A story in one part, TRS, TRRS, AUX, Bluetooth, and hands-free phone calls in a 2005 car

It turns out if your car radio has a jack in the back to connect a CD changer or satellite receiver, you can, instead or even in addition to, connect a device to give you AUX and Bluetooth input, and hands-free phone calls. Assuming you have a cell phone.

Crutchfiled may have the kit you want, but I got mine, by a different maker, from GTACarkit.com . They have it versions for lots of makes and models. I think mostly what differs are the connectors on the end. And they have detailed videos about how to take apart your dash to get to the back of the radio.

(In my case, the first time I tried this I had to remove the radio. But Crutchfield had sent the wrong model. They paid return shipping and refunded my money promptly. I didn't try again for more years. This time I was able to reach under and behind the radio and plug in the cable without removing the radio. )

Everything worked fine from the start, except that the intersting thing is the AUX cable. It didn't work at all.

Android phone but the same problem exists with iPhones.

After the first cable didnt' work, I tried another and it was fine. It turned out the first one had TRRS plugs and the second had TRS plugs. I'd bought one cable when traveling in Europe, at a supermarket I think but in a section with a bunch of phone accessories, and another one in the USA from Amazon, and hadn't even noticed they were different. They were both intended to connect the phone to the car radio. I dont' remember if they both worked, if I even tried both. Since then the rental car has changed and the phone has changed.

I was afraid I'd shorted something and burned out the phone's output. Unlikely with the tiny outputs from a phone, but still.

Anyhow, in practice there can be a big difference between TRS and TRRS.

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This is the one that worked, the TRS:
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OTOH, if you happen to look at a TRRS cable it may well say "Compatible with Car.... " but not be in the way you want it to be.

Reply to
micky
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Many OEM Toyota head units have that capability, for example. I added an AUX input to a 2002 Highlander and a Tacoma pickup, not sure of the model year of that one. It was all plug and play, other than drilling a hole on the plastic of the lower dash to mount the AUX input plug. You could also just let a cable hang down but I wanted a more finished look.

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Reply to
Jim Joyce

I used an iSimple interface on my 2006 Chevy. It added it's menu to the AM/FM/XM Band switch. Had a 30 pin plug for an Ipod and a aux port.

It kind of emulated the XM menu I recall. Worked great.

Reply to
Bo Dacious

GTA Carkit seems to have started with an iphone, ipod, ipad attachement, and they sell a handsfree attachement for that, but they also sell the bluetooth, Aux, handsfree, which as it turns out doesn't including the ipod cable.

I actually bougght an ipod touch on ebay to use with the carkit, but the seller wrote me that he tested it one more time and it didn't hold a charge, so he volunteered to cancel the sale. A good thing since the kit I bought had no ipod connector.

Everyone seems happy with these things. It's surprising they didn't publicize them more, and selll more.

My prvious car had a built in CD changer, which eventually broke, but it didn't have satellite ability and it woudln't have had the jack I need for these accessories.

I actually dont' make many phone calls and I get fewer, and fewer yet when I'm in the car. And I'm usually happy the the local broadcast stations. I want this thing mostly because it's cool. (And when I was in Europe there was no talk radio in English (Talk radio in Greek was all Greek to me), so I used the cellphone most of the time to listen to NPR etc. If you get the WYPR app, it has On Demand, and in that it has just about every NPR program, about 55 of them, including Cartalk and Science Friday, going back 3 to 10 episodes depending on which program you choose. It's weird to be driving around Greece listening to American radio and not on the Armed Forces Network.

Reply to
micky

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