tired of car cradles without audio out?

[derekcfoley]

I'm sick of trying to find a car cradle that has audio out, ps2 and 12v for charging!

Why is it that no manufacturers of xda cradles ever realise that some of us want to listen to mp3's in the car and have tom-tom voice prompts coming through our stereos!

Being right handed, I want my PDA on the right of the steering wheel, so I can operate Tom-Tom before setting off, or change tracks on media player. I did look at the Brodit pro-clip solutions, but they all seem to be for the centre console for my car (a citroen AX)

I've discovered that the driver's side vent mount has a removable panel, which means I can easily mount a small piece of wood (effectively a small flat shelf) for mounting a cradle, this also brings the device out of the reflective glare zone in the windscreen during night driving. It also means all I need is a standard xda iis cradle to do this mod.

So with much careful thought I've decided to do the following:
Buy a spare cradle:
http://www.my-xda.com/xda2s_other.html

Which leads me to the next question....

Has anyone got any modding experience with the xda2/xdaiis cradle?
similar to this old posting for the Wallaby...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=256&highlight=cradle
(although I couldnt see any of the images on this old posting!)

In theory, this project has 3 key issues to resolve...

1) Powering the cradle and Bluetooth GPS
Three options seem to be available...
a) The hobbyist approach...I've seen various "car-kit diagrams" like this one,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/files/xda_car_kit_circuit.jpg

but to be honest I have no pcb making experience.
b) 12V to 5dc cigarette socket transformer adapter to provide power to the cradle, and perhaps to the bluetooth gps for charging. This should be easier to achieve!
Anyone have any links for low cost solutions for this, obviously it would need to convert 12VDC to 5DC at 2-3Amps

c) As the xdaiis usb cradle charges directly from a USB power source, this seems an Ideal solution!
http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=EXP_USB-CLA


2) Audio out: THE MAIN PROBLEM!
Ideally I just want to get in the car and cradle the device, no other connections being required.
Therefore I need to modify the xdaiis cradle for audio output...

Ideally, the feed for the audio should come from the bottom connector, when the xdaiis is cradled.
With this in mind, I found this article about dismantling an xdaii cradle...

http://en.pdamobiz.com/en/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=42&PN=1

If you look at the images on this web-page, you can see that - at the back of the cradle on the opposite side of the usb cable from the 5volt dc input is what looks like a pcb pinout for a headphone connector...
is this right? Can anyone confirm this.

Would it be possible to solder a connector onto here (assuming the solder pads connect to the 22pin connector!)
As this would be far easier than mucking about trying to solder onto the miniscule pins on the bottom of the 22pin connector on the cradle as it goes into the pcb!

If it works of course!

b) modify a headset
I did consider modifying an old wallaby headset to wire it into my car amp
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/wiki/Connectors , does anyone have any info on the pinout for the himalaya/blue angel headphone socket? I have also tried a friend's xda II headset on the IIs and yet again they have changed the pinout! The audio connections are once again totally different, resulting in the "echoing" effect when one headset is plugged in from the other device. This means that the audio ground pin has changed since the xdaII headphone socket schematic! This difference is also confirmed by looking at the handsfree "pod" on both headsets... The IIs has one button for answering a call, where the II has two buttons, wether it is the same as the XDA1 (Wallaby) remains to be seen....

c) buy a PDA2k 3.5mm headphone adapter...
http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=118289&sbadd=118289
Then use a standard lead to connect it to the hi-fi amp in the car.

3) charging the TOM TOM BLUETOOTH GPS
I'm wary of putting anything other than the recommended voltage (5VDC) into this device, so the best option is to supply power using (1b) or (1c) above, perhaps cutting into the supplied RJ cable to minijack psu to hook it up from the same supply.

While I'm on the subject of the bluetooth gps.... Does anyone knopw how long does the tom tom bluetooth gps work with a full charge?
Does it vary based on an active connection, or is it the same as on standby?

Do I need to power it in the car at all? Can I not just charge it as required at home? There doesnt seem to be much literature about the Bluetooth GPS reciever's battery life in the box!

Anyone care to comment on these ideas?



