Automatic Podcast Aggregator in 2009 E90

[JohnGarziglia]

My goal was to install a audio podcast aggregator into my new 2009 E90 M3 that would download audio podcasts through my home Wi-Fi wirelessly, and automatically, each night while parked in my garage, and be able to listen to the podcasts the next day while driving.

For instance, today is Sunday and while my car is now parked in my garage, it has downloaded the audio podcast of this week's "Meet the Press" because I have specified that as a podcast to automatically download each time there is a new version (see, for instance, http://podcast.msnbc.com/audio/podcast/MSNBC-MTP.xml. I will be able to listen to it tomorrow through my car audio system as I drive.

I am sure there are many ways to do it but here is how I did it.

First, the MP3 player I used was the 8 gb Haier ibiza Rhapsody http://www.haieramerica.com/en/categ...Rhapsody_ibiza. I chose the 8 gb version as that has a flash drive, rather than the 30 gb version which has a mechanical hard drive. Seemed to me that a flash drive would be more rugged in a car. This player has Wi-Fi that will download any podcasts specified. The 8 gb ibiza has more than enough capacity for audio podcasts. Shop around as I found prices varied dramatically on this player.

The ibiza does not work out of the box with the BMW armrest USB port. It works the first time plugged in, but then the next time the car is tuned on, the car does not recognize the player. That is the problem.

First, here is where the player nicely fits in the M3 armrest:


It is necessary to have continuous 5 volt DC power to the ibiza coming through the USB cable for the car to recognize the player each time the car is turned on. Therefore, two things must be done: continuous 12 volt power must be supplied to the 12 volt jack in the armrest into which a 12 volt DC to 5 volt DC car adaptor is plugged, and a Y-cable going to both the 12 volt to 5 volt adaptor, and to the USB port, must be made.

To get the 12 volt jack to operate continously, I used an "Add-a-Circuit" http://www.amazon.com/Littelfuse-FHA.../dp/B0002BGELQin an unused fuse block slot that has a continuous source of 12 volts, and ran the wire from the Add-a-Circuit through the center console back to the wire for the center console 12 volt jack:


I installed a switch in the console so I could switch the 12 volt jack between being continuous and coming on only when the car is on (I still need to buff out the scratches from the drill bit slipping):


Then, I used a 12 volt DC to 5 volt DC car charger cable -- one made for a Tom Tom GPS: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....egories&ks=960

Cut the existing ibiza USB cable, disconnect the red and black wires, and connect the red and black wires from the 12 volt to 5 volt car charger, to the red and black wires in the portion of the ibiza USB cable that goes to the ibiza. Leave unconnected the red and black wires in the ibiza cable going to the car USB port:


This, when connected in the car, gives the ibiza continuous 5 volt DC power which enables the ibiza to be recognized by the car each time the car sound system is turned on to the armrest USB port. Do I worry about the ibiza discharging the car battery -- probably if the car was to sit for a week or two it might but for me my car rarely sits that long without running. If it does, that is the purpose of the switch (or I could just pull out the 12 volt jack). If the continuous power to the ibiza is lost, it is just necessary to manually turn on the ibiza for the car to recognize it.




The ibiza itself has inside it a listing of hundreds of audio podcasts that are available. If there is one that is not listed, this web site is available to add it to the ibiza (just plug the ibiza into any computer to transfer over the info): http://www.ibizapodcasts.com/

There is no need whatsoever to subscribe to the "Rhaposody" service that is also part of the ibiza in order to use the podcast aggregator to download podcasts and play back podcasts in the car. I do not know how or if the Rhapsody service will work with the BMW USB port and iDrive.

I hope that this is helpful. Having ten or so podcasts download wirelessly into my car each night from my home Wi-Fi connection is wonderful.

John

[roofone]

Pretty slick set up. I wish there was a way it would work with the iPhone or iTouch, then integration would be perfect. As it is, I'm not sure I could get a power adapter like yours to fit in the console.

