Ipad mini as car audio control. SWEET!!

A friend sent me this link. Is this someone from the forum??

http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/ipad-4...ze-for-a-front-end-in-car-audio-system-video/

That looks really cool, I've seen quite a few on YouTube now, a popular install.

That's cool! But I'd hate to see where that would wind up when rear-ended.

Yeah - as I was swearing at the so-totally-non-intuitive interface of my Pioneer AVIC unit, I looked at the iPad mini my wife was using and doing some mental cut/paste work, and thinking - damn, that'd be a fine upgrade.

So, these guys (above) basically are using an iPad to run the Sony head unit; I'm wondering if there's a way one could just run stereo out of the headphone jack into some sort of 12V powered speaker device (like the old-school JVC dock-thing I have), which also (IIRC) happens to have a "line out".

That way, I have full iPad control of EVERYTHING, without having to dumb down to some app interface or whatever. The only issue that springs to mind (and granted, it's not an electronic or electrical engineer's mind I'm working with) is balancing the front/rear and left/right speakers.

Apart from fit (which can be overcome with enough Dremeling and Gorilla Tape ), what other issues am I going to have?

That is cool, but a better application would be to plug the iPad through a MDI interface and skip the Sony HU. the MDI would allow full control of the sound, including all OEM steering controls and auto mute, etc.

anyone here actually had this done to their VW?

It's in the works. I won't be using the head unit at all as I've got some parts that will allow I'll Bluetooth audio control of all audio on my iPhone an iPad

It will be amplified through a 6 channel sound processor and if I wanted data I can tether it to my iPhone's data plan

The hvac panel will be moved to the area where the cup holders are and I'll have to extend the cables behind that panel for it to work

I've done fiverglassing and molds before so this won't be too difficult to handle

.

Are you doing this from scratch by yourself or did you purchase this from float dash mount from these guys from FL or Soundman from CA?
How much have you spend on it so far?
I have a 2012 Passat, what do I need to do?

Bio, directed at me?

I'm doing this from scratch.

Masking the iPad and layering fiberglass to create the mold

I'll be using the standard ignition power from the head unit to provide a 12volt power for the USB to lightening connector so upon startup it will charge in the car

I have more in store as well. So I'll elaborate on this when I get home fr work

I guess since you are the only person responding to me, you are the guru then .
I spoke with Doug from Soundman, they can do the complete dash for me for 1200 bucks and I am not going to do that. If I were to make the pan from scratch, would it be possible, if so what do I need?

Bio said:

I guess since you are the only person responding to me, you are the guru then .
I spoke with Doug from Soundman, they can do the complete dash for me for 1200 bucks and I am not going to do that. If I were to make the pan from scratch, would it be possible, if so what do I need?

Click to expand...

1200 bucks is a lot of money for that, but you do get it professional quality as I have seen their finished results.

I have all the links needed on my home computer. And I'll for sure post up on the parts I'm using for this

These are the types of threads I rarely see here. Curious where this goes.

-Todd

You could also order up a cheapie iPad case and just rip the plastic back case off of that and use it as your "form" for fitting the iPad.
I used one of these, put a string of rare earth magnets along one side, lightning connector at one end, and it held very well.

My issue was trying to work around not having a head unit for audio amplification. Eventually gave up and went back to my Pioneer AVIC unit, and just put a Clingo up where the hazard light switch is (Mk4 Golf) and stream via Bluetooth into the input of my AVIC.

Issue now is some electrical "noise" - I get a whine underneath that goes up/down with engine speed. Any ideas on what might be causing that?

I was about to head to bed, till i remembered that I posted in this thread earlier, and was supposed to post details

anyways.

You can have full ipad control without having the need for head unit to control it, but you do need two seperate pieces

A bluetooth receiver and a sound processor.

A few people i've seen have been using the Parrot Mk series with good results. It's a unit that allows you to have full control of your bluetooth device and control incoming and outgoing phone calls.

Here's a link, http://www.parrot.com/usa/products/bluetooth-hands-free-car-kits

Obviously the higher up in model you go, the more bells and whistles you get. I personally chose the 9000 model as i have my phone within eye shot when i'm sitting in the driver's seat. Allowing me to see who's calling and allow me to glance when i get notifications. This unit also allows me to pair up my ipad for full audio functions.

The mki series also has a remote that can be attached to your steering wheel, so you don't need to take your hands off of the wheel when using the functions from the product.

*note* I have not yet finished the install. It's still being grafted at the moment


Now the Parrot device does have output for an aux allowing you to gather the source for sound processing to the amplifiers.

