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Having previously owned a IIs and having a standard usb cradle in my car run from a usb connectored "cigarette lighter adapter", I'm used to using my devices as a portable "car stereo". I even wired it up to replace my old crap car stereo, using a small "cheap boy-racer style" £30 stereo power amp under the dash. This has been great for the last year. I get in the car, dock the xda IIs into the cradle, plug in the headphone socket which is wired into the amp and hey presto, music - and tom tom prompts through the car speakers.
Recently I've been eyeing up the xda exec(JasJar/Universal) and after getting a second hand colleague to buy my IIis, decided to get the new device. Obviously the shorter battery life is a bit of a shock compared to my old one, but I was pleasantly suprised that
1) The audio output seems a better quality
2) The new device no longer needed a custom USB cradle plinth or gooseneck holder, ... I could place the "open clam" in the recess in my instrument panel, to the right of my speedo. Basically sitting just behind the steering wheel, which also solves the night-time reflection issues of a bright display.
Just one problem, I discovered that the USB sync cable supplied with the new device doesnt seem to enable charging to the exec when I plugged it into the 12Volt to USB adapter that worked with the XDA IIs that I wired into my dashboard.
So I decided to buy a new car power adapter for the new Exec, egged on by installing the great "mort player" which has an ideal "large button" interface on a black background which is ideal for use in the car.... and it doesnt forget the playlist like media player 10 seems to do each time you run it...
However, When the car power adapter arrived today, (from expansys)
http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=125511
To my dismay it is very noisy! the audio output to my amp sounds great with just the headphone output to my mini under dash amplifier, but only on battery power. But when the adapter is supplying power, the audio output becomes "crackly" Any electonics boffins have any suggestions to remove the "noise" with capacitors, if so what type and where should I put them, on the audio, or inline with the cigarette power adapter dc input somewhere, or should I just send it back and try and source a better quality adapter?
Expansys also do 2 other models -
http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=125969
http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=125970
Does anyone know if these are as noisy as the other one? Does anyone else have a similar setup?
Thanks in advance
Derek
you have a ground loop. in america, we use negative as the ground, so be carefull with what I'm telling you (posative is ground in some countries).
What you need to do is run the amp and cigarette lighter off the same ground(s) and possibly the same feeds (supply voltage). Make sure you fuse the lines appropriately, or you might fry something.
I would suggest installing a secondary cigarett lighter outlet somewhere convenient (so you don't cross any other circuts in your car, and burn stuff out), and run it off the same points that your amplifier gets it's power. Fuse the new outlet with the appropriate fuse (should be 5 or 10 amps), and give your new setup a whirl. It's a cheap alternative for you to try (should be about $10 or 8 euro?)
Good luck, and remember, NOT MY FAULT WHAT YOU DO> TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!!
I agree with him ^
JAmes
Strangely - today the noise is gone... hmm... very strange...
perhaps it was a solar flare, or another explosion at hemel
or more likely - perhaps there was a loose connection somewhere!
Thanks for all the advice guys, I will certainly make sure I avoid any ground loops and ground the audio on the same physical connection as the car earth. I'll check this at the weekend when I have some daylight to work in!. I'll do this when wiring the new adapter in properly - I can't bear it hanging out of the lighter socket with the near the indicator stalk!
I can say the Exec is great device though... Its a far better solution for car audio - and no leaving an expensive hifi in the car to be stolen.
Hopefully someone else is inspired by this post to also use the device in this way. If you want plenty of storage for a full install of the tomtom uk map and loads of music, you'll be interested to hear that you can actually get a 2 gig card now from ebuyer for about £60!
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...vd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=103013
Cheers
Derek
This is very valuable info
interestingfellow said:
you have a ground loop. in america, we use negative as the ground, so be carefull with what I'm telling you (posative is ground in some countries).
What you need to do is run the amp and cigarette lighter off the same ground(s) and possibly the same feeds (supply voltage). Make sure you fuse the lines appropriately, or you might fry something.
I would suggest installing a secondary cigarett lighter outlet somewhere convenient (so you don't cross any other circuts in your car, and burn stuff out), and run it off the same points that your amplifier gets it's power. Fuse the new outlet with the appropriate fuse (should be 5 or 10 amps), and give your new setup a whirl. It's a cheap alternative for you to try (should be about $10 or 8 euro?)
Good luck, and remember, NOT MY FAULT WHAT YOU DO> TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_loop_(electricity)
I want to ditch my ipod.
Problem is, I drive for ~8 hours a day, and require music that doesn't suck (or sucks hard, depending on your taste). I have an itrip that plugs into the 12v cigar lighter plug in my work truck which allows it to charge my ipod and broadcast my music over any specified FM station I want.
