I notice that on the new Volvo V50 there is an option to add in an adapter to make an ipod compatible with the head unit in the car. This adapter gives ipod control via the head unit controls. The dealer tells me that this option is about £380. Which is a lot of cash for some cables and a plug... Does anyone know if any thing similar can be bought from a 3rd party and retrofitted to the vehicle? -- www.srsteel.co.uk http://www.srsteel.co.uk/Panorama http://www.srsteel.co.uk/landscape http://www.srsteel.co.uk/Peru
Why just ipod's for these type of connections ? ..... Why can't we just plug into the output jack (in the volvo player/in dash tunner) and plug into the volvo factory stereo system to play our portable tunes .... I looked into it on my 00 s80t6 and was tols the best quality to expect is the wireless fm band connection .... no thanx ... I fig'ed it would be best to go/w hard wire or some sort of direct connection.... I have a little sasa 6gig "ipon wanna be" mp3 player .... It has the standard headphone jack for output...tips and/or ideas always appreciated...thanx !!!!
Simon...to answer your question...I would contact crutchfield.com and chat w/the tec folks...If there is a adapter or converter...they would prob know about it.....The $$ sure does seem high.....
There are plenty of third-party adapters that will let you use your ipod in *any* car. Most of them are microwatt FM transmitters that rely on you setting the car's radio to a certain frequency. You plug the ipod into the transmitter dealie, plug the dealie into the 12v power, turn on the radio and go. Same type things were available for personal CD players, for cellphones, and probably for other small personal electronics. My used 2003 Volvo has an ipod adapter, which I won't be using. The dealer can't assure me that attaching an ipod with a newer firmware rev. than specified in the manaul won't b0rk the car's firmware, and also says Volvo has no firmware updates for the car that will ensure compatibility with an ipod newer than those specified in the (grossly non-technical) ipod connector user manual.
I should have made clearer. I'm expressly not interested in FM transmitters for this function. I'm curently using a Griffin iTrip FM transmitter with my Ipod Video. (In my Alfa 156. I've yet to take ownership of the V50) Quality of sound is acceptable, however interference is a pain as is operation of the device on the go. I'm expressly interested in devices that attach to the head unit, give control function via the HU/steering wheel, and charge the device too. SS -- www.srsteel.co.uk http://www.srsteel.co.uk/Panorama http://www.srsteel.co.uk/landscape http://www.srsteel.co.uk/Peru Simon...have you expierenced the fm band system? does it sound ok?
I have finally lost patience with wires and cables floating around my car, casette adapters and jury-rigged wire routing, the ridiculous amounts charged for wired adapters from Crutchfield/Volvo/IPD and the silly price the FM transmitting adapters add to the cost of a player (crappy ones w/3 frequencies for $20, better ones starting around $55)!! After extensive research to find the best and most practical in-car MP3 solution I have discovered this: the 4Gb version of the Netac A210 (reviewed here: http://tinyurl.com/2vk2cm). There was no distributor so I contacted the company directly and now I'M A DISTRIBUTOR! So the feature run-down that got my attention was: - Built-in FM Transmitter (with digital tuning, just pick your channel, powerful enough to transmit from another room!) - INCLUDED in-car adapter/charger (haven't really needed it yet, battery runs for hours off one charge) - 4Gb of storage (I uploaded 280 songs and it's less than half full) - big colour screen (well 2x that of an ipod nano) - same overall size as an ipod nano but sleek and black and unobtrusive (i.e. not as much of an invitation to window smashers) - simple USB interface (no iTunes needed), just plug it in and it's like another hard drive, no installation drivers needed - you could watch video or read e-books on it but the screen is too small for that IMHO If you're interested in this cool little solution let me know as I can certainly get it to you in North America for better than the commonly posted Australian price! blurp