Now there are other sound processors, but this one is pretty slick as it allows you to tune the audio via bluetooth through a computer to ensure the audio is tuned to your liking.

http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/products/product_details.aspx?itemid=106187


To create a mold for your ipad, or ipad mini, you do need some basic materials.

-low tack masking tape [to mask the backside of the ipad]
-fiberglass resin and hardner
-fiberglass sheets
*optional* rare earth magnets to connect the ipad to your home made "dock"
-sand paper
-body filler
-finishing supplies [paint/vinyl/leather/etc]

my priorities with this build is to properly lengthen the HVAC cables on my mk3 jetta, I have yet to create the mold. But I do have all the supplies. So i will ensure that I'll take sufficient pictures when i'm starting the process.

I never considered an ipad for the life of me, till i saw the measurments of the ipad mini during the press-release. And because I compared it to a double din head unit, I knew that this would be the best thing to replace a bulky stereo.

I've just been so tied down with work and work projects that i barely have time to even spend with my sig other and friends. let alone my car

I don't quite see the benefit of buying an ipad or ipad mini specifically for this....but I think the project is very cool.

First, you have to buy yet another ipad, instead of being able to remove the one you have now and carry it with you, and

Second, if you get the phone circuitry, you have to pay your carrier another $30 per month for that device. (At least with AT&T I do.)

Maybe you're intending to make the ipad/iphone removable?

Better would be to spend the money on one of the new full-height head units available on Crutchfield and elsewhere that have ipad/iphone communication/control capability built in. This is the hot thing in the aftermarket right now, and there are several good choices already.

So, you get the best of both worlds: the ability to use your iphone/ipad apps on the head unit, AND all of the nice radio stuff (Pandora, etc), and be able to take your iphone/ipad with you when you leave the car.

All that is really needed then is something like the FIS-Control, http://www.zzottel.de/index_en.html to be able to take as an input sensor information (boost, oil, water, etc.) and communicate with a display better than the FIS (i.e. the head unit or an ipad) and one can have an app that displays and logs all of the car information.

It's a great time right now with lots of cool products coming out.

I've seen the iPad integrated and made removable. The screen is larger, which is nice.

I recently installed a double din Pioneer AVH-8400Bt and the touchscreen on the iPad is way better. I have the app control, but honestly never use it. The apps that the HU can control is pretty limited.

-Todd

Yeah it is fairly new tech so it is not surprising. But I think the next year or two we will all see big leaps in functionality.....

The touch screen HUs have been out for years. I'd think they should be better by now.

There are other small things that I don't like about the Pioneer, but I deal with it. I really only use it for Sirius and my iPod.

-Todd

The App Radio is lacking, but then again its rather new, going to take a while for developers to port applications for these units, as the devs either have to want/own the products, or get paid to port the program to be appradio compatiable...

I've got a AVH-X2500BT, (love the rear inputs and the space behind the dash in my 09 TDI) Only dissadvantage i thought it had HDMI input on it... it sure doesn't lol (i was looking at the original app radio deck that has HDMI... I even have the proper MHL adapter for my Galaxy S3) was going to just leave a micro HDMI and charger in the back of the car for the kids to plug into and have it come thru the car speakers (wait maybe thats a bad thing LOL)

If your integrating the device into the dash itself, the best method is to ditch the aftermarket radio and go straight to an amplifier with a MDI interface... then you just need to get a amp that has volume control, or make one yourself...

The downside to the apple products as a mobile player is all in the conversion, if i want to watch a video i have to convert to a format specific for the ipod/pad/phone... where most headunits/android tablets will play the widely supported file formats that are available for download... (lets not get into a debate on legality or talk of where to get these files and leave it at that)

just saying content is easily played on a non apple product... although theres soo many accessories for those stupid i thingies, its hard not to buy them lol...

you can also get a fix it ticket if you get pulled over and they decide to test video playing on your display... which i dont think can be disabled on a tablet...

RealVNC announced the other day they have integrated into the rns-510 IIRC. It lets you export your smart phone or other device directly to the touch screen on the car and control it from there instead.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=377758

from what i gather, a MHL link and a headunit with an HDMI in would work similar, only issue being the touchscreen on the headunit would not control the apps on the phone... (but music will play thru, and navigation would be displayed on the headunit)

now from what i gather, the Appradio 2 has an app for rooted androids that makes it work flawlessly... you have to have the pioneer CD-AH200C and a MHL adapter that works for your phone (which the S3 uses a different 11 pin usb MHL adapter, so the provided pioneer wont work)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFiAWrItAdE

this is what i WAS hoping to do with my headunit... but without a HDMI on it, im screwed... im wondering if i can get it all together, and go to futureshop and test it out lol... App Radio 2 was as cheap as $299 at a point... the MHL kit is $120, (the MHL for my S3 was $10 on Ebay) And the ARLiberator app costs $40... so that makes a very affordable unit...

just sucks the app radio 2 will not play a CD... GRR

Judson said:

I don't quite see the benefit of buying an ipad or ipad mini specifically for this....but I think the project is very cool.

