Alternate hidden cigarette source

[wta]

(the first paragraph is waffle, skip it to get to the question)
I drive an 03 clio with a cassette player, and since i had a bit of spare time, i figured I would wire up a way to connect my phone (with spotify) to the radio. My first thought was to get one of those fm transmitters but decided against it on the basis they can be fairly inconsistent in audio quality. I then was googling around on the internet and found an aux lead which plugs straight into the back of the radio behind the dash, the donside to this was messy wires, which I am afraid of incase injury is caused to passengers.

While i was googling around i was also about to put up an old Apple Airport Express (an apple wireless streaming device which acts as a wifi network), when i came up with the idea of mounting this either behind the dash or in the glovebox. However, while it would plug in behind the dash using the afore-mentioned aux cable, it would also need a method of power. The obvious solution is just to rig it into a cigarette lighter using a USB adapter and a voltage regulator, but this would mean loose cables, making the whole reasoning behind having Airplay defunct. So that leads me to my questions, is there a suitable 5 or 12 volt power supply behind the dash i could easily access, or are there any wires i can just safely splice into without damaging the functionality of the regular operations of the car?

 

[172_Tom]

Looks like the AirPort Express needs mains power though? 12V to mains converters are quite bulky and expensive.

Best way to do what you want is to replace the head unit with one that can stream music via bluetooth from your phone. Something like an Alpine UTE-72BT would do. You can also get small USB sticks like the SanDisk Cruzer Fit that are cheap and won't drain your phone battery.

 

[wta]

Looks like the AirPort Express needs mains power though? 12V to mains converters are quite bulky and expensive.

Best way to do what you want is to replace the head unit with one that can stream music via bluetooth from your phone.

I dont want to replace the head unit becaue i promised myself that I wzsnt going to modify the car, as it is such great shape i plan on selling it for a reasonable price.

The airport express takes 12V from mains power, then there is a voltage regulating subsystem within the unit itself which converts this to 3.3V. By replacing the entire system with one 3.3V fixed output voltage regulator, i can connect it to a 5V cigarette lighter-USB conversion socket.

The total cost to me for doing it this way would be about £6 for the aux cable and 50p for the voltage regulator, i already own teh other components, so its also a s***load cheaper than a new head unit
Heres a diagram to explain it better

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[172_Tom]

You can easily swap the head unit back when you sell it and move it into your next car - that's what I've always done.

Bit confused - your diagram shows 5V from the car but your post says it takes 12V?

Best way to get 12V is by running your own wiring from the fuse box. I did this on my other car to wire in a dash cam. You could install a piggyback fuse to something that is ignition live - like the rear wiper.

 

[wta]

Best way to get 12V is by running your own wiring from the fuse box. I did this on my other car to wire in a dash cam. You could install a piggyback fuse to something that is ignition live - like the rear wiper.

This is what i needed thanks

Bit confused - your diagram shows 5V from the car but your post says it takes 12V?

I confused myself by writing it out, basically, i get 5V if i plug the airport into a USB port attached to the car (USB power), the 12V is what i am likely to get anywhere else

You can easily swap the head unit back when you sell it and move it into your next car - that's what I've always done.

The main reason i dont do this is cost, if i dont bother doing this whole airport thing, then ill just run an aux cable from the back of the existing unit, which only costs £6 (here)

 

[Knuckles]

 

[wta]

I just watched that and the problem still is that that needs to plug into the cigarette lighter, which is what i am trying to avoid

 

[skinz]

Just put a molex cig lighter behind dash and spur it pff fuse box?

Or just run straight from fuse box- dont see any complication as long as you inline fuse

 

[DannyR]

Surely you can't stream music doing that as it won't see a DNS Address as it's connected to a dead wifi network?

Seems a lot of hassle when you could just plug in an aux lead!