Today Lyssa and I tackled the installation of her iPod Mini in our tC. We used a DF-TOY adapter from USA Spec to connect the iPod to the stock head unit. We disassambled the center console using the tC teardown directions found elsewhere on ScionLife, all the way from the air vents to the center armrest including the cupholder section, and removed the head unit. After connecting everything to test the adapter worked properly, we mounted the DF-TOY adapter behind the head unit using 3m double-sided molding mounting tape.



Here is the adapter once the head unit is back in place (you can see the bottom of the head unit at the top of the pic), as you can see there is plenty of room for all of the necessary cabling etc.



Next up we ran an RCA to 3.5mm cable from the DF-TOY down through the center of the car, securing it out of the way of the parking brake. We cut a hole in the bottom of the armrest big enough to pass the ipod dock connector through. We had to remove the 2 bolts inside the bottom of the armrest under the carpet in order to get the clearance to cut the hole.



This gave us an iPod dock connector outside of the armrest, shown here. You can also see where we ran the RCA to 3.5mm cable through the interior.



Inside the armrest we used a Belkin Auto-kit plugged into the auxiliary power socket. The Belkin has an amplified 3.5mm takeoff where we plugged in our RCA to 3.5mm adapter. We also put a small slit in the carpet to fit around the cables and hide the hole nicely. Almost done....



We reassembled the center console putting the dock connector through the parking brake opening, then put in a Belkin iSqueez cup holder mount. We used the iSqueez because we will be using both an iPod Mini and a 15gb 3G model, so needed something that would hold both. Connect the Dock connector, and there you have it.



The only thing that shows is a small section of the dock connector wire. We are planning to cut into the bottom of the cup holder and hide this completely. What do you guys think?

 

looks clean!

 

very nice...real clean...im gonna be getting the kenwood dvd touchscreen so when i buy that adapter i can change it all through the headunit, so that i can leave the ipod inside the armrest near the power source....so that will be sweet.....Good job man

 

Hey, looks awesome! Nice work. Quick question tho. Does the adapter plug in to the satellite radio in? I'm wondering because I just installed XM last weekend, but still want to do something like this to hook up my iPod as well.

 

Yeah, it plugs into the XM/CD Changer port so you can't use both if you have the factory XM setup. If you had a standalone XM box you could use the 2nd set of auxiliary RCA jacks to hook up the XM box, but you wouldn't be able to control it from the head unit like you can with the factory XM setup.

 

Mmmm, that's unfortunate. Does the iPod adapter draw power via the single cable that runs to the head unit? Getting ahead of myself, I'm wondering if it might be possible to splice the cables together then wire in a switch that can switch the power between the iPod adapter and the factory XM kit.

 

how much did the entire setup cost you?

 

No, the iPod gets it's power from the Belkin auto kit adapter in the center arm rest. The weird thing is, the DF-TOY came with a Y adapter that looks like you could plug the factory XM kit in at the same time as the AUX adapter. I don't have the XM to try it though...you can see the open end of the connector at the top of the 2nd picture.

Total cost was about $85. The DF-TOY was $55 from discountcarstereo.com, the Belkin power adapter was $20 from eBay and the Griffin iSqueez cup holder thingy was $10 from radio shack.

 

i would of gotten the monster cable.. i had one... but my ipod fried...

 

does the Connector have a Firewire or USB connector to plug into the power sorce (belkin)?

I have a firewire car power adapter and was wondering if that would be a problem and I would have to purchase a USB adapter....

 

It looks good but I would've left the iPod inside the armrest so as to hide it from view. That's what I'm planning on doing.

 

Yeah, we were just looking at the new Griffin Airclick remote for iPod. Since it's RF, we could leave the iPod in the armrest and mount the remote somewhere. Remember with the DF-TOY and the TOY03-AUX you can't control the iPod from the head unit, so if you want any kind of control either the iPod or a remote has to be within easy reach.