ipod mounting

[wingman]

Got a 30gb ipod from Santa!:D Any body mounted one (no not that way...) yet or had any good ideas? I don't want to drill holes in the car. I've seen a mini mounted in an E30 ashtray but this is a bigger ipod.

[wingman]

Yes I know that the E34 ashtray is bigger!!!

[wingman]

This is what I've come up with so far. It fits perfectly but the output jack is covered. Sorry it's taken 3 attempts to get my question accross clearly.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c301/wingman_1968/ipod.jpg

[Randell]

i think the easiest method is to purchase a dock (my 3rd gen ipod came with one) and stick it to the shifter console with some double sided tape.. then either run a cable from the dock to the aux-in on your head unit, or use an FM transmitter..

http://members.iinet.net.au/~mrandell/carpod.jpg

[wingman]

Yes I have the dock. Did you just put tape on the base and if so how does it stand up to use (changing tracks/playlits etc.)?

[wingman]

The dock fits perfectly into the centre console storage area. Problem is that the ipod will not sit in the dock unless held upright by either the connector in the base or some kind of cement (blutack or similar) which looks shite.

[Randell]

Yes I have the dock. Did you just put tape on the base and if so how does it stand up to use (changing tracks/playlits etc.)?

yep just a few strips on the base and it's never come unstuck... the 3rd gen ipod has the touch sensitive buttons so it's easy to flick around while it's still in the dock, but with the clickwheel it might be a bit harder.. however it's just as easy to pull it out of the dock, flick through the menus and stick it back in.

[colin292]

i have a mount that clips onto the vent above the head unit...it puts the ipod up high so you aren't looking down trying to change songs...its been good for me so far...i found a few pics online of it... i don't have my camera with me otherwise i'd take one of it in my car...hope this helps

http://www.viewonline.com/pages/articles/images/CarMount.jpg

http://www.therealitystudio.com/ipodholder/DSC00033.jpg

google "nyko ipod car mount" and you can find it at a bunch of places

[romus]

mounted hehe

I'm interested too. Santa brought me a Nano. Not quite 30GB ;)

[Herb98CQB]

Even though it's a bit expensive, but if you are upgrading your stereo, I would reccomend the Alpine iPod adapter. It works great, and I put the adapter in glove box so it's out of place. Using regular adhesive Velcro is very good too, if you don't mind having the piece of velcro on the iPod.

[Jay 535i]

Even though it's a bit expensive, but if you are upgrading your stereo, I would reccomend the Alpine iPod adapter. It works great, and I put the adapter in glove box so it's out of place. Using regular adhesive Velcro is very good too, if you don't mind having the piece of velcro on the iPod.

Those suck because a limitation of the head unit limits it from displaying past the 255th song on the iPod. When you have over 5000 songs as a 30GB ipod can store, that's totally unacceptable.

Sure, Alpine suggests all kinds of PIA back-door solutions, but they involve hours and hours of work if you have thousands of songs and they all break the genius simplicity of the iPod interface (see below).

AFAIK, there isn't yet a head unit available that will let you interact with the iPod via the head unit's control panel AND access every song on it.

When you read about the limitations of that Alpine iPod adapter, you realize that the simpler suggestions above are much better. It strikes me as completely mad to supercede the iPod interface with the joke described below. That's just IMHO. :)

From the Alpine website:


Most Alpine head units are designed to optimize the available internal memory for use with CD-R specifications (700MB) that leads to search limitations as documented in the Owner's Manual. Due to the memory capacity in the head units, there is a limit to the quantity of playlist, artists, albums and songs that can be displayed.

http://www.alpine-usa.com/images/support/head_units/optimize/ipod/memory_chart.gif

It is recommended that you customize your Playlists and the number of songs in a Playlist based on the limits detailed above. Some suggestions for Playlists include:

- Creating a Playlist for each letter of the alphabet in which you could store songs by song name or by artist name.

- Creating a Smart Playlist (refer to iTunes Help for details regarding creating Smart Playlists) which can be limited with the number of songs in the Playlist.

- Creating Playlists by Genre and/or sub-Genre while keeping the number of songs within the Playlist to below the limits detailed above.

To optimize your song search capability while in the car, where possible begin your searches by selecting the Artist name that should narrow down the available songs. To further narrow down your search parameters, select the Album the song was included on before initiating a Song search.

[wingman]

Yeah that Alpine jobby seems to defeat the whole purpose of 7500 song capacity!!! I like the mount that Colin put up. I suspect it will be a while for them to get around to doing 5th gen. aftermarket stuff. Thanks for the advice all.:)

[Mendozart]

My friend has a 2001 530i and he was able to interface with a a product called the icelink. You can go to www.dension.com and check it out. My friend can control all ipod options through his stock radio, in which everything is also displayed.

[granit_silber]

Got a 30gb ipod from Santa!:D Any body mounted one (no not that way...) yet or had any good ideas? I don't want to drill holes in the car. I've seen a mini mounted in an E30 ashtray but this is a bigger ipod.
Someone here produced an iPod interface that runs through the changer cable in the trunk. However he hasn't posted much info on it yet; I'll see if I can find it. (although Gayle is infinitely more talented at producing older posts) I do remember that his profile pic had an Apple Powerbook on it (if that helps jog anyone's memory).

-ashley

[Jay 535i]

@ Medozart: Yup, such things do exist for newer OEM BMW head units, but not ours.

@ acyre: It's possible to hook up an iPod to the changer input on any head unit with such an input. There are adapters you can buy that will let you then navigate the iPod using the forward/back buttons on the head unit, but the only way to see what you're doing is to mount the iPod in the cabin. This is a common setup, but I doubt the utility of it. I think Randell's got the right idea.

[Mendozart]

Personally, I am just using the Phillips cassette adapter with my mini and it sounds pretty damn good. Not bad for a total of $7.00 including shipping off ebay. I just lay it right in the middle console.

[Jay 535i]

Personally, I am just using the Phillips cassette adapter with my mini and it sounds pretty damn good. Not bad for a total of $7.00 including shipping off ebay.

Totally agree. It just looks a bit lame, but it's what I use, too.