VTTBoscombe
07-22-2005, 05:29 AM
Please choose the appropriate forum for this topic. Thank you. Hi - heres an installation with nothing to do with Crutchfields , Dodges, Buicks or other americana which although interesting means next to nothing to us this side of the pond.
Car is a Citröen C8 so this is valid for a Peugeot 807, Fiat Useless and what ever the Lancia clone is called.
Stereo unit is a Clarion CD/Radio original equipment with a CD Changer potential (never thankfully used).
Having trialled a friend's iTrip with my precious Mini iPod, I decided that in the name of road safety I should get a hard wire solution. (you try and change the frequency on the iPod while you drive, as well as the radio - makes using a mobile phone while driving a safe way to drive). Also I live near Strasbourg - and with French/German and Swiss radio stations all vying for airspace, there is not a lot of free channels.
I spotted a used original generation Ice-Link on the internet for 90 €uros (Priceminister.fr), and took the plunge.
It was for a Clarion /Peugeot combo , I have a Citroen/Clarion combo so I thought it was 90% sure it would be OK.
No support cradle, which was OK for me.
Installation took about 20 mins, after the nice guys at Norauto (a kind of French Halfords meets Kwikfit outfit for those UK viewers) had released the stereo for free using specialised bent nails in the Din hole things. Then :
1. I disconnected the battery
2. The Ice Link thing/Connect 2 box was put into the Glove Compartment, and using a piece of spare wire , the connector for the stereo was fed up through a convenient hole in the roof of the compartment and just to behind the stereo unit.
3. I removed the C8's air flow things , by basically pulling them out of their clips. (They went back the same way, with a lot of banging).
4. This gave just enough room to insert the connection into the CD Changer socket at the back of the Clarion, without having to completly remove the stereo, so I didn't disconnect anything from the radio back.
5. The connection wire for the iPod just runs out of the side of the door of the glove compartment, and using the belt clip that came with the iPod , I clip this on to the silly door that slides up to "hide" the stereo from potential thieves (is it only french cars who have this??) - anyway the mini can sit right by my right hand looking neat while I drive.
Only issue I had was getting the volume right , it was far too low at first. I had to crank up the stereo's volume to max, because the iPod is feeding from the bottom connection, the iPod's volume control does nothing.
After searching the internet - I found a similar issue a guy had with his Mini (I guess the BMW Mini, rather than a genuine Mini, ) - advise from Dension was "Select N° 6 on your CD Changer control, and play around with the << and >> buttons," there seems to be around 4 preset volume input levels the stereo receives from the Ice Link (this info was missing from the supporting documentation) - Voila it worked - but warning to anyone on doing this - it is very hit or miss, half the time it just skips tracks, rather than change volume setting levels, so choose a nice loud track to set it - and have patience.
The functionality is pretty basic - << and >> controls changes tracks, you control the volume through the stereo, oh and it charges the iPod - that's it, no track names etc.
Any selection activities, you still have to mess around with your iPod.
Maybe in the future I will upgrade to a Ice Link Plus interface; but I will wait for that to get better.
Sound quality is OK (far better than the iTrip ; but less than the CD player no suprises) - it is suprisngly good on some things like my standard stereo tester track Marquee Moon by Television; but disappointing on other stuff like Joy Division, The Jam and all those other raves from my grave; more modern stuff like The Kaiser Chiefs, The Killers, Fat Boy Slim etc sound bright as a button; but then I prefer vinyl to CD's, taking the tracks further to MP3 lets the machine take a good part of the good stuff away- (Maybe the modern bands, record with half an eye towards their stuff ending up as MP3 tracks).
Anyway I now have tunes on wheels so I am very happy and planning some good on the road playlists - and best of all I can delete all those stupid Griffin Technology frequencies that keep coming up on my shuffle!
Car is a Citröen C8 so this is valid for a Peugeot 807, Fiat Useless and what ever the Lancia clone is called.
Stereo unit is a Clarion CD/Radio original equipment with a CD Changer potential (never thankfully used).
Having trialled a friend's iTrip with my precious Mini iPod, I decided that in the name of road safety I should get a hard wire solution. (you try and change the frequency on the iPod while you drive, as well as the radio - makes using a mobile phone while driving a safe way to drive). Also I live near Strasbourg - and with French/German and Swiss radio stations all vying for airspace, there is not a lot of free channels.
I spotted a used original generation Ice-Link on the internet for 90 €uros (Priceminister.fr), and took the plunge.
It was for a Clarion /Peugeot combo , I have a Citroen/Clarion combo so I thought it was 90% sure it would be OK.
No support cradle, which was OK for me.
Installation took about 20 mins, after the nice guys at Norauto (a kind of French Halfords meets Kwikfit outfit for those UK viewers) had released the stereo for free using specialised bent nails in the Din hole things. Then :
1. I disconnected the battery
2. The Ice Link thing/Connect 2 box was put into the Glove Compartment, and using a piece of spare wire , the connector for the stereo was fed up through a convenient hole in the roof of the compartment and just to behind the stereo unit.
3. I removed the C8's air flow things , by basically pulling them out of their clips. (They went back the same way, with a lot of banging).
4. This gave just enough room to insert the connection into the CD Changer socket at the back of the Clarion, without having to completly remove the stereo, so I didn't disconnect anything from the radio back.
5. The connection wire for the iPod just runs out of the side of the door of the glove compartment, and using the belt clip that came with the iPod , I clip this on to the silly door that slides up to "hide" the stereo from potential thieves (is it only french cars who have this??) - anyway the mini can sit right by my right hand looking neat while I drive.
Only issue I had was getting the volume right , it was far too low at first. I had to crank up the stereo's volume to max, because the iPod is feeding from the bottom connection, the iPod's volume control does nothing.
After searching the internet - I found a similar issue a guy had with his Mini (I guess the BMW Mini, rather than a genuine Mini, ) - advise from Dension was "Select N° 6 on your CD Changer control, and play around with the << and >> buttons," there seems to be around 4 preset volume input levels the stereo receives from the Ice Link (this info was missing from the supporting documentation) - Voila it worked - but warning to anyone on doing this - it is very hit or miss, half the time it just skips tracks, rather than change volume setting levels, so choose a nice loud track to set it - and have patience.
The functionality is pretty basic - << and >> controls changes tracks, you control the volume through the stereo, oh and it charges the iPod - that's it, no track names etc.
Any selection activities, you still have to mess around with your iPod.
Maybe in the future I will upgrade to a Ice Link Plus interface; but I will wait for that to get better.
Sound quality is OK (far better than the iTrip ; but less than the CD player no suprises) - it is suprisngly good on some things like my standard stereo tester track Marquee Moon by Television; but disappointing on other stuff like Joy Division, The Jam and all those other raves from my grave; more modern stuff like The Kaiser Chiefs, The Killers, Fat Boy Slim etc sound bright as a button; but then I prefer vinyl to CD's, taking the tracks further to MP3 lets the machine take a good part of the good stuff away- (Maybe the modern bands, record with half an eye towards their stuff ending up as MP3 tracks).
Anyway I now have tunes on wheels so I am very happy and planning some good on the road playlists - and best of all I can delete all those stupid Griffin Technology frequencies that keep coming up on my shuffle!