Belkin Auto Kit "Hack" for iPhone! (How To)

[Daremo]

Belkin Auto Kit "Hack" for the iPhone!

Here is a very simple hack to the Belkin Auto Kit, to make the device work with your iPhone. Please forgive the photos, I didn't expect to make this "how to" and the only camera I had with me in my car was the iPhone itself.

1) Grab your Belkin Auto Kit. (pretty obvious, right?)



2) Unscrew the top metal portion, just below the metal tip. This is the only piece you'll need to unscrew.



3) 5 pieces will come off / out of the kit. The fuse, the fuse tip, the fuse spring, the screw top, and the silver ring which holds the casing together.



4) Remove the half of the casing without the wire attached. This will basically fall out on you.



5) Remove the bottom cover to expose the circuitry. This will take a bit of wiggling, but it does pop out. There is no glue or tabs holding it in. It site into the "dome cover" securely.



6) Take a wire cutter, and sever the WHITE wire connecting to the circuit board.



Here's a photo of the wire severed. You can put a small piece of electrical tape on the ends if you wish, but I just tucked the wires back away from each other.



7) Reassemble the Kit.

It's THAT simple! Now, to make it work, make sure the music is already playing through the iPhone, and then connect the dock plug. Nothing will happen for about a second and a half, and the "Not made for iPhone" window will appear. Click "no" and the music now plays through the line out port on the Belkin!

Something else I noticed, while the phone is connected to the dock cable, all of your sound, (not just the iPod music) will come through the line out, so when your phone rings, or an email alert chimes, it's comes through the line out port. I guarantee I'll never miss a call in the car again, as it's as loud as you're playing you music!

There you go, I hope this helps some frustrated people who used the Belkin as their method of playing their iPod in their car. Now, you can enjoy the iPhone the same way!

I don't take credit for this, as I found this info posted from user "jpt1" on howardforums.com. I just made the "How to." He suggested cutting into the cable to sever the white wire, and I found this method much easier.

[NightStorm]

Thanks for the how-to, I'll be trying this tonight on my newer-style white BAK.

[rriggs]

now if someone could tell me which wire to cut on my Airplay^2 that would be awesome!

[dr_lha]

Interesting!

So what does the white wire do then? Are there any negatives to doing this? Does a regular iPod work as expected after this mod?

[Daremo]

Originally Posted by dr_lha

Interesting!

So what does the white wire do then? Are there any negatives to doing this? Does a regular iPod work as expected after this mod?

The white wire leads to pin 21 on the dock connector, is the Accessory Indicator/Serial enable pin. It looks for Ohm's. Different resistances indicate the accessory it's connecting to. For example, 1kOhm = iPod docking station, 10kOhm takes some iPods into photo import mode. 1MOhm is the Belkin auto adaptor. With this wire severed, the iPhone has no way to determine what the device is. When it's connected, the iPhone is only seeing the Auto Kit as a charger, with no line out device, so it disables the audio out. Without the ability to check the Ohm, the iPhone is fooled, and can't tell what it is, therefore, leaving the audio enabled, as well as the charge.

Yes, my iPod also still works after this mod. The only difference is, when I used to unplug the cable from the iPod, the iPod would automatically stop playing. It no longer stops. That's all I can tell.

I can't see how anything could go wrong with the iPhone or iPod doing this. I guess there's ALWAYS that possibility, so as with any mod, it's at your own risk. You're not tampering with any power leads, so I believe this is harmless, unless someone knows better?

[NickFury]

well i just did this us hack myself and it works great! Only problem is... I can get a call fine, I can hear it through the ring through the speakers fine, but the caller will only come through the phones handset speaker and not through my cars speakers putting the phone on speaker phone makes the caller come through the iPhones speakers otherwise this works great. I have an hour drive oming up shortly and I'm going to test the gsm interference noise, so far from what I can tell its already reduced which is a huge plus! (I typed this on my phone so sorry if there are mistakes!)

[NickFury]

oh and BTW, this hack took about 2 minutes to do, very easy. Tha ks again for the instructions

[NightStorm]

Originally Posted by NickFury

well i just did this us hack myself and it works great! Only problem is... I can get a call fine, I can hear it through the ring through the speakers fine, but the caller will only come through the phones handset speaker and not through my cars speakers putting the phone on speaker phone makes the caller come through the iPhones speakers otherwise this works great. I have an hour drive oming up shortly and I'm going to test the gsm interference noise, so far from what I can tell its already reduced which is a huge plus! (I typed this on my phone so sorry if there are mistakes!)

I'm kinda glad it operates the way you describe. I'll be doing this tonight and performing some testing on the drive to work tomorrow morning.

[NightStorm]

Just completed this... I didn't even take the back cover off; just snipped the white wire and put it back together. Took it out to my car and, as long as you start playing something before connecting the dock connector, the audio is now played through the car stereo. If you try to start playing something after plugging it in, the sound will come through the iPhone speakers.

Kudos to the original poster and whoever posted first to HF; I now do not have to carry my Nano with me on a daily basis!

[NickFury]

To Daremo

Are you able to hear phone calls through your car speakers? The callers can hear me just fine, but i can't hear them unless i put the phone up to my ear or put them on speaker, which, the volume on the speakerphone is useless in the car

But, I did end up driving out to Boston tonight, and alot of that 'GSM noise' is gone. I still have do some more testing, but I think the Belkin is doing the trick for me in that department, which is a huge relief

[Daremo]

Originally Posted by NickFury

To Daremo

Are you able to hear phone calls through your car speakers? The callers can hear me just fine, but i can't hear them unless i put the phone up to my ear or put them on speaker, which, the volume on the speakerphone is useless in the car

But, I did end up driving out to Boston tonight, and alot of that 'GSM noise' is gone. I still have do some more testing, but I think the Belkin is doing the trick for me in that department, which is a huge relief

I did not try the phone while plugged in yet, but I'm guessing I'll have the same issue when the phone is in use. It would be great if someone comes up with something to use the auto speakers as the phone audio though!

