Belkin Auto Kit Pause on Ignition off

[davecuse]

I'm a little confused, I have my Belkin Audio kit (just got it) hooked up through a switched power source. I could have sworn that I'd seen another topic in this forum telling me that it would work the way I want it to, although I wasn't able to find it in my search.
I was expecting it to Pause when I shut off the ignition and Play when I started the car again. As is, it's very annoying because it just keeps playing if I shut off the car and forget to hit the pause button.
I have a 3G 40gig iPod, hooked through the dock to this belkin charger and audio out to my PIE switch which goes into my HU. Does anyone know if this has been changed in the latest Firmware upgrade on the iPod (2.1)? Or if there is a menu item that I've been unable to find? Help, anyone?

Thanks
Dave

[chinhster]

I was going to ask the same thing. Mine keeps playing too.

[bluntman]

The Belkin only controls the flow of power to your iPod. Since the iPod has a battery, as soon as you cut off the power from the Belkin the battery kicks in and continues playing. If the iPod were able to be powered solely by the car battery then you'd be in business.

[davecuse]

It would be cool if the iPod firmware had an option to pause when disconnected from an external power source. It would really make my day. I know I'm not halucinating... I read on here that it had this functionality! Anyone, I'm going to beg Apple to put this in the next update.

[chinhster]

I just noticed something. I have my iPod off. I plugged it into my car earlier and it turned on. I unplugged it from my car and I'm almost certain it turned back off. Perhaps you need to turn it off before you plug it in so that when you turn off the car, it turns off too. Just a thought (maybe I'm imagining things).

I can't confirm this works yet because where I plugged it into the car evidently stays on all the time. I'm going to rewire it later.

[kman1666]

OK, on my setup, I have it so when the car is off, all power to the Belkin is off also. When I plug in my ipod (and it is off) it turns on, but the music is paused. I have to press play when I start the car, but when I cut the power from the car/ipod the music pauses and eventually powers down.

[chinhster]

Yeah, you're right, mine does that too. I must've manually turned off the iPod... something I've gotten into the habit of doing since I keep the backlight on and the contrast turned up because of the car.

[MOCKBA]

Good to hear that it works in this way. So, I need only press play once, after starting engine, and it will be turned off automatically later, right?
BTW some people complained about hizz when you use auto kit, is it true? I bought auto kit, but too lazy to unpack it and check.

[davecuse]

Originally posted by kman1666
OK, on my setup, I have it so when the car is off, all power to the Belkin is off also. When I plug in my ipod (and it is off) it turns on, but the music is paused. I have to press play when I start the car, but when I cut the power from the car/ipod the music pauses and eventually powers down.

Which version of the iPod software do you have? I put 2.1 on mine and I don't have the same functionality. I plug in my iPod (while it's shut down) to the belkin car kit, start my engine, hit play everything works. Then when I shut off my car, the belkin light goes out (so it's obviously on a switched circuit) but my iPod keeps playing. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

[kman1666]

I have the newest firmware and I use the Belkin auto kit. So it sounds like I have the same set up as you, except mine pauses when I turn off the car. I have no idea why. Maybe it has to do something with our cars.

[chinhster]

The problem for me is that I keep the backlight on and keep the contrast up so I tend to manually shut it off. I don't know how long it is before it turns itself off which is why I do this.

My biggest concern is what this will all these short bursts of battery usage and battery charging will do to the battery. My typical drive is 5-10 minutes. Assuming that the iPod turns itself off after 10 minutes, that's 10 minutes of battery usage, 10 minutes of charging. Do that a few times a day, every day. Can the battery handle that?

[kman1666]

My ipod usually turns itself off 1-2 minutes after...I don't think it would ever say on for 10...thats just crazy

[kbyrd]

During normal usage (not connected to external power), my ipod powers down several minutes after I hit the pause button.

With the belkin auto kit, cutting power to the kit (pulling it out of the cigarette lighter, or turning off the car), my ipod pauses but it NEVER (well, I only waited 20 minutes) powers down. What gives!

Before you all ask. I am SURE the belkin has no power to it, and it always pauses my ipod when it loses power. It just that this pause doesn't lead to a power off, where a real pause does. Ideas?

