AUX in Does the Honda iPod Adaptor charge it?

[Floop1977]

Just bought my first Civic - SE in Galaxy Grey with Leather, Blue Ambient Lighting (!) and Honda iPod Adaptor.

I didn't really research the Honda iPod Adaptor which is silly I know, but I'm know waiting for delivery of the car and have been on these forums and see many people are quite critical of the Honda iPod Adaptor.

A few questions come to mind:

1. Does the Honda iPod Adaptor charge the iPod as well? Or do I need to find another way to charge it?
2. Who fits the iPod adaptor - my dealer, or someone further up the chain?
3. Is there a hands-down better solution that I should go for, and if so, is it normally possible to phone the dealer back and ask them to cancel the iPod Adaptor from my order?

Any help appreciated!! THANKS.


Nick

[domingo]

Nick,

As far as I know, all the connectors charge the ipod.

I would imagine it will come dealer fitted.

Cancel your Honda Ipod order now! They are rubbish... you cannot select tracks whilst the ipod is connected as its all disabled for 'safety' reasons. You have to make (up to 6) playlists and play then via the 6 cd buttons on the stereo...naff!!

There was a Dension Honda adapter that would fit the Civic but they've now stopped supplying it with the required Honda B Type firmware.

But... you are in luck, last month they produced a new model which is again compatible with the new Civic. Details are as follows -

iPod Car Kit Direct | Dension ice Link Plus | Dension iPod Car Adapter

I spoke to a guy called Nick over the phone and he said the Gateway 100 - GW15HB1 with active cradle IP02CR9 was the correct one for Civic 2006>

£99.97

There is a decent set of instructions on how to fit it, in the Wiki on this forum.

Hope that helps, let me know how it works out, I havent got around to getting mine yet!

Phil

[zio]

To answer the original question, the Honda iPod adapter does charge your iPod whilst it's hooked up.

Also, whilst it's far from perfect, it's not quite as bad as domingo suggests. I've described this before in another thread, but basically it acts as a 9 disc CD changer. Discs 1 - 7 are playlists you have to create. You have to call them Honda1, Honda2, Honda3 etc and each can have a maximum of 99 tracks in.

Disc 8 plays all the tracks on your iPod in random order.

Disc 9 plays whatever was already playing on the iPod when you plugged it in, be it a single track, an album or a playlist.

The downside is that the iPod's controls are locked whilst it's plugged in (you get the Honda 'H' logo show up on the screen), so to change tracks or whatever in Disc 9 mode you have to unplug it first.

The other downside is it doesn't show the track names - just the disc and track number. Which seems bizarre since it does display track names when you play MP3 CDs.

[Milano_Jon]

I asked a Apple Guru recently why they think Honda dont display the track names and they said that it would be impossible for another vendor to gain access to track names and display them on their OEM systems. Something about song writer licence restrictions or something.

[Lloydylloyd]

hi, yes the ipod cables are dealer fit, quite pricy but i think its worth it, I had a Densions Ice link in my old car and i think the fact that you have 2 extra playlists avaliable to be handy.

Basically you have 7 playlists on your ipod which you can access via the CD + CD- button on your head unit. Along with this CD 8 is random over the whole ipod.
there is no limit to the amount of songs you can have in a playlist, although the head unit will go back to 00 after reaching 99, just cant display 100+ as not enough caractors in the display.

It does charge your Ipod while in use, so no problems there.

The only thing I will say is that the MP3 Cd player in the Civic is pretty good, you can have about 10 albums per CD with Text display on the head unit, so if you do choose to opt out all is not lost.

Personally I like my Honda iPod loom and would have one again.

[Lloydylloyd]

Domingo,

With the Densions loom you talk about are you still limited to use CD6 to enter the UI mode on the ipod before you can control it while connected? on my Dension Ice Link+ that was a real faff and i ended up just unplugging it anyway?!
The Honda loom has 7 Playlists and the 8th is random over the whole Ipod, my Dension only had 5 plus 6 for the UI mode.

[Floop1977]

Originally Posted by Milano_Jon

I asked a Apple Guru recently why they think Honda dont display the track names and they said that it would be impossible for another vendor to gain access to track names and display them on their OEM systems. Something about song writer licence restrictions or something.

I'm not sure that's true actually, as I know there are a number of systems out there (like the Harman Kardon one) which take the song information and ID3 tags from inside the iPod and display them on a screen inside the car. I'm not saying the Apple guy didn't tell you that, I just think their information is bogus!

[Floop1977]

Originally Posted by domingo

As far as I know, all the connectors charge the ipod.

Excellent news! Thanks for that.

Originally Posted by domingo

Cancel your Honda Ipod order now! They are rubbish...

There seems to be quite a division of opinion on this; I respect your view and I was not too chuffed when I realised the limitations of the Honda iPod Adaptor. However, I am a total novice with installing kit into cars - the word 'loom' scares me - and so I'd probably have to locate exactly the right equipment, buy it, and then pay for someone to install it. This will probably cost as least as much as the Honda solution, and it may not actually be that much of an improvement at the end - people have suggested the Dension one has it's own limitations. The Harman Kardon one looks really good - with the external information display and the external controls - but that is considerably more expensive.

