Seeing in the past several people have been asking if there is a way to install the Empeg out of sight and still be able to control it, and since more and more cars and aftermarket stereos come with an iPod interface, wouldn't be possible to write some sort of iPod emulator so that the Empeg could be controlled like if it was an iPod? Someone that knows programming, that is... Which excludes me. I know I would like something like that, since I have bought a Pioneer AVIC-X1R and you can hook up an iPod interface to it. I had a look around and it looks like the Apple Accessory Protocol is fairly understood now, so to me it doesn't look like it should be too difficult... Any takers...?

Stig

Talked about this a while ago, Pim was working on it. I don't know the status, though.

Right, I didn't remember that post until you linked it. I've also found the receptacle part for the interface plug. It's from JAE, p/n DD1R030HA1R1300, available from Mouser electronics, Mouser p/n 656-DD1R030HA1R1300. As I read it, Pim didn't say he would start anything in that post, he did just what I did in my first post, just mention that it would be nice if we could emulate an iPod...

Edit: Just read all the pages in that post, not just the first page.... He did say he might have to do the software if noone else would, but had no way to test it. I did find a small program for sending commands to an iPod on this page under the heading iPod breakout dock...part 2. It's called Podlo. So at least we're a couple of steps closer to a solution...

Stig

That plug is great if you want to hook up a real iPod. Unfortunately since you're trying to use the empeg as an iPod you'd probably be looking for the OTHER connector. The one that's on the iPod itself. I haven't seen those anywhere before, nor can I think of any reason besides emulating an iPod with another device for them to be available. That's probably not something Apple would like (commercialization of other devices that used the iPod connector), so I suspect it may be difficult to find anything. Perhaps someone has made a homebrew solution (like the Pfranc guys that make GPS plugs)

Bruno

The plug with p/n DD1P030MA1 (Mouser p/n 656-DD1P030MA1) would be nice if you were connecting to an iPod, but the other one I mentioned looks to be the one we want. Receptacle is the same as socket, isn't it?

Stig

A while ago I was thinking of iPod emulation for the Empeg. The headunit of my new car that I was expecting would be able to control an iPod . I kinda lost interest when I found out that
- the iPod adapter would not be available for quite some time
- the headunit itself sounded crappy
- the headunit with iPod adapter would not show song info on the dashboard like it does for RDS radio

So now my head unit is slave to my Empeg and not the other way round.

Getting song info on the dashboard was my primary interest. I still think it's possible, but rather than hacking at the iPod level, this will require hacking at the canbus level. Someone figured this out but thought he could make this into a commercial product, and thus refused to give out any details.

Pim

Is he still trying to make kits to sell or has he given up on that? If he has, he might be willing to provide you with the necessary information...

Stig

Oops, you're right. That part number is the receptacle. Don't know why when I first looked I only saw information for the plug portion. I wonder how Apple enforces its royalty if these connectors seem to be so freely available.

Bruno

Couldn't we just use the USB cable for the computer in the back of the Rio? I know you can access the MP3's from the Disk Drive portion of the Ipod, they are wackie named hidden files, couldn't we some how just read the MP3s?

USB has adistinct computer side and device side. The empeg is a device side. So is the iPod. You cannot connect two devices together. So no.

You could conceivably attach an iPod to an empeg that way, but I don't know what that would gain you, especially in the context of this thread. Sure, you might be able to read mp3s from the iPod, but why? The issue at hand is being able to control an empeg as if it were an iPod, right? And that connector and protocol are proprietary.

I miss understood I apologize, I was looking for a thread that talked about getting your ipod playlists on your rio so I don't have to pull the unit out of the car.

How would use control your Rio like a Ipod? To hook up to iTunes? Or is this a thing for newer cars where you can see the playlist in the display?

The latter.

So you want to use your iPod as a transport to get the mp3s to the empeg? That shouldn't be too difficult with the Axis microcomputer you linked. You'd just need to get it to be able to access the mp3s on the iPod, which, as you pointed out, is accessible as a filesystem, and then get the emplode protocol functioning to upload them to the empeg. The reference implementation might work without much change. If not, it'll be quite a bit more difficult, but hardly impossible.

Darn when I saw this topic I thought someone had actually figured out a way to run the iPod's software on the Empeg. Not that iPod's software is that great but it would be a fun exercise at least (and presumably allow it to play AAC files if you cared).