Mopar ipod adaptor basic navigation instructions.

[Mr. iNCREDIBLE]

ok so I installed my