Just got my new iPod nano and love it. I had my last iPod hooked up in the car with it's dock so I had the line-out signal and could power it. The nano actually fits in the old dock just by sitting on the connector but it looks silly because the dock is so big. So, I started to re-think the nano integration.
The last thing I wanted to do was to wait for a nano specific dock, especially as I had the old dock which connected fine. The nano is so light that it sits quite happily on the dock connector without any extra support. I started by removing the top of the iPod dock which enabled me to take everything apart.
After taking the various screws and the big metal weight out of it I was left with the circuitry and connectors.
I thought it would look great centrally mounted on the top of the dash so I prized out the vent grille with a screwdriver. To get the cables to come up inside the grille I fed a wire down a little gap in the plastic underneath (not the air vent) until I could see it poking out behind the dash by the glove box. (I actually removed the glove box to make the wiring easier.) I then wound the wire around both the audio cable and the power cable (both of these were already behind the dash from the previous set-up) and pulled them back up through the little gap, this took some persuasion!
It was then just a case of super-gluing the dock connector to the dash just in front of the vent. If you take apart an iPod dock you will see it's made up of two sections: The dock connector itself, and a chip with the female dock connector and the line output socket on. These two boards are joined with a flat belt which is about an inch long. After plugging in the power cable and audio cable I pushed the grille back down wedging the belt in, with the dock connector outside and the rest under the grille. (there's quite a big gap in there)
To hide the green chip under the dock connector I thought a bit of card would suffice so cut out a section from the iPod box. This had the metallic iPod logo on it. I tucked the back end of this under the grill and double-sided taped the front end to the dash. I might cut the end of the card higher up and try and curve the corners but I don't want to get them uneven.
I like the way the whole of the iPod is visible rather than sinking the base of it into a dock. The only slight issue is it can wobble a bit but only if you push it - it is very sturdy when the car is in motion etc, certainly wouldn't bounce off on a bump or corner or anything. I also don't like pushing the buttons on it without pinching the whole thing in case I snap the connector off. My girlfriend did this however and it didn't seem to affect it, the button depressed before it moved too much. It's great having a nice slideshow playing while driving though (for the passengers benefit more than mine!). Also as it always has power I keep the backlight on. I can reach and use it while driving but don't tend to often as it is a bit of a stretch. It would be nice to get the kenwood ipod adaptor so that it could be controlled from the head unit or a steering wheel remote .
Anyway, look forward to some feedback/suggestions! By the way the car is a 96 Honda civic 5 door. (rover body)
Ben.
Linear Mode
