When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I have been doing a lot of web searching to solve...
I did web surfing reading forums and searching for a simple solution for our USB only problem. I have read that the closest solution that anyone has up come up with without taking the radio out or settling for an fm transmitter or Bluetooth, is that some people have tried out products from this website: https://gromaudio.com/store/all-nisk...u_wlq1tc_.html . It would be the perfect solution if their USB type C to USB Type A cord worked for everyone. Unfortunately I have read in a lot of places that people with some Apple devices and MANY people with Android devices are still have trouble with being able to connect to our radios. Some people are having trouble with the software in certain phones not "hugging" our headunit's software. Others are having the issue that their phones are not able to charge and swap data at the same time, therefore they need to connect in a different way other than using the micro USB ports. I learned a lot about the different types of USB sizes last night and which sizes have what capabilities. I know some of us have RCA inputs and this may work for some phones, which is great because all you would need is a 3.5mm AUX to RCA or AUX to AUX cord. Some phones on the other hand are having no problem communicating with the headunit and charging at the same time as it plays music through the charging port with either a USB Type A to Micro USB or USB Type A to USB Type C cord. I wish this we're the case for everyone. Unfortunately I am in the boat where my phone still uses the micro USB charger instead of the newer smarter USB Type C input. I learned that some Micro USB cords are only charging cables and do not have the extra wires to charge.
This surprised me, but apparently it's hard to tell the difference unless you try to transfer data with your Micro USB and see if it works. Some people were saying if a cable is both a charging cable and a data cable that it will have the little USB symbol somewhere near the ends. But I learned this was not always the case because some people were claiming to have a data cord that didn't have the symbols on it. Reading even more I learned that even if you have a data plug capable of doing both that some phones could not do both and would only take the energy being forced into it once plugged into the USB port and would not allow the transfer of data at the same time. This means no music could be played through the head unit because I didn't come across anything where someone could tell the phone to transfer data and ignore the charging. Even more surprising was that if a phone has a headphone jack as well as the charging port, there is a chance that it only has the capability of playing music through the headphone jack and not the charging port. So it wouldn't matter what cord you had or if you could tell the phone to only play music because some phones can't play through the charging port.
This means that some phones have to either settle for Bluetooth, use an fm transmitter, or hope that their phone is capable of playing through the headphone jack with an AUX cord...if they have a headphone jack. So this means some people who only have a USB port better hope that their phone is one that has the capability of playing music and charging at the same time with a USB Type A to Micro USB or USB Type C. (Whichever type of port their phone has.) I learned that the phone companies are trying to phase out headphone jacks on phones and trying to move to the USB Type C ports that as becoming more and more common. Meaning were gonna start to see electronics like headphones that charge and transfer sound through USB cords instead of 3.5mm headphone jacks. Apparently the USB Type C can transfer data a lot faster and charge much quicker than then Micro USB. My point is all this is to say I am trying to find an option or a couple of options beside the products by the company listed above since I seems like not all their products work all the time for everyone since companies have not all caught up with making new technologies work together across all the phone platforms. I am in the position where I only have a USB port, my phone will not connect with my data cable when I try to use the USB plug for whatever reason.
It seems like there are certain Apple phones that work without issue when trying to use the AUX input and even the USB input. It seems like the newer the iPhone the better. iPod touches seemed to have good luck and so so most newer iPhones and even iPod nanos. Although original iPods and some of the ones that weren't touch screen yet seemed to be a hit or miss depending on the input used and the year of the car and iPod itself. I read that this was probably because the touch screen Apple products are more technologically advances and we're all digital with no moving parts, where as the older model Apple products apparently have a little disc that spins inside and a lot of people were saying it seemed like their iPods just could keep up with the processing speed of the headunit causing lagging and skipping songs and acting a fool all together. I like Androids and that's what I have, unfortunately it seems like Androids have the hardest time aligning the stars and making every variable work out for them.
So since I don't want to settle for an fm transmitter and I couldn't seem to get my phone to play music through Bluetooth either I decided to try to see how far along we've all gotten to solving this issue. As of now I found that the closest we have come is to buy a product form the company I mentioned above. Some of their products claim you have to download a program of theirs and always have it on while playing music off of an online app like YouTube or Google and not songs that you already have on your phones memory. I like to play my music off of YouTube so I can play any song I'm in the mood for. I began the search for a simple solution that would allow me to do this without buying a product that may or may not work all the time or that I had to go through the extra steps of dealing with using their software. I came to the conclusion that if I could find a cord that connected the headphone jack to USB Type A, then I could get what I wanted and enjoy not listening to the same songs on the radio all the time like i have been recently. I had already come across some information stating that since the USB plug was electronic, the music signals that I would be sending to the USB input from my headphone jack would not be recognizable to the headunit because it was not digital. The signal being sent through the headphone jack would be analog. I learned that some phones have what is called an Analog to Digital music converter.
There are a few ways to tell but this would mean reading the specs of your phone to find out if it had the capability of converting music before transmitting it through the headphone jack. I have not gotten a chance to see if my phone is smart enough to do this or not because I figured I would just start my search for the perfect cord that hopefully didn't require me to download any programs or find a way to convert the music manually by either finding an app that might be out there or finding a simple physical music converting piece of hardware to connect between the phone and the USB port so the music would be converted on the way to the headunit. I found it hard to find an AUX to USB cord at first, it didn't seem to be too popular. Then I realized once I finally found a couple cords that may work that all of these cords were data AND charging cables. It makes since because there are some electronics out there that charge themselves through a 3.5mm jack. Luckily I realized this because my phone doesn't charge through its headphone jack. So if I ended up buying and trying one of these cords by plugging it into my USB port in my car which charges things, I would be sending electricity into my phone through the headphone jack which couldn't be a good idea. I'm assuming it wouldn't be good for my phone and I would bet it could ruin my phone. I don't know all about electricity but it just seems like it wouldn't be worth the risk...
So I continued my search in hopes to find a data only AUX to USB Type A cable without the extra wires inside that carry the electricity. I was able to see that all the cords I was looking at had 3 lines on the jack instead of the normal 2 lines for the left and right sides on a normal stereo jack. I could feel safe that I could then tell for sure when I came across a data only cable by counting the lines. I searched all night for the many options and combinations of cords and adapters that may be available or that I could rig together to get to the goal of having the AUX to USB cord that I wanted to test. I came across many combinations but mygoal was not make it as short as possible with the lease amount of connections, adapters or converters as possible. I wanted to have a few options just in case my first cord didn't work. I narrowed my findings down t the ones that seemed most plausible and we're the least complicated. I'm going to post this message and start a new one with what I have come up with as the most plausible solutions. My phone is lagging from all the typing and I don't want to lose this thread. If anyone has already solved this problem or has input on something I don't know feel free to chime in. ��
Last edited by Kingnick21; 09-24-2019 at 08:59 PM.
Sorry for the length of my first post I just figured I'd put all he info from all the forums and postsni came across in one place. lol👽
These are the simplest connections I came across: This is my second choice. Don't we have a bus connection available? I think if we don't have navigation then we have an open bus connection available. I think the navigation takes up the bus connection in some cars though.
This one also requires access to the back of the head unit but requires tapping into a wire so not as simple as the pac adapter one above.
This one may be my favorite because there is no need to access the back of the head unit. It's simple and only has data transfer so it won't try to charge through the headphone jack.
These also may work but require an AUX to AUX cord so it's an extra connection in between.
i think I'm gonna try to get my hands on the simple USB Type A to AUX cord I found with the data transfer only capability. I'll let you know if it works properly with my Android.
09-22-2019, 01:23 PM