Originally Posted by domingo

Hope that helps, let me know how it works out, I havent got around to getting mine yet!

Let me know how yours goes - now I know for certain that the Honda adaptor charges it too, I'm going to start off with that. If I find the functionality to be really weak, then I might upgrade at a later date and would love to know how you get on!!!

Originally Posted by zio

The other downside is it doesn't show the track names - just the disc and track number. Which seems bizarre since it does display track names when you play MP3 CDs.

Yes - what I wanted was track names, but I think I'm going to have to give up on that hope for now and live with what the Honda adaptor provides.

Originally Posted by Lloydylloyd

there is no limit to the amount of songs you can have in a playlist, although the head unit will go back to 00 after reaching 99, just cant display 100+ as not enough caractors in the display.

That is actually really handy information - are you 100% certain that that is true? If so that is excellent.

Thanks Lloydylloyd for your info too!!

regards


Nick

[Lloydylloyd]

I do a lot of driving around the country in my little civic and only this morning I got up to 99 on one perticular playlist, when the big moment came to tick over to 100, it just played the next song.
Im up to 134 songs now but as I said above, the display in my ES model only supports 99 caractors so it just shows 34.

If I remember right it even says in the Honda ipod cable instruction manual that there is no limit to the amount of tracks in a play list.

just thinking it might be worth having a chat with your local dealer to see if you can borrow an instruction manual for the Honda ipod cable, as this may help you decide.

But if I can help any further just ask.

[St3ph3n]

/drags up old thread

I brought my Civic into my dealer today to have the Honda ipod kit fitted... and I came away with a ****ing lone aux cable and completely broken radio reception
The dealer is now denying that the ipod kit you lot have (H logo, charges ipod, playlists etc) exists. Could you guys give me the part number of the Honda ipod kit? I've been looking about on honda-access.com and have found a number of different ones, among them this part number: 08A28-SMR-KIT.

My car is a 1.8 ES, i.e. no sat nav. They also charged me €200 for the bloody cable and fitting. I feel like I've been bent over a table and raped.

I'm going back to them tomorrow with a print out of the bit from honda-access.com and a polite request to sort it out, fast.

[alanwalne]

Originally Posted by Lloydylloyd

I do a lot of driving around the country in my little civic and only this morning I got up to 99 on one perticular playlist, when the big moment came to tick over to 100, it just played the next song.
Im up to 134 songs now but as I said above, the display in my ES model only supports 99 caractors so it just shows 34.

If I remember right it even says in the Honda ipod cable instruction manual that there is no limit to the amount of tracks in a play list.

just thinking it might be worth having a chat with your local dealer to see if you can borrow an instruction manual for the Honda ipod cable, as this may help you decide.

But if I can help any further just ask.

I thought it was only on Disc 8 'all random' that it went over 99. From memory the instructions state that any tracks over 99 on the other playlists are ignored.

[Lloydylloyd]

hi there, next time you are in you civic choose yourself any playlist with more than 99 tracks, make note of what track 01 is.
Fastforward (or listen to) all track upto 99 then either fast forward again or listen to the track.
The ipod will keep playing tracks until it gets to the end of the very last song on your playlist. This applys to all playlists you set up on your ipod and not just the auto random one.

The only thing I have noticed is that 100 will not be displayed as the display in my/your ES only supports 2 caractors, so track 101 will be displayed as 01 but I can asure youthat it is track 101 and not just playing 01 again.

[Lloydylloyd]

Originally Posted by St3ph3n

/drags up old thread

I brought my Civic into my dealer today to have the Honda ipod kit fitted... and I came away with a ****ing lone aux cable and completely broken radio reception
The dealer is now denying that the ipod kit you lot have (H logo, charges ipod, playlists etc) exists. Could you guys give me the part number of the Honda ipod kit? I've been looking about on honda-access.com and have found a number of different ones, among them this part number: 08A28-SMR-KIT.

My car is a 1.8 ES, i.e. no sat nav. They also charged me €200 for the bloody cable and fitting. I feel like I've been bent over a table and raped.

I'm going back to them tomorrow with a print out of the bit from honda-access.com and a polite request to sort it out, fast.

If you get any hastle from your Honda dealer and they have the internet, point them in the direction of this web site that will help you inform them about the ipod adaptor and what it does.

[St3ph3n]

Went back this morning. They now admit it does exist but have to get the part in. They're going to call me about it next week. They did fix the radio though, and I think by accident also fixed the mysterious dashboard rattle I've been experiencing since I got the car

[Selwoc]

Originally Posted by St3ph3n

They're going to call me about it next week.

Don't hold your breath, my dealer has never called me to inform me that a part has been received and they are ready to replace it.

I had an iPod adaptor fitted before delivery, they managed to break the centre console when replacing it. I was told that the trim had been ordered and they would give me a call when it arrived, probably in about 2 to 3 days. Three weeks later, still no phone call, so I called them, the trim had been there all the time.

The drivers door switch panel had a deep scratch in it when I took delivery, this was to be replaced at the same trim as the other trim, but someone had forgot to order it. This was ordered and again I had to chase them up after a couple of weeks.

[St3ph3n]

In fairness to them they did call me back, and it was fitted yesterday and works a charm. Radio is still dodgy though, they're waiting on some part to replace under warranty for that.