- Charges any USB device (excluded iPad)
- 3.5 audio support
- FM modulator included
.
First off: I realize that the date on the shipping notification email stating the anticipated date of arrival is an estimate, but it was almost a full week after that date when the item arrived. In contrast to most of my purchases on Amazon, which are usually fulfilled by them, and arrive either on or before the estimated date.
As for the item itself I have no complaints; if you have a little mechanical ability and the patience to do some research, like the proper way to remove the radio, the color codes on the radio's wiring harness, etc; you should have no problem at all.
I installed the device in a 2005 Toyota Tundra; perhaps I should say half installed; the device is properly attached to the radio, I just have not completed the final step of placing the USB, Aux input & power switch in their final resting place. My truck has a 60/40 bench seat without a console; I intend to not use the mounting bracket that came with the device but rather mount the ports and switch directly in the dash. The instruction book comes with a nice template you can use for that purpose and tells you what size drills you will need as well. I just need now to decide where in the dash I want them to go.
The tricky part for some people may be where or how to connect the power wires. Both the red power and black ground wire are plenty long and they pre-strip the ends for you as well.
What I did first was look up the wiring diagram for my trucks radio (look for a website called modifiedlife(dot)com). As this is not a high power device my intent was to, instead of running the wires to the fuse panel or connecting to some stray wires under the dash, attach the red power wire of the modulator to the switched power wire of the radio and the black ground wire to the radios ground wire.
I then found a video on Youtube showing how to remove the radio from the dash.
Armed with this information I felt prepared & comfortable installing the modulator into my truck.
It should go without say that you should make sure no power is going to the radio or anywhere else you plan to connect your modulators wires to before you start splicing; preferably disconnect your vehicles negative battery terminal. I have heard that this sometimes can cause problems on newer cars when you go to use the radio afterwards; something to do with a anti-theft device, so you might want to look into that either in your owners manual or talk to a dealer. For myself and how I planned to run the power a multimeter confirmed that no power went to the switched power wire I was connecting to.
Instead of messing with stripping the insulation off the wires on the harness I clipped off the pre-stripped ends on the Modulator wires right at the point where the insulation was removed & used Quick Lock, sometimes called Scotch Lock, connectors to join the modulators power wires to the radios harness.
This is what the connectors look like: 3M(TM) Scotchlok(TM) 905 Electrical IDC, Double Run or Tap, Low Voltage (Automotive) Applications [PRICE is per BOX]
If you go this route of using these connectors then make sure you fold over the extended tab afterwards to prevent the bare blade from shorting out against any metal in the dash once everything is tucked back in place and the power is connected; sparks are bad; you want to make sure that you don't let the Magic Smoke out of your radio or modulator. Wrapping a piece of electrical tape around the connectors as well is not a bad idea either.
The connectors are color coded; ie Red, Blue, Yellow; each color representing a different range of wire gauge that color will work for; on my radio the red clips did the job.
I removed the antenna wire from the back of the radio, plugged it into the modulator and the antenna wire coming from the modulator was plugged into the back of the radio, no adapter was needed for my vehicle.
Before you run the wires for the ports to the modulator, if you are going to use the mounting bracket that comes with it, make sure that you have fed the wires through that bracket before you run the wires up under your dash and back to the modulator.
Another challenge of this installation can be, depending on your vehicle and where you run the wires, getting the soft floppy wires for the aux input, USB and power switch up and through the tight maze of your dash. What I did was run a thin piece of bailing wire down through the dash to the floor, wrapped it around the plug ends of the wires and gently pulled them up.
After all the connections were made, and all the wires were where I wanted them to be for the time being, I restored power (in my case that was turning on the key) and connected a iPod; plugging it into both the USB power and the aux input, to make sure everything worked. After that I zip tied all the lengths of wire together as well as zip tied the modulator box to the radios harness to keep things neat and prevent any bouncing around.
With the radio back in its home position and everything tucked neatly inside, but before I put the dash back together, I connected the iPod again to make sure nothing had come loose in the process and that everything still worked. After that I reassembled the dash components and went for a little test drive; everything worked great.
Taking my time I probably have a little over an hour into the job; it really was not difficult and the results are well worth it; much better than any cassette adapter or standard FM transmitter.
Good luck & Have a Magical Day.I almost sold my 2004 Mitsubishi Endeavor because it only has a CD player and radio and no auxiliary input. I wanted to be able to play music from an MP3 player but the dash will not take any aftermarket stereo systems. As a last resort, I thought I would give this FM modulator a try. I chose this model because it also has a convenient USB power slot and the ability to mount it anywhere on the dash you can drill a hole. I am very pleased with the results.
I am an amateur when it comes to car electronics, but I was able to install it by myself within an hour. After the dash and factory stereo are removed, the hookup is fairly straightforward. I didn't need an antenna adapter to connect the device. The most difficult part of the process was splicing into the existing radio's power supply. I could have run the power to the fuse box, but I didn't want to pull out more pieces of the dash. Instead, I cut the radio's power line (which I looked up to find it was the blue wire in my vehicle), and spliced the red power line on the device to the two cut ends of the radio power. I grounded it to the same terminal bolt as the radio.
I put the three holes on the top of my dash, to keep it close to the mount where I keep my phone. There are two other mounting options, but because of the inflexible design of my dash, I opted to drill a hole for each component separately. You can put it wherever there is enough room, or even stick the included box to the underside of the dash.
I was extremely pleased when I put everything back together and it worked correctly the first time. Now I can listen to my phone's MP3 player or internet radio, and use its GPS, and didn't have to spend hundreds of dollars replacing the factory radio.I had a couple of fm modulators in the past and they all weren't good. Finally, I bought this one and to my surprise it was actually very good. Installation was easy since I've had some modulators in the past. Sound quality is really good almost close to CD quality but not quite (after all, this is only a modulator). I love the usb integration, now I can charge my iPod or android. I highly recommend this one for those audiophiles.
Save 50% Off
Great little product. I tried to replace my original stereo just to get Ipod capabilities and spent a whole lot more for the stereo and wiring harneses, only to have it not work and not fit properly. This is a great little inexpensive option to having those FM transmitter cables and devices for Ipod and Zune. Plus it gives you a USB Charger. I had to purchase the Mini to Large, and Large to mini Antenna adapters separately since my stereo is mini and the product is Large antenna adapters
0 comments:
Post a Comment