Database Info

Mount, Power, GPS and Audio

Ok, I want to use the XDAII in the LandRover for mapping, it is noisy in the truck, I also want to play MP3 WMA files via the car stereo.
I have a Garmin eTrex but am willing to get something dedicated if the price is right.
I want a cradle for the XDAII that will hold it securly,
I want to power/charge the XDAII and GPS
I want to get the audio out of the bottom connector into the front of the stereo (3.5mm socket) for music play back (poss hands free phone too)
I still have various bits of hands free kit from when I used to fix 'carphones' in the early 90's. It would be nice if i can fit a mic in car for voice dial and calls too.
If the info on the tech page is correct on the bottom connector it would appear all is straight forward to do myself, However we all know for the cost of the parts I could by something that would do what i want and more. So what will do it. I am unsure on the XDA to XDAII connection compatability.
Current experiance of produced products is a duel universal mount from memory-map, the GPS fits fine but the XDAII just falls out, not good for £30
Cheers

Hi,
I wish the same thing that you. I would like to use the Xda2 with Land Rover Discovery for mapping together my Garmin 3+.
To do this maybe we have to make a serial and power cable or find someone who can make it.
I think the pinage for xda2 is slightly different than the xda1. In myxda.com they said: "Most accessories are not common to both except for the car charger".
If someone here can help us to know what the correct pinage for xda2 than we can make one.
Or we can buy a serial cable from O2 (I am oredering one now) and check what is the pinage used for it and mix with the car charger adapter.
what do you think about it?

Charger from xda1, serial cable, gps, usb cable (charging problem) all work with xda2, cradle also works but you need to shave a little off the inside or you will mark your xda2. I have an arkon cradle/speaker, 2 usb power jacks, speaker jack with 2.5 to 3.5 converter from xda1, this works with xda2 but the rf break through from the phone to the speaker in the cradle is atrocious, i wish I knew how to fix that problem because when you receive a call you have 10 seconds or more of rf noise before you get to hear or speak to the caller, other than that it is fine and comes with lots of different mounting options.

pinout
When I get chance Ill get my scope on the pins and work it out. Ive had my eTrex working, used the standard serial lead for the XDA2 and the eTrex, just made a null modem adapter to connect between em (info on memory map web site) Works well but you have to dissable beaming as i think they share the same comm port.
I was going to buy the eTrex connector to bare ends from Garmin but it doesn't carry power only data!!! typical. Have thought of getting one of the dedicated GPS units.
So the next best option is to have a cable from the XDA2 to a small box, this will have TX/RX audio, power and data. The box will have a PSU for the XDA and a cigar socket to for the eTrex standard lead. Id rather not chop up the lead as it cost silly money.

Re: pinout
TDIPower said:
So the next best option is to have a cable from the XDA2 to a small box, this will have TX/RX audio, power and data. The box will have a PSU for the XDA and a cigar socket to for the eTrex standard lead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...and your price for building these for every owner of an XDA2 (cos we're all going to want one! ) will be....?
Sounds like this would be accessory number 1 for anyone with an XDA2 and a car.
I've also got an eTrex, and I bought a serial/power Y-shaped cable last year for it, so they are available. It has a cigarette lighter plug to provide the power, and a serial output too for my laptop. Let me know if you need details - seems silly to buy a new GPS just because you can't get a combined data/power lead for it. It cost me £24 mail order, IIRC.

XDA connector
I need to find a UK supplier of the XDA connector, this would get the cost down. The easy way would be to buy the in car charger, strip it, mount the charger in the box, replace the cable with one that will do all the connections.
Ill try and play, get it set up and post somthing on here

Craddle for XDAII /MDAII
T-mobile germany sells one for €199, INCLUSIVE of sat nav software and wired mouse
Ready to mount

Re: pinout
Sorry. What is the meaning of PSU?
sublimatica said:
TDIPower said:
So the next best option is to have a cable from the XDA2 to a small box, this will have TX/RX audio, power and data. The box will have a PSU for the XDA and a cigar socket to for the eTrex standard lead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...and your price for building these for every owner of an XDA2 (cos we're all going to want one! ) will be....?
Sounds like this would be accessory number 1 for anyone with an XDA2 and a car.
I've also got an eTrex, and I bought a serial/power Y-shaped cable last year for it, so they are available. It has a cigarette lighter plug to provide the power, and a serial output too for my laptop. Let me know if you need details - seems silly to buy a new GPS just because you can't get a combined data/power lead for it. It cost me £24 mail order, IIRC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

PSU
PSU is short for Power Supply Unit. the bit that powers/charges the unit.
Sorry im not used to multi language conversation.

