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My New iPhone Car Dock and Interface

J

johnpastore

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
10
0
So after searching and searching for the perfect iPhone car solution, here's what I came up with...

I purchased a Dice Electronics iPod Car Stereo interface which lets me interface my iPhone with my factory car stereo via it's iPod connector. My stereo treats the iPhone as if it's a CD Changer. It also charges the iphone and lets me change tracks via the car stereo's controls.

Then I purchased an Pro Clip 30GB iPod Swivel Dock (with connector). I purchased the iPod dock because Pro Clip doesn't carry an iPhone dock with connector and the 30GB iPod has roughly the same dimentions.

I also purchased Motorola's T305 Bluetooth visor mount speaker phone.

It works great! It holds the iPhone quite well and seemlessly intergrates my phone with the car. Now I can listen to music and answer calls without ever touching the iPhone.

For more info on the parts, I listed the product links below...

http://www.proclipusa.com/home/home.aspx
http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details.jsp?globalObjectId=153
http://diceelectronics.com/
 

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How well does it fit with bumps and stuff? Is it easily docked or do you have to wiggle the iPhone to make it fit down on the plug?

I have been thinking of doing this exact same setup.


How well does the bluetooth speaker phone work? Do your callers hear themself on it?
 
It's very solid. Doesn't move at all. I wish I could lock the swivel in one position because even at it's tightest, it still moves with a GOOD push. But bumps don't bother it at all.

As for the bluetooth speakerphone, it works great. I just with it had a little more volume.
 
No interferance. But that will vary from car to car. Where my phone is located, it doesn't cause any problems.
 
I looked on the Proclip site and they have a few different ones dependent upon the connector. Did you get the one for "original Apple iPod cable plug"?

Also did you get the one for the 3rd gen 30GB or the 5th gen 30GB or the 30GB Video?

I also see that DICE makes a cradle too.
 
I purchased the one for the 30GB video (the latest) with the standard iPod connector slot. I had to file the connector slot on the dock just a little to make the Dice connector fit and then it fit pretty snug.
 
Does it use the car speakers for a phone conversation? Any more details about how well the bluetooth microphone works with the iphone? Do you like the phone on that right side, or would you do the left side of center now that you've used it a bit?
 
You have my car! :)

How's the DICE interface working out? I just ordered an iPod interface from a company called audiolink. It sounds as if it works just like the DICE interface (tricking the radio into thinking the iPod's a cd changer).
 
Unfortuantly the iPhone doesn't transmit audio from the 50pin iPod connector during a phone call. It will ring through the car stereo speakers though.
 
I picked up the iSimple ipod to factory stereo link from BestBuy today. It is very similar to the Dice device as far as I can tell. I liked that it was $50 cheaper and I could return it easily if it didn't work. I also ordered a Blueant Supertooth II speaker phone from blueant and a Proclip Cradle.

Thanks for the tips on what fits, I hope mine works out as well.
 
johnpastore said:
Unfortuantly the iPhone doesn't transmit audio from the 50pin iPod connector during a phone call. It will ring through the car stereo speakers though.
Click to expand...

My interface came in today. It works great! Does yours have a line input as well? You could hook the iPhone up to both the dock connector and the line input... that way you could still control the ipod portion with the steering wheel controls and listen to phone calls through the headphone jack when they come in.
 
Hey, so I mimicked your setup almost exactly and it's great. I have two small issues and I was wondering if you have them two. While the speakerphone does work, there seems to be some static. The voices are crackly, I don't know if it's the speakerphone or something to do with the iphone, but it's not ideal. And secondly, with the dice hookup I have to put it in iPod mode or else I loose iphone control of the music. I have no problem with that except in ipod mode (as opposed to dice mode) I loose track info on my car's display. Again, not a huge deal since my iphone displays track info, but I would be nice. Are you experiencing either of these issues?
 
I've been thinking about getting the DICE for my M3, to listen to iPhone tunes through my car stereo. I don't have bluetooth in the car (was part of premium package I didn't order). Sounds like this will work well.
 
I had to disable the track info option on my Dice also. It didn't give well with the iPhone. With it disabled, I still have track/skip control. I only lost the track time/info.

As for the bluetooth speakerphone, I don't have the crackle problem but I have heard about people having this problem with NON-BLUETOOTH 2.0 devices. Alot of hardware out there is sub-2.0 and that could be your problem.
 
I literally just finished the install. It took about 30 minutes. The only thing that I don't like thus far is that my iphone gets very warm when i used the iSimple ipod to factory stereo kit. The Proclip cradle fits the iphone very nicely. I called my wife using the BlueAnt and she said I sounded great. My MR2 Spyder really doesn't have a lot of room for extras but this little setup went nicely.

Thanks for the tip!


Does your iphone get warm?
 
No not really. It might get a little warm during a lengthy phone call but no more than it usally would.

I really hope that Pro Clip produces one made for the iPhone with a connector slot. The ones they have now for the iPhone are slimmer and are probably a nicer fit. I had to go with the iPod model because it had the slot for the connector. But it does work really well.

I've got to say, I'm a bit spoiled now. It so nice to get in the car and throw the iPhone in it's dock and have it continue playing where it left off from the hour, day or week before all while answering calls without even touching it. I'm loving this!
 
I agree, I would like a little tighter fit for the iphone. I called Dice a week ago and they said they are working on an iPhone insert for their cradle.

I used the cradle setup on the way to work today and it was really nice. The phone didn't get real warm on the way today, maybe yesterday it was just warm because of the temp in the car.

The Supertooth II is pretty slick thus far. Not enough calls through it to give it a final review but so far I am pleased.
 
johnpastore said:
I really hope that Pro Clip produces one made for the iPhone with a connector slot. The ones they have now for the iPhone are slimmer and are probably a nicer fit.
Click to expand...

I've done a lot of searching and your set up is the one I'm going with.

My situation is a Volvo 2006. I had Volvo install the bluetooth for cell capability - even though the iPhone does not, by itself, understand voice commands for contact call making, the bluetooth device that Volvo installed is capable of learning, so that's my workaround for total hands-free calls. Part I complete.

Part II: Get iPod sound through the stereo system. Again, had Volvo install iPod hard wire harness. Small problem - the wire harness is just long enough to attach the iPhone to where it comes out of the center arm rest - obviously Volvo doesn't want you to play with your toy while driving. So I found the one place on the entire web that sells dock extender cables:

http://www.cablejive.com/extendercable.html

Now I can have the iPhone out in the cabin instead of tucked away.

So far, so good. Everything hands free, adjustable via the steering wheel, etc.

Part III: A proper iPhone holder.
This is when I stumbled on your post and found out about ProClip. Wow, what a company! I ordered and recieved the iPhone swivel mount and the connector. Beautifully constructed, nice quality. But I, too, pine for the day when ProClip will make an iPhone holder attachment for cables, including the one I bought - so I wrote them, and this is what they said:

"We will make a holder with cable attachment for the cable you linked to + some other popular cables. These holders will be available in 4-6 weeks."
Sincerely,
ProClip USA Customer Service

Thought you all would like to know.:D
 
Your interface looks great the only question I have is what exactly does my car need to make this work. My car has no hardware to connect an ipod to, no headphone line etc. All i have is a cigarette lighter, can I make this work with just the cigarette lighter, or do i need to buy a new headunit
 
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