First, you have to buy yet another ipad, instead of being able to remove the one you have now and carry it with you, and

Second, if you get the phone circuitry, you have to pay your carrier another $30 per month for that device. (At least with AT&T I do.)

Maybe you're intending to make the ipad/iphone removable?

Better would be to spend the money on one of the new full-height head units available on Crutchfield and elsewhere that have ipad/iphone communication/control capability built in. This is the hot thing in the aftermarket right now, and there are several good choices already.

So, you get the best of both worlds: the ability to use your iphone/ipad apps on the head unit, AND all of the nice radio stuff (Pandora, etc), and be able to take your iphone/ipad with you when you leave the car.

All that is really needed then is something like the FIS-Control, http://www.zzottel.de/index_en.html to be able to take as an input sensor information (boost, oil, water, etc.) and communicate with a display better than the FIS (i.e. the head unit or an ipad) and one can have an app that displays and logs all of the car information.

It's a great time right now with lots of cool products coming out.

Click to expand...

One of he reason I wanted to replace my HU with the ipad mini is that I can't seem to find anything that is fully compatible with the 2012 passat. Lots people have told me to leave things as is, just steam everything through my iphone with the onboard BT.

It is actually 20 dollars per month for 2 gigs of data and $10 for every additional gig for Verizon users. Instead of getting the ipad with cellular and wifi, just get the wifi only for $329 and activate mobile hot spot on the iphone have ipad tether off of it. It is made so you can remove it when you leave the car, I mean, do you really want to leave it in the car when you are away from it? I think this is perfect if you have kids, take with you so you can play movies and games while they are away.

I called these folks in FL and they actually referred me to http://audiowerks.net. Going to check it out afterwork today.

Okay, I am back and yes I have done it. I finally was able to install the mini ipad mount and relocated the head unit into the trunk, and everything is working off the Bluetooth. I have an iPad wifi only, so in additional I bought a Dual XGPS150 universal Bluetooth GPS receiver and it works like a charm.

According to their video, the iPad is easily removable from the attached dash dock.

As for the App Radio, it's a total piece. We have one in the Mk4 Jetta and it's about to get set on fire in the driveway (the radio, not the car) because it's infuriating (and it doesn't work with the iPhone 6, so it's pretty much useless now).

Neat project.

Mini Ipad mount














Work was done by Kyle from KD design in RI.

So... you have the iPad controlling the stock RCD-510? What functionally, if any, have you lost in the process?

Sorry if I have mislead you, the iPad works like it supposed to, everything via Bluetooth. They were going to put the head unit behind the iPad, if that was the case, I would have lost the cd and the SIM card function. By relocating it into the trunk I can still listen to them if I choose to disengage the BT connection at the beginning.

Oh, so the iPad is unable to control the radio band - you still have to do that from the head unit? I was hoping for some magical app that was controlling everything on the RCD.

The iPad control nothing but itself. I use tunein radio in lieu of the radio. To be honest with you, I have never listened to the radio ever since I bought the car. I stream most of my music.

I'm interested in this. I looked at the Alpine CarPlay radio, and the Pioneer AppRadios, and the touchscreens were terrible after being used to iPads. Furthermore, my Mk4 Jetta has the radio way down low where it isn't all that useful as a backup camera display or really much of any kind of display. It's just an older concept that predated displays.

So, I'm thinking an iPad Mini is the perfect screen and I'm OK with buying one that will just stay in the car. I know I can get a WiFi backup camera that will create a network with the iPad, but I don't know where that leaves me with respect to receiving phone calls.

So... what I want is basically like a CarPlay unit.

- Ideally the music would come from my phone but if I need to load it onto the iPad that's OK. Radio is not that important.
- backup camera. Very important.
- receive phone calls. I know I can tether the iPad to an iPhone and do phone calls via Facetime, but I don't know if I can do that and keep the connection to the backup camera.

I have read a number of older "iPad as CarPlay" threads on other forums, but most of them relied on jailbreaking which is pretty much a thing of the past now.

Any ideas? I suppose I could have a stereo cable to an aux music input to the factory radio, like my Grom did, and get music on the CD changer input. Then it would get the backup camera over WiFi. Not sure about phone calls at that point; the Grom did that but directly to my phone but I'd rather control it over the iPad.


Bio... I'd love to look at your pics but they are TINY.