iPod Mini Custom Installation In A Ford Explorer 344
Johnny Mozzarella writes "MacWorld has a nice write-up on Jesse Melchior, an amateur special effects artist and filmmaker, who used his skills to create a custom installation that is worthy of an iPod mini. The article outlines the materials he used such as latex, plaster and dental acrylic to create an integrated dock complete with blue LEDs and Apple logo in his Ford Explorer."
Battery problem (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Battery problem (Score:5, Funny)
In the rare occurance that the battery go, then Apple will replace the whole truck in less than 3 days for the price ($59.00) of an iPod extended warrenty [apple.com].
Re:Battery problem (Score:5, Interesting)
1) It didn't cost me a cent.
2) I didn't lose any *customization
(*what the heck was that supposed to mean anyways?)
Why not go all out? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why not go all out? (Score:5, Funny)
Even more, if you're going to do something this fancy, why hamstring yourself with a Ford Explorer?
Re:Why not go all out? (Score:5, Funny)
Because Escalades only play pr0n on 15 different screens?
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why not go all out? (Score:5, Funny)
Geez, I could never imagine filling up 4 gigabytes of space with music. Don't forget to figure in the $1000 for buying 1000 songs off the Apple iTunes store! That stuff adds up quick. I just don't understand how people can afford to have huge collections with 10,000+ songs in them. They must spend every penny on music, no wonder they hate the RIAA!!
Re:Why not go all out? (Score:2)
Re:Why not go all out? (Score:5, Interesting)
Not necessarily. Where I live (Scandinavia) I can legally rip and keep MP3s from my friends' CDs, as long as I rip them in my house, and have had the original in my house at one point. I could also tape them, if I could bear the hassle and squeaky sound of cassettes. If my friend rips a CD for me and gives me the MP3s, that's technically illegal. Go figure.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Why not go all out? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's easy to gather up 10,000 songs when you have a CD collection from two generations of people; not to mention the downloads (purchased *and* free). Ripping CDs and stuff, I currently have 1760 songs, and that's without all the comedy routines and prank calls that i've downloaded, and I'm not even doen ripping CDs. 1000 songs? bah.
The question "How often do you have a car trip where you can play 1000 songs?" is simply missing the point - the point is not playing that much music, the point is, when I want to listen to Disturbed, I can. If I want to hear Tribal Tech, I can. If I want to hear Black Eyed Peas, I can. And I don't have to fumble through 100 CDs while driving to do it. The point is choice, not volume.
Think about it.
Re:Why not go all out? (Score:5, Funny)
Is that a subtle way of saying "I live at home with my parents, so it's easy to afford music"?
Ummmm (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Ummmm (Score:3, Insightful)
I sometimes go away from home for 2 weeks at a time. It's great to be able to decide "ooh, I just fancy a bit of mellow jazz to calm me down 'cos the plane's been delayed again"
The other week, I had an 18hr trip back home, and got through probably 14 hrs of music (which is getting on for 250-300 different tracks on that one day alone).
Of course, I could cope with
Re:Why not go all out? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Why not go all out? (Score:5, Insightful)
Riiiight. Are you going to carry that around rig around?
The advantage of creating a dock for a portable MP3 player is that you can take your music with you, but still have a nice way to listen to MP3's in the car. Plus, your risk of theft is decreased if you can remove the $500 piece of equipment from the car.
Re:Why not go all out? (Score:2)
Re:Why not go all out? (Score:5, Funny)
Unless you want to get out of your car, walk away, and still be able to listen to your music. (No, I'm not suggesting bigger speakers in your car).
Re:Why not go all out? (Score:5, Funny)
That's why they invented extension cords.
Re:Why not go all out? (Score:2)
I have a DVD player in my Ranger that can handle data DVDs with MP3s. Approx. 450 songs [kentidwell.com]. This means just as much audio as a Mini iPod. My entire music library sits on 6 discs.
Re:Why not go all out? (Score:2)
What next? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What next? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What next? (Score:2, Informative)
Mini Sales Explained (Score:5, Informative)
However, if you simply want to buy a Hitachi 4GB mini hard drive, you'll save as much as $150 if you buy the mini and take the drive out over buying the boxed hard drive product.
Re:Mini Sales Explained (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Mini Sales Explained (Score:2)
Re:Mini Sales Explained (Score:2, Interesting)
Incidentally, I was under the impression that the iPod mini drive doesn't work out of the iPod. I've never heard of people getting it to function successfully in anything else.
Re:Mini Sales Explained (Score:3, Interesting)
shouldnt this be installed in a honda civic... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:shouldnt this be installed in a honda civic... (Score:2)
All that equipment... (Score:5, Funny)
This guy uses all that stuff intimately with his car and gets on the front page of slashdot.
