I thought I would share this experience with anyone looking to connect an iPhone 5 or other newer Apple device with the Lighting connector to their car's ACM. I tried a variety of things which didn't work, but I eventually came up with the idea to couple the genuine Apple 30-pin to lightning adapter (the small one without the cable) to a lighting extension cable.

To preface how I arrived at this solution, it should be known that this has been an aggravating trial-and-error style of approach as no one before me attempted something like this with the X-Type.

When I got the iPhone 5 back in March, I bought the longer .2m Apple 30-pin to lightning adapter, which worked flawlessly with the car, but looked like a mess. I decided I would try to splice a longer Apple Lightning to USB cable onto the end of the adapter so that I could store the ugly bulk of the cabling within the armrest. Unfortunately, the wiring was completely different between the two, I managed to salvage the USB cable but the adapter - I might as well have burned $40.

My next step was to search for other 30-pin to lightning adapters, but there were none long enough to suit my needs. I eventually found something called the DockBoss for iPhone 5 from Cable Jive (http://www.cablejive.com/products/do...-iPhone-5.html), which converts any 30-pin dock into a female USB port. The problem with this device is that if the dock uses analog audio, you must also connect the 3.5mm jack to the phone in order to play audio through the speakers, meaning in this scenario it would use USB for charging only and Aux for audio. Not only is this annoying because you need to connect two cables to your device, it also then won't let you control the device with something like steering wheel mounted track controls. On the other hand, digital devices would be able to do everything through the 30-pin connector just like connecting a 30-pin device directly to the ACM.

Not knowing whether or not the ACM used digital or analog audio, I bought the DockBoss hoping it would be digital. Of course, it turns out the car uses analog. So my second attempt resulted in a return and more wasted time.

It was at this point that I found what I thought was the perfect solution: a chinese manufacturer who would allow me to order a relatively small lot of custom 30-pin to lighting adapters. These had a 1 m cable built right in and were black to blend in with the car's interior. Unfortunately, in emailing back and forth, I discovered that these cables lacked the DAC (digital to analog converter) found in the genuine Apple adapters and would thus be useless except for charging and syncing. The new specification for the lightning cable doesn't include any analog audio functionality, it's purely digital. So to make these new devices work with an older dock you need an adapter like the genuine one which can convert the digital audio to analog for the older dock, or car in this case.

Now I decided to stop messing with the Chinese garbage and get myself another genuine adapter to replace the one I destroyed. I found the smaller Apple adapter on eBay for $20 so I purchased it, knowing that even if it stuck out hideously it would at least work. But then I found that lighting extension cables had started to be produced. Most of these had ridiculously poor build quality, but one caught my eye. Over at a Chinese retailer called Tmart, I found this:

1M Lightning Data Extension Cable for iPhone 5/iPad 4/Mini/iTouch 5 White - Tmart.com

Since these were less than $5 a piece and looked fairly decent, I bought 2 to have a spare. Fast forward to yesterday and both of my cables had arrived, albeit over 3 weeks after I placed the order. I opened up the package and was actually surprised at how well made they seem. They have a cable that is thicker than the iPhone 5's bundled USB cable and a design that looks very similar to an authentic Apple product. They are white, as no black variant was available, but I was willing to make that compromise.

As yesterday was also the day my car's transmission rebuild was completed, I eagerly arrived to pick it up with one of my cables and the Apple adapter in hand. I hooked everything up, plugged in my phone, and everything just worked! It was charging the phone, playing music through the audio system, and the steering wheel/head unit controls were working. It was just what I needed after spending a week and a half in a GLK350 rental with speakers that made my ears bleed from their overall lack of quality.

So I have my Jag back and a nice clean connection for my iPhone 5, things are looking up!

 

Cool post. even though I'm an iPhone 4 user I ordered the cable. I'll be upgrading to a 5 in a few months and will be using it through my X's ACM. and under $5 is a steal.

 

Yeah, you should be good to go with one of those and an Apple adapter. Those retail for either $30 or $40 but I found mine on eBay for $20. It should work with either adapter but there's no reason to pay an extra $10 for the 8 inch cable on the more expensive adapter if you're using the extension cable anyway