iPod connector compatibility

[EVR]

I was not really caring about adding wireless music streaming to my car, but digging around I got passionate about making it work and love mini-projects like these (plus, it's still semi-lockdown in Italy, it's snowing and I'm bored )

So, the easier solution is by far adding a Bovee 1000 to the existing cable and called it a day.

Thing is, I don't have such cable. My car, a 2011 N420 has the connector in the center console box, but did not came with the cable, which is priced around 120€ on Scuderia/Aston Bits. Count in the +/- 100€ of the Bovee and yeah, thanks but no thanks.

Digging around I found that our cars might have the same Jaguar/Land Rover connector:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Can anyone confirm 100%? Unofficial LR/JR cable are way cheaper, at around 15 £.

I then also found a neat all-in-one solution from Bovee, which use a mysterious AMI/MMI/MDI connector:



AMI stands for Audi Media Interface, MMI same but for Mercedes and MDI no idea. This should also works for Volkswagen. The connector seems awfully similar to ours though, any inputs on this?

If those are working for us too, there is a world of cheap adapters like this one.

Cheers!

Edited by EVR on Wednesday 10th March 08:22

[EVR]

Auto-update

The Audi one and the Land Rover/Jaguar one are definitely different. I will check in the Aston what ours is.

Audi



LR/JR

[EVR]

V8PYB said:

I bought the Bovee from Amazon at £99 for my 2012 V8V and it works brilliantly, so much better than a bluetooth via the aux port. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N9EQ5PW/ref=cm_sw_e...

Ok thanks. You got exactly the linked one with that LR/JR cable or you already had a cable from AM?

[EVR]

Went to snap a pic in the car, it definitely seems the connector is the same as LR/JR, another cheap alternative part to add to the list!

[EVR]

Got mine:

https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B08MQ1VRN3/ref=pp...

The ad is for a no brand but received an Invery one, a sort-of-known brand.



Tested it out today, perfect. I can vouch the Jaguar/Land Rover cable is 100% fine with Aston. At 65€ shipped including the cable I feel it is a no brainer. Run away from the official dealer, Scuderia or Aston Martin Bits who sell just the cable for 100-160€!

[EVR]

CAPP0 said:

You've had a result there, I have a Range Rover with the same cable/socket as you mention above and I first tried a Bovee device with a non-OEM cable which definitely didn't work, but worked as soon as I got the genuine cable.

In my DB9, the cable was already there so I don't know what brand that was but I plugged a bluetooth dongle similar to a Bovee and that works fine.

Uhm, weird. For the sake of testing (and if you are locked down and bored too ) you could take the non-official cable you used in the Range and try on the DB9. I predict it should work, since both myself and V8PYB are using non-genuine AM cables. As far as I know, the car should come with the cable from factory. Or might be an option?

[EVR]

ds666 said:

I had a lead with the car so bought an Invery at about £20 but I can’t get it to work ... jus says “ loading “ . Grrr

Weird. Did you have the Invery one with the little switch on top for simple/advanced mode? What phone are you trying to use with? What car?

[EVR]

V8PYB said:

Have you got a song loaded on iTunes?
To get my new iPhone to work I had to have at least one song downloaded in iTunes even if I wasn’t trying to listen to music through iTunes, I use Deezer or Spotify.

This. Or an active Apple Music sub.

The switch on mine (Invery too) is not on/off, but simple/advanced mode, to be compatible with many phones and services. On iPhone it should be in advanced mode. Take a look at the manual if you have it, otherwise I'll send you shots of mine.

[EVR]

Glad it sort of work, but it is not yet ideal.

This is the manual (not the exact one since this is the Airdual 300A for Audi, ours should be the Airdual 100 but I can't find it), but operation is very similar save for the button, which on mine is a selector, pic attached from my manual. Try to see if this helps.

https://www.bilkomponenter.no/users/kufatec_mystor...

[EVR]

Tremelune said:

Can you skip tracks and change volume with the factory controls, or do you have to use the phone?

Using the steering buttons no problem.

CB07 said:

I’ve got the bovee/jag lead. Works perfectly in the Rapide. Used to do an odd thing on the display in the old vantage where the tracks would just tick over every second so you would be listening to track 2563 by the time a song ended, possibly needed an update.

Personally I listen to a lot of playlists and use “hey Siri”. Doing it this way feels really up to date as the iPhone basically can handle all the functions and send a signal to the car. All the factory controls work as expected, skip track, volume etc etc. Also it means that if you don’t have DAB you can readily use tune in radio/lbc app/bbc radio app/kiss app/classic rock or whatever you fancy and it all works just fine.

One thing I would say is turn the volume on the iPhone up to max, and use the car volume to control. That way you are getting the most amplified volume from the phone and presumably the cars amplifier works more efficiently.

Cheers

Yep, I quote you on everything but the initial problem, never encountered it so far.

On volume: indeed, as you suggest you have to max it out on the phone. Thing is, in iOS 14.3 at least, the health app thinks you are exposed to too much noise and sometimes decides to turn the volume down automatically. Oh well.

[EVR]

EVR said:

On volume: indeed, as you suggest you have to max it out on the phone. Thing is, in iOS 14.3 at least, the health app thinks you are exposed to too much noise and sometimes decides to turn the volume down automatically. Oh well.

BTW, one of the most recent iOS updates added the ability to label Bluetooth connections. If you pick "Car stereo" from the presets, no more auto-volume adjusting to protect hearing since now iOS knows it's not a headset.

Success!

[EVR]

Sorry, I cannot help more. I believe it is as Cappo said.

A genuine AM cable was around 120€ when I was messing with my setup, it is just a matter of the price you put on having wireless music streaming in the car.