I didn't even think of this with this mod. I'm just thrilled that you can charge AND use the line out in the car now!

I've been researching this Belkin issue for days now, and I was SO CLOSE to the answer. I knew the Accessory Indicator was the culprit, I just didn't know what color wire it was. Damn, I love this community! There's ALWAYS an answer around the corner!

[NickFury]

Originally Posted by Daremo

I did not try the phone while plugged in yet, but I'm guessing I'll have the same issue when the phone is in use. It would be great if someone comes up with something to use the auto speakers as the phone audio though!

I didn't even think of this with this mod. I'm just thrilled that you can charge AND use the line out in the car now!

I've been researching this Belkin issue for days now, and I was SO CLOSE to the answer. I knew the Accessory Indicator was the culprit, I just didn't know what color wire it was. Damn, I love this community! There's ALWAYS an answer around the corner!

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I'm am absolutely ecstatic about this mod. But if the voice would come through the speakers, it would be the PERFECT setup for me. Oh well, I'm sure this is something in the phone firmware that might be fixed by later on.

But, using the Belkin, my sound quality just got a whole lot better in the car, and I've pretty much confirmed it.... my 'GSM noise' interfeance just went down by about 90% which is HUGE. Now I can stream an MP3 over EDGE while driving down the road, I would have never even fathomed that even this morning.

I also started to research this yesterday too, I went so far as to start finding the pinouts on teh different dock connectors for ipods to try and figure out how to get this to work; then today, I see this! Once again sir, hats off, this should help quite a few people out until either Belkin releases someting or Apple gives us an 'update'

[mrJnC]

If you cut the red wire by mistake, will it explode?

[ecks618]

Originally Posted by mrJnC

If you cut the red wire by mistake, will it explode?

Cutting the red wire makes the iPhone boot windows vista when you plug it in.

[aricher]

Elegant and simplistic hack. Took me about 2 minutes. i didn't split the dome, just gently fished the white line out and cut it with an x-acto knife. Works perfectly now - many thanks!

[TydalForce]

Originally Posted by Daremo

The white wire leads to pin 21 on the dock connector, is the Accessory Indicator/Serial enable pin. It looks for Ohm's. Different resistances indicate the accessory it's connecting to. For example, 1kOhm = iPod docking station, 10kOhm takes some iPods into photo import mode. 1MOhm is the Belkin auto adaptor. With this wire severed, the iPhone has no way to determine what the device is. When it's connected, the iPhone is only seeing the Auto Kit as a charger, with no line out device, so it disables the audio out. Without the ability to check the Ohm, the iPhone is fooled, and can't tell what it is, therefore, leaving the audio enabled, as well as the charge.

Given this information, I wonder if there's a way to rig in a different resistor? Like, if we found a way to make it the 1kOhm, I wonder if it would work "perfectly"? Without the need to "play first" and such?

[jpturner]

Thanks for the credit Daremo. I just got frustrated by having a phone and iPod in my iPhone and no way to listen in my car. This was the solution I "hacked" up. Credit must also go to http://pinouts.ru/Devices/ipod_pinout.shtml

Thanks!

1kOhm - iPod docking station, beeps when connected - dock has line out...

[HeavyC]

Is this still necessary after the Software Update? I'm reading some of these connectors are starting to work? Can anyone test it out?

[Daremo]

Originally Posted by HeavyC

Is this still necessary after the Software Update? I'm reading some of these connectors are starting to work? Can anyone test it out?

I'd love to know this as well, but since I hacked mine, I can't test it, unless I buy another one.

[TydalForce]

Originally Posted by HeavyC

Is this still necessary after the Software Update? I'm reading some of these connectors are starting to work? Can anyone test it out?

I just checked it-- and it works!!!

I still get the "do you want to switch to airplane mode" message, but the audio goes through the dock connector just fine.

And, you don't have to start playing before connecting... just plug-and-go and you're set. Just have to click through that stupid message.

I've got the black one, it's not even 2 months old. This is good news for many people I think.

[HeavyC]

Awesome! Thanks so much! I bet anything Apple will get rid of the dumb airport mode question via a software fix in the future.

[TydalForce]

Originally Posted by HeavyC

Awesome! Thanks so much! I bet anything Apple will get rid of the dumb airport mode question via a software fix in the future.

If nothing else, an option to disable it via Settings. PLEASE! ;-)

[lakerholic]

I also can confirm that my 3 year old White Belkin Auto Kit now works with the iPhone (w/firmware update) where it did not work before!

AWESOME!!

[HeavyC]

I just bought a new black one at lunch and it works perfectly. If I'm listening to something super quiet you can hear a little bit of a whine in the background, but at normal volumes everything is perfect.

Just in time for my road trip this weekend!

[dcombe]

Originally Posted by HeavyC

I just bought a new black one at lunch and it works perfectly. If I'm listening to something super quiet you can hear a little bit of a whine in the background, but at normal volumes everything is perfect.

Just in time for my road trip this weekend!

I'm looking to buy the Belkin Tunebase. Can anyone confirm that it works?