When smart announced the smart fortwo cabrio edition i-Move, they also announced plans to sell an iPod car integration kit as an accessory for the fortwo and roadster models. This kit requires an iPod with a dock connector—excluding earlier iPods. If you own a smart and an original iPod, what options are available to unite the two?
The smart 3G iPod cradle
The original iPod has two connectors on the top side; a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a standard 6-pin Firewire port that takes power and provides Mac/PC synch
capabilities:
Original iPod's connections
Options for iPod audio-out
If you have the radio-cassette, the easy option is to buy one of the many cassette adaptors available e.g. from Belkin:
Alternatively, or if you have the radio-CD, you could buy a £15 custom lead from Kane here that plugs into the CD-changer port at the back of the smart's radio, and offers a standard 3.5 mm audio jack at the other end. This is likely to provide the best sound quality of the options listed
here.
Fitting this lead still enables you to use the CD slot when the iPod is turned off. You could simply hide the iPod in the tray below the radio by threading the lead under the radio shelf and into the tray:
There are also wireless alternatives (illegal in the UK), but the word is that sound quality isn't great (perhaps that doesn't matter in a smart with factor-fit speakers?). These add-ons utilise an FM transmitter to deliver a short-range FM broadcast to your car stereo: you just "tune in" to your iPod! Griffen Technology's battery-less iTrip blocks the Firewire port so you can't charge at the same time:
The Tunecast Mobile FM Transmitter from Belkin needs it's own batteries or DC power supply, but allows charging of the iPod via Firewire as it does not obstruct that port:
Options for charging the iPod
The iPod should be good for a few hours play if you plug it in with a full charge. A number older iPods—mine included—suffer from the infamous "depleted battery syndrome" and do not seem to hold their charge well. So there could be merit in using an in-car charger.
There are a couple of in-car charger solutions that work with both older and newer iPods. The PowerPod by Griffin Technology includes the cable for newer iPods, which you can set aside, but can be used with the Firewire cable that shipped with original iPods:
The auto charger from Dr. Bott will charge your original iPod out of the box (or a newer one, with the supplied adapter):
Options for holding the iPod
I'm sure it's not a good idea to leave your iPod in the car, but if you must, you can hide it in the tray below the radio. If you want a dedicated holder—bearing in mind this may advertise the presence of a portable goodie to passing thieves—there are several options.
If your smart has the drinks holder accessory fitted, check out the Belkin TuneDok (for all generation iPods):
Alternatively, smart sell a £25 telephone console onto which you could mount your iPod:
Finally, there are many mobile phone/ PDA holders available from places like Halfords, some of which are able to take the relative bulk of an iPod.
I decided to use a combination of the Brodit ProClip for smart from www.ihavetohave.it (£19.12 inc. p&p) and Halfords own-brand Mobile Phone Holder (£15, item code 236612). The former (which barely resembled it's own photo in the instructions!) requires no permanent fixing to the dash as it clips under the left side of the plastic console, offering a platform to which a holder for the iPod can be fixed. I used a hacksaw to remove the flexible stalk from the Halfords holder as shown:
I then superglued the bracket to the ProClip. Including the bracket and stump, cf. fixing the detachable gripper directly, is necessary to ensure that the extended arms of the gripper clear the ventilation control knob. Two clicks of the adjustable padded gripper and the iPod is securely held in place; it is freed from the holder with a single push of the release button. There is a hole in the dash to the right of the passenger airbag through which I threaded Kane's aux audio lead, and ran this up through the channel on the left side of the ProClip. The cable for the Dr. Bott charger (£23.50 from GHC) can also pass up behind the holder in a similar fashion.
Total cost of this setup = £57.62.
An option for controlling the iPod
There is also the £130 ice>Link:iPod Car Side Connection for Fiat & Smart Car with Grundig Stereo, from Denison. It provides sound via the Smart speakers, changing tracks via the Smart radio control, power on/off to the iPod, and charging. The beauty of this solution is that you get both audio and power without needing to use the cigarette lighter adapter, so you could hide your iPod in the Smart's tray.
You need the ice>Link:iPod v1.1 with Unilink cable set @ £46.81; the ice>Link:iPod cable for 1st/2nd generation iPod @ £21.27; and the Grundig MCD36 installation adaptor @ £42.55. You can order this kit from Gordon Harwood Computers or www.ihavetohave.it.
The beauty of this solution is that you get both audio and power without needing to use the cigarette lighter adapter, so you could hide your iPod in the Smart's tray (feeding the cables as per the installation photos for your own cable). Alternatively you might like to see what track is playing or control the iPod directly; the above custom holder adds £34.12, making the total cost of installation double double that of the DIY installation.
Someone's posted installation pics here (albeit for an Audi/ iPod with dock connector).
But wait... there's more!
Not only did I get an in-car sound system for my £60—but also an in-car navigation aid. Pod2Go "takes an ordinary iPod and makes it extraordinary by syncing a variety of information from the internet (such as news, weather, movies, lyrics, etc) to your iPod via the Notes and Contacts features" (note that Notes isn't supported on original iPods). Pod2Go includes a "Directions" plugin that provides (seemingly rather accurate) step-by-step driving directions:
These directions can be read (by the driver or passenger) by accessing the iPods Extras > Contacts menu:
the itrip FM transmitter is not so bad... its not as good as CD, but so far, when i find a good frequency in a neighborhood (germany), i really like the sound quality:-)
my 2 cents
Cool!
Check-out how I installed my iPod with an iTrip in my Smart's tray :o)
I have a ipod nano and would like to play it in my smart car, however I have tried many incar fm radio transmitters for the pod but I can not seem to keep it tuned to the ipod. It keeps jumping to the nearest radio station. Does anybody know how I prevent this.
@mrs george: I think you're up against the major limitation of that technology: when you're in a moving vehicle and the radio spectrum is crowded you will have trouble "locking on" to a particular frequency. This was the reason we abandoned the iTrip in the UK; a similar device we used in NZ was better at finding a clear frequency and holding on to it (fewer overlapping transmissions), but you still need to be prepared to change frequencies during a journey of any distance.