Hi all.

Something I tend to miss in any car, old as new, is a proper dock for the iPhone. Something that integrates seamlessly with the design of the car, as if it was a part of the original design. Thinking about possibilities, I sat down and tried to list my requirements/specifications for such a dock:

- Audio from dock connector. No cable mess in my car!
- Car's Microphone should be used for calls.
- Phone Charging through dock when car is on.
- Getting the piece in and out should not take more than a second.
- 99% factory look. Nothing that sticks out or otherwise looks silly or geeky.
- Must be able to revert car to factory setup at any time.

With these requirements I started researching the possibilities. One space always felt natural to me, and that is the little pen/coin holder in front of the factory stereo. If one could somehow fit a dock there, it would be perfect. Picture below depicts the little tray with the rubber cover removed.




So I started messing around with some design ideas in Solidworks. With my first design, I tried to contain the dock to the little tray. The first model looked like this:



For other geeky reasons, I had just bought an Ultimaker 3d-printer for testing out some assembly parts in other (electronics/computing) projects I'm involved with. Thus, I had the possibility to print the design and really try it out in reality. Getting a proper fit to the Jaguar part turned out to be a lot more work than I expected, so I had to go through a few iterations before the model actually fit properly.





After getting to this stage, I noticed that the design wasn't looking too nice. The border between the dock and the tray looked a bit ugly, and attaching it would be a bit of a problem. I then changed the design a bit, to cover the entire tray, with a hole for the roof button:


Printing each new model takes a good 45-60 minutes of meditative noises from the Ultimaker:


Finally I had something which felt right, and with some finishing could give me the look I needed. The fit was really snug, so I had to go through several iterations of this design to get something that was spot on:


Now it was time to look into the electronics side of the project. Following several threads on aux inputs for external devices, I settled on a solution where I re-soldered the internals of the amp CD-inputs to a switch, and a pair of RCA connectors on the amp:


To be able to switch between CD and the iPhone dock, I added a small DPDT switch. This could perhaps be done more neatly with a relay. I'm considering this, along with a circuit that would recognize when the phone is docked. But for simplicity's sake and proof of concept, a physical switch it is!


Next, I simply had to attach and pull the RCA cables through the car. I must admit it was quite a bit of hassle to get the back seat, panels etc out. Especially in -10C cold weather...




For the dock itself, I bought an ipod dock-AINet cable, with 12V-5V stepdown builtin. I removed the cover of the dock cable and JBWeld'ed it in place, with the phone attached. Then I added some liberal amount of 3M doublesided tape, to get the final part to attach to the Jaguar tray. Don't worry about the cable in the picture, I applied some more heat-shrink tubing after this.

I spliced into the cigarette lighter cable for dock power.



The space under the tray is rather limited - which is why the tray has the odd shape it does. To get the cable out properly, I had to drill a hole in the tray. Remember, since the rubber inlay normally comes on top of this, you wouldn't notice the hole if I wanted to go back to factory setup.


The dock itself (printed with PLA) was first sanded, then painted with nitrocellulose paint, last layers sprayed off at a distance, so to get that matte "plastic" look. Now testing out the dock in the removed console before fitting.




The final result. It was quite some effort, but I'm happy with how it turned out. As I expected, I have a bit of (electromagnetic) leakage into the audio when listening to very soft music at loud levels. It is a long unbalanced cable after all... I'm considering using a balanced audio connection for this purpose, either using an IC or audio transformers. Transformers might be the easier way, since I would get the audio transfer electronically isolated, and wouldn't have to fiddle around with power supply to the circuit.






The idea of using the Jag microphone (I have a factory Motorola phone) didn't work out. The iPhone 4 and forward only supplies digital inputs for audio through the dock connector, and I don't want to construct or buy an ADC just for this purpose. Buying an aftermarket bluetooth solution like Parrot or Motorola might be the better way to get the phone integrated. So I'm stuck with line-out audio for music, for now.

I was initially afraid that the relatively shallow dock design (due to constraints from the tray) would cause issues on twisty roads. However, it turned out fine. The thing stays even in high speeds and sharp corners.

I'd be happy to supply any information or STL models, in case someone would like to do a similar project. I could perhaps even print a few copies for anyone that is interested.


Happy Motoring!

 

Fantastic. Well done!


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excellent job - I am sure this will grab some serious interest considering the number of threads on integrating the iphone.

 

Excellent work and makes it unique without losing the factory look.

 

Fantastic upgrade. I am sure you will get more than a few requests to make more.

 

Very impressive work. It is clean and functional. What a great addition!

 

Wow, impressive! Very clean.

 

Wow. Well done, sir. So when's the first group buy? I'm interested as mine just rests with an aux input loosely on top of my cig-lighter tray. Can you make one with a Lightning cable attachment for the iPhone 5? Name your (reasonable, beta tester) price... I was the first customer for another small manufacturer's 3GS mount a few years ago (universal mount, in my Audi).

 

Thanks for the kind words.

