I'm waiting patiently for my Honda Civic Hybrid with Navi in Magnetic Pearl to arrive on Jan 1st. I've been thinking about the "audio card reader" feature of the navi model. From what I've read, its simply a pcmcia slot that you can put a pcmcia card reader into.

It makes me wonder what other things you might put into that slot. Since it is expecting just a dumb reader there, it is probably just looking for a file system. If this is the case, could you put a hard drive there? You can get a Toshiba 5 GB PCMCIA hard drive off of ebay from $30-$80. It would be nice to have 5GB of music sitting in your car, especially if it was built into the existing user interface. Does anyone have experience with the audio card reader?

Also, this got me thinking further that a pcmcia card that had a usb host could be extremely useful. Plug your phone/pmp/mp3 player into the usb slot in the pcmcia card, and voila! You've mounted the filesystem. The biggest hurdle I see is that the pcmcia card would have to have enough smarts to mount the usb device as a mass storage device without using any drivers. It would have to just look like a file system from the navi side of the connection. I've checked around, and this sort of device doesn't exist. However, I've designed both USB and PCMCIA interfaces before, and this would not be very hard of a product to bang out.

Finally, what about that ipod connector? Is that basically a firewire host with some driver at the end to mount the ipod? I wonder if it could be adapted to other devices? A firewire to USB converter might work... Then again, Apple is proprietary enough that it probably wouldn't.

Anyhow, the possibilities of integration with gadgets here is huge!

--Brad

 

i think the iPod connection is just an auxilary input.

 

Actually, the ipod connector is much more, check out this link:

http://automobiles.honda.com/models/...e=Civic+Hybrid

The ipod connector can control the ipod (while it sits quietly in your glove box) from the steering wheel. I'm just wondering what sort of connector it is, and whether the mp3s are played by the ipod, or by the stereo. In other words, is the ipod used as an audio server, or a mass storage device?

--Brad

 

As far as the card reader I love it and use it everyday! I have a generic 6 in 1 PCMCIA adaptor with a 1 GB SD card. According to the manual its says to to use Hard drive based cards with the Navi/Card reader. It says that it may cause damage to the unit. However, personally I believe that it would be a problem, but I am not sure if that is a risk I want to take on a $1,500 unit. As far as usuing a USB host PCMCIA adaptor, I don't believe that would work because the screen for the Navi needs to open in order to insert the card. The screen will not close if the card is not inserted all the way, thus the USB host card will not be flush with the inside of the unit and the screen will not close. Most of the functions of the radio do not work when the screen is opened. The music continues to play but cannot use any controls on the unit and the steering wheel controls will only adjust the volume when the screen is open. It would be nice to be able to do that however. I still may try to use a hard drive based card in the slot one day. 5 GB of music sounds great....How about that XM radio!

 

Prices for memory seem to be on a downward trend. With rebates, I picked up a 2GB SD card for ~ US $80. It's nice to be able to see the songs on-screen. There is an iPod add-on mentioned above, but for US $200, I think I'll take a pass on that. The sweet spot would (IMHO) be for less than US $100, but it's a niche of a niche market and likely not profitable in the short-run.

 

It is, unless you purchase the accessory that harperbrad linked too. Then you are able to charge the iPod too.

 

Aside from the ability to hide the iPod in the glove compartment and you only have one cable to think about (you can already charge if you have a card charger and you can connect through the Aux jack...), neither is particularly compelling for the cost.

Here are the details. I found it online for US $165. Not including installation.

http://www.hondapartsdeals.com/produ...ink-2006-civic

Let the music play – The Honda Civic iPod Link

So you just picked up the new 60GB iPod and have loaded a ton of music on it but still have to resort to playing CDs in your car. If you’re a proud owner of a Honda Civic then you’re in luck. The Honda Civic iPod Link now lets you play music from your iPod. Designed specifically for Honda the iPod connection for Civics produces crisp, digital-quality sound results. Thanks to the amazing technology of this link you can easily play your ipod in Honda civics. Some other fabulous features include:

• Use the steering wheel-mounted audio control buttons to search for and play music from your iPod iPod connection for Civics charges your iPod battery while it's connected and the vehicle is on
• Use the audio system's controls to search for and play music from your iPod.
• The Honda Civic iPod Link kit includes a dealer-installed music link cable, a quick reference guide to get you started, and a Honda music link CD

Designed specifically for Honda vehicles

• Play music from your Apple iPod through your vehicle's audio system
• Get crisp, digital-quality sound results
• Music Link will work with the 4th-generation iPodm iPod mini, iPod nano, and iPod u2 Special Edition.
• Use the audio system's controls to search for and play music from your iPod
• Use the steering wheel-mounted audio control buttons to search for and play music from your iPod
• The Music Link system charges your iPod battery while it's connected and the vehicle is on
• Honda Music Link kit includes a dealer-installed Music Link cable, a Quick Reference Guide to get you started, and a Honda Music Link CD

 

Exactly my thoughts. I will just connect through the AUX port.

 

I wonder if the quote from thread on Pet Peeves has any relevance here? Imagine what static could do to a memory card?

 

I've been using my ipod connected to the AUX input for the past week or so with a $5 cable from Radio shack. The positives are that it sounds surprisingly good and as i mentioned it only costs $5 to get going. The downsides are that you can't control it using voice or the audio screen, just the ipod itself which takes your eyes off the road and there is no power to the ipod so after a few days you will have to remember to recharge it. I would reccomend mounting it securely and high on the dashboard if this is going to be your preferred solution. Comparing the PCMCIA adapter, it is much better integrated into the Audio System - even the Honda iPod adapter doesnt show you the name of the song or artist on the screen but the PC card does. You can also search for song's using the keypad as well as by voice. You don't have to worry about power and the steering wheel controls work as well. With a 4 GB card you can hold approx 100 albums (4 GB card = $125 at Amazon). 8 GB cards are much pricier but should come down in price. Unfortunately im a ipod and itunes fan so i've got a huge library of aac files but i will now be ripping to wma and leaving the ipod at home except for long trips. The PC card is a much better solution than the Aux port and even the aftermarket Honda iPod adapter - too bad i've got to use wma now but its well worth it for the integration with the rest of the system.