Ford, Microsoft Create Car System That Lets You Ask for a Song November 8, 2007; Page B1 Under the hood, modern cars are packed with computers. But in the passenger cabin, they remain analog islands in a digital world. For some, this may be a blessed relief. But others want to bring their digital music and digital messaging into the place where they spend hours every week. Unfortunately, that's still too clumsy a process. Yes, more cars are making it easy to connect wirelessly with Bluetooth- equipped cellphones so drivers can make hands-free phone calls -- but not hands-free text messaging. And that results in the dangerous practice of texting while behind the wheel. And, yes, you can pipe the sound from your portable music player into the car's speakers. But you usually have to control the song selection and skipping by handling the player itself, and that's another dangerous distraction. SYNC, a new system jointly developed by Ford and Microsoft, allows drivers to use the most modern digital conveniences while driving. Some car makers solve this music problem with integration kits that transfer control of the music player to the dashboard or steering- wheel controls and display song information on a dashboard screen. But this option is most common in luxury cars and is typically designed only for Apple's iPods. Now, Ford Motor, working with Microsoft, has come up with a system that's a big step forward in integrating cellphones and portable music players into cars. It's highly versatile and works with numerous devices on a wide range of Ford models. I've been testing the $395 option, called SYNC, with multiple cellphones and music players. It's quite good and indicates that the digitally backward auto industry finally may be getting it. SYNC combines the often separate cellphone and music-player functions into one unified interface that can be controlled by a voice- recognition system that works well. You can command it by voice to play a single song out of thousands on your iPod or other music player. With some phones, it will even read your incoming cellphone text messages to you, and properly pronounce text-message shortcuts such as LOL (Laughing Out Loud.) Ford isn't limiting this system to luxury cars. It's available on a dozen models -- including the company's least-expensive car, the Ford Focus. I tested SYNC on a Focus. SYNC simultaneously handles multiple cellphones and music players from a variety of companies. It imports and remembers the address books and song information for up to 12 phones and four players, so that as you connect and reconnect a remembered device, wired or wirelessly, it is ready to go. It doesn't have a hard disk and doesn't store your music. Unlike other approaches, the Ford system doesn't require a special cable or proprietary connector. It uses a standard USB port and the cable that came with your player. SYNC will even play music directly from a USB thumb drive. There's also an audio-in jack for players that don't support USB, or which require both. VIDEO ARCHIVE See all of Walt Mossberg's Personal Technology videos, including his reviews of the new iPod Touch and the latest version of Yahoo Mail.SYNC can even stream music wirelessly, over Bluetooth, from the cellphones that support this feature. However, due to limitations in Bluetooth, it doesn't transfer song selection controls, or the song information display, to the dashboard in this scenario. The same limitation applies if your player can be connected only with the audio- in jack. I tested SYNC with two music players and four cellphones and the system handled them all effortlessly. I used a year-old iPod and a new Samsung P2 as my test music players, and SYNC quickly transferred their song information and allowed me to select playlists, artists, albums, genres and individual songs by voice command. I tried the cellphone functions with an Apple iPhone, a Motorola RAZR, a RIM BlackBerry and a new HTC Shadow phone and, again, all worked properly. While phone calls and address-book imports were handled easily on all the phones, some of SYNC's advanced functions, like the reading of text messages and the streaming of music, aren't widely supported on all phones. For example, only the RAZR worked with the text-message feature. The iPhone test was especially interesting because it is both a Bluetooth-equipped phone and a full-fledged iPod. The SYNC treated it as both, simultaneously. I found the voice-command system surprisingly reliable. In four days of testing, I encountered only a few instances in which my commands were misunderstood. SYNC has some limitations. While it can read text messages on compatible phones, Ford didn't build in the ability to dictate and send text messages. You can send only canned messages, like "Be there in 20 minutes." But there are a lot of advanced features -- too many to list here. And Ford plans to add others, which owners will be able to install at home. Detailed information on the system is available at syncmyride.com. Alas, I did discover one glitch. Twice during my testing, SYNC mistakenly declared that a music player had been unplugged when it hadn't been. The system recovered with a little fiddling, but Ford needs to fix this. Still, SYNC is a very well done method for integrating digital devices into a car, and in a model that most people can afford.
I think he is charging you more. i don't think you have to pay so much for an adapter and a plug. why don't you buy that cables from out. and get it connected by a mechanic. it should cost you less.