I mention using the same stuff intimately with my girlfriend and she runs away.
pfft.
Re:All that equipment... (Score:5, Funny)
Too Bad You Can't Get One (Score:4, Informative)
Might as well just get a the full sized iPod or another MP3 player unless you don't mind waiting till July.
Re:Too Bad You Can't Get One (Score:2, Informative)
So though, people are experiencing problems with iPod Mini this does not necessarily correlate with ipod mini shortage. Not unless Apple came out and said so. Though it is likely that the two are related, there might be a possibility they are not.
I would mark parent post as interesting not informative myself.
If you think this is cool... (Score:5, Funny)
Really, guys, is it THAT slow of a news day?
Ford Explorer (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ford Explorer (Score:4, Informative)
No, that would be FIAT.
Ford stands for:
Fix
Or
Repair
Daily
I have no idea where you got that, there isn't even an 'R' anywhere in the phrase "Fix it again, Tony".
Re:Ford Explorer (Score:3, Funny)
Fuckin'
Old
Rebuilt
Dodge
that still won't get me to buy a ford (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe they should've coupled the mini ipod with the OTHER mini; the mini cooper.
Re:that still won't get me to buy a ford (Score:2, Insightful)
-Jesse
Re:that still won't get me to buy a ford (Score:2)
With a car that small and low, I would expect it would not be able to drive through a foot of water. Water would probably get into the intake and hydrolock the engine.
All that work... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:All that work... (Score:2)
Huh? I must not be reading this right:
It sounds like h
Re:All that work... (Score:5, Informative)
connected the iPod mini to my Pioneer car stereo using the CD-RB10 adapter, which connects to the L+R audio output RCAs from the iPod mini using the line-out from the Belkin car charger. I added two extra cigarette lighter adapters to plug in the car charger and the LEDs. Everything was nicely hidden below the center console.
Re:All that work... (Score:2)
Anyways, I stand by the iTrip, much less work. But for the hobbyists, knock yourself out.
Re:All that work... (Score:2)
The line in to CD changer cables are really good for this, a bit on the expensive side, around sixty bucks.
I've used the iTrip and the Belkin FM thing, and even in a car and with lossy MP3's the sound is remarkably worse than a direct line to the hea
Re:All that work... (Score:2)
The SoundFeeder SF100 has worked well for me...used an iRock 300W before that, but it transmits on only four frequencies that are all in use in some places I've visited. I have no complaints about the sound quality from either of them.
If you're using an RF modulator, make sure you don't have the input signal turned up too high. If you do, the signal wi
iTrip quality vs Direct Lines (Score:2)
No cables showing because none needed to show (Score:2)
In my experience FM transmitters sound horrendous anyway. I have doubts that the iTrip is any better. Most (all?) such transmitters are monophonic only, but that's just the beginning of the dreadful sound quality coming from these things, even with a clear channel available.
Re:No cables showing because none needed to show (Score:2)
Re:All that work... (Score:2)
Re:All that work... (Score:3, Informative)
and YES, it plays ogg vorbis!
Re:All that work... (Score:2)
Neuros: 5.3" x 3.1" x 1.3", 9.4 oz.
iPod: 4.1" x 2.4" x 0.62", 5.6 oz.
You forgot the BIG and HONKIN' option.
iTrip vs. mp3 vs. CD (Score:2)
A human with good hearing (i.e. a child) can often hear notes between 20Hz and 20kHz. CDs reproduce sounds in this same range. A well-encoded mp3 has a low-pass filter around 19.3Hz and can more or less reproduce sounds above 16kHz which is more than most of us can likely
Re:All that work... (Score:2)
As these things go... (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't get me wrong, its not bad - just not all that newsworthy. Now, if it included things like tying the existing steering wheel radio controls into the iPod when it was plugged in, and rerouting them back to the radio when it wasn't, then I'd start getting interested. Systems integration can be a lot of work, and a lot of fun - and when you do it right, nobody even thinks about it. That's cool.
Re:As these things go... (Score:2)
I've been to plenty of custom car shows with truely top line participants. And their work is pretty good. I remember a Hurtz in the dB drag racing competition that had a better custom integrated G4 than the one shown on slashdot here a few months ago. The workmanship was pretty nice, for the $30,000 price tag.
But even then you could tell it was "custom". Wavey plastic that didn't meet the seems well, etc... All to often shoddy
Re:As these things go... (Score:2)
The good stuff is in formed Lexan, Fiberglass, or sheet metal and looks factory perfect.
