12V MP3 Players for Cars

[Aggie]

I've stumbled across a new type of techno-beast lately, which would be of great advantage for listening to MP3s in the car: All-in-one 12V mp3 players that will plug into the lighter socket in a vehicle, take a mem card or USB, and transmit to a radio station for listening.

Here's an example:
http://www.amazon.ca/Player-Wireless-Radio-Transmitter-Lighter/dp/B0009GZH5S/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1304541333&sr=1-3

The strange thing about these gizmos?  It seems that the cheap Chinese knock-offs came before any well-built equivalent, as far as I can tell.  I don't mind trying one of the cheapo types, but I fear they will be fairly useless for navigating music folders and getting to a particular song or artist.

I got hooked on the ability to jack in a USB with gigs worth of music while driving a rental vehicle.  I'd love to have the ability in my vehicle without having to replace the deck.

_{(I could probably jury-rig a system out of an existing cheap but effective mp3 player and transmitter I have - both run on AAA batteries, but could be plausibly be wired into a 12V adapter)}

Anyone aware of decent units of this type?

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Not really.

But I am well aware of what >not< to do... FM transmitters, even of a major brand costing mucho $$ simply do not work where I live-- too many FM stations.   I've really never had one that worked as advertised, and I've tried several different major brands.

I would quite imagine the el-cheapo knockoffs would be much, much worse.   The problem is, the FCC prevents the transmitter from having decent signal strength, so much that they cannot overcome the over-blast of land-based FM stations.

Now, where you are, there may well be empty bandwidth of FM available, for these things to work.   But not in Tulsa.

...

That being said?  I did have one, back in the 90's that worked extremely well.  But.  And it's a big but:  I had to disconnect my radio antenna from the radio, and plug in this adapter thingy instead, then plugged the antenna into the adapter.   It was a CD changer machine, actually, held 6 CD's (which seems like such a small choice by today's standard).  But it had an electronic switch, which disconnected the car's antenna completely, which eliminated pretty much all the FM interference.

I've not seen that level of sophistication in the latest crop of FM feeder devices, though.   However.  It ought to be simple enough to rig something-- purchase a short car-antenna extension wire-- these are available at the auto-audio specialty shops (Crutchfield, perhaps?).  Make sure the fittings match, GM re-invented the antenna plug awhile ago for example.   Now, in the middle of your new wire, cut it in half.... get an all-metal box that will fit a 12v relay completely inside.  Feed the cut wires through a pair of holes at the opposite ends of the box, and wire the center conductor to the relay such that, when it's >>off<< the conductive path is complete.  Then, when >>energized<< the path is broken.  Wire the outer shell-conductor to itself, and connect it to the box too.  The box acts like an RF shield, and helps keep interference at a minimum.   

Now, this may work as-is--- or... the weak-kneed FM MP3 transmitter may not be able to get to the antenna-less radio.  Not to worry, I have that covered, too.  On the >>energized<< terminal of the relay in the metal box?  Affix the center conductor of a piece of cable TV coax, and ground to the box's shell the shield/outer conductor.   Feed the cable TV coax out of the box, and place the other end near the FM MP3 thingy.  You may need to strip back and expose the inner conductor, and place it next to the FM feeder.  I'd experiment with a short, say 1/2" length of exposed wire, and expose more until you get a strong signal from the FM Xmitter thingy.  Experiment with wire placement with respect to the FM xmitter's casing-- on top, at either side, on the back, etc.   Then, hold it in place with tape.

If the FM xmitter is a separate device?  You could also enclose the whole thing inside another metal box, which you'd ground to the outer conductor of the cable-wire.

What you're trying to do here, is isolate the outer, land-based FM signal from the Xmitter and your car's radio.

Good luck!

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Frankly the best solution is to change the dashboard radio, it isn't as hard (you can find places where they tell you how to access the console) and the results are superior in all possible ways. I changed the radio of my old Subaru for one that played burned DVDs with mp3s and had an auxiliary input and it took me about 20 minutes (and later removing it was even quicker). Or just get the ones that play CDs with mp3s (almost all of them nowadays) and the auxiliary inputs (USB and the regular 3.5mm). You'll be happier in the end.

[Aggie]

Frankly the best solution is to change the dashboard radio, it isn't as hard (you can find places where they tell you how to access the console) and the results are superior in all possible ways. I changed the radio of my old Subaru for one that played burned DVDs with mp3s and had an auxiliary input and it took me about 20 minutes (and later removing it was even quicker). Or just get the ones that play CDs with mp3s (almost all of them nowadays) and the auxiliary inputs (USB and the regular 3.5mm). You'll be happier in the end.

