iPod AND sat radio - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

I've found one person that's tried this cable in the back of their CDR-220: http://www.discountcarstereo.com/detail.aspx?ID=1010 http://www.myradiostore.com/auxadapters/aftermarket-am-radios/auxiliary-input-am-blaupunkt/blau-3nput-ipod-adapter.html He was getting some hissing and other sound quality issues. Has anyone else tried this cable with success? Thanks!

i use the AUX adapter kit from Becker, works fine for me, well after I got rid of the alternator whine ;-)

Don't leave me hanging! What did you have to do to get rid of it?

I"m still tracking down the source of my alternator whine. I have concluded that the whine has nothing to do with the Adapter line and the CDR 220 set to Aux and a Pioneer Inno (XM Sat). - With the Inno on its own battery, I get no whine. - With the power cord plugged into the cig lighter, that creates the whine. I've been running on the battery till it gets low, then I plug in the power cord and live with the whine till the battery is charged. Its really disapointing. Rich

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?pg=2&parentPage=family&summary=summary&techSpecs=techSpecs&currentTab=custRatings&cp=2032059.2032325.2032326&custRatings=custRatings&features=features&accessories=accessories&productId=2062214&support=support&tab=summary

So back to the cable I asked about in the OP. Anyone used that with succcess?

You will only get alternator whine if the AUX cable is hooked up to a power source. There is no way to completely eliminate it, but you can make it unnoticable at normaly volumes. I used a radio shack ground loop isolator (I found that the ones from Walmart where not as good), and it solved the problem.

My car has the AUX in adaptor from Becker and a Monster Cable RCA to 1/8" cable to attach my Ipod : http://www.beckerautosound.com/Porsche/99_01_carrera_cdr220_cd_4462.html http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=4932 There is no power supplied to the Ipod, and no alternator whine. When I used this same setup to connect my satellite radio, I did experience whine since the receiver is powered through the cigarette lighter. I have since had the satellite radio permantly installed, and Tweeter told me they did install a ground loop isolator to stop the whine. So clickman, I would get the parts mentioned above rather than the parts linked in your original post. You will not be able to power your Ipod, but you won't have any whine either. If you need power as well, I would look into using a ground loop isolator with the PIE connection. Hope this helps... Nick

I hooked the ground from the ipod/sat radio connector cable (and from the aftermarket lighter socket that powers the sat radio) to a screw at the bottom of the console. I'm getting the alternator whine. Rather than fussing with a ground loop isolator, why shouldn't I just hook those grounds directly into the main ground off the head unit. Why not?

You could ground it to the same ground as the radio, and while it may help, it probably won't get rid of the alternator whine. Your going to need an isolator is if you want to have a powered outlet.

So I''m tired of the alternator whine, and want to install the recommended ground loop isolator. But looking at the Radio Shack unit, it has RCA connectors and apparently a 1/8" jack adaptor. I can't figure out how to hook it into my circuit. At the moment I have the power and ground connected from the iPod adaptor cable hooked into the spare phone harness at the bottom of the console.

Some ground loop isolators do hookup to the power cables, but most go in between your audio cables. The standard Becker hookup cable gives you two RCA plugs to hook your audio into. Plug the ground loop isolator into these RCA plugs, then plug the RCA to 3.5mm Y-cable in the other end. You want the isolator in between you radio and audio source, and if you have a cable with only a 3.5mm jack you will need some adapters. RADIO > Becker Cable w/ RCA Jacks > Ground Loop Isolator > RCA to 3.5mm > iPod

Sorry for my ignorance, but I still don't know how to hook it in. I have the PIE 3-way cable (pic attached), not the Becker cable with RCAs. One end goes into the back of the CDR220 and the other end goes into the iPod. Then there is the power and ground wires. I attached both to the spare telephone harness: red/green for 12V+ always on and brown for ground. (I had also tried the ground wire on a screw in the console - no success.) So I'm assuming I'm going to have to cut the RCA connectors off of the Radio Shack GLI and splice it in somewhere. But where? Thanks!

That cable is going to make it more difficult. Unless you want to replace the cable, the best solution would be to use a ground loop isolator that you can splice onto the power and ground wires. They are not very common, but I have seen them at PepBoys. Some isolators work better than others, so I am not sure how well this type will work.

Replace the cable with what?

You could replace it with something similar to what I have, which would allow you to plug the RCA isolator in. http://www.epiqautosport.com/pro_porsche_radio_ipod.php http://www.discountcarstereo.com/detail.aspx?ID=1009 Note the warning on this page, you need a different cable for newer iPods.

Thanks rick3000. I appreciate all of your responses. Being the cheap SOB that I am, if the GLI between the Becker head unit and the iPod is the best way to go, I think I'll try stripping my adapter cable, isolating the audio inputs, then cutting off the GLI RCAs and splicing them together. Wish me luck!

If you are going to try that, I would not do it on the end with the dock connector. The dock connector has 30 pins so it could be a major pain. I would try it just behind the plug that goes into the radio, because if you look at the pinout of the back of the radio you will be able to determine which wires are your left and right audio. Good Luck!

I hear ya! I pretty much have to do it at the radio end anyways, as this is a 3-device cable. So fixing one fixes all (hopefully). The one thing I forgot I need is something identifying what each pin does on the blue connector at the radio, to get the audio inputs. I'll do a Search, but if you have it handy, can you post it? Thanks.

All done! GLI seems to work great.