The type of install done in this article is one of a million others just like it. Nothing special or newsworthy.
Great... (Score:5, Insightful)
(joke)Just what we need, another jackass in an SUV with a blinky detachable electronic gadget to operate while driving and try to get everyone else killed.(/joke)
Seriously though... that seems like a lot of wasted space. It also looks like it would be too easy to accidentally bump it out of the little holder while driving.
Re:Great... (Score:5, Funny)
You mean, it would most likely be "thrown" from its holder when the owner goes off-roading because, I mean, why else would you buy an SUV righT??
Re:Great... (Score:3, Funny)
More likely to become disloged when the Exploder rolls over.
MIME (Score:4, Informative)
Re:MIME (Score:2)
I don't think it's that so much as that the files aren't named properly. The pix that don't show are missing the ".jpg" extension. Since the server needs that to know to send it as image/jpeg instead of application/octet-stream (or whatever it's using), a simple "mv foo foo.jpg" would fix it.
latex? (Score:5, Funny)
SIZE!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Let's put an MP3 player the size of a chicklet in an army tank! That way I hav to take my eyes of the road for 10 mintues (potentially destroying several small villages) just to figure out it's doing!
Seriously, am I they only one who find the whole "tricked out SUV" fad retarded?
What's the next fad going to be? Big rigs?
Are we going to se idiots driving around 1000hp diesel trucks with 15 speed gearboxes and no trailer? Of course it will have 36" chrome rims too....
Re:SIZE!!! (Score:2)
Mostly Old farts right now... they buy a reefer truck with a sleeper cab and modify it to have a larger sleeper and a modified tiny 5th wheel to pull their camper. They are ALL over the campsites in the upper midwest..
but it is coming... the only blessing is that they are usually out of reach in proce even for the person that can go buy a Hummer on a whim... which should slow it down quite a bit.
Re:SIZE!!! (Score:2)
Are we going to se idiots driving around 1000hp diesel trucks with 15 speed gearboxes and no trailer? Of course it will have 36" chrome rims too....
I take it you've never been to Georgia...
Spinners (Score:2)
Don't forget the spinners.
Re:SIZE!!! (Score:2)
What's the next fad going to be? Big rigs?
Are we going to se idiots driving around 1000hp diesel trucks with 15 speed gearboxes and no trailer? Of course it will have 36" chrome rims too....
Don't give'em ideas.
It looks good (Score:2)
Bone Thugs? (Score:5, Funny)
But it's still cumbersome to use (Score:5, Interesting)
Having it sit somewhere mounted is a good start, but you still would have to reach down there and twiddle the buttons. And in an big vehicle like an Explorer? That would get old, quick.
By the looks of the pictures, he is using the line out connector on the bottom. You can't change the volume that's coming out of that right? I mean not from the iPod, therefore you'd have to use the main stereo for that. So you would have two places to reach now, for different activities. You would have reach down to the iPod to change songs and pause, and reach to the stereo to change the volume. That little extra step of deciding where need to reach would be a huge burden when you're going down the interstate at 70mph.
If anybody has thought of a good way to integrate the iPod into a car, I want to know. Right now my setup is using the headphone jack to connect to the aux input of my stereo, and using the inline remote that came with it. I can at least do all functions from one place (the headphone jack can have it's volume adjusted), but I can't really charge it well, because then I'd have a connector sticking out of the bottom *and* top. What I would like is for the iPod to have a docking place like in the article, but still be able to do everything easily, from one place, without needing to look too much. Maybe I need a wireless remote? Maybe I'm asking too much.
Alpine has it - Control through the head unit (Score:4, Informative)
you're absolutely right (Score:4, Funny)
You're absolutely right. I had to stop driving manual transmission cars because I couldn't deal with the complexity...having to press a pedal AND move a lever? All while braking or tapping the gas?
But then, I didn't find automatics much better. One pedal for stopping, one for going? Aaaaa! What insane trickery!
Something to listen to while rolling over... (Score:2, Troll)
Waste of space (Score:2, Interesting)
Watch where you put... (Score:4, Funny)
Coincidence? (Score:5, Funny)
The standard for what is "News" sure is sinking (Score:2, Insightful)
So, if I submit my photos of my '04 Grand Marquis, wherein I have not ONLY added a 30G Neo35 MP3 player, but a Kenwood dual-band transciever plus two extra speakers for it, the antenna for the Kenwood, a second battery, extra power points, a battery isolator to charge the secondary battery, a second power distribution panel, would that make the front page?