PSU
No problem!
I will learn a little bit every day

I am also currently looking at my options as like you TDIpower, I am trying to use the XDAII in a noisey landy.
I am interested in the parrot ck3000 which according to the blurb connects your phone etc via a bluetooth unit into your stereo unit. I have not looking into all the issues but I assume you would be able to use the phone/navigation and MP3 via this unit through the vehicle speakers to be able to hear whats going on? Mind you when I'm going a full tilt I can hardly hear the speakers either??
I know a couple of others on here have the parrot unit so mybe they could shed some light on this??
Cheers

sdio fm trasnmitor
i do not know if it is exist (sdio fm trasnmitor) but this will be a good solution for this case!

Hey,
Sorry to bring up old posts, but has anyone found a solution for Mount, Power, GPS (etrex) and Audio?
Dave

Have you seen this one ?
http://www.seidioonline.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=BD-SMGF1XDAII
A friend of mine bought one for his iPaq and it's brilliant, just like a cellphone cradle, slide it in, and you are ready to go.

Hi
What you are asking for is available, apart from the sound in the form of the carcomm cradle http://www.totalpda.co.uk/product4738_0.aspx.
According to the connector wiring on this site you should be abale to get sound from the bottom connector, but what the connector page fails to tell you is you only get sound out o fthe bottom connector during in a call, so its no use for MP3 or Navigation sounds. Currently I am using the jack plug which is a real pain to plug in. See http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?p=50643#50643
Re the Parrot CK3000, I have just taken one out of my car as it did not work with the XDA2 if you have installed bluetooth tools. And without bluetooth tools the bluetooth GPS device would not work. Also you cant currently send sound over bluetooth apart from when in a voice call.
If you find a solution to sound from the bottom connector please dont forget to post.
Good luck
JustinP

@justinp: There appears to be A way to get all sound from the bottom connector.
The T-Mobile MDAII Carkit (QTek2020 carkit and the Yeti carkit are the same make) do just that!
Unfortunately I have this (cheaper) XDAII / iMate (Expansys-sold like) carkit wich only give in-call audio via the bottom connector.
There is someting with pin19 and pin9 (I read on the german www.ppc-welt.info forum).
pin19 must be grounded
pin 9 must NOT be connected (it is on some carkits thus messing up proper operation).
Now if someone can verify this!!
:?:

XDA, Parrot3 and TomTom3

Hi all
I am new to this forum but I could really do with your wisdom.
I have an XDA 2 that I use for business use.
However I need a system for GPS and a hands free driving kit. I suspect that a bluetooth system is the way forward.
However reading these pages I believe that there have been several issues that have caused a great deal of consternation with the TomTom system.
O2 have really messed me around over the last year with their hands free kit. They have been unable to supply anything and with the new vehicle legislation they have been totally unprepared.
The system that I thought about using would be...
XDA2
Tomtom 3
Parrot CK3000
Has anybody tried it and if so is there anything else that I would need, ie cables, brackets, chargers etc.
Regards
TOP

I am using
xda2 with TOMTOM3 Bluetooth.
For Handsfree I use a Jabra Bt250 and it work fine.

Maybe you need to bluetooth Tools

I use a Parrot CK3000 carkit together with my Bleutooth TomTom GPS. It works all very good. The only thing is that the sound of your XDA is not comming via the carkit, but in the future that will be possible (with an upgrade of my XDA).
But for now it works very well.