:lol: :lol:

[SiliconS]

I think the fact that no-one makes a cradle which provides audio-out through the bottom connector of the XDA2 is because the XDA2 doesn't provide this possibility. It's not the car-kit manufacturers' fault. Blame HTC. :)

However, I could be wrong... :roll:

My solution: I bought one of these XDA2 mounts ( http://www.pdamods.com/proddetail.asp?prod=A11XDA2MNT&cat=23 ) which works really well. It charges the phone and my TomTom BT GPS. To achieve audio-out I plan (eventually) to use the XDA2's headphone socket by drilling a hole through the mount's base in the right spot and using a 2.5mm jack adapted to play through the car stereo. Not an ideal solution, but surely must be simpler for you than trying to build a reliable (and safe!) 12V -> 5V convertor and butchering a spare XDA2 desktop cradle?

Just a suggestion... 8) Let us know how you get on. Good luck!

[cruisin-thru]

QUOTE:) 12V to 5dc cigarette socket transformer adapter to provide power to the cradle, and perhaps to the bluetooth gps for charging. This should be easier to achieve!
Anyone have any links for low cost solutions for this, obviously it would need to convert 12VDC to 5DC at 2-3Amps

Just about any mobile phone car charger will do.

[cirion]

Silicon s, you must be wrong :lol:

I have found someone that makes a DSP handsfree set with Audio on your car speakers, separate mic and all with the bottom connector. It even delivers laptopconnection for Dialup and GPS.

The overview
http://www.thb.de/showpage.php?lang=en&mode=show_product&cat=1&pid=2

Car Talk DSP
http://www.thb.de/showpage.php?lang=en&mode=show_product&cat=1&pid=2

The Cradles
http://www.thb.de/showpage.php?lang=en&mode=show_product&cat=1&pid=2

XDA docked
http://www.thb.de/bilder/take_talk/mda2_gps_big.jpg
http://www.thb.de/bilder/take_talk/mdaIII_large.jpg

MDA III - Important Information:
Replace file "Wavedev.dll" on your MDA III and restart the system. Audio response now can be listen via loudspeaker.
http://www.thb-service.de/download/MDAIII/Wavedev.dll

[tfletch]

FYI, It appears that the replacement WaveDev.dll file offered by the car Kit company causes bluetooth headsets to stop working at all (not just in the car).

[johnnye]

FYI, It appears that the replacement WaveDev.dll file offered by the car Kit company causes bluetooth headsets to stop working at all (not just in the car).

That's what I'm looking for. Have you found anywhere to actually buy them? I looked over the whole site.

[ALL41_Eggy]

How about this alternative cradle. I bought one for my XDAIIs and it works perfectly. Got one for the birds XDA2 and that work great too.

It provides power to either a wired GPS or charges a bluetooth GPS, it has a built in speaker and a cables provided to run from the XDA's headphone socket to the cradle. THIS THING IS LOUD!

One word of caution, the speakers in my car are shielded so I don't get that warning noise from them that I am about to get a call or text. The speaker on the cradle is NOT shielded and so you do get interference when you are about to get a call or switch cells.



http://www.pdamods.com/proddetail.asp?prod=A1SSSPKMNT&cat=23

[disgruntledtech]

i thought about using my 6601 as an MP3 player in my car as well. but since my eclipse cdplayer does mp3, i abandoned the idea

option 1: cut up a 2.5mm headset and plug it into the top of the device
pros: cheap and effective
cons: have to plug it in every time (and unplug it to take a call)

option 2: pair a bluetooth headset with the device, crack it open and wire the speaker to a preamp
pros: wireless
cons: ruin an otherwise good bt headset, music would be in mono

option 3:
http://motorola.digitalriver.com/servlet/ControllerServlet?Action=DisplayPage&Locale=en_US&id=ProductDetailsPage&SiteID=motostor&productID=36065700&Env=BASE
"transfer audio to hands-free"
pros: wireless
cons: EXPENSIVE, pretty vague description

option 4:
http://www.itechdynamic.com/html/border22.htm
http://xprnnews.xfn.info/itech/nightingaleBSH338/en.htm
pros: wireless, stereo, routes incoming cails through car
cons: i cant find it anywhere :)
its called the "nightingale BSH338" or the "Bluetooth Stereo Clip Headset"

if anyone finds one, please reply with a link

[disgruntledtech]

ok i did some more reading on the subject and i found this (page 2 of the forum)

http://www.seidioonline.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=CK8AG21MXDA3

http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=17149