# Bluetooth audio in car?



## aod (Apr 7, 2009)

My phone connects to my car via a Nokia CK-7W (I think) Bluetooth kit. I can make and receive calls via this connection, through my built-in car stereo.

I also occasionally use my phone as an MP3 player in my car, connecting the phones 3.5mm output to the cars 3.5mm aux in, using a cable.

What I’d like to do is connect my phones 3.5mm output to a Bluetooth transmitter, which sends the audio signal to a Bluetooth receiver at the cars aux in socket, so I can play music wirelessly in my car.

Does such a thing exist, and if so what do I look for?


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## robertdon777 (Nov 3, 2005)

Ithink you may be looking for something like this, it works via bluetooth and has its own small amp which gives great sound.


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## packard (Jun 8, 2009)

Newer Nokia car kits have a 3.5mm audio in which will do what you want


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## aod (Apr 7, 2009)

robertdon777 said:


> Ithink you may be looking for something like this, it works via bluetooth and has its own small amp which gives great sound.


Cheers, that looks pretty cool (but expensive!), really all I need is to replace the lead with a wireless connection.

It doesn't need to use the bluetooth connectivity from the phone. That is used for the phone call connection (which is connected to the cars 'phone' input).

The Aux socket, connects to the cars Aux in, currently via a 3.5mm input.

Rather than connecting the lead every time I get in my car, I wondered if there was a pair of small wireless transmitters I could get - one to plug into the cars aux in, the other into the phone output - transmitting the signal to the car in the same way as a physical connection, but without the physical lead.

I probably shouldn't have mentioned Bluetooth, but I assumed this would be the wireless technology to do this. The bluetooth connection would be between the wireless transmitters - the phone would just assume it's playing music out of it's 3.5mm socket as normal.


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## yungmannfuzz (May 13, 2010)

I have a Sony Bluetooth headunit. It does my hands free, and it can connect to most phones and play music via bluetooth. I use it all the time and the quality is pretty good.


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## johnnyguitar (Mar 24, 2010)

I'm fairly certain your phone will only connect to one device at a time - if your phone is connected to your CK7W it won't connect to another bluetooth device simultaneously.


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## aod (Apr 7, 2009)

I didn't really explain what I meant very well!

I need a wireless connection between the phone/mp3 player and the car radio, to replace the 3.5mm cable I currently use. This wouldn't use the phone's internal bluetooth connection, that is already used to pair to the car.

What I need is a pair of small wireless transmitters/receivers, that plug into the mp3 player 3.5mm socket, and car aux in 3.5mm socket, which transmits the audio.

Below is a crappy diagram showing the set up

The shaded area is what I'm try to achieve - the red blocks are the wireless transmitters/receivers that I'm looking for - in assumption that they use bluetooth to transmit the data.


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## Avanti (Jan 17, 2006)

aod said:


> I didn't really explain what I meant very well!
> 
> I need a wireless connection between the phone/mp3 player and the car radio, to replace the 3.5mm cable I currently use. This wouldn't use the phone's internal bluetooth connection, that is already used to pair to the car.
> 
> ...


Johnny is still correct as that is still 2 different profiles , so the music playing may not switch to car kit when a call arrives


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## aod (Apr 7, 2009)

Avanti said:


> Johnny is still correct as that is still 2 different profiles , so the music playing may not switch to car kit when a call arrives


I'm not so sure, as the audio connection I'm proposing, is not being hosted by the phone, it's being hosted exclusively by the 'transmitters', which pair together - the phone wouldn't know any different if the output was connected to a pair of headphones, a cable to an amp, or this wireless audio connection.


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## Avanti (Jan 17, 2006)

aod said:


> I'm not so sure, as the audio connection I'm proposing, is not being hosted by the phone, it's being hosted exclusively by the 'transmitters', which pair together - the phone wouldn't know any different if the output was connected to a pair of headphones, a cable to an amp, or this wireless audio connection.


Just had a look at the diagram and realised how you are setting up the devices, saying that the time there is a lead from the 3.5mm jack to BT hub, it may as well be a 3.5mm straight into the head unit
but you can only try and see :thumb:


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## aod (Apr 7, 2009)

Avanti said:


> Just had a look at the diagram and realised how you are setting up the devices, saying that the time there is a lead from the 3.5mm jack to BT hub, it may as well be a 3.5mm straight into the head unit
> but you can only try and see :thumb:


Well thing is, that diagram is not accuratly representative of my acutal car - the set up is the same, but the locations of the inputs are slightly different.

The head unit aux in 3.5mm socket, is actually in the centre storage console under the front arm rest between the front seats.










What I'd like to do is plug in a wireless transmitter, directly into the aux in socket, in the centre storage console under the front arm rest - or the same but with a short cable between the aux in and the wireless transmitter, either way, it'll be un-seen, stored here, and then when I use my phone's mp3 player, just plug the other wireless transmitter into the phones 3.5mm output.

I do this anyway, using the 3.5mm lead, and the phone connects to the bluetooth kit for voice calls no problem, whilst playing mp3's via the output socket. I just want to replace the lead, with a wireless connection.  (not using the phones bluetooth)


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## johnnyguitar (Mar 24, 2010)

aod said:


> I'm not so sure, as the audio connection I'm proposing, is not being hosted by the phone, it's being hosted exclusively by the 'transmitters', which pair together - the phone wouldn't know any different if the output was connected to a pair of headphones, a cable to an amp, or this wireless audio connection.





aod said:


> I didn't really explain what I meant very well!
> 
> I need a wireless connection between the phone/mp3 player and the car radio, to replace the 3.5mm cable I currently use. This wouldn't use the phone's internal bluetooth connection, that is already used to pair to the car.
> 
> ...