[JohnGarziglia]

The power adaptor I have (the Tom Tom one) just barely fits in the E90 console (the top of the console when closed pretty much bends down the flexible connector to a 90 degree angle) so you can use that as a guide (Best Buy has them so you can measure one exactly). An easy work-around for a power adaptor that is too big (too long) would be to get a 12 volt jack Y-Cable and just keep one outlet open, or cut off the second outlet on the "Y" to make a very short extension cable.

[Jaypod]

Nice work and creativity! Love to see people do work arounds like this!

[roofone]

How can the car read the podcasts on the ibiza? Are they just saved as files, so functionally the same as plugging in a USB flash drive?

Since it looks like I can't use an ipod for this, I'm investigating other options.

[JohnGarziglia]

My understanding of the new BMW system is that it can do two things with a USB flash drive: (1) copy all of the files on the flash drive to the BMW's hard drive, and (2) read files off the flash drive directly. What is done with the ibiza is #2 which is the files are read off the ibiza in real time and as far as I konw, no copying of the files on the ibiza to the BMW hard drive takes place. Or put another way, the the car's audio system looks at the ibiza as another hard drive.

So I guess the answer to your question is "yes" that functionally it is like plugging in a USB flash drive although I have not tried plugging a USB flash drive into the center console USB port so I am not sure. I do know that if I plug the ibiza into the USB port in the glove compartment, it does not work. It only works if plugged into the USB port in the center console.

Another MP3 device I considered getting, but did not partly because it was higher priced was the Archos 5 (http://www.archos.com/products/imt/a...try=ru&lang=en) . The Archos dimensions appear to also allow it to fit in the center console and it too has a wireless Wi-Fi connnection along with a podcast aggregator to automatically download podcasts. It also appears to have capability for a 3G connection at whatever subscription cost 3G connections are from cell companies so that could be interesting. But besides being more expensive, it really is a video player and I had no intention of watching videos on it in my car. The podcast aggregator on the Archos 5 is an add-on for a $20 or so extra cost. I never tried the Archos 5 so I have no idea whether it would work but if anyone one does try it, I am curious if it does work with the BMW USB port as the ibiza does. I could see quite a nice little video system being set up with the Archos 5 but I was looking for audio only.

I got the 8 gb. ibiza from B&H Photo for $120. B&H Photo only had the 8 gb. ibiza in the color purple. My color choice would have been somewhat different (like black) but I figured since it is hidden in the center console anyway, I can live with purple for the low price they had plus when I bought it I had no idea whether it would work or not (I had not even received delivery of the car). I note that BH Photo no longer has them (at that price or any price) and prices elsewhere are significantly higher around the $200 range (ouch).

[roofone]

I wonder if a Zune would work. It has automatic, wireless syncing, but probably stores it's data in a proprietary format (like the Ipod) that the car couldn't read. I also wonder if it would work with a HD based device...probably I guess if it's powered.

Thanks John, I'll do some more research and will probably give it a try.

[JohnGarziglia]

A nice feature of the ibiza is that it goes into a "standby" mode where it, if there is a Wi-Fi connection available to it, checks for new podcasts every 1/2 hour or so. Since as it turns out, for it to work in the BMW it needs a constant source of 5 volts, that probably is not a consideration since it could be left "on" all the time as it is now being continually charged by the car battery. In looking at the Zune, however, I did not see where it had a podcast aggregator feature built into it but then I did not closely look at the Zune and all of its available 3rd party apps.

There is something called MTP used by MP3 players. Only USB Mass Storage Devices are supposed to work with the BMW system, and MTP devices are not supposed to work (the BMW manual says this). But the ibiza is an MTP device so go figure.

[roofone]

Originally Posted by JohnGarziglia

A nice feature of the ibiza is that it goes into a "standby" mode where it, if there is a Wi-Fi connection available to it, checks for new podcasts every 1/2 hour or so. Since as it turns out, for it to work in the BMW it needs a constant source of 5 volts, that probably is not a consideration since it could be left "on" all the time as it is now being continually charged by the car battery.

Funny, though you didn't mention it, I had assumed the primary reason you needed to power the ibiza was so it could download podcasts. It's cool that it has a standby mode.