I have a CK3000 and it works OK on its own. I have had some issues with integrating it with the Car Audio though (new Nissan Primera), but that is another matter.
The other thing I would point out... It is a real pain if you also have a Blue Tooth headset. You need to keep renaming from the Headset to the Carkit and vice versa.
The new version of BT Tools does sort out the multiple headset problem, however..... my CK3000 will not work with the new version, so I am using the older version till this is fixed.
My suggestion may be a fixed mount in the car of some sort, especially if charging the unit is required. That is the way I am thinking of going unless BTTools or the ROM is updated soon.

Thanks for all your help, it is much appreciated.
From what you have said everything should work fine.
With regard to the headset, I am determined to rid myself of this as I suffer from headaches if I wear it too much.
Surely once the Parrot is paired then can it not be set as the default vox unit?
EelcoV
Thanks for that. Its a great relief, however when you say that the sound is not coming from the car speakers is that for the TomTom system? Surely that is a good thing as I don't want my Mozart, Mendelson or Motorhead to be interupted with..."At the junction turn left!"
IanF
I am planning to use my Nissan Navara as my main vehicle for the Parrot kit, is the problem you are experiencing a Nissan thing?
Jupiter
Thank you from the moon of Titan...I will look for Blue Tools.
Does anyone know if a charger and bracket comes with either of these systems.
Regards
TOP

With the TomTom Navigator comes a brodit cradle, which will charge your XDA.

The Otter's Pocket said:
I am planning to use my Nissan Navara as my main vehicle for the Parrot kit, is the problem you are experiencing a Nissan thing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is in the Primera because of the new Central (N-Form) console. The ISO connectors supplied on Parrot do not fit the Radio, which is built into the console, and there is no conversion kit on the market at the moment.
I was luck and had a Nokia Phone kit installed and intrgrated into the car when I bought it, so I have done a bit of extra wiring to this kit which has made it acceptable.
Check you can get an ISO Harness for your car model/radio.
Ian

EelcoV said:
With the TomTom Navigator comes a brodit cradle, which will charge your XDA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's Incorrect, you can buy Tomtom Navigator as a bundle with the TomTom Carkit, this is not the same as a Broditcradle.
I'm currently using a Carcomm XDAII cradle and it's superb. Available in the UK from TotalPDA.

Bluetooth handsfree/GPS
Hi all
Another newbie! I am contemplating buying TomTom3 Bluetooth for use with my xda2 (I want to be able to move it between my family's 2 vehicles). Any thoughts (I am not particularly concerned about the TomTom 3 Bluetooth GPS receiver's limited battery life as I would anticipate using it with a dual pda/gps charger cable)
I believe that there may also be an issue with using Bluetooth GPS and my Jabra BT250 headset together? I see Bluetooth Tools mentioned on here as a potential solution to this - is this a download package? Where can I obtain it?
Any help much appreciated. 8)

I'm using an O2 XDA2 with the standard bluetooth software (ie not using bluetooth tools or anyone elses bluetooth stack).
I use TomTom Navigator 3 with their own bluetooth GPS receiver and I also use a bluetooth telephone headset unit as well.
Both work fine - even at the same time.
I've used both a Plantronics M3000 headset and also a Parrot CK3000 in-car handsfree headset.
Either work fine either on their own or in parallel with the TomTom BT GPS.
The only problemmatical area is that the PDA can only pair with one bluetooth "headset" at a time - so if you want to use both a BT car kit and also a separate BT headset, you need to keep deleting one pairing and pairing to the other.
I gave up and lent my Plantronics headset to someone else - and now I just use the Parrot CK3000 car kit.
Oneday, the XDA2 might support the handsfree profile as well as the headset profile, but for the time being we're stuck with just the latter.
I tried installing bluetooth-tools to see if that would give me a hands-free profile but couldn't seem to get anything to work so I de-installed it quick...!

