In Car use of SPV

[Guest carlreader]

Hi all

I'm tinkering with an idea to get my SPV to work through the speakers of my car

Using a lead from headphone socket into back of stereo (say CD changer socket using an adaptor) and a strategically placed microphone, would this work as a hands free kit?

Would it be easy to make for a bloke who doesn't do this kind of thing?

Would the microphone be powerful enough to pick up the voice?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

( I have a ford 6000ka cd if that helps!!!)

:lol:

[Guest squall]

theres an official car kit out, not cheap but lot less hastle.

if you wanted to make your own i would say easist option would be to use one of these things that have a jack on one end an an audio tape on the other. (used for using portable cd players in the car) problem with doing it this way is u need a 3.5 to 2.5 mm convertor.

this would need a tape player in the car though...

i doubt doing it into the back of your radio would work as i think u need to have the control signal going into the radio from the multi disk changer to get it to register as a source of audio.

i tried connecting my mkp3 cd player in this fassion and didnt work.

[Guest carlreader]

Problem is that the head unit has a cd player.

Does anyone have experience of the radio transmitter thingies that you can plug into the phone (where you tune your radio to same frequency) - could one of these work?? Do they include a microphone?

[Guest jhew]

are we talking a radio transmitter that would plug into the h/phone socket?

If so, in theory it may work, dunno if theres one with a built in mic tho.

If not, no it isnt....GSM signals are encrypted.

Orange are doing a car kit for 50 notes, which would be a lot less hassle.

[Guest jhew]

are we talking a radio transmitter that would plug into the h/phone socket?

If so, in theory it may work given the right equipment... plug adaptor etc etc. Dunno if theres one with a built in mic tho.

If not, no it isnt....GSM signals are encrypted.

Orange are doing a car kit for 50 notes, which would be a lot less hassle.

[Guest HelloDave]

In theory it's possible to add an aux input to your head unit, but I haven't got a clue about the wiring details of Ford branded ones! I know you can add an input to a Kenwood unit with an old CD changer lead and one resistor, so it's possible if you know what wire does what :lol: I think the radio transmitters you're talking about are short range FM modulators, which won't include a microphone. Quality won't be great, but perfectly adequate for use with a phone.

Another option of course is to buy a decent aftermarket head unit with a standard or optional (normally about £15 extra) aux input. That way you can get rid of the factory installed junk; change the front speakers and you'll have a reasonable car stereo system as well as a speaker for your phone. If you need any advice the guys on www.talkaudio.co.uk are a very helpful bunch (someone might even know Ford HU wiring details if you're very lucky!)

[Guest fraser]

HelloDaves your man here, his solution is the best. If you have a CD player, perhaps it already has AUX inputs?

If not, the radio thing would work. All it is is a little box that turns an audio signal into an FM radio station. You plug one end into the headphone jack, and the box sits somewhere on your car stereos arial connection. You tune the radio to the correct frequency and you hear the audio. They exist to allow people hook up CD changers to just about any stereo.

[Guest HelloDave]

and the box sits somewhere on your car stereos arial connection

Apologies - I really shouldn't write posts when i'm falling asleep at 2am (yet i'm doing it again!). FM modulators don't transmit a radio signal as I originally suggested; they feed it directly into the head unit so ignore my ramblings about other people being able to pick up the signal... :oops:

I doubt a factory head unit will have a standard aux input, so the FM modulator is probably the simplest solution. You'll lose a little quality compared to using an aux input, but I doubt you'll notice it becuase both the SPV's sound hardware and a Ford head unit aren't anything special TBH! Set a radio preset to the frequency of the FM modulator and then you just need to select it whenever you use the SPV. If you feel like buying a new head unit though, do it; it's worth it :lol:

[Guest carlreader]

Thanks for all the advice guys - much appreciated!

Can someone remind me of the name of the FM attachment for the XDA / SPV - I've tried searching on Google with no luck to purchase it.

thanks

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

There is not an FM attachment for the SPV :?

Not all XDA devices will work on the SPV due to drivers etc.

[Guest the.dude]

Goto Maplins, They do a universal car kit using a tape player adaptor. You will need to add to this a 2.5mm - 3.5mm headphone adaptor. Full kit should set you back around £12.

This will also play back your MP3s through the car stereo.

This was discussed a couple of months ago so there may have been some good stuff that came out of that as well.

[Guest carlreader]

As discussed earlier in the thread it is a cd-only head unit

Thanks for replying anyway!

[Guest HelloDave]

You want a universal FM modulator for a car stereo, which Maplin will probably sell. Combine that with a 2.5-3.5mm headphone adaptor and you're halfway there (still need a mic) :lol:

[Guest fraser]

I'm kinda temped to try this myself. We've hammered out getting the sound done. Fortunatly my mp3 head unit (less than 200 quid BTW, highly recommended toys!!) has aux inputs.

How about mics? Each mic is different in terms of volume gain. With the lack of any mic volume level control, you'd want to chose the mic carefully. I had a spare hands free kit from another phone that when I use in my SPV, people always complain about it being too quiet.

Has anyone got any thoughts on Maplin part numbers that would be suitable? Ideally you'd be looking for a directional one that has a small size as well as some sort of discrete mount.

How about 2.5m 4-pole jacks, for making it all a little neater? (no need for adapter). The SPV has a 4-pole connector, ground, left & right audio and mic. Maplin only carries stereo 2.5m jacks, which only have three connectors (poles)

Finally, anyone got a pin out for the main connector on the phone? You could probably make your own that not only carries the audio channels, but supports charging and the signal wire that some stereos use to switch to the phone input. An Open Source DIY car kit guide would be a great thing to put together...

[Guest carlreader]

http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=ARKCMSF121

does this help??

[Guest HelloDave]

It's an FM modulator, but that one does actually transmit over the air, so (depending on its range) not only could anyone pick up the audio output of your SPV but AFAIK transmitting on the FM band is illegal without a licence. I suspect it would be very short range to circumvent these problems.

Personally i'd rather get a modulator that plugs in the back of the stereo, in line between it and the aerial. No risk of broadcasting stray FM signals, and no interference either. Something like this - http://www.incarexpress.co.uk/focus.php3?partno=AVFMT (site isn't particularly cheap though)