Z4 Apple iCup Holder

[yg54sg]

In my opinion there is no good solution for the iphone...

1. Aux cable / Cigar lighter charging cable and a windscreen mount (problem is wires everywhere, windscreen mount attracts theives thinking you have tom tom)
2. Change the snap in between the seats (cant operate while driving change tracks etc)
3. Intravee / Dice (expensive and limited when you already have a great screen on iphone but good part is it allows control of iphone through nav in a limited way)
4. Bluetooth A2DP Reciever Over the air plugged into aux (great but iphone battery dies if not being charged you also need a mount then you are back to 1 plugging charger in with wires)

my solution:

5. Custom iphone holder in cup hole connected to AUX and charging from wiring behind dash taken from cigar lighter. Can also be used as Navigation with the 19.99 app co pilot which my girlfriend uses and its faultless.

All i did was buy one of these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DESKTOP-CHARGER-D ... 1183wt_907

and then one of these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Cigar-Lighter-Car ... 1773wt_907 soldered to it directly and taped up and hid it below the ashtray taking the feed from the back of the cigar lighter, then just ran the AUX cable to it directly behind the dash.

Cut away a hole in the existing blanking plate for the cup holder and then using high powered glue, glue the top of the dock to the bottom of the vent. This is all reversible too if you go buy another plastic blanking plate from BMW as the glu would not be visible.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1030124698 ... i5XW3dmwbw









btw pictures are wonkey, from drivers seat the phone sits straight and tilted inwards for perfect view. Of course you have to turn the vent off otherwise you get the temp warning on the iphone come on lol

finally music everytime i get in the car and no messing around anymore!

[yg54sg]

Forgot to mention:

Parts were:

AUX cable from ebay £40 (most of you likely already have )
Iphone 4 stand ebay £5.99
Cigar USB 5V adaptor £3.99
1 tube of super high powered glue £3.99

Tools needed:

1 Dremel or a good old fashioned hacksaw and a steady hand.

For someone with a TV option on sat nav pro (i have sat nav pro but no tv option) you could buy the stand with the video out and have bbc iplayer/youtube/album art show on the sat nav pro monitor .... i just cant justify buying the upgrade really as i never would need to watch tv in the car but hey its an idea!

[ZED_NOT_ZEE]

Nice clean install. Looks good! Much better than those DICE installs imo.

[Taz]

did you look at the brodit holders?

[yg54sg]

Thanks ZED_NOT_NEE! yes Taz but didn't see a solution where it would charge and pass aux through, it also clips onto the dash in the middle and doesnt look very stock IMO sorry forgot to include in my list

[yg54sg]

i downloaded a napster app too which allows streaming of millions of songs over 3G.... http://www.napster.co.uk/more_about_nap ... d-anywhere allows you to create playlists too its quite crazy to be driving along think of song and always have it there at your fingertips

[Taz]

well yours is a good job

[yg54sg]

Thanks mate i hope there are more iphone users on here it may help... i had the idea for quite a while but just never got round to pulling out the vent. 2 Screws are all that holds it in then you can do all the messing about in the house rather than out in the car

[wiseguy]

I like it! It's about time I did something with MY IPhone besides laying it next to the emergency brake with wires everywhere.

[yg54sg]

One of the main reasons I did this was because I have had to buy all the plastic trim again next to the hand brake due to scratches from all the phones I have placed in there over the years 80 quid in total and a real pain in the ass to remove it all!

[benlumley]

Like your install y54sg, v.creative.

I currently have similar - cables to same area, but using a suction mount. Might well swap it for a dock like yours.

It looks like it'd bounce around a bit though - take it you've road tested and that's not the case?

[yg54sg]

Thanks! It has not jumped off the dock yet even with sheffield very bad roads! The dock is a pretty tight fit, i also wondered this it seems the iphone connector is also quite good in that it grabs the iphone well and even jiggling it about by hand doesnt cause audio drop out etc

[inkey$]

Nice solution to an age old problem. Assuming you'd shut off the air vent behind the phone though as - if my water bottle in cup holder experience is anything to go by - that area in front can get pretty toasty.

Looks good though and prob my favourite mod for this yet. My central ashtray dock is great but not as convenient as this

[yg54sg]

haha yes if you dont shut off the air vent when your blowing hot air you get something you only see on holiday while on the beach as I once found out... a high temp warning on the iphone!

[yg54sg]

Another good thing is there is no interference from the pillar above it (as i thought there would be) and it picks up a GPS signal great so you can use speed camera detection app or navigation if you dont like bmw's take you on the ultimate long driving route for the way home... i sometimes check google maps if I think the BMW nav is off haha

The only downside to this mod is it engages you more with the phone while driving which I guess is not good safety wise as that hand position i was talking about above is very comfortable when operating it.