recommending I ride the recumbent bike everyday. Which I've done ever since except while on vacation and when I got that bug a few weeks back.

I was super busy the last few days of my vacation. I got a really good deal on a new weight cage that was a closeout model from last year. It's a big upgrade from my old model as it has a dip attachment and lat/rowing extension. It's much sturdier and has spring loaded gliding catches for the weights and safety bars. No more pulling out the pegs and setting pins manually.

The garage and workout space was really cluttered so as I setup the new cage I purchased several large shelving units, got rid of all the old crappy shelving, and cleaned out the garage. I even tore out the old utility bench and put new shelving there. The garage looks pretty darned good, much less clutter and plenty of workout space. I've got the cage and my weights arranged nicely with plenty of room all around. Feels good in there.

So I'm back to lifting again and I'm still riding the bike. Working out is becoming a favored pasttime for me now that I can't drink anymore. My Weekend nights used to pretty much be me drinking until all hours in front of the television. Now instead I ride the bike. I usually ride for an hour each night when not lifting and then ride longer on the weekends for the fun of it. This Friday I rode the 'bent 30.9 miles in 2 hours while watching Battlestar Galactica on my iPod. It was bliss.

The result is that I've lost 22lbs since sometime around the beginning of November, pretty much a complete miracle for yours truly through the holiday stretch. And I feel darned good. The stomach thing still gets me though as I haven't completely changed my diet but it's way better than when I started out.

I got an ipod for xmas I think at least two years ago, maybe three years ago. It was one of those co-operative group gift things. And I have to say I loved the darned thing. It was a pre-video, pre-photo, clickwheel ipod. Lately battery life had been getting pretty low which I could deal with by plugging it in when I got to work. I was considering ordering a new battery, pricing them out, when she finally died. The hard drive went. I'd turn it on and it'd rhythmically click over and over and after a few minutes a picture of a sad ipod would come up.

Sad_ipod

Just broke my heart. So I kind of held out hope, wishing for a new ipod for xmas but making plans to try to survive without one. My plan was to load a 1gb memory stick with music and load my iTunes at work with new music. This might have worked but they relocated me to a very small desk because they're remodeling my floor. My Mac is up on the shelf here and my headphone cord wouldn't reach.

it really is at that funny angle

6 comments

I mean really it would but it's one of those phone type cords and I didn't want to stretch it all out and ruin the cord. The worst thing is the folks behind me are from a different team and they're really loud and always seem to be arguing about things. And the construction is going on about 20' behind me. At least they put up a wall. But the noise from the folks behind me along with the construction sounds were just way too much. I needed tunes. So I broke down and got a 30gb ipod.

nice blurry photo of my new ipod