Searching for RUGGED and preferably wireless audio adaptor

Ok - I realise that this post is similar to a number of other threads. However having read them I feel that they don't sufficiently answer my question/issue.
Until recently I've been listening to music, whilst riding my motor cycle, using my nomad jukebox. I have two small, but quite powerful, speakers installed inside my helmet which give excellent sound quality, but which also permit me to hear traffic noises (sirens and the like) so I'm happy with the setup in my helmet.
However I've recently added Tom Tom and a bt gps unit to my Imate PPC (Phone Edition).
So - here's the setup. I have a tank bag in which my PPC and gps unit are located and I want to get audio to my helmet.
I could hack up my spare handsfree/earplugs and run a cable. That's how I ran the audio from my nomad - however I don't think that's the best solution for me. In the past the frequent vibration and jolting on the bike has tended to damage the female connectors inside units. So I'm thinking of going wireless.
Also - I've seen several comments which suggest that the adaptors one can buy from various places aren't all that strong themselves. Another good reason to go wireless.
I am not interested in talking on the phone when I'm on the bike, so I'm not looking for a handsfree solution. This rules out the new bluetooth helmets, as they don't support music, only phone.
What I'd like is basically a battery powered bluetooth device with an audio jack to let me plug my helmet speakers in.
I've found one such device:
http://www.fida.com/products/pbr301.htm
However I can't find one in Australia.
And so the questions <g>
Has anyone actually done this (or the equivalent)?
Will my Imate communicate effectively with 2 bluetooth devices simultaneously?
Can anyone point me to other bluetooth receivers?
OR
Is there are better solution that you can suggest?
[/b]

Any possibility to disable USB handsfree?

Are there any possibilities to disable USB handsfree of Kaiser?
I'm asking this because I purchased THB Bury car HF kits for both of my cars and they've been working OK but there's something I don't like: voices of TomTom 6 are totally muted while the phone is in its cradle. Usually the voice comes from phone's HF speaker but now when it's disabled since the phone is connected to USB for charging and HF purposes, TomTom 6 won't make a sound.
So I'd really appreciate of someone would know how to disable (and able) USB HF functionality while the phone is in its cradle.

I figure a car kit would route the audio to your car speakers?

sniperess said:
I figure a car kit would route the audio to your car speakers?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, that's true. I'm afraid that THB Bury HF works only during the phonecalls. Otherwise it's totally muted
If I'll release the phone from its cradle, the sound of TomTom 6 will be audible again. But when the phone is situated in its cradle, TomTom 6 will be totally muted

It's not fit for purpose really is it? What use is a hands free kit for this device which mutes the GPS audio? The 'all in one' nature of the Kaiser is clearly one of the major selling points for some people (me in particular).
There are a few threads developing on this theme here and elsewhere which at the very least may warn other people off. Bury should withdraw the cradle until it works properly with the Kaiser.
I find that the handfree earplugs and mic work fine for both phone and TT6 audio so it's something to do with the "Car" profile which the Bury cradle causes the Kaiser to switch to which causes the problem.
I'm going to try a Bury BT adaptor to see if it at least leaves the Kaiser internal speaker active while routing phone audio to the car speaker. It would be a compromise but as things stand, with the hard wired cradle, it's no use to me at all aside from being am expensive brick of a hands free/charging solution.
I'll post an update or an eBay ad shortly.....

This is indeed very annoying and I'm afraid it won't be solved.
I have contacted Bury, they answered that the TT6 software doesn't give a mute signal and that because of this the sound doesn't go to the in car radio. I saw another post on this forum which mentions the same answer.
Thus I contacted TomTom support, but they state that they never activate any mute signal. They only pass some sound information to the phone and the phone should decide somehow if the sound should be directed to the speaker or to the carkit.
Finally I opened a case at HTC, but they already answered I should contact Bury or TomTom...
In Dutch we have a very good proverb for this: "Van het kastje naar de muur gestuurd worden" (which means everyone points their finger to another).

I've now replaced my hardwired Bury cradles for the Kaiser with the Bluetooth versions (and TyTn charging leads - extra) and they seem to work fine.
The phone works hands free, charges, mutes the radio when it should and leaves TomTom talking to me through the internal Kaiser speaker. Tom Tom only mutes during a call. Voice quality is fine for my use.
The cradle can be used with various bluetooth phones and, rather than being made to measure for a particular phone, it is adjustable to fit pretty well any type. One slight resulting nuisance is that I occasionally switch on the camera as I insert the phone (the camera button is on the side where one of the clamps is). Easily sorted by pressing the red key on the phone however.
So I'm a happy punter again. Thanks to phonejunkie for sorting me out.
Alistair.

