Thread: I-Pod FM Transmitters

Hi White 110, first off where is the arial in your 110.

I got an iPod 3 years ago, used it for about 1 month and then gave it to my daughter.

Sitting in the driveway at home, the thing was great and after a trip out west, I reckoned I was set.

WRONG

A few weeks after the trip out west I did a trip from the Gold Coast to Sydney.

Every 30 minutes to an hour, I would have to stop and find another clear station and once I got close to Sydney, well I gave up and on returning home, I gave the iPod away.

The biggest problem in my case was that the arial in the RR is in a rear side window and the distance between it and the iPod played havoc with reception.

I started with the iTrip and then bought a Belkin and that allowed me to run a cable from the iPod back to the Belkin, which I had sitting next to the rear window.

This solved most problems but if the station had to be changed, I had to pull up and get out to do it.

What a total load of BS.

Now on the other hand, my daughter absolutely love’s it and never has a problem but then again, see rarely drives anywhere other than on the Gold Coast so once she had a clear station, she stuck with it.

Cheers.

Mate try the FM minimitter from jaycar, it plugs into anything with a standard 3.5mm stereo out jack so your not limited to just Ipods but can jack in everything from your DVD player and I pod to your Laptop, mobile phone or GPS.

Theres a couple of models, the ready made job is good for about 40m on a good pair of AAA's (i use rechargables) and there is a DIY kit that can be jiggered to run off of 12vdc and then up to tx for 100m.

I use my Ipod with a Pioneer head unit which has a Pioneer Ipod control that plugs into the back of the unit. Autobahn had the controllers on special a while back for $129.00. Bought a Belkin FM transmitter unit to use in my wifes car but have not taken it out of the box yet.
I read in a thread ages ago about someone using a Griffin Itrip and they were happy with that. The person that sold me the Belkin said he personally owns one and it works ok.

Ian

G'day White 110,

I tried the FM transmitters shortly after I got my iPod Nano and was not impressed. It certainly didn't help that I have metallic window tint on all my vehicles, as that really stuffs up reception.

However from a previous MP3 player that I had there was a "travel kit" that included a cassete with a wire that connected to any Stereo out line. You would then put the cassette in your car radio and Bob's yer Uncle, crystal clear sound with no worries about changing frequencies.



If / when I upgrade my radio in the Defender I will look at getting a radio with a dedicated iPod / aux in port on the front, otherwise I'm more than happy with my "travel kit"

An example of the "travel kit" can be found here: http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/detail~dpno~404158.asp

Though I'm sure if you look around locally you'll find something.

We tried a couple, one a Belkin, the other from AerPro.

The Belkin had continual problems with interference from radio stations - we could never find a channel which stayed clear for long. The car aerial in the tinted window at back of the car in the Subaru didn't help.

We tried the AerPro unit which plugged into the cigarette lighter accepted the USB memory stick from my wife's MuVo and every time you turned the ignition off then back on, the bloody thing would start playing from the first track again.

Also, like the Belkin, it needed coninual tuning to avoid stations.

Ron

An other possibility is if your stereo has aux inputs at the back pull it out and plug in a dual rca to headphone jack cord in and tuck it somewhere. I did this when I put in new stereo on the off chance that I might want it later on.

Didn't actually work when I tried it with friend's ipod, but this was when I was worrying more about head gasket and blocked fuel lines, so I didn't actually explore further than plugging and trying to play.

Cheers
Simon.

After no end of trouble with Belkin units I just bought a Monster Cable FM transmitter from JB HiFi. very good so far, reception is clear and it is easy to program the station into.

I wouldn't bother with the FM transmitter and get it hard-wired in with an adaptor if you can. I have mine wired to a Kenwood head unit and the iPod stays in the cubby box out of harms way. You can then select and browse your music library on the head unit.