Regarding the iPhone 5, the Lightning connector is a tricky one. It does not provide any analog audio output, so I think the best solution is to use the Apple Lightning to 30-pin adapter, which contains a DAC within. If you have such an adapter, could you tell me if the dimensions match the regular 30-pin IPhone 4(s) usb cable? I have used that cable for the connector cutout dimension in the bottom of the dock. If the dimensions perfectly match, one could simply slide the adapter into my dock and attach a regular 30-pin aux y-cable to it. This does however make the dock deeper - reuiring more vertical space, which I don't know if we have. I'll look around a bit to see if I can find any 3d models of the adapter, to put into the Solidworks drawing.

Another option for the audio part would be to hook into the digital audio. The iPhone should act as a standard USB-Audio device, so with a suitable microcontroller (LM4F120?) and DAC, I could convert the audio to analog this way. Then I could perhaps get by with only running a digital signal back to the amp, eliminating the noise issues. I don't know if the digital signal would survive on the way through the car however... requires investigation.

 

Some quick searching reveals that there are products like this:
High Resolution Technologies - iStreamer-12V
that do just what I want. Pretty expensive though, I think that I could make something similar for about 30 USD part cost. If I have the time, that is

Turns out that this device also works with the lightning usb cable. In that case, I could simply adapt the design for a standard lightning cable, then one would need a usb extension to run through the car, and finally mount the iStreamer next to the amplifier.

 

I am not an iPhone user but I have to say how impressed I am with your design. It looks totally factory and if you combine this with WhiteXKR's Parrot Bluetooth handsfree solution, you have your iPhone music and handsfree calling. It is an elegant solution that complements the original design. Well done!

You and WhiteXKR should team up and offer an integrated solution through his Jag Wrangler web site. There are many iPhone users with XK8/Rs out there that would jump on this if the price was right.

Mark

 

Congrats. Nice looking end product. Your problem solving skills (electronic) far surpass most people's abilities. I would like to be able to add a mini cable port so I could just plug a cable from the device, iPod, iPhone, etc. Not possible????

 

Noise on the analog audio might be resolved with one of these or similar ground loop isolators: PAC Ground Loop Isolator for 3.5 MM Applications : Amazon.com : Automotive

As mjaris said, the Parrot Mki9xxx series is a great way to bring in wired or wireless digital audio plus get handsfree calling at the same time. See my writelup in the modifaction sticky: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...e4/#post430953

 

Thanks! I don't have a 30-pin adaptor yet but am about to buy one I think, dimensions unsure. But yeah, exactly on the vertical depth issue- it's a fixed adaptor. I was just thinking that when you mentioned it. I wouldn't be opposed to a standard stereo minijack setup as well, but being able to get sound (didn't realize the DAC part- that's new with the Lightning adaptor) and charging out of one cable would be a plus. That cable standard will be around probably as long as the 30-pin was (re: future iPhones), so it would be worthwhile to develop.

Agreed on the noise problem, the solution is a ground loop isolator- I've run those before regularly in my aux-in setups, and am about to put one in my XKR as well. It's noticeable on mine only if the iPhone isn't plugged in, and increases with the RPM.

 

The PAC isolator indeed seems to be just a line level transformer, achieving electrical separation, which should fix any ground loop issues. I am however wondering if I'm dealing with a ground or an electromagnetical induction. Due to the nature of the noise (frequency varying with rpm) I would believe it to be EMI which is induced into the signal/shield cable. Perhaps I'll just order the PAC product and give it a go. Otherwise I thought to try an SSM2141/SSM2142 solution for balancing/unbalancing the signal, using Twisted pair shielded audio installation cables, keeping the shield connected to ground at the amp.

I'll have a look at the Parrot solution, sounds just like what I need. I've also seen some threads mentioning the Motorola Txxx, but you prefer the parrot?

 

I don't think it makes too much sense to sell Ultimaker printed units, like mine. The finishing is a bit annoying, due to the plastic extrusion texhnology not giving perctly smooth results. Painting is really required.

If I get some prototype iPhone 5 dock going, I might look into having a set of both 4s/5 docks done with SLS technology. With black material, this should give a finish which could be used without painting. The downside is that SLS can get quite costly.

Unfortunately I don't think I'll see demand which justifies an injection mold, which would of course give superior finish. I'm also a total newbie on industrial design, so I expect some difficulties putting such a thing into production. 5000 eur tooling cost is also tough for a hobby project.

 

The automotive ground loop isolators are inexpensive and worth a try. Beyond that, if you are powering from the vehicle, a noise filter can also help: .

Of course solid grounds and good quality shielded cable can also contribute to the solution, but I have found that in the XK8/R the ground loop isolator and power line noise filter combined will cure the alternator noise problems.

Motorola also makes a good product, but especially in a convertible, the dual microphone noise cancellation in the Parrot MKi9xxx is a distinct advantage.

 

A large capacitor on the power supply line to the iPhone might actually be a good idea. I think I have some larger caps lying around, which I can quickly add. Lacking any line audio transformers, I ordered the PAC unit, will report the results here. Regarding the Parrot unit - does one really have to mount this hideous display? I'd rather have something that integrates with the steering controls.

 

As far as I know, the only units that can be easily adapted to the exisitng steering controls are aftermarket headunits.

Note that the MKi9100 has a much smaller display, and the MKi9000 has no display at all, but in all cases you do need to mount the small wireless contol module on the steering wheel or someplace else convenient.

 

Thats what I call a proffesional upgrade and something usefull, have you thought about creating a kit ?