5 replies to this topic

[GusRox]

I am on a tight budget, but am open to new ideas here.

My mini, Gus has no sound system or speakers whatsoever. I don't think there's any radio wiring in there either, so I'll be starting (and learning) from scratch.

I will be mainly playing music from a USB drive, and a radio would be useful. Will not be putting CD's in the car, so a cd player/changer is not necessary. Seems like such a waste for a car radio to be so big these days when the two things that made it so big (cassettes and CDs) are now not the norm.

So, now there are loads of little MP3 gadgets and gizmos, DAB radios and such out on the market, I was just wondering if there are any ideas for doing something simple, but interesting in Gus. With some of them having little remote controls, everything could be hidden except a slot for the remote on the dash?

I am thinking of making my own dashboard, currently, he doesn't have one. Perhaps there could be a USB slot direct in the dash? Perhaps a middle glove box concealing the tech?

So many possibilites... so help me out here - what are your thoughts?

All ideas welcome.

[hen.hughes1]

What device would you be plugging into the USB port? As in an iPod or say a portable hard drive?

[TfcIan]

If you just mean a USB flash drive, I'd advise you not to do this because it will stick out and look ugly. You can get head units which have memory card slots such as SD card slots, so you just need to get yourself an SD card with a decent capacity on it and you can keep it in the head unit where it can't be seen. Then, you can take it out to put more music in and put it back in again later.

The one problem I can see with this is that on the small letterbox sized head units, the screen is small so navigating through songs on SD card/USB could be difficult and time consuming. My brother recently purchased a touchscreen head unit but this is quite big and it was fairly expensive, £200+. However, it's easy to use because it's like looking at the screen for an ipod rather than those tiny MP3 players you can get with the small display.

Alternatively, you could get an ipod head unit and, if you haven't got one, an ipod. This will let you choose music to play on the ipod itself but you also get to control the ipod with the buttons on the head unit because it can send signals back to the ipod.

Most head units have an AUX port on them now, which is basically like a headphone cable which goes from the head unit to your ipod/mp3 player/phone and will use the speakers in the head unit to play music from the device. The downside to this is that it is merely and audio cable and therefore signals can't be sent back along the cable as they can with the ipod control head units, so you have to use the ipod to change track; difficult when driving.


Personally, I'd go with the SD card option unless you already own an ipod which you can use. The benefit being that you don't have to keep taking the ipod out of the car because the SD card stays in the slot. Plus, if you've got to buy an ipod as well, the cost will be a lot higher; it might be better to get a unit with a touchscreen.


I like your idea of using a glovebox to hide the head unit, but there might not be enough room to get a dashboard in front of the head unit, you'd have to do some measurements.

You have a wide choice of places to put speakers; on the parcel shelf, speaker board under the rear seat, front speaker pods or you could get two small ones with tweeters into the dashboard. They are just the obvious and easy places. I'm using speaker pods from custom consoles and have found them to be great, they don't get in the way at all when getting in or out the car, when driving or for the passenger sitting down.

[pbrain]

i prefer the SD card option. I bought a nifty Pioneer DEH5200-SD, much cheapness (£120 new). track selection is quite easy to navigate, got the option for USB/CD & iPod control...can't fault it.

[GusRox]

Thanks for the input, it's appreciated and there's plenty to think about.

Unfortunately Gus the Mini failed his MOT miserably so I have time to think about the options. I was even considering the head unit to be on a centre console at an angle, pointing up so that controls are easy to the touch. In fact a clear screen would be great there. I'd probably recess it with a small cover door.

Lots of ideas! Plenty to think about. Especially as I am starting from nothing with the dashboard and centre console, so I'm not having to work around what's already there.

I don't have an ipod (I'm a luddite, maybe?) but I currently have a head unit in our other car which plays songs from a usb stick, which I why I mentioned that.

If I could get a head unit behind a panel, a sleek 90 degree usb cable would allow you to plug in the usb stick into anywhere you run the cable...

[Doovydoo]

Hi

I'm in a similar position to you, my mini has no speakers/head unit whatsoever.

I have a plan, as I also want to play from MP3 player, and not CD's or radio. I have a small amp, and sub woofer, from my previous car, that i plan to put in the boot and run the RCA input wires to front of the car. There would be an RCA to AUX (headphone) adaptor on the end, which i would plug into my MP3 player, or phone (as thats always with me and has lots of music!)

Then I would wire up some small speakers (i think 6.5") into the rear shelf or under rear seats, also running off the outputs from the amp.

This eliminates the need for a head unit, and cuts down on the wiring side! Only thing that would need be added extra is some kind of inline switch that controls the remote wire on the amp (to tell it to turn on), and it will be in the boot for easy access to the battery and grounding to the boot floor.

Hope that helps, it is my idea for now and I will get round to it soon.. it should work