Bluetooth FM Modulator
(TuneBase FM)
Introduction
I just picked up a car kit from ebay for $90AUD. This car kit plugs in via the cigarette lighter socket and connects to your phone via bluetooth.
All audio (music/video) and calls are transmitted via bluetooth from your phone to the car kit. The car kit then transmits the audio to an FM station of your choice.
This is a completely wireless set-up letting you mount your phone anywhere in the car. There is a usb port on the base of the car kit that allows you to charge your phone also (provided you have the right cable).
Music Playback
There are 4 ways to listen to music with this car kit.
- You can insert a usb storage key that contains mp3/wma music and it will allow you to play the songs stored on it.
- There is an SD slot that allows you to do the same thing. You load music on your memory card and it allows you to play them.
- You can play the songs stored on your mobile phone via a bluetooth connection.
- You can connect a music device using the audio cable although this offers you no control of the music playback.
Remote Controls
The car kit also comes with 2 remotes. The first remote is a standard pocket sized remote control with 20 keys that allow you to do the following :
- Control Music Playback
- Answer/Hang up a call
- Make a call (You dial using the numeric buttons)
- Set equalizer
The second remote attaches on the inside of the steering wheel. It is NOT designed for a right-hand drive car. There are two IR LED's at the base of the remote. I got my soldering iron out and relocated one of them to the top of the remote. It now has a line of sight between the car kit and the remote allowing me to use it.
There are 6 or so buttons on the car kit itself that allow you to answer/hangup a call, set the frequency, play/pause and next/prev track.
Using this with my iPhone 3G
Connection & Pairing
I paired it up to my iPhone using the default passkey '0000'. I then set the frequency on the radio to match the one I chose on the car kit device. This was a no brainer and worked first time, very nice. I found that if my iPhone had bluetooth enabled when I got in the car that it would automatically connect as soon as I started the car and the car kit device had power.
Playing music
I fired up the iPod player and started playing some music. There is a slight distortion when the track starts but hardly noticable. I was able to use both remotes and the device to control the play/pause function. The iPhone would play and pause the track perfectly. I noticed that the next/prev track buttons had no effect. This is a bit disappointing but I can either blame apple's A2DP profile or the car kit manufacturer's for this one.
Making/Receiving Calls
I used the 20 key remote and dialed a number. This worked no problems although I had to leave a little pause between button presses for the device to register each key press. I don't find using the remote to dial a number particularly useful, especially while driving. I'm giving this function a miss.
I next called another number and reached a friends voice mail....doh! I went back to testing the music and had a song playing when I got an unexpected call from a telemarketer. PERFECT! I answered the call using the remote and politely fobbed them off. They heard me clearly and I heard them clearly. After I hung up (using the remote) the music that was previously interrupted by the call began playing again. That's a big tick for full handset functionality.
Playing Videos
Now this was interesting. I must say that I was moderately impressed with this one. The sound was decent and it felt like a surround sound cinema in my car. Two things I noticed however was there was a quiet hissing sound. This I believe is due to the transmission over FM. Not much I can do about that. I found that lowering the volume on the car stereo made the hissing sound near inaudible while still being able to hear the movie. This is a bit silly though since you usually crank it up when watching movies.
I might try encoding my movies with a bit more audio gain next time and see if that resolves that issue. Music playback is louder so you don't usually need to crank up the volume on the car stereo to the point where you can hear quiet hissing.
Anyway on to the next funny thing I noticed. The audio was 1 sec out of sync with the movie. There appeared to be 1 second lag as the audio was transmitted from bluetooth to FM to my car stereo. It's not bad but it ruins the car cinema experience. Solution, encode with 1 second video lag? I don't think so. I'll have to think of a solution for this one.
Supported Apps
Sygic GPS worked a treat with the directions coming through the car stereo loud and clear. I'm yet to see what happens when a call drops in while the app is running but so far so good. I wanted to make a video of this while streaming audio at the same time.
Unfortunately the Video Recorder app understandably takes full control of the audio hardware and pauses the music so it can record audio with the video. I didn't notice any sounds from the Springboard like the slide to unlock click sound but that sound is pretty insignificant. I'm relatively sure that other apps will work and will have to try some games out etc...
Interference & Sound Quality
As I mentioned above there is a slight hissing sound when the volume on the car stereo is turned too high. I found I only needed to turn the volume up on the car stereo when watching movies. I did try fiddling with the car kit device's volume control but found it didn't help much. A big annoyance was an issue caused by the iPhone itself.
There is a big amount of interference while having Wifi & Bluetooth enabled and in use at the same time. I had no problems when on a 3G connection but in my driveway I was still connected to my home router and noticed the audio streaming choke up pretty hard. After I turned off the wifi on the iPhone the audio played perfectly.
A2DP & Controling Playback
The next/prev track buttons on both remotes and the car kit don't have any effect on the iPhone. I wasn't able to skip or rewind songs unfortunately. I can live with this but it would have been nice to have full control over the music on my iPhone. I broke the bluetooth connection by switching between the video recorder and the music player quickly and found that the car kit stopped working. I solved this by turning the bluetooth off and on again on the iPhone.
Conclusion
This is quite a handy car kit device for under $100AUD. I found a few little bugs with it but the main features I purchased it for worked.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteI have two questions to the transmitter.
Shows it the ID3-tags from the mp3s?
Send the transmitter the ID3-tags from the mp3s over RDS (Radio Data System) via FM?
Thank you.
Bye.
HI!!
ReplyDeleteI have bought it too! And the music sounds great but the sound of calls is horrible! Someone calls me and he listens me very good but not me.
Do you know why can't I listen good? How can I do?
Thank You!!