Member Since: 18 Oct 2016
Location: Telford
Posts: 46
My cheap BT audio and Siri phone integration
I am feeling chuffed with myself, I have added bluetooth audio streaming and Siri phone integration to my D3 for under £30 all in.
I bought these four things: Neuftech Car Auto Fuse Holder @ £3.99, DROK® DC 8-20V 12V to 5V/3A Voltage Converter Dual USB Connector @ £8.40, a dodocool Bluetooth Car Kit with Music Receiver and Microphone Support, Built-in Mic Siri Voice Control @ £14.99 (all from Amazon) and a male to female headphone extension cable @ £2.00 from Wilco.
I tested the dodocool BT receiver first just by plugging it into the 12v cigarette lighter socket and the Aux input. For audio streaming it works really well and callers can be heard really well too, but the mic is a little bit weak so you have to speak up for your caller to hear you, however for £15... I can't really grumble. I wanted everything hidden, I hate having cables lying the car so at the weekend it was fascia and radio out hunting for cables to patch into.
I had a confusing moment when I found a wiring loom and component boxes tucked behind the dash, chasing it through I found the wiring for a Parrot handsfree kit. There was a blue 'brain' box, an intelli-mute box, a wire that used to go to a display that had been cut off and a microphone cable - again cut off. I pulled all this out as it was obviously useless and surplus to requirements. However it did give me a nice bridging loom to use for the Aux connections!
I'm not sure if I really needed a fuse for this, but I guessed that it wouldn't hurt so I soldered the fuse to the power cable of the dual USB adapter. I then decided it was best to find a switched 12v live behind the radio. I found the power to the radio that comes on with the first click of the ignition and connected the fused USB power wire to this. I then earthed the black wire to a screw on the car.
I opted for the duel USB because I also wanted to run a charging cable over to the right hand side of the steering column because this is where I mount my phone/sat nav. I took the drivers side vent off and used a rod to feed behind the steering column so I could pull the charging cable through, leaving this sticking out I refitted the vent.
Using the female end, I cut the headphone extension cable off to a decent length and stripped the wires back, I found a white, a red and two greens. Thanks to some awesome advice given in a thread on this forum I found out that the greens are common (ground) and also which colour was left and right out of the red and the white cables. The same thread also gave me the info I needed to identify the corresponding wires in the car and to which pin they were connected to. Because I was able to use the old Parrot bridging loom I did a nice neat soldering job on the bench, instead of struggling in the car with short cables.
So with all the connections made I plugged the dodocool BT receiver into the USB power and the headphone extension jack and turned the ignition one click. The power came on, the dodcool lit up and searched for my phone. I pressed the Aux button on the radio and played a song on my phone but I heard nothing from the speakers. It was then that I remembered another thread where someone said there is a micro switch in the Aux input behind the center console and you have to have a jack plugged in to enable the circuit. Using the other end of the headphone extension cable suitably chopped off I plugged it in and voila! Music!
I tapped up all my USB and headphone connections, there was no need shielding wise but I did it just in case anything was to work loose. I then tucked the cables into the void, put the radio back and carefully held the dodocool button in the postion I wanted as I put the fascia back. The dodocool comes with a magnetic plate that fixes to the dash with a sticky pad but the sticky on the pad is useless, however the fascia holds the cable firm and therefore it doesn't need the sticky pad.
Everything I have done can be undone, I haven't cut any cables on the dodocool receiver so it can all be stripped out again and used as normal in the car. The sticky pad being useless is a bonus because at lease I wont have a sticky mark left on the dash.
I wanted originally to mount the button on the plastic cap behind the parking brake switch, but I realised that the mic being weak wouldn't really capture my voice very well, so I opted to mount it on the top right hand corner of the central dash. It works a lot better there but the blue light is a bit brite at night.
The dodocool works very well with Siri, if you press and hold the button, Siri pops up on your phone and then you have access to voice control, so you can ask Siri to call someone, play music, set a reminder, open an app etc. I use CoPilot Sat Nav and now I have the direction commands spoken through my speakers, and if you play music from within the CoPilot app it will take care of muting the song while it orders you about.
The downside of course is to use this you have to keep it on the Aux setting, but I guess if you are listening to the radio and a call comes in, you just hit the Aux button, press the dodocool button and away you go. For me it's fine, I can't stand the radio because of all the adverts and I don't really listen to CD's, all my music is on my devices anyway so streaming is the way forward for me!
Sorry I didn't take many pictures, I got engrossed in doing it and forgot, plus I never really wanted to write a 'how to' guide anyway. I just wanted to let you know that for £30 I got a bluetooth hands free / music streaming system that is basic but does the job quite nicely!
24th Jan 2017 11:26 am
Pete K
Member Since: 15 Jan 2016
Location: GL
Posts: 10362
hum...
Links would be good
24th Jan 2017 1:18 pm
ian-b
Member Since: 18 Oct 2016
Location: Telford
Posts: 46
This one is for the iPhone and has Siri integration, I didn't look but I bet you can get one with Android or MS Mobile
24th Jan 2017 1:31 pm
Johnny Oxford
Member Since: 14 Dec 2014
Location: Chinnor
Posts: 515
looks good, but a bit over complicated imho
If you get a Kinivo BTC 450 it will do exactly the same job, with siri, streaming et al - and it's pretty easy to make a tidy instal and hide away the cables.
No need for any wiring, soldering, fuses etc, straight into one of the 12v sockets and the AUX input in the back.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