Alistair, which bluetooth version did you use? It seems Bury have two models:
THB UNI Bluetooth Adapter for the Take and Talk System 8 hands-free car kit and
THB UNI Bury Take and Talk System 8 Bluetooth Cradle.
btw, I got a response from THB stating that none of these was suitable for the Kaiser...

Best car dock for nexus one ?

Hello,
I know Google made a care dock, in fact I have the Desktop Dock.
But I read a couple of reviews and the results were not satisfying.
So I need your advice !
What is the best Care Dock for the Nexus One ?
I want to use it as GPS/phone but not media player.
Best regards,
rXp>!<

None. Theres only one that's from google or htc. Same thing anyways.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

I have the google car dock (and the Google desk dock), and it is superb. That's what you want.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

rXpCH said:
Hello,
I know Google made a care dock, in fact I have the Desktop Dock.
But I read a couple of reviews and the results were not satisfying.
So I need your advice !
What is the best Care Dock for the Nexus One ?
I want to use it as GPS/phone but not media player.
Best regards,
rXp>!<
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the Nexus Dock that was sold by Google. It's great for GPS and I have to say it is OK at best for hands free phone. Maybe in a quieter car (Chevy Blazer here) but I have a hard time hearing people even at maximum volume. My car is a little loud though so maybe someone else may have better input for that issue I have. It seems with some of the older roms on my phone I had a few connection issues(random bluetooth connection drops) but on some of the newer roms I haven't had that problem at all. As far as a media player.. meh If you like listening to your music through a CB radio speaker then this is the dock for you! It is very well made as far as construction. I've had mine almost a year now and it still works with no issues. In all reality the music player doesn't sound terrible through the speaker but it doesn't sound great, the phone feature is OK and navigation is great. It is a good product but just like any other product it is not perfect.

flappjaxxx said:
I have the Nexus Dock that was sold by Google. It's great for GPS and I have to say it is OK at best for hands free phone. Maybe in a quieter car (Chevy Blazer here) but I have a hard time hearing people even at maximum volume. My car is a little loud though so maybe someone else may have better input for that issue I have. It seems with some of the older roms on my phone I had a few connection issues(random bluetooth connection drops) but on some of the newer roms I haven't had that problem at all. As far as a media player.. meh If you like listening to your music through a CB radio speaker then this is the dock for you! It is very well made as far as construction. I've had mine almost a year now and it still works with no issues. In all reality the music player doesn't sound terrible through the speaker but it doesn't sound great, the phone feature is OK and navigation is great. It is a good product but just like any other product it is not perfect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct me if I'm wrong (I don't have a car dock, and the htc website is out of stock now),
but can't you set your phone to use bluetooth A2DP to connect to a bluetooth capable car stereo automatically when you put it in the dock? Or is that the situation you have where you talk about bad audio quality?
Also, can't you get car stereos/kits that give you handsfree speakerphone using your stereo and an external mic?
For me, the dock is little better than a car charger if it doesn't auto connect to such newfangled wizardry to solve these problems automagically (the dock does actually CHARGE the phone too, right?).

tonyx3 said:
Correct me if I'm wrong (I don't have a car dock, and the htc website is out of stock now),
but can't you set your phone to use bluetooth A2DP to connect to a bluetooth capable car stereo automatically when you put it in the dock? Or is that the situation you have where you talk about bad audio quality?
Also, can't you get car stereos/kits that give you handsfree speakerphone using your stereo and an external mic?
For me, the dock is little better than a car charger if it doesn't auto connect to such newfangled wizardry to solve these problems automagically (the dock does actually CHARGE the phone too, right?).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The dock's built-in speaker has not so great audio. You can connect it to a bluetooth capable stereo, I just happen to not have one of those. I am sure there are kits out there that do all of the above. Yes it does charge the phone as well. The phone connects to the dock's speaker via Bluetooth and that's what I meant about the previous random bluetooth drops. For what I use it for, mostly navigation and charging it serves it's purpose.

flappjaxxx said:
The dock's built-in speaker has not so great audio. You can connect it to a bluetooth capable stereo, I just happen to not have one of those. I am sure there are kits out there that do all of the above. Yes it does charge the phone as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, the car dock has an extra built in speaker? I kinda assumed you were talking about audio coming from the phone's built in speaker. I see. Thanks for the heads up, in any case.

