My second project was a bit more interesting. I’ve been tempted to install a satellite radio, but then you have to count in the monthly fees, the installation of a new antenna, and a bunch of other issues. It finally dawned on me that if all I’m getting is commercial-free radio, why shouldn’t I just install an MP3 player?
I mostly installed a Neo Car MP3 Player from www.ssiamerica.com. At first I wanted the best one there, but then I remembered that I’ve got about 2G of MP3s and that’s more than enough music for me (besides, I think I can just replace the drive with a standard laptop drive in the future). This decision saved me about $300.
http://www.ssiamerica.com/products/neo35/index.shtml
I installed the player on the ledge beneath the passenger side rear seat. It’s a tight enough fit and I managed to edge one of the mounting brackets under a plastic trim piece, so I don’t think I even need to screw it down (I’m always leery of permanent installations for some reason). The best part is that it’s a small unit, so I can still fold the seat flat. Of course, this won’t work for people with the third-row seats since it will be in your passengers’ footwell.
I ran the power along the passenger side to the fusebox in the front passenger footwell. I realized that they made a mistake by putting the fuse close to the player. While the player is protected, you should be careful and install a redundant fuse at the fusebox because if the power gets cut it can be grounded against the chassis and do bad things.
The system has a removable tray that locks into the car (the lock also cuts the power to the unit in the open position, meaning that they don’t have to support hot-swapping). You can take it out and plug it into a remote USB docking station to copy files from your PC (or Mac, if you’re so inclined). I had some issues with my Sony Vaio notebook running XP Pro. I needed to download the latest drivers and you have to make sure that everything is hooked up before you use the key to turn the unit on. If you screw up, the driver reports the unit information as garbage and won’t let you access the drive. Rebooting the unit at this point will yield a bunch of blacked-out letters. If this happens, disconnect the USB cable and let the unit boot normally. Then use the key to power it off, plug in the USB cable, and then power it on again.
I downloaded this program to sync my directory trees. It works, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to sync everything at once (it shows the directories that have deltas, but you have to sync the directories one at a time). Hey, it’s free.
http://download.com.com/3000-2248-5902027.html?tag=lst-0-1
I say it’s mostly installed for a few reasons. First, I didn’t bother to run the cables for the remote display properly (it’s sitting on the passenger seat now). Second, and more importantly, I haven’t integrated it into the MCS yet. I’m stuck with an FM modulator, but the one that was provided only has standard connectors and not the type that the MCS uses. I’ll head over to a car audio store next week to see if I can find anything or just get them to splice it in. In the meantime, I’m using the VES’s FM modulator and audio in jacks – but having the screen down blocks my vision somewhat.
I mostly installed a Neo Car MP3 Player from www.ssiamerica.com. At first I wanted the best one there, but then I remembered that I’ve got about 2G of MP3s and that’s more than enough music for me (besides, I think I can just replace the drive with a standard laptop drive in the future). This decision saved me about $300.
http://www.ssiamerica.com/products/neo35/index.shtml
I installed the player on the ledge beneath the passenger side rear seat. It’s a tight enough fit and I managed to edge one of the mounting brackets under a plastic trim piece, so I don’t think I even need to screw it down (I’m always leery of permanent installations for some reason). The best part is that it’s a small unit, so I can still fold the seat flat. Of course, this won’t work for people with the third-row seats since it will be in your passengers’ footwell.
I ran the power along the passenger side to the fusebox in the front passenger footwell. I realized that they made a mistake by putting the fuse close to the player. While the player is protected, you should be careful and install a redundant fuse at the fusebox because if the power gets cut it can be grounded against the chassis and do bad things.
The system has a removable tray that locks into the car (the lock also cuts the power to the unit in the open position, meaning that they don’t have to support hot-swapping). You can take it out and plug it into a remote USB docking station to copy files from your PC (or Mac, if you’re so inclined). I had some issues with my Sony Vaio notebook running XP Pro. I needed to download the latest drivers and you have to make sure that everything is hooked up before you use the key to turn the unit on. If you screw up, the driver reports the unit information as garbage and won’t let you access the drive. Rebooting the unit at this point will yield a bunch of blacked-out letters. If this happens, disconnect the USB cable and let the unit boot normally. Then use the key to power it off, plug in the USB cable, and then power it on again.
I downloaded this program to sync my directory trees. It works, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to sync everything at once (it shows the directories that have deltas, but you have to sync the directories one at a time). Hey, it’s free.
http://download.com.com/3000-2248-5902027.html?tag=lst-0-1
I say it’s mostly installed for a few reasons. First, I didn’t bother to run the cables for the remote display properly (it’s sitting on the passenger seat now). Second, and more importantly, I haven’t integrated it into the MCS yet. I’m stuck with an FM modulator, but the one that was provided only has standard connectors and not the type that the MCS uses. I’ll head over to a car audio store next week to see if I can find anything or just get them to splice it in. In the meantime, I’m using the VES’s FM modulator and audio in jacks – but having the screen down blocks my vision somewhat.