I see what you want to do but I can think of a couple of obstacles.
First - you're going to need a way of pairing the two bluetooth items that you want to use (transmitter and receiver) - unless there is a button sequence to press to pair, you might find it hard to connect the two.

Secondly - Bluetooth requires power to work. These things are going to need to be self powered as they won't be taking any power from the device you're going to be transmitting sound from and receiving into. So you'll be forever charging them up to make sure they don't stop working on you.

If it was me, I honestly wouldn't bother. I like your thinking and it would be great if it would work reliably and without constant attention (I'm thinking about charging the dongles all the time). Personally I would do one of the following things:

1 - stick to the aux cable and find a way of hiding it if it bothers you;
2 - get a carkit that does everything you want it to do - the Parrot MKi9200 looks to be about the best at the moment. Fit it, run the cable into your glove box and put your iPod/phone/USB stick/whatever in there and forget about it. The Parrot kit will act as an interface for an iPod or USB product and let you view and choose what you want to play. The phone will probably still use the Parrot's Aux in.
3 - you haven't said what head unit you have - if it has a CD changer control, you should be able to get an iPod interface for your stereo*

*I appreciate I am rattling on about iPods and you want to play music from your phone. If you have and iPod or are thinking of getting one, that would be the way forward IMO.

You can have a look at these but at 15 quid a shot, I would stick to the cable.


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## aod (Apr 7, 2009)

johnnyguitar said:


> I see what you want to do but I can think of a couple of obstacles.
> First - you're going to need a way of pairing the two bluetooth items that you want to use (transmitter and receiver) - unless there is a button sequence to press to pair, you might find it hard to connect the two.
> 
> Secondly - Bluetooth requires power to work. These things are going to need to be self powered as they won't be taking any power from the device you're going to be transmitting sound from and receiving into. So you'll be forever charging them up to make sure they don't stop working on you.
> ...


Thank you so much this is just what I wanted to know!

I'm sorry it took a while to explain, I didn't really think through what was in my head compared to what I put on paper (screen)!

I didn't consider the power issue, and that is quite an obstacle to overcome - I actually thought with today's technology the idea I had would be widely available, but it seems it's not quite there yet.

*Regarding your suggestions*


This is obviously the easy option, and it wouldn't be too difficult to sort out - I just need a decent phone holder so I can route the cable. My car came installed with the Nokia CK-7W (or similar), which the phone connects to via Bluetooth and uses the cars built in phone input.

This looks good, but I'm happy with the installation I have, and the Parrot kit is too expensive at the moment. Might consider in future.

As I was hypothesising, I didn't bother to mention the exact items being used, but to clear this up:


2006 Saab 9-3
Factory fit audio system (ES2)








Phone/MP3: HTC HD2
Bluetooth: Nokia CK-7W









I don't have a CD Changer, and I think the control for this is built in to the optional hardware changer unit

The link you sent to the Bluetooth Audio Transmitter Dongles looks to be as close to what I was describing as I've been able to find. I'm assuming you buy a pair and they do what I was describing a few posts above? I'm sure charging would get boring, but it looks pretty good for the money.

In conclusion, it looks like the easiest option is to stick with the cable, and do some clever cable routing through the car, it doesn't really bother me, but I do like minimal fuss as I'm usually in a rush!

:thumb:


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## johnnyguitar (Mar 24, 2010)

Well I would assume you buy a pair of the Bluetooth transmitters, but I can't speculate on whether buying two would do what you want or if they are both transmitters - ie can you actually set one to receive? If you can't then it's pointless. I'd also get sick of having to make sure they were charged up.
If your headunit will take a CD changer input, then you'll be able to control your iPod - again I'm assuming you've got one, rather than your HTC. Somebody like Connects2 will make an interface for the Saab headunit to charge, play and control an iPod but the cost could be somewhere in the region of the Parrot - the advantage that you would be able to control the tracks from your steering wheel controls.

I had a CK7W in my Mondeo and removed it and had it fitted to my wife's Golf as my next car was fitted with a Parrot CK3000. I bought another CK3000 the other day for my current car and fitted it myself as it's plug and play joy, provided you know how to do things like remove A-pillars, take out stereos and gloveboxes, etc. If you can carefully remove the CK7W in full working order, you would be surprised how much you can get for it on ebay. You should also be able to pick up an MKi9200 for not much more, also on ebay. Halfords are selling them for £200 fitted at the moment, if you can go to a Halfords store for fitting - you might have to buy an ISO adapter lead to connect it up.

The MKi9200 has a USB connection - assuming you can get a USB lead for your HTC, there is a very strong change you will be able to view and control your HTC content through the Parrot Kit - I would route the cable into the armrest so you can still have access to your phone. I was in Halfords yesterday or the day before and they had MKi9200's on display with a range of connectors - I'm sure you would be able to try one before making up your mind. Otherwise, stick to the 3.5mm cable - I know you say you're in a rush but it must take seconds to plug the cable into the phone.


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