[chinhster]

Ignore my earlier posts since I've confirmed mine does that too. I thought my auto kit was defective until you mentioned you were having the same problem.

As an experiment, I connected my iPod to the AC adapter, hit play, unplugged the adapter from the wall with the iPod still connected to the adapter. It did not pause so evidently, the auto kit is sending a pause signal when it loses power.

I then hooked up my iPod mini to my car, started it, hit play, turned off the car and the mini paused as expected. What's interesting is that I then left, came back a few minutes later and the mini was off! So maybe it's not the auto kit's fault.

This might actually work out because I was gonna use my iPod in my daily driver (I'm swapping out the head unit for an Alpine as soon as they come out with the iPod controller) and the mini in my weekend car. However, the fact that the mini takes a while to boot up everytime you apply power can be really annoying and something I hope Apple fixes in the future. I don't have a mount for my mini yet (have one on order from proclip) and haven't truly used it in the car yet so I only took a few minutes to experiment.

[JP_40GB]

I would really like to see the ipod backlight stay ON when it is pluged in the car or on ac power and go to the delay when its on the battery. (dont see why Apple cant do that my cell phone does it lol) anybody have any ideas if this could be done? or will I have to just hope that the next frimware release does this?

Also, does anyone know if the monster "Ultra-Low Profile Charger " sends a pause signal like the belkin does, that my decide which I buy. It shure would be neat to have it go one and off with the car jsut like my headunit does. -Thans :)

[dbett]

Anyone here that has the Belkin kit pausing their iPod on losing power:

Please post and say whether you are running the kit through an Apple dock.

I am (and mine doesn't auto pause), and I'm wondering if the way the dock is wired doesn't pass the "pause" signal. After all, the dock does split out the audio signal from the 'dock' connector to the line out jack.

Anyone?

[kbyrd]

I'm replying to the request about dock vs. no dock.

I connect my ipod directly to the belkin auto kit, no dock. When the auto kit loses power, the ipod pauses and never turns off.

[Bitgod]

Hah, didn't know about the pause feature till I read about it here, nifty. This was a good buy.

JP, yeah, thinking the same thing, sorta like power profiles, one for plugged in and one for battery, I was thinking the same thing, my portable CD player does that. I'm sure the ipod can do it, just a matter of them adding it to software. Make sure you go to the ipod support page and give them feedback on that, I'm going to do the same.

[CheeseOnFire]

Does anyone know why the auto pause seems to work on some belkin auto kits and not others. I have mine wired into the ignition, so it kills the power to the ipod when i turn my car off. When i turn my car on the ipod lights up and I push play on it. But when i turn my car off, the ipod stops charging but continues to play.

[sahmad88]

Originally posted by kbyrd
During normal usage (not connected to external power), my ipod powers down several minutes after I hit the pause button.

With the belkin auto kit, cutting power to the kit (pulling it out of the cigarette lighter, or turning off the car), my ipod pauses but it NEVER (well, I only waited 20 minutes) powers down. What gives!

Before you all ask. I am SURE the belkin has no power to it, and it always pauses my ipod when it loses power. It just that this pause doesn't lead to a power off, where a real pause does. Ideas?

This is exactly how mine works as well. It is nice that it pauses it, but yeah, it would also be nice if the unit turned off after a couple minutes like a normal pause.

I have a 3G ipod with v 2.1 on it. Don't know if this makes any difference.

[mookiemeister]

I just tested my iPod with Belkin car charger after hearing that you have to have the iPod OFF before you plug in to Belkin car charger and turn on ignition. I did that and still my iPod doesn't turn off when I turn off my car. I make sure Belkin car charger LED light is off so I know no power is going to iPod. But it doesn't pause my iPod.

On Apple online store, they sell 2 models of Belkin car chargers. One is $19.95 and another is $39.95. I bought the cheaper one without volume control. Can anyone verify that Belkin car charger with volume control is the one that can pause iPod?

[sahmad88]

Originally posted by mookiemeister
On Apple online store, they sell 2 models of Belkin car chargers. One is $19.95 and another is $39.95. I bought the cheaper one without volume control. Can anyone verify that Belkin car charger with volume control is the one that can pause iPod?

