csammisrun

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The problem

I recently got an iPod Nano, and I like it very much. What I don’t like is having to fiddle with it while driving (and Courtney hates that, for good reason). Currently I use my car’s built-in headphone jack to get the music from the iPod to the speakers, but this has a couple of drawbacks. First, the aforementioned control issue – I have to pick it up and look at it in order to change the volume or the track or whatever. This means my right hand is unavailable for shifting and my brain is unavailable for driving. Second, it doesn’t charge through the headphone jack, and on long trips this means extra cables, car chargers, just a whole mess.

That’s for suckers.

The basic idea

I came across a description of the pinouts for the 30 pin iPod connector, and it seems simple enough to run the line out and charging capabilities. I would run the cable out of the little change tray by the shifter and paint it black to match the trim, and tap into the existing power / aux lines in the center console. This is a good and fine idea, but about thirty seconds after its formulation it gave way to…

The insane idea

I also came across the specification for the Apple Accessory Protocol, the serial data protocol used by iPod remotes to talk to the device and control it (Play, Pause, Volume +/-, etc.). How cool would it be to put a set of controls in the dashboard, so I don’t have to mess around with looking down and fiddling with the dial? There are a couple of open questions about this:

• Does sending commands to the iPod put it in “Connected” mode, thus disabling the screen display? The AAP docs mention that switching to Mode 4 puts up the “OK to disconnect” screen which is why I’m wondering about what happens in Mode 2.
• What would be the best way to send commands to it? I suppose a microcontroller like the Arduino could handle the sending but I don’t know if that would be the best solution.
• Can I make it look good? I think maybe yes but probably not.