2010 Drive sound system, how do you link your iPhone music
 

Hi there,

Another week and another question :_:

I found the sound system when its cranked up is really good and I'd like to link my iPhone music to it, is there any easy way to do this?

There is already bluetooth and I have connected the iphone successfully to the car but I am not likely to use it in this way, to make and receive phone calls while driving, which is what its really for? I don't have media or tel buttons or a screen, just a cd slot.

I googled but not much comes up just an

expensive apple CarPlay
https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/ip...ystem-3507818/

a cheap piggy pack off of fm?
http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-to...8-2?r=US&IR=T/

and an ugly gromm box addition

Have I missed something, is there a cheap easy way to do this and not ugly up the car, still keep the cars lovely neat design?

to change to an apple play thing Wont be cheap, and probably wont work

the V50 has a system that is
a/ coded to the car
b/ coded to each other bit
c/ uses fiber optics,
d/ might have ,depending on system level, an amp under a seat/in the boot,

so "cheap" and not have "bits n things" on show = no
possible, yes but £££££

https://www.pure.com/uk/product-comp...product3=16695
not the cheapest, Does have a "stick on bit you see" x2 but they arent that ugly,,

Maybe this is interesting for some, amazon prime day today and they have these reduced, the Pure Highway 600 one by quite a bit (113£) and the other 2 fm (not dab) by a few quid (these have lots of good reviews, you can always return (cost 5£) if the sound isn't good enough.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pure-Highway-600-Radio-Adapter-Multi

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Transmitter-VicTsing-Bluetooth-Handsfree-Jack-Blue-Blue

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Transmitter-VicTsing-Bluetooth-Hands-Free-Supports

I too have a 2010 V50.

What sound system do you have? Do you have an Aux In port?

Mine has the basic "Perormance" sound system and Bluetooth for calls only, and no Aux In port, so in order to connect my iPhone via bluetooth for music, I installed this FM Modulator (not an FM transmitter).

It's hard-wired into the FM aerial input at the back of the head unit, and gives you an Aux in. To access it, you tune your radio to a specific frequency. As it's wired in and powered by 12V, the signal is much stronger than any FM broadcast, so there's no interference at all. I comes with both 3.5mm and RCA inputs. I went with the RCA inputs, because I got one of these combined 3.5mm and USB charging ports.

I then ran the USB charging port off the wires to the cigarette lighter (neatly under the centre console, and behind the waterfall), plugged the RCA cables from the 3.5mm port into the FM modulator cables, and put it behind the waterfall.

Then I got a Firefly USB receiver. It's powered off the new USB port, and plugged into the new Aux port. It only handles bluetooth music, not calls, which is what I wanted as the car does the cals already.

When I turn on the ignition, the phone (which is conveniently mounted on to an Mophie magnetic wireless charger on the centre vents) automatically connects to the car for calls and to the Firefly for music, which is then sent to the head unit via the FM Modulator Aux port.

Finally, I have a bluetooth remote control mounted on the back of the steering wheel, so I can pause, play, skip back and forth tracks with my hand on the wheel. I use Siri for changing playlists or picking songs or albums.

Here's the only visible bit:

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1822/...ac973c6a_z.jpg

I haven't finished mounting everything properly, but when I do, that will be neatly mounted in the small tray behind the waterfall. I could put it in the armrest box too, where the OEM Aux and bluetooth goes. I wanted them somewhere accessible in case I ever needed to plug the Flirelfy out to reset it, but in 6 months of running it, I haven't had to, so really I could hide it behind the trim panel behind the waterfall and have it totally out of sight. I might actually do that.

I’ve just bought a 2008 V50 and interested to upgrade the original Performance sound system to include sat nav, Bluetooth, and DAB.

A very expensive option I found was the below, does anyone know anything about this i.e. does it actually work and any negatives to be aware of (besides the price!)??

https://www.bluepower.se/en/product/...ndroid-71.html

A few people on the Facebook V50/S40/C30 group have installed it, but on-one has posted a comprehensive review. I think a couple of people experienced difficulties with parts missing and poor communication with the seller. The older (and almost as expensive) unit ran Windows CE, and had a lot of limitations from what I can gather. While you would hope that the Android version would overcome these, it's a lot to spend on being a guinea pig. The first Android units only started shipping at the end of April, so hopefully we'll start to see some updates from the early adopters, as it is the only complete ICE upgrade for our cars.

Edit: This thread on the FB group seems to be more detail from a guy that installed it in May, and seems happy. He had the old Win CE version before. I haven't read it yet all yet, so I don't know if there's much detail. Sorry, you need to be on FB and a member of the group to see it, but the group is a good and helpful resource for all things V50/S40/C30 (as this group also is).

I went the el cheapo fm transmitter route

the V50 1.6 drivE has 3 12v sockets,
1 by the driver,
1 in the middle console facing the rear passenger and
1 in the boot,

When I plugged the fm transmitter in them it did not work in all three.

so I asked a colleague if we could try it in his car and it worked so I concluded it was probably the fuses had popped.

I looked here to see which of the fuses were for the 12v and they are in position 45 and 77. (45 is for both the front and rear seat one I think.) Because the passenger 12v looks like someone had their lunch in it I think I can't use it and its a bit awkward to clean so I used the rear passenger one)

What fuses..? a bit of googling and I came to the conclusion I was looking for 15amp mini blade fuses and because I read somewhere this is quite a sensitive fuse it might pop a lot and I thought id better buy a few of them. so I bought these on amazon.