That might be it. I have the one with the volume control and that one will pause my ipod when I turn off the ignition. I don't know about the other one, though. Sorry.

I was thinking about it yesterday. I use the iTrip with mine. Today I am going to see if I don't have the iTrip in and I use the charger, will it not only pause it like it does on other people's iPod, but will the iPod also power down eventually.

[CheeseOnFire]

I have the belkin with the volume control and it still does not pause.

[mookiemeister]

Originally posted by CheeseOnFire
I have the belkin with the volume control and it still does not pause.

Bleh. Then it must be another reason why some people are able to get their iPod to pause when they turn off their car.

[CheeseOnFire]

I emailed belkin asking the same question. We will see what their response is.

[BarracksSi]

Originally posted by MOCKBA
BTW some people complained about hizz when you use auto kit, is it true? I bought auto kit, but too lazy to unpack it and check.

There shouldn't be much hiss. I'll find out for myself later this week when my own kit shows up in the mail.

I haven't decided whether to use it with its ground wire or not, although I may ground it anyway since I haven't yet bought an auto power adapter. I might as well get a switch for the ground connection while I've got the dash taken apart, too.

Check out the tech note halfway down the page:
http://www.tiora.net/~civicryda2k/videos/misc/davechappelle_rickjames.wmv

Simply put, to avoid noise, use the PIE's ground wire if running the iPod off of its battery, and don't use the ground wire if you're using a power adapter. If you use both, add a switch to open/close the ground circuit depending on what you're using for power.

[CheeseOnFire]

I had hiss on mine. It sounded like i had a turbo attached to my engine. But i installed a ground loop isolater from radio shack for $15 and it solved all problems.

[hunterbug]

I was fortunite to have rca inputs on my car stereo head unit.
I ran a 1/8 plug through the dash.

ok. the sound quality difference between using the belkin and directaly connecting is a huge difference.i think the belkin is only good for charging .

anyone else agree?



HunterBug : )

[BarracksSi]

Originally posted by CheeseOnFire
I had hiss on mine. It sounded like i had a turbo attached to my engine. But i installed a ground loop isolater from radio shack for $15 and it solved all problems.

I'll keep that in mind when I get my PIE kit later this week. I did a basic car stereo installation some years back, and a ground loop isolator did the trick in eliminating alternator whine there, too.

[Flyer]

I have the Belkin kit, no dock. My iPod does *not* pause after turning off the ignition, but *does* turn itself off after a couple of minutes if I manually pause it.

Clearly this is a bit of a pain remembering to manually pause the iPod. It would be great if the iPod had a software option so that it could sense it was going to battery power and switch itself off.

[BarracksSi]

Just put mine in last week -- PIE adapter & Belkin charger with the line out.

Mine pauses when I turn the car off, but the 12v outlet switches off, too. When the adapter turns off, the iPod pauses.

I take it that some 12v outlets turn off like mine, and some stay on?

[CheeseOnFire]

Hey just to let you guys know, the problem with the ipod not sleeping after it is paused by the belkin auto kit has been fixed (or at least for me) in the new ipod update 2.2.

[BarracksSi]

Cool, I'll check it out today when I'm out & about.

[rkremser]

I dont' know if this could be it but do the people who's ipods don't pause use the dock between the ipod and charger? Maybe its blocking it. There was mention of this higher in the topic but no one seemed to respond to it whether it was tried or not.

[BarracksSi]

Just checked --

Turn on car, plug in Belkin Auto Charger, play iPod through stereo, then turn car off.

iPod pauses, sits for a while, then goes to sleep.

Before, the iPod would sit there on Pause without going to sleep. I found that out when I left it in the car plugged in overnight, and came out the next morning to find the iPod "awake" and its battery almost completely drained. Now, I guess it works!

[CheeseOnFire]

Originally posted by rkremser
I dont' know if this could be it but do the people who's ipods don't pause use the dock between the ipod and charger? Maybe its blocking it. There was mention of this higher in the topic but no one seemed to respond to it whether it was tried or not.

If you run a dock, the belkin charger will not pause your ipod. The dock also cuts the audio to the line out on the belkin. So to have the ipod automatically pause you must run the belkin charger directly to the ipod and it will pause when power is pulled. And with version 2.2, it will finally go to sleep.