Who’s got a MP3 player goin’ in your boat?
How did you do it? Factory connection, “do it yourself”, personal upgrades?
How did you run wires? Did you use any fancy connectors or grommets?
Are you just lettin’ your device lie somewhere, or did you get a mount for it?
Ideas:question:
‘05 Wellcraft 232 Coastal rockin’ a Yammie F225
‘00 Aqua Force Flats 15 w/ Yammie F25
"Kiss my ass, I bought a boat; I’m goin’ out to sea." (Jimmy Buffett covering Lovett)
The stereo I have has a USB w/ ipod dongle in the back. It is very accessible and the ipod stays protected. I have a Alpine CDA 118M that controls my Ipod, plays off of a USB thumb drive, CDs and AM-FM. If I didn’t have good access I’d get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Prospec-Electronics-SEA-USBMINI-Seaworthy-Players/dp/B001CDK400
I might put one in anyway.
Boatless
That’s what I’m thinking of adding.
I’ve got a JBL Marine deck down below, and a controller on the console, but I’m wanting to hook up my MP3 player.
I’m nto sure if I wanna just keep it simple and put an MP3 player down below or run some cables to I have have the set-up at the console.
A quandry, I’ll tell ya.
‘05 Wellcraft 232 Coastal rockin’ a Yammie F225
‘00 Aqua Force Flats 15 w/ Yammie F25
"Kiss my ass, I bought a boat; I’m goin’ out to sea." (Jimmy Buffett covering Lovett)
Does the stereo have USB input?
Boatless
quote:
Originally posted by wstrickland1Does the stereo have USB input?
Boatless
From what I see on the outside, there are no inputs. The boat is an '05. I’m guessing there weren’t such technological advances then. 
‘05 Wellcraft 232 Coastal rockin’ a Yammie F225
‘00 Aqua Force Flats 15 w/ Yammie F25
"Kiss my ass, I bought a boat; I’m goin’ out to sea." (Jimmy Buffett covering Lovett)
I just ordered this for my smaller boat…
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0017TTU9A/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i02
On our bigger boat, the head unit is inside the console, so I’m gonna just run a 3.5mm to (2) rca cable into my dry box that is at the helm. I figure the fewer the connections the better. If you use Apple products and your head unit is capable, be sure to get the iPod cord that allows you to control your music through your stereo.
Also, be sure to check the back of your unit for what you can do… only the newer ones have the inputs on their face. If you are considering a new unit, check out some of the ones where your iPod can slide into the housing for protection. I am not an Apple user myself, so I like just going with a standard 3.5mm jack that anyone can bring their player and plug into.
BT – gonna probably gonna run something like pictured in the above link. I’m thinking about hard-wiring in a cigarette adapter for power and then using a 3.5-RCA splitter.
I’ve thought about a nice mount, but don’t know if I’ll go that far. I’d probably just put the MP3 player on “shuffle” so i don’t really need direct access.
I think I may even be going overboard… I may just leave the whole (**()ed set-up down below and be done with it. It’d be so much easier and, in the long run, it doesn’t much matter to me.
I have a Sirius subscription w/ a “kit” in my truck, so, in theory, I could detach that and run it in the boat. I still haven’t thrown that idea out the window yet, but I still am not 100% sure what I want to do.
‘05 Wellcraft 232 Coastal rockin’ a Yammie F225
‘00 Aqua Force Flats 15 w/ Yammie F25
"Kiss my ass, I bought a boat; I’m goin’ out to sea." (Jimmy Buffett covering Lovett)
If you are protected down below and happy in shuffle mode… I’d recommend going with a quality cable like this…
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004YEBK66/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00
They make them in different lengths. If you are a phone case person, these cords have a little extra on the jack to get past the added thickness. Monster Cable and some others offer the same thing… just found them to be overpriced a good bit.
If your unit is flush mounted down below… a simple install is to plug in the RCA side and put the 3.5mm side through the wall and utilize a little rubber grommet. You can push/pull you extra cable length as needed and velcro or zip tie a phone holder wherever you like. I’m not sure exactly what your setup looks like… just throwing out some ideas that I have seen people use.
I just took my head unit out, mounted an amp under the console, and ran RCA to 3.5mm adapter into my glove box (looks similar to above). I never listen to the radio so this works perfect for me. Plug my Droid in and have all my music (using DoubleTwish to synch with iTunes), Pandora and 8Tracks.
If at first you don’t succeed, drink another beer!!!
Sea Pro 190CC Yamaha F150
This is the head unit i have flush mounted in a locked console compartment:
The ipod stows inside the head unit to secure it. you can also just plug in a USB thumb drive full of MP3 songs if you don’t want to risk your ipod at all.
then i mounted the RM-X60 marine remote on the helm to control volume/song skip/source/etc without having to open the storage to get to the head unit.
quote:
Originally posted by Bolbie…the harbor was slick as an eel pecker.
I just bought a Fusion marine radio with an internal Ipod dock. Haven’t installed it yet, but it doesn’t look too complicated.
quote:
Originally posted by 13skullsI just bought a Fusion marine radio with an internal Ipod dock. Haven’t installed it yet, but it doesn’t look too complicated.
I’m on my third year with this unit with no problems. Got it when they first came out I think.