iPod and the 2006 Prius

I'm like you, I have an 06' on order for delivery after 1/06 for tax credit (and CA HOV sticker!).

I have researched it as thoroughly as possible and from what I have been able to find out the 06' will have ¼" mini jack which will connect your iPod to the car's audio system. So yes, it's that simple. Unfortunately, if this is indeed the case, this type of connection will not give you the ability to control the iPod from the steering wheel (volume or song shuffling) or see the song name on the radio console. I guess we'll see.

Good luck,
LJ

 

MUCH more likely to have a 1/8" minijack; 1/4" is rarely used for device inputs on any sound system.

 

there are two points to mention about using steering wheel controls for an ipod.

1. there is not a single aftermarket product that fully encapsulates the ipod interface into any automobile. frankly, apples interface with the click wheel and it's operating system is simply short of perfect. that is why the digital revolution with ipods has become so popular.

2. unless apple starts selling cars, then no other company will truly be able to represent the ipod interface. some devices make you set up playlists on your ipod and you can only listen to those. other poducts may show artist and title info, but usually only 8 charachters. so if you were listening to say david bowie all you would see on the screen is "davidbow." and most importantly many of the ipod interfaces are slow to communicate and actually take a few seconds to respond, distracting you from the road while your trying to figure what's wrong with your ipod in your glove box, and lord knows here in southern california thats all we need is more bad drivers.

so, yes, a simple auxillary input is all you need for an ipod. you can use the ipod easily without fussing much with it and the input jack will sound way better than usuing a cassette adapter or, (omg) an fm transmitter.

 

Still, these options are far better than picking up your ipod and trying to dial up a song while looking at the little screen. I would much rather be able to use the steering wheel controls and see the info on a much larger (and in better view of the driver) display. WHile they are not perfect, they are as close as you will get to being so. Also, once you get used to using it, the little flaws are easily adapted to.

 

I don't believe the limitation is at the IPod end. Anything that can be done with your computer should be do-able with an audio system control throught the docking station.

The problem is, few aftermarkets understand the car manufacturers' audio control systems, if the audio has any control systems. Not to mention the limitations the manufacturers' control systems have.
For example, the XM/Sirius OEM tuners only display 10 characters. That is Toyota's limitations, not the satellite systems.

 

Hehe. Yes, sorry bout that, my typo. (But with the 1/4" you could plug in your Gibson Les Paul! )

LJ

 

Well, I was curious about the same thing, particularly with regard to the VAIS iPod interface. I emailed the company, and the response was that the system works for the 2006 Prius and that this system works with the new iPod models.

This seems to be a great integrated solution. Note that they seem to have changed their product information, and updated the name to SLI (from AVIC-100i, which is "temporarily unavailable").

 

Speaking as a software developer, let me say that these arbitrary, functionality-killing limitations really piss me off. Developers that write software for commodity electronics need to get a clue from the PC market and stop limiting their products' functionality in stupid and crippling ways.

10 characters? I can show you 50 lines of x86 assembly to implement a marquee-style scroll. There's simply no excuse for such sloppy coding. It makes me wish I had the time to investigate installing an open source OS on the MFD backend. I don't, but if I did, I'd be googling "Linux CAN" right now....

 

Don't confuse CAN with AVC/IEBus.

 

Ah, good call. Thanks.

 

The good thing about the VAIS AVIC-100i is that you could both control the iPod from MFD and switch to video mode to see the track info and album art from the same iPod. I emailed VAIS and they sort of hinted the AVIC-100i will come out for the 2006 Prius.

Cheers!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alric @ Jul 19 2006, 01:44 PM) [snapback]288799[/snapback]</div>

Can you recharge the ipod while using this 1/8 jack?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(sl7vk @ Jul 19 2006, 02:45 PM) [snapback]288956[/snapback]</div>

Unfortunately no. There's a $30 cable that attaches to the docking port (rather than the headphone jack), but I don't know if that will also allow you to charge.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(aaf709 @ Jul 19 2006, 05:03 PM) [snapback]288966[/snapback]</div>

Well, the AVIC-100i does have an iPod Dock connector that should charge the iPod. The way I envision it would work is to have iPod control from the MFD using the AVIC-100i iPod Dock connector and then switch to the video input from the 1/8 AV connector.

 

Also check out this thread for more info:
http://priuschat.com/Best-way-to-connect-y...Pod-t21378.html

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(aaf709 @ Jul 19 2006, 03:03 PM) [snapback]288966[/snapback]</div>

There are a couple of cables out there that can do that, both be the direct "line out" from the iPod and charge it at the same time. Someone on the boards was talking about a Monster cable that did that, around $30. I went to the local Fry's Electronics yesterday and got a Belkin model, basically the same thing. What it does is plug into the dock-connector at the bottom of the iPod, and go into the outlet that's in the center console. On the side of that plug, there is a 1/4" jack for plugging into the AUX jack. Sounds great, much better than coming out of the headphone jack.

That will have to tide me over until the DICE unit works on the 2006 Prius so I can get the MFD integration, that's what I REALLY want

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Michmale @ Nov 17 2005, 08:52 AM) [snapback]156952[/snapback]</div>

Yes. It is that simple if you have the Aux Input. As people said, you need to go buy a connector cable to run from the iPod to the Aux Input. The only downside is that you have to use the iPod to select the song, when you would rather use the MFD.

A 1/8 to 1/8 cable is pretty cheap. I got mine at Best Buy. I also have a Belkin charger that connects the iPod to the power outlet in the center console (using the USB port).

A number of people have obtained better sound quality using the USB output on the iPod. This requires a cable that converts USB to the 1/8 connector. And as discussed above, you can also get cables that will also plug into the power outlet to charge the iPod.

A sound isolator also sounds like a good thing to get. When my car is hot, I can hear some static as well.

Rock on,

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dancekat59 @ Jul 19 2006, 04:54 PM) [snapback]289037[/snapback]</div>

Thanks, that was the thread I was talking about.