75ZT Community

Today my car was given a boost to it's musical talents by the inclusion of an iPod interface. Now I have all my songs on-hand wherever I may be travelling

No pictures I'm afraid due to the very frosty weather outside that created very numb hands by the time I'd finished but for those of you who wish to know I went down the Intravee II with an Alpine KCA-420i interface. This setup replaces the CD changer with the iPod and the Intravee handles all the menus and user-interface providing you with every control necessary to play/pause/search the music on your iPod.

I'm temporally using my iPhone 4 in the system until a (cheap) second-hand iPod arrives that I picked up on eBay. The iPhone is running with iOS 4.2 and there's no problems in operation despite some other reports from Intravee customers who are experiencing problems with their iOS4.x devices such as delays and hang-ups when accessing their music. The iPod though will provide me with enough capacity to hold all my music and then leave it safely hidden out-of-sight in the car. The iPod "hibernates" when there is no activity after so many minutes and the KCA-420i provides a charging current to keep the iPod battery topped-up when you actually use the system.

Thinking about doing this to mine,

Was you upgrading from a hi line system ?

What was the total cost if you don't mind and would you fit mine

Yes this was into a HighLine with a Mk3 Nav computer - if you have a Mk4 then you get a slightly improved interface including advanced searching.

The Intravee unit I bought was brand-new at a cost of £147.99 from Toys In Tour Car they also have the Alpine unit for £97.98 but I picked one up on eBay for about £50 so it's worth keeping a look out for second-hand bargains. You'll also need a connector lead available from a business called Ultimate In Car. I would mention that their website seems out-of-order but use the telephone number on that contact page and you'll get through to a nice helpful team who'll sort you out a lead.

Full fitting instructions courtesy of Paul (aka Reebs) here http://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/s ... hp?t=31893 note the required change of pin order in said lead That said fitting is incredibly easy. Hardest part is deciding where to hide the iPod I decided to go for the glove box and poke the iPod cable through the hole (I had to enlarge it slightly) where the CD lead once went through after I removed it.

I should also point out that recently there have been some problems with Toys in Your Car in so much that people thought they had gone out of business. I can assure you (and everyone else!) that this is not the case. Earlier this month they experienced some serious problem that prevented them operating. Leigh - owner of Toys in Your Car - has posted on the Intravention Forums that all is well and I have also personally spoke to him when he telephoned me to assure me that my order was being processed - he even ensured it was sent out by next-day special delivery to arrive yesterday (Saturday). Top bloke!

I would thoroughly recommend this system to anyone wishing to integrate an iPod into their HighLine system. It might not be the cheapest but it certainly is the best. Intravention also provide full customer-support and have a private customer forum area to discuss setup/operation/features etc.

Excellent addition to the system Simon!

Alpine KCA-420i interface on route to me EBay £60.

See - there you go! Already a convert!

My KCA-420i turned up today in the post.
Step One complete now on the look our for a Intravee II for a good price.

Hi Simon,

I will be using my iPhone 4 to play my music, I was wondering what you thought about the below to use as a mount/holder for the phone ?

Apple iPhone 4 Holder with Pass-Through Connector part number 516193

http://www.dsldevelopments.com/search.a ... iphone%204

Looks like a neat option but I am a little confused over the wording in the description. From what I can gather you must have a case/skin on your iPhone for it for work in the holder - but not the Apple 'bumper' case. Now, for me this seems odd in that they exclude a fairly slim and compact case (the bumper) yet by implication state all other cases regardless of size/bulk not only work but are also required

Apart from that, I think it looks like an ideal solution as you can leave the cable to the KCA permanently attached to the holder and just mount the phone into it when you're in the car

kandyman wrote:My KCA-420i turned up today in the post.
Step One complete now on the look our for a Intravee II for a good price.

Rare as cheap walnut and sandstone steering wheels I'm afraid. I gave up and bought one from toys in your car.

Still need to flash the latest firmware, but works well.

I think the radio you end up using it with has an influence on the user interface. I have a BM54 (?) but only a Mk3 computer an I get a fairly comprehensive UI.

Duncan wrote:

kandyman wrote:My KCA-420i turned up today in the post.
Step One complete now on the look our for a Intravee II for a good price.

Rare as cheap walnut and sandstone steering wheels I'm afraid. I gave up and bought one from toys in your car.

Still need to flash the latest firmware, but works well.

I think the radio you end up using it with has an influence on the user interface. I have a BM54 (?) but only a Mk3 computer an I get a fairly comprehensive UI.

I discovered that the UI that it came with was the correct one but I did have to change the version of the SatNav system it thought I had as the automatic "recognition" put me on the (correct for my car) Mk3 version but I had to set to the early Mk3 version in order to get it to display the headers correctly. This is with the BM54 tuner and a Mk3 computer.

Have you read about the "extra" options on the Intravention forums? I noticed that they can send KBUS signals including automatic door unlocking should you have the speed-locking enabled. I don't know if this feature would work on our cars because I guess it would be entirely dependant on the information Rover sends down the KBUS and how it differs from what BMW send down the KBUS.

No, I hadn't seen the extras. Must take a look.

Regarding the kbus messages: the message set is basically the same as BMW. The issue would be if the receiving box took any notice. So, for example, sending a kbus message to the LSM (Light Switch Module) ought to do exactly the same as on a BMW. However, the IPK (Instrument pack (IPK from the German)) may not, and the BCU (Body Control Unit) probably wouldn't.

It would also depend on other architecture. For example, if the doors on the BMW were on Kbus, rather than being directly wired to the BCU, there might be a Kbus message to lock / unlock that the Rover wouldn't take any notice of since it has no door modules.

Finally it can depend on the version of kbus. The clock module that adds the arrival time and so on to Mk4 satnavs, doesn't work with the Mk3. I'm sure this will be a version compatibility issue.

I'll take a look as it might be interesting.

Duncan wrote:No, I hadn't seen the extras. Must take a look.

Finally it can depend on the version of kbus. The clock module that adds the arrival time and so on to Mk4 satnavs, doesn't work with the Mk3. I'm sure this will be a version compatibility issue.

I'll take a look as it might be interesting.

I think it can work with the BMW MK3 unit but not the Rover Mk3 unit to give you the arrival time which is suprising as it worked on the lo line system

You need the time etc chip from the member on OC supplied based in Holland I believe.
Might even have a spare or two in garage.

JohnDotCom wrote:You need the time etc chip from the member on OC supplied based in Holland I believe.
Might even have a spare or two in garage.

Yes, that's what I've got. Doesn't work with my Rover Mk3 though.

If someone wants to fit one on my mk4

i have an intraveeII that came with a cd changer i bought,i have tested it and it is in good working order.i was going to put it on e-bay after christmas. if you are interested make me a realistic offer and its yours.

Very interested Neill, I'll drop you a pm this evening when I'm back home.

Thanks

kandyman wrote:Very interested Neill, I'll drop you a pm this evening when I'm back home.

Thanks

Andy pm received and replied to!

Evening all,

Today I removed my cd changer and fitted the iPhone holder and all the rest of the kit and I'm pleased to say it all works.

I just have to read up and see how it all works now

No pictures today but I'll take my camera out tomorrow and take a few shots.