Originally Posted by JohnGarziglia

There is something called MTP used by MP3 players. Only USB Mass Storage Devices are supposed to work with the BMW system, and MTP devices are not supposed to work (the BMW manual says this). But the ibiza is an MTP device so go figure.

Yeah, I was reading up on MTP, but couldn't make out yet if that was transparent or not to the OS reading the device. But, apparently you need Media Player 10 for Windows to read from it...seems amazing that it works on with our cars.

Anyway, I've got a blackberry, so I'm going to try using podtrapper on the BB and my built in smartphone integration. Not quite as cool as your set up, but will hopefully work pretty well.

[JohnGarziglia]

Originally Posted by roofone

Funny, though you didn't mention it, I had assumed the primary reason you needed to power the ibiza was so it could download podcasts. It's cool that it has a standby mode.

Actually, I originally hoped it would work using just the standby mode, having power to it only when the USB port was on, and having the ibiza charged when the car was running. I found out, though, that once the car was turned off and thus power to the USB port and the ibiza was turned off, even though the ibiza did fine in the standby mode, the car would not recognize the presence of the ibiza the next time the car was turned on. Having come this far, it became a challenge to get it to work without having to physically open the console and turn on the ibiza each time I wanted to listen to it, and thus the discovery that keeping a constant 5 volt source going to the ibiza through its USB connection enabled the car to recognize it each time the car was turned on.

Originally Posted by roofone

Yeah, I was reading up on MTP, but couldn't make out yet if that was transparent or not to the OS reading the device. But, apparently you need Media Player 10 for Windows to read from it...seems amazing that it works on with our cars.

MTP works fine without Media Player 10 for Windows on a computer, if all that is being done is transferring over podcast links to the podcast directory in the ibiza using the Podcast Generator (http://www.ibizapodcasts.com/) which simply writes the correct lines of code for the ibiza into a small file which is saved on the desktop of a computer, and then using any file manager program (i.e. Explorer) is copied over once to the ibiza while connected to the computer. Once the file is copied over to the ibiza, the ibiza does the rest in automatically downloading any new podcasts.

Originally Posted by roofone

Anyway, I've got a blackberry, so I'm going to try using podtrapper on the BB and my built in smartphone integration. Not quite as cool as your set up, but will hopefully work pretty well.

I tried plugging into the USB port my Blackberry Storm last night. The car's systme did not recognize it. I had not even thought of doing that so I was curious if it would work. Maybe there is a way to get it to work but I would not know where to start.

[roofone]

Originally Posted by JohnGarziglia

I tried plugging into the USB port my Blackberry Storm last night. The car's systme did not recognize it. I had not even thought of doing that so I was curious if it would work. Maybe there is a way to get it to work but I would not know where to start.

I found out the same thing -- iDrive just says that my blackberry is not supported. Oh well.

[JohnGarziglia]

Not to prolong this thread, but this is interesting. Had I known about this power supply, I probably would have hard wired it into my car and hidden it somewhere under the dash by the fuse block, or in the console, for the project above rather than using the 12 volt/5 volt jack into the console 12 volt outlet:http://www.semsons.com/ganutohaca.html

I still may do this as I generally hate the 12 volt jacks which tend to loosen or have the connections become unreliable over time.

[doba_s]

Do you know if it would be possible to use new gen. iPod with Wi-Fi ? it shouldn't be a problem to connect it right ?

[roofone]

Originally Posted by doba_s

Do you know if it would be possible to use new gen. iPod with Wi-Fi ? it shouldn't be a problem to connect it right ?

I imagine, though I don't think it does wireless sync.

[roofone]

Originally Posted by JohnGarziglia

Not to prolong this thread, but this is interesting. Had I known about this power supply, I probably would have hard wired it into my car and hidden it somewhere under the dash by the fuse block, or in the console, for the project above rather than using the 12 volt/5 volt jack into the console 12 volt outlet.

Nice find. If I do this I will definitely use this for power.

[KevinO]

Originally Posted by roofone

I imagine, though I don't think it does wireless sync.

Correct, although you can download podcasts manually, no sync.