Handheld/Vehicle Interfaces (Score:5, Interesting)
There's obviously lots of room for Automobile-Area Networks, but few folks are doing anything about it.
iPod Lounge (Score:2, Funny)
MP3 Decoder board w/802.11 + Hard Drive... (Score:5, Interesting)
Heck, I'd even be willing to drag an ethernet cable out to the car (hey, a drop in the Garage isn't out of the question) to load up new MP3s over paying ~$800 for the 20GB Phatbox.
ipod deck? (Score:5, Interesting)
In-dash iPod dock (Score:5, Interesting)
Alpine has announced one that's close, but it has the iPod on an external cable. I'd rather not deal with the iPod and cable floating around inside the car.
has been done before (Score:3, Interesting)
Apparantly 310 customs/west side customs (or whatever) basically did something almost exactly like this (but for a regular iPod) on a H2 (hummer) brought in by some NBA star. Slide the iPod into the dock and it played on the stereo. Needless to say thats not all they did to the H2 but I thought I should mention that.
One thing is it probably cost a LOT more than he spent on his Ford Explorer doing it himself
I feel sorry... (Score:3, Funny)
Alpine's iPod ready Head Unit (Score:3, Informative)
Just want to clear a few things up... (Score:4, Interesting)
-There are no wires to attach or add because the Belkin car charger I integrated into the design has an audio line-out built into it, which I used to run directly into my car stereo via an adapter. The music plays through the car speakers at perfect quality. Yeah, I still control the volume throught the car stereo but HOW HARD IS THAT? Come on people.
-The blue LED lights were added ONLY for one reason: TO BE ABLE TO SEE THE DAMN THING IN THE DARK AT NIGHT WHILE PLUGGING IT IN OR CHANGING SONGS.
-It can not "fly" out of the console because if you had actually read what I wrote you would see that I made it so the iPod fits very snugly into it, making it able to lock it in place and push on the buttons or scroll through songs very easily without it so much as moving. There is no way it would ever wobble around, or even fly out.
-It is not difficult to use, or awkward in any way...the thing sits right where my hand rests over the console and it takes no effort to press any of the buttons.
-I am NOT the kind of guy who "tricks out" his car just to look cool, especially not with an explorer. While I do like the car, I only made it because I wanted to use MY iPod in MY car while I was driving, and that was it. It's a hell of a lot better than carrying around 400 cd's. For those of you who remarked about it being unsafe...How safe is it to look through all your cd's trying to find the one that has the one song you want to hear while trying to watch the road at the same time? With the iPod, I can make up song lists I want to hear before I even leave, or while I'm just sitting in the car at a red light or in traffic, or even just let all 1000 songs play in random order. Anyone who actually OWNS an iPod knows how easy it is to use one.
I personally don't care what any of you negative people think because I didn't make it to please you, I made it for myself. I enjoy using it and that's all that matters. Until I see pictures of your installs that are any better or more practical than mine, maybe you should think twice about bashing it.
Could this have been done better? Of course! I'm the first to admit that. I started rethinking and redesigning it after I installed it. I made the thing on a whim and didn't take the time to completely think out EVERY practical application, I just wanted to make something to play the thing in my car til I came up with something better.
I'm glad there are some people out there who did enjoy it and maybe got some ideas of their own. Thanks everybody!
Re:That just looks tacky. (Score:5, Funny)
The correct term for neon lights under your car is 'a waste of fucking money.'
Re:That just looks tacky. (Score:5, Informative)
Sorry to be a pedant, but what skirting ("ground effects") does is induce a partial vacuum, or at least a lower pressure area, within the enclosed underside. The rest of the bodywork produces high pressure over the top of the vehicle, skirting produces low pressure beneath, and Bernoulli does the rest.
The result of all this is increased downforce. FYI, skirting is now prohibited in F1 racing.
Re:That just looks tacky. (Score:2)
Re:That just looks tacky. (Score:2)
Re:That just looks tacky. (Score:3, Informative)
That's like saying, "No, actually, when you push that button it doesn't turn on the computer. When you push that button it connects two contacts inside the computer, which allows an electrical current to flow through the various circuits inside, thus turning on the computer.'
Yes, you are a pedant, but no, you
Re:That just looks tacky. (Score:2)
Re:Watch that counter roll! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Ugly and tacky (Score:2, Insightful)
The _real_ solution is to have a widget that treats the iPod as a CD changer, ala Phatnoise.
That would probably run at least $100 tho, as it'd need to be basically an iPod without the screen, drive and controls...
I'd buy one in a second tho if it were compatible with any firewire ipod and the becker/HK trafficpro.
Re:Archos (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously though, how about watching the road instead of how many RPMs your Z28 is whining along at?