Anybody know of a device that would do such a task for my tilt? Adapter maybe? Pinouts of both the usb plug and an ipod connector and a place to buy a male usb plug and female ipod connector? Thoughts? Hate?
You'd need to spend all nearly £20, but one way of doing it would be to get a 3 Way Mini USB - 3.5mm audio jack which allows you to charge the Kaiser while also having a 3.5mm headphone jack that you can connect to a new FM Transmitter (unless your current one can take 3.5mm and not just iPod) and it should all work like your current setup....
http://www.gpsforless.co.uk/product_details.php?id=9659
http://www.gpsforless.co.uk/product_details.php?id=10726
Or if you feel like spending a bit more money, you can get some decent bluetooth car stereos for around £150, and then play music in your car the same as playing it though bluetooth headphones, this is the route I went down after my car stereo needed replacing and the sound is alot better then the FM transmitter option. I went for the cheapest option - Sony MEX-BT3600U CD PlayerFree Store Fitting which hasn't caused me any problems and also doubles as a in-car handsfree kit.
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...yrn_31371_crumb_31265-31371_topcategory_31371
Quite a few posts that you can tangent onto, such as http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=332164
Okay, I think I am going to have to pull something out of my ass for a solution. I knew about charging the phone while using a headset, which would be dandy if there was a way to power the fm modulator. But it was a nice kick to the mental process in the right direction. Thank you!
I have two units, one is a 1/8 inch modulator which runs on batteries. I hate it. The other is my ipod dingy, which does exactly for my ipod what I want to do with my phone.
I think what I am going to do is buy one of the headphone adaptors, and pull it apart to see if there is a way to isolate the power input and audio output, then either integrate a modulator using that power source, or find a way to splice it into my ipod's cable.
I am not going to buy a radio, I change vehicles every day and don't feel like paying for a fleet to all have fancy head units in them. Maybe my daily driver, but not every vehicle I would drive in a given month.
What I got was the following:
1. iPod FM transmitter that used 3.5mm plug & spans 88.1-107.9 freq's ~ $40US
2. mini USB 3-plug adapter - charging, 3.5mm audio out, mini USB for other accessories <-- IMPORTANT ~ $5US
3. 3.5mm speaker/mic cable ( to allow hands-free talking ) ~ $5US
4. 2 DC cigarette lighter splitter ~ $7US
5. MP3 player/Phone adapter that locks onto air vents ~ $9US
It sounds like a lot, but it works really nicely. lol. Plug the 2 DC splitter into your cigarette lighter to give you 2 DC "outlets".
Plug the phone's DC adapter into 1 outlet & the iPod fm transmitter into the other outlet.
Plug the phone's DC adapter usb connector into the first port ( left-most ) of the 3-in-1 adapter.
Plug the speaker/mic cable into the 3rd port ( right-most ) of the 3-in-1 adapter.
Plug the iPod fm transmitter's 3.5mm plug into the speaker/mic cable.
select a station w/ nothing but static... preferably static on BOTH sides... ie, if 88.3, 88.5 and 88.7 are all static-y, then 88.5 is your best bet for quality audio. set your iPod's fm transmitter to that station.
I got the fm transmitter and car mount from wal-mart & the others from eBay.
I use the Motorola T501, works flawlessly and I'd highly recommend it. I got mine for about $60 US
Brian:
For the high tech solution:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=250293443325
OR
http://www.semsons.com/2miusband3st.html
+
dual 12v accessory/lighter splitter
+
any lighter powered 3.5 mm FM Modulator of your choice
+
lighter charger
OT, are you in the Skyfire beta? If not, you should be. http://www.skyfire.com
Try "phelps8" beta code, to get in right away.
If you get into the beta, I might be able to get you into the alpha... (I was the fourth person to be accepted into the alpha) :-o
We should grab lunch sometime to swap apps. I'm sure there is an app or two I have on my "wimpy cdma little brother" of an HTC device that would benifit your signaless, ir-less, gsm'd htc. Maybe you even have a program or two I've never seen.
Protonus said:
OT, are you in the Skyfire beta? If not, you should be. http://www.skyfire.com
Try "phelps8" beta code, to get in right away.
If you get into the beta, I might be able to get you into the alpha... (I was the fourth person to be accepted into the alpha) :-o
We should grab lunch sometime to swap apps. I'm sure there is an app or two I have on my "wimpy cdma little brother" of an HTC device that would benifit your signaless, ir-less, gsm'd htc. Maybe you even have a program or two I've never seen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Been in the skyfire beta since before you had a touchscreen, holmes. I stopped using it because I like opera more.
