Heres what I did. I got an Alpine head unit (CDE 9845) because it had an auxilary input. I had a male-male minijack cord. I plugged one end of the cord into the back of the head unit, and the other end into the iPod dock that I had from my Photo iPod (i use the dock because its' output is stereo rather than the headphone port on the ipod which is mono. I then turned on the auxilary input on the head unit from the preferences, switched to aux mode, and then my ipod worked like a charm with crystal clear sound. All together, this cost around 180 for wiring harness, head unit, and the minijack cable. I'll take some pictures of it later for everyone.

 

for now cassette adapter, lol. I want to eventually get a Navigation/dvd unit (not flip up) that has an ipod adapter option and sirius radio

 

I have an Alpine that's iPod capable but the HU interface is a pain so I just went with the RCA cable ($10) (plus the cable to convert the Ai plug to an RCA plug -$25 )which connects to a Belkin charger/amp with it's own volume control which boost the output of the iPod signal which then connects to the iPod's dock port.
The Belkin charger does cost about $40 but I got mine for Christmas so that helped out with the cost so total would've been $75 for the iPod associated stuff.

 

91, that is how I am going to hook it up to my old "pre MP3" Sony head unit.
But I already have a cable I bought from RadShack a month back for around $15.
The cable also does video out so you can hook it to a TV.

I will get some pics later of how the iPod sits in my GPS holder by the dash.

All I would then need is a charger to keep juice in the iPod.
I also may get a 7" screen to out on the dash since the iPod cable I have has the video out on it.

And of course my door speaker amp has been blown since two Augusts ago, still have to replace it.

 

I have an Alpine HU that is iPod compatable as well, so I bought the KCA-420i interface. I can now charge/control my iPod through my head unit, and use the remote!

 

can also use one of these.

blitzsafe adapter

 

Does you HU break the music up like the iPod does like by artists,albums or songs and how fast does it scroll through your list? My friend's HU just seemed to take too long and IMO the clickwheel just can't be beat right now.

 

You can search by playlist, or by song I believe. I usually just put it on shuffle or use one of my playlists. The best thing about it for me is the fact that I don't have to look away from the road to see what it's doing. I just use the Alpine remote and navigate from there.

 

Yeah,having to look at the iPod while it's tethered to the stereo is kinda of a hassle but I'm living with it fine so far.

 

I also like being able to leave it attached in the glove box or under the seat. That way I don't have to take it out of the truck or hide it when I'm not around, out of sight-out of mind if ya know what I mean.

 

I have the alpine deck and ipod interface as well. it took a good amount of a 1500 mile trip from ca to tx to figure that stupid thing out.

my complaints
- on shuffle, it has a tendency to shuffle through 3 or 4 artists songs.
- the navigation is not nearly as easy to use as the ipod alone
- for being a digital connection, i thought it would be much much faster.... maybe i'm spoiled but waiting 1-2 seconds for a song to load sucks especially when I have to go though 50 sublime songs to find the one i want

my compliments
- a tidy install looks nicer than adapters and wires up the wazoo
- digital connection is sweet, nice sound
- Ipod is always charged, I didn't get a wall adapter so I had to find a laptop w/ itunes before to give the ipod a charge.

 

I got a new FM transmitter from belken that holds, charges and plays the Ipod

 

Just make sure you pay attention to the weather if you choose to leave it in the truck since it doesn't look like you need to worry about the cold but extreme heat can kill your iPod and I know of a few that suffered that fate. I use mine at work every nite so mine is almost always with me or attached to the computer.

I agrree that the interface is nice since you don't have wires everywhere but I just have the charger plugged into one of the lower outlets and have the wires tuncked under the console piece on the side and then the connector to the iPod comes up right by a cupholder.

 

anyone biting on that new harman kardon drive+play unit yet?

 

I use this $34 adapter connected to the IP-Bus port of my Pioneer headunit:

 

I bought the Alpine KCA-420i interface and plugged it in, now I can control the iPod through the head unit, track display and everything. For about $50 why would I do anything else?

 

the harman kardon ($200) plugs into any HU with an aux/in jack and basically replicates the whole ipod interface in a backlit display you mount on your dash. it seems like the most advanced solution yet. was wondering if anyone has tried it yet.
check it out...http://www.harmankardon.com/drive-1/index.html

 

with cassette adapter

 

^^^
Thanks for posting that, I ordered one the second I saw your post.

EDIT--here's a great review on the flexdock.

 

I just use a male-male mini jack on my JVC KD-G210 head unit. I don't haev an Ipod, but now I kin dof wish I got an ipod instead of a Dell Jukebox. Oh well.