Arkon has good universal car mounts. The good thing is that it is future proof assuming that phones don't get super wide.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

gonna try out one of these
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/universal-car-windshield-swivel-mount-for-htc-g5-39882
please know that if you order it, it ships from China. With all the Chinese New Year festivities going on there it will probably take 4 weeks to get here.

From Amazon
I bought this dock: http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-K3...h-Compatible/dp/B003Y3BEV4/ref=dp_ob_title_ce
And although is supposedly for the iPhone, it works great with the N1. I modded the base, so it will hold the tip of this charger: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S5Q9CA/ref=oss_product?ie=UTF8&redirect=true
The dock you can either put it in the windshield or in one of the vents. I put mine in a vent, because it is closer to my hand and I don't have to reach to the windshield to operate the phone, when I am using the car home.
I hope that this info helps.

I've had no issues with the Google car dock.

Happily rockin' the Google Car Dock as well. I love the docks with this phone!

I used this tutorial
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=744728&highlight=diy
did the job nice! and cheap too!

I have been looking for a dock and the google dock is no longer being sold by google and is only available on ebayor amazon, there is a buy now on ebay for $79, and it costs $185 on amazon! It looks really nice though, it original sold for $55, so I may shell out the premium to get the only really nice dock i have seen

If I didn't already have the google car dock, I'd probably give this a go:
http://lifehacker.com/#!5747897/how-to-build-a-car-mount-for-your-cellphone-from-office-supplies
I'm usually a cheap bastard.

DumbUglyDragon said:
Happily rockin' the Google Car Dock as well. I love the docks with this phone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It rocks until it breaks.
Check out proclip usa.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

I'd love to hack an audio out port directly only my official N1 car dock....other than that, it's fantastic.

I have the official Google/HTC car dock, and am satisfied with it. The speaker in it is OK, but not great if you have a loud vehicle. Communication between the dock and phone is via Bluetooth, despite it being physically clipped in. I had a small issue where I found that music would play via the dock speaker, but phone calls would only play on the phone's speaker, oddly.
Also, after taking a road trip with my N1 as a GPS unit before I got the dock, I found that a standard car 12v --> USB adapter with a microUSB cable did not provide enough juice to power the phone while using Google Nav with GPS. It would slowly discharge the battery over time. This happened with 3 different 12v--> USB adapters, so maybe most of them out there don't put out enough amps.
Anyways, I got mine last fall from HTC's site, which was (and still is) backordered. I did eventually get it, though.
Because I'm an xda forum noob, it won't let me post the URL... but just Google "shopamerica" and "HTC" and find accessories for the Nexus One from the HTC America site.

the only problem with non Google Car Dock/Car Mount is that phone dialer never show in landscape
is there any trick to emulate google car dock to allow dialer to be in landscape ?
thanks

CTMechE said:
I have the official Google/HTC car dock, and am satisfied with it. The speaker in it is OK, but not great if you have a loud vehicle. Communication between the dock and phone is via Bluetooth, despite it being physically clipped in. I had a small issue where I found that music would play via the dock speaker, but phone calls would only play on the phone's speaker, oddly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is a little workaround for that - the MOTOROLA T505 (google it) hands-free device works miracles..it has a decent, loud, inbuilt speaker, communicates via bluetooth with the N1, and transmits via FM to your car-stereo. it searches for "least used/weakest signal" on the entire FM frequency band, announces verbally the FM frequency you need to set your radio to, and off you go. as a bonus, it has an inbuilt rechargeable battery so you can take it anywhere.Works for making calls and music 'broadcasts'