connecting your ipod into your Elise - the cheap way!

ninja · Post by **ninja** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:27 pm

will cost a whole £2.50

i bought a pair of head phones which i cut in half so i was left with the wire and the plug that fits into the ipod. then i bought one of those audio cables that has the red and white connector on it.

connected the + from the headphones to both the +'s from the white and the red cable, then connected the two negatives the same way. soldered it, wrapped it in electrical tape and then routed it around my lotus - actually split it too so it had a headphone socket at both the driver and passengers side. wires all hidded behind the dash, nice clean job and superb sound.

took about half an hour to soulder and do the wiring bit and about the same to route it around the car.

easy

my headunit

spliced connection - with black electrical tape

passengers side ipod with headphone connection

drivers side ipod headphone connection

ninja

jj · Post by jj » Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:34 pm

Ninja,

Good if your headunit has a phono aux in. Looks neat.

Alternatively, you can pick up leads on ebay that turn the changer input on headunits into AUX in. I got one of these for my Alpine and it was £8.

gordon · Post by **gordon** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:48 pm

I've got some head unit in mine with a remote control and it shows wee graphics/vids of cars and stuff. Did my nut in when driving at night until i eventually found you can set it so it just displays the time. The sterios never on, so if the car stays i'm gonna look at putting guages in there. It sounds like someone rattling a can behind your head when its on anyway due to the crap speakers and bare tub. Or is that just my bad taste in music...........

Post by **Shug** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:00 pm

Erm... or you could just have bought a long phono-mini jack lead and saved the soldering......

Maplins job.

woody · Post by **woody** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 11:31 pm

I have the same haedunit in the 306, but i just bought the right bit of wire for the job (3mm jack > RCA) for £2

I also have a sik imp (here: http://www.digitalall.co.uk/product_det ... 03&pri=466 ) to connect to the ipod dock connector for a better sound quality. This also means the ipod output volume is fixed and only adjustable from the head unit and that the ipod can be charged while in the car from the same connector

Andy G · Post by **Andy G** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 7:04 pm

Easiest way to do it.

Even if you go to some one like Ray Smith in Edinburgh (he stocks the aux to 3.5mm) cable for the blaupunkt unit in the 111R, it won't run you more than £20. More of a pain in the ass trying to get the wire to fit in nicely fromt he back of the head-unit down.

Worth getting something with better battery life than an ipod. Mine always used to run out. Just started using an old Sony NWHD5 (my shop had scratched the demo unit to hell. What a shame

) and it is genial. Not quite as good UI, (software is sh*te for it) but I've been using for the last 2 weekends, and the run to St A during the week, even left it on a few time accidently, and it still hasn't needed a charge

Just a shame they stopped making them

Stephen · Post by **Stephen** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 11:04 pm

Thank goodness for ebay. Does the new sony have such good battery life?

Andy G · Post by **Andy G** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 11:48 pm

yes it does actually. Better UI also.

NWA3000 is the 20GB version (35 hours), and NWA1000 the 6GB (20 hours). Unless you need the 20GB storage the 6GB version looks nicer dimension wise as it is pretty small.

Off to Lisbon tomorrow as a guest of Sony to see what they have planned for this year

Here's hoping its interesting