Decks that will take an SD card and/or USB are not as expensive these days as I would have expected, so that will likely be the proper solution. I want to load up a card or stick on my computer and jam it in the deck, no CDs required.  DVD with mp3 would come close, but it's not as adjustable 'on the fly'.

I had to install the car stereo system from scratch in my first car - it didn't even have a radio or speakers - so the work is easy enough.  It sometimes takes special tools for some car brands to get the dash apart; I haven't taken a close look at the Honda.

@Bob: The cheap little battery-powered FM transmitter I bought worked fine in Calgary, and out here there are only three radio stations so it's a cinch.  I can hook it up to my laptop and get clear reception within a 10 m radius or greater, through walls and the like.  It's more than adequate for vehicle use.  I think they've gotten better in the last decade or so. The biggest problem I've got is that the devices I'm using run on battery, and I'd like something to run on 12V and/or switch off when I leave the vehicle.  I have a habit of leaving them on when I shut the vehicle off.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Well, since you have only 3 FM's?  Then I could see they would work.

I had excellent luck with a Griffin brand iPod adapter, actually-- at least until the remaining FM spectrum became crowded with christian talk radio...

... anyway, the adapter plugged directly into the dash's 12v cigar lighter socket on one end, had an iPod-type connector on the other end and a dial (button, really) to choose what frequency to broadcast on.  Anytime I could locate a clear spot on the FM band, it worked well enough.

I also have the same brand in "generic":   instead of a dedicated iPod plug, it had a 3.5mm jack, and you used a patch-cord between the mp3 device and the FM xmitter.

And I happen to know that there are quite a few USB-Stick player dongles out there, now:  you basically load up a USB thumb drive with music, plug it onto the little player-thingy, and instant MP3 player.  Most of these have a modest screen.  Alas, I've not seen one that ran on anything but an AAA battery though.

So, for your situation (clear spots on the FM band) I could easily recommend Griffin brand, or Belkin brand for that matter-- I also have one of those, too.  (It's older-- I used it with an old audio tape cassette player, when I substituted for a newspaper route occasionally).

In short, purchasing a major-brand, direct-to-the-lighter device ought to work for you.

----

Edit:

These days?  I use, exclusively, a pair of ZUNE players, mated to an old hocky-puck shaped Zune dock (so as to save wear and tear on the player's fragile 3.5mm jack).

The players are loaded up with my entire music collection (roughly 18gig), and sits into the dock, held in place with a piece of elastic fabric (in the truck, which is more bouncy).   The dock has a 3.5mm jack, and a Zune-type jack on it's back:  into the jack, I have a Zune-type auto-charger, for power, and into the 3.5mm I have a patch cord, which in turn goes into the truck-radio's dedicated 3.5mm aux input via patch cord.  

In the case of my car (it's old), another Zune dock, modified with acrylic resin to fit into the center cup holder which is just below the radio.  Another zune-type auto-charger for power, and to mate with the original GM radio, I use a cassette adapter:  a thingy that looks like an audio cassette with a wire coming off, at the end of which is a 3.5mm plug, mated to the zune-dock's input jack.   Then I just "play" the cassette adapter on the car's radio.

The docks I got from Amazon, on the el-cheapo (last year's model) for $5 each.  The adapters, same way, for $2 apiece.  Patch cord, same way-- $1 each.

As for the iPod?  Anyone want it?  It's an iPod Classic, >>not<< updated to the latest CrApple ware, so you can still get to it via WinAmp with an extension...

;P

... I really hate the fact that you cannot create music playlists on the fly in this iPod, which is why I quit using it.

Edit again:

Long-term?  I plan on replacing the spinning-metal hard discs on the Zune's with flash-based solid state drives.   Once they display the dreaded "drive error message 5"... 

I really like the Zune's interface over several other brands I've used in the past, including Creative, Rio, Sandisk among others.

[Lindorm]

Darlica and I recently tried one of those things, powered by the cigarette lighter jack, connector to the Mp3 player and with wireless transmission to the car radio.

Didn't work at all. The best we got was some low-volume sound with very bad sound quality -and that was in an area far from any major radio transmitters. In more built-up areas with several commercial radio channels, it was virtually impossible to pick up any signal at all from the transmitter thingy.

The player/transmitter we bought was nothing super fancy and expensive, but hardly cheap junk either. I suppose ther might be better stuff out there, somewhere, but I personally would recommend Sibling Zono's suggestion and get a new car stereo instead.

[Aggie]

Ayuh, USB-compatible decks are common and not particularly expensive.  I think that's the way to go.