I am planning on going to help out airbox tomorrow with some lock situation he has. Maybe you should check our other forum. Aaron, Aaron, Brian, James, Marnie, Sean, and myself are going to be meeting up sometime next week to annoy Noy at work. I'll load up my microsd with some more files than I usually carry, just for you. <3
Anyone have one of these Motorola T501 bluetooth FM-Transmitters?
How is the sound for listening to MP3's? Any complaints?
jsd2 said:
Anyone have one of these Motorola T501 bluetooth FM-Transmitters?
How is the sound for listening to MP3's? Any complaints?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do , and the FM modulator built into it is the best I've ever used. It auto searches for good stations, and no pops, crackles, hiccups, nothin. I can't even tell the reduction in quality when streaming internet radio to it, to my car vs any other FM channel. I'd say it's at least FM quality.
Hooking your phone directly to your stereo with a 3.5 mm audio adaptor, is going to sound better no doubt. But I can bring this thing in a rental or someone elses car with me, and get my favorite internet radio or MP3's wherever I want.
I ordered one of these last week, it does the job.
http://www.buygpsnow.com/OnCourse-Ed-3-Powered-Mount-with-Integrated-FM-Transmiter-for-ATandT-Tilt--HTC-P4550TyTN-II--Kaiser__958.aspx
Is it possibe to modify the sound output not to be routed to tv when hdmi is plugged into tablet? I have a 23" LCD that has an hdmi input, but doesn't have speakers built in or sound out. So when the tablet is plugged into this screen i have no sound, what i would like is to use the Dock speakers when i am plugged into this lcd.
That sounds like a bummer, I assumed they would let you route sound through the headphone Jack or something.
My TV has optical out but my monitors don't nor do they have speakers, I hope there is some solution cause I never intend to connect it to my TV anyway, that's what the PS3 is for.
Sent from my GT-P1000
So here's the thing. I'm installing a Samsung Galaxy tablet into my car. My daughters got kindle fires for Christmas. I was going to use HDMI monitors for when I do netflix or whatever from the Galaxy.
My question is, can the Kindle fire get a video in signal and be able to use those as monitors instead of buying headrest monitors for them?
Also, on the same install, can I get sound via the usb cable or do I have to use the 3.5mm headphone jack for sound. The genius's at amazon decided to put the usb and the 3.5mm jacks on opposite sides. Now when I build a custom mounting dock for these fires, I'll have to have it slide into usb port, and then manually plug in the 3.5mm jack if I can't get sound through the usb.
I could really use your help everyone! Thanks!
the kf does only have 2 ports (1x3,5mm headjack, 1xmicro-usb) and the power switch. they are all side by side on the bottom of the device.
No way to do "video in" that I am aware of - unless you crack it open and solder to the pcb or tap into the lcd ribbon connector. Usually you would either do regular lcd monitors or totally autonomous tablets.
You should check out mp3car.com for some ideas, they do some amazing stuff.
It would be cool to be able to stream the video wirelessly from the Galaxy Tab to the Kindle Fires but I am not aware of a way to do that either at the moment.
Bump. I've been wondering this as well. If bluetooth is ever "unlocked" for the Fire I would be building an in-dash mount for my car.
Instead of streaming video, couldn't your Galaxy Tab just host share the file via Wi-Fi so the Kindles could play the video?
That is what I would do.
So far I've not found anything that supports my desires.
What I'm going to do is have to go with a separate monitor.
I stand corrected, thanks for the info and sorry for being lazy. The USB, and 3.5mm Jack are in fact on the same side. This makes life way easier. I've got what I need to do now. Thank you.
As soon as I can figure out how to put power to these tablets, and the two headphone amplifiers I need, I'll be in business and they'll be going in my headrests!
Thanks for the help.
Hi Guys,
i want to stream spotify to my car stereo. My car is a 2011 Suzuki Swift and the only connection is USB so i connected my phone and put it in MTP. The car stereo displays "unsupported device".
As far as i know it doesn¨t work because the S4 does not support usb Mass Storage anymore.
Is there any way to get this working? I really like the S4 and buying a new car also isn¨t an option
Buy a new radio for the car that supports bluetooth music. That works great.
If that isn't an option buy an fm transmitter that plugs into your phone. The quality isn't great depending on how dense the radio signals are in your area, but it'll work.
So there is no other option?
I can¨t replace the head unit and a FM transmitter would be just another dongle in the car...
Well how about a usb stick for your music? They make large capacity ones really tiny now. You wont even notice it on the dashboard
That would be the same thing as plugging your phone in if the car is just trying to access your phone as a mass storage device. The car will just see your phone as a usb drive anyway, so just get a usb drive that you don't have to plug in each time you get in the car.