Intravee - which iPod works best...?

[PerryGunn]

SWMBO is buying me an Intravee II as a Christmas prezzie, partly because I'm an awkward git to buy things for and partly because I wanted some of the additional 'features' that the Intravee can enable (triple-blink indicators etc.) but, as I'm getting one, I thought that I might as well go the whole hog and do a full iPod install and I've already managed to pick up a KCA-420i from fleaBay

Now the fun bit... I don't own an iPod - I've lots of other MP3 players but I've never been a great fan of the Apple ecosystem (that's not intended to start an Apple vs Whatever debate)

So I need to get a, preferably second-hand, iPod - I would think that 30Gb+ should be adequate

The question for all you Intravee/iPod users out there is 'Which is the best model/generation iPod to use with the Intravee/KCA-420i combo?'
- I'll buy a 12v to 5v charging adaptor for the iPod if necessary
- Screen quality doesn't matter as I'm never going to use it anywhere but in the car so i'll never look at it
- The RS is a fun car for weekend use so will I need to mount the iPod somewhere that I can reach to turn the power on or wake it up?

All advice gratefully received

Perry

 

[Raify]

To get enough Gb, it will have to be a classic. I use an 80gb Classic (not sure which version), and that seems to work fine.

In order to plug it in and forget about it, you'll have to do something to stop the iPod going to sleep. The Intravee will charge it, but won't wake it up.

I've read somewhere that you can add calendar events to the iPod to stop if going to sleep...

 

[pvr]

If you mount it in the front, you have to manually wake it unless you have the wake-up mod in the KCA (which I don't have).

I have a very old 60 Gb iPod Gen 2 which just works.

 

[PerryGunn]

If you mount it in the front, you have to manually wake it unless you have the wake-up mod in the KCA (which I don't have).

I have a very old 60 Gb iPod Gen 2 which just works.

I was trying to look for the wake-up mod but the Intravention site is down at the moment

Your Gen 2 - do you mean it 'just works (without any bother)' or it 'just (about) works'?

 

[pvr]

I meant - it works fine, no problems.

It is cheap, it is ugly, but it is always in the car in its case and out of sight in the cubby hole.

If you had joined us on the meet, you could have see it. Although you must be close to me in West Sussex anyway so if you want to see the installation you can anyway.

 

[PerryGunn]

Thanks, I'll have a look on eBay

I'd love to get along to some meets, only problem is that I commute to London for work so get home late during the week, and then have my kids alternate weekends, which means that the free weekends tend to end up with a lot crammed into them - usually by my 'Social Secretary' :wink:

 

[ranski]

Just mount the intravee etc in the boot and feed the ipod / iphone cable through to the cabin as others have done.

You can then put your iPhone / ipad loose in the oddments tray?

 

[Stuart Truman]

I've got a 160gb classic, (or more accurately, had as my daughter has nicked it) but I'd recommend getting one that is solid state and not with a mechanical hard disk as it will fail faster than one that is just using memory chips

You can get a mount to replace the ashtray with, I'm hugely tempted to do this and run the cable under the centre tunnel.

 

[PerryGunn]

You can get a mount to replace the ashtray with, I'm hugely tempted to do this and run the cable under the centre tunnel.

I dare say that's a good idea if you're carrying it around with you and need to plug/unplug it frequently, but I intend it to be permanently in the car (except for adding new material).

The other issue (for me) is that an ashtray mount would leave it visible when parked - and it would be stolen in seconds if parked with the roof down :x

 

[pvr]

This has to be the best place, out of sight but accessible ...

 

[Stuart Truman]

Ashtray mount is just the jibber for an iPhone though...

 

[PerryGunn]

Well I've picked up a 120GB Classic on eBay and ordered a charging adapter for 12v to 5v conversion

As I want this permanently installed in the car, it would be nice to hide it away in the boot but this would need one of the iPod wake-up mods for the KCA-420i

I quite fancy the single-wire mod as it looks very straightforward but wonder if anyone has tried any of the wake-up mods and what the result was?

 

[dan yeates]

My Dice woke the iPod up, so does the Kenwood stereo in the Honda. Bit rubbish the Intravee won't, I was planning on getting one.

 

[Stuart Truman]

Before you go over the top on capacity, the KCA-420i has a limitation of 500 or so of playlists, tracks, artists etc after which they won't display on the screen. It's a minor PITA but worth knowing about.

Don't let that put you off though, clever use of playlists will sort you out

 

[PerryGunn]

My Dice woke the iPod up, so does the Kenwood stereo in the Honda. Bit rubbish the Intravee won't, I was planning on getting one.

It's not the Intravee that won't, it's the Alpine unit, apparently once the iPod goes into hibernation, it waits for a charging voltage from the Alpine KCA, but the KCA also waits until it detects the iPod before it supplies the charging voltage - so it's stalemate

You can get around this with calendar reminders which stop the iPod hibernating, but you have to clear the alerts every month or so, or you can wake the iPod yourself by pressing any button on it - but I would like to hide it in the boot, hence the interest in the mods for the Alpine KCA

 

[markeg]

Use mine with an iPhone 4S, 32Gb and have the cable through to the front, with an ashtray mount. Looks the business, works well, none of those 'going to sleep' issues
... and easy to remove and resynch when I download some new albums (which happens very often)

Tapatalking...

 

[PerryGunn]

Use mine with an iPhone 4S, 32Gb and have the cable through to the front, with an ashtray mount. Looks the business, works well, none of those 'going to sleep' issues
... and easy to remove and resynch when I download some new albums (which happens very often)

Yes, for anyone like you the hibernation won't be an issue as it only happens after (I think it's) 12 hours inactivity, and you're going to take your phone with you when you get out of the car so the ashtray mount works for you - for something that's left in the car it's a bit too visible and would shout 'steal me'

I plan that this iPod will be more-or-less a permanent installation so it will definitely go to sleep. I could mount it in the cubby, like PVR, so that I could press a button if necessary, but like the look of the wake up mod so that I wouldn't have to remember to manually wake the iPod

 

[markeg]

Interestingly I have left the phone in the car over a weekend, got in and started the car with no issues around sleeping. Is it something that isn't present on iPhones only iPods ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[pvr]

Your iPhone would not go to sleep due to activity, an iPod would.

 

[PerryGunn]

Interestingly I have left the phone in the car over a weekend, got in and started the car with no issues around sleeping. Is it something that isn't present on iPhones only iPods ?

Quite possibly as I would think that the phone needs to be 'awake' to receive calls etc. and will probably go to a low power state whilst 'listening' for incoming data, this would also explain why standby battery life is worse on phones than on MP3 players - as an example my wife has a flash-based Sony MP3 player which she hasn't used since we were on holiday last February, I found it in the zip pocket of one of our cabin luggage bags a couple of weeks ago, the battery was showing about a quarter charge which I found quite impressive and it was still paused on the last song she was listening to

In truth, I'm not hugely clued-up on Apple hardware, and I'm only going to use an iPod because it's that or nothing. I found out about the iPod sleep/hibernation issue when researching the Intravee/KCA-420i and thought that, if the wake up mods work, it would be worth doing something to avoid the issue before I install all the kit.

I would try the Intravee forums for answers but the intravention.co.uk website has been unavailable for a while now