The 12v fuses are in the fuse box under the glove compartment, you don't need tools to unscrew this just normal fingers, there are two large toggle screws at either end..
Attachment 114730


I had a devil :angry_smile: of job getting the fuses themselves out, fingers, tweezers, tweezers with some rubber as purchase didn't work so I had to use my nan's trusty old pliers.

Attachment 114731

Attachment 114733

I put it back together (first time, (I opened it up last night before I ordered the fuses), it was a bit of a struggle to get it back so the screws align but the second time it went back in place easily).

It switched on, just press the round dial :tounge_smile:

Attachment 114732

Its so easy to set up,
blue tooth paired it by getting my phone and when t27 (its id) came in range I paired, It defaults to the first part of fm range 87.5 and then you tune the radio to this and then hold down one of the radio preset number keys for a few seconds and 87.5 is saved there.

so far so good :_:

+ YouTube Video

:D

This could be EXACTLY what I'm looking for for when I get round to fitting my Pure Highway 400. Do you have any kind of instructions or tips as to how to go about fitting it? I've got a 2011 C30 with no aux or bluetooth currently. I've seen it for sale on a different website and it says "This Volvo AUX via Wired FM modulator is supplied with Volvo aerial adapters. Please ensure your Volvo model has the aerial input as pictured as there is more than one type of Volvo aerial input" - is there a way of knowing what type of input I have without removing the whole unit first?

For fitting, you're going to have to go through the rigmarole of removing the whole waterfall section, starting with the screws back in the armrest storage, and eventually ending up with you being able to remove the head unit. Here's a copy of the official instructions (http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/In...er_console.pdf), but there's also plenty of guides online and some videos on YouTube. I would advise the use of a long shaft torx screwdriver to take out the 2 screws by the handbrake. I can't remember if they're T20 or T25, but you are unlikely to be able to reach them with a multi-head swappable set. Also a set of nylon trim removal tools will make life easier.

I bought my FM Modulator from Amazon (link in my original post). I didn't need any adapters to connect it to the aerial port (2010 V50 with Performance audio system). I don't know if different years or different systems used different ariel ports.

I've just fitted an Alpine EZI-DAB to my C30 in order to add USB memory stick playback to the basic "Performance" audio system.... I've mounted the USB socket in the factory location beside the AUX socket and managed to run the cables through the centre console without going through the rigmarole of removing the centre console.... managed to get away with just removing the gear-stick gaiter.

Cool, looks like stress free fitting job.

Unfortunately with the FM Modulator, you need access to the aerial port at the back of the head unit, which means taking the whole waterfall off.

Luckily mine had an AUX input.... I was also lucky to find a new unused Alpine EZI-DAB with the USB input as the current versions don't have that function.

Thanks a lot for your reply. When you say it’s powered by the 12V, do you have to wire it in or does it just plug in? I’ve not had any experience with wiring and I can just see myself causing much more damage!!

Just another question about this - you said you didn't have the AUX In port - did you have USB? I'm a bit confused about how you'd fit the 2 in 1 USB / AUX you've got too?

And when you said "I then ran the USB charging port off the wires to the cigarette lighter", how do you do this? Does it involve some extra wiring or is it just a case of plugging it in somewhere?

Final (for now!) question - in doing all this, did the radio have to be disconnected, and if so what do you do about the code, or is one not required?

Thanks in advance!

Sorry to bump this up again, but hoping phutyle sees this and can help me!

Sorry, I missed these questions.

My v50 didn't have USB either, so it involved some extra wiring, but nothing too difficult. But bear in mind that I'm using the USB only for power, not for data.

(Edit: when I say "nothing too difficult", it will involve crimping connections onto wires. So you'll need the raw materials, a wire cutter, stripper and crimper.)

That combined USB and aux adapter has two seperate sets of wires coming out of it - Audio ones for the aux input, and a standard USB cable.

The audio connection is plugged into to the FM modulator (that's connected to the aerial input at the back of the radio), so that's just a matter of plugging the right connections in.

For the USB connection, I took to a spur from the power supply to the powerpoint in the center console. I used these piggyback spade terminal connectors to do that without cutting any wires, and it's easy to put back to original if necessary. I've an inline fuse on the new power wire. This then powers this double USB powerpoint, which is securely and secretly mounted inside the center console (and can be easily accessed by popping off the gear stick gaiter or under the little tray behind the waterfall). The USB connection from the combined USB and aux adapter is plugged one of these ports. My magnetic charging pad (that's mounted up on the center vent) is plugged into the second USB port).

The radio did have to be disconnected to attach the FM modulator - that's the hardest part of the whole operation (and isn't that hard, just a bit tedious). There's no code required for the radio - the head unit is hard-encoded to the car.

Edit: here's a diagram of the wiring:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7876/...d7402465_b.jpg

Thanks so much for your reply phutyle. I'm very much of the opinion that if I try to do it myself I'll cause many more problems, so I've booked it in locally to get done. Also managed to source the USB / Aux insert for the cubby on ebay so hopefully it'll look as 'factory' as possible. My idea is that instead of the RCA to 3.5mm male cable the modulator came with, I can get a RCA to 3.5mm female socket cable instead. I just need the USB for power to power the Pure aerial (the cable is a USB and aux combined so that's what I wanted the port there), so hopefully they can use the power from the rear 12v socket, as I never use that.

If it all goes to plan and works, I'll post some pictures if anyone's interested. And thanks again for your valuable info!!

Volvo AUX input adapter via Wired FM Modulator AVFM-MOD01 with Volvo aerial adapters included https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0754X2P..._8ZIQCbFH9EQV9

I bought the device and installed. It works well. There is a little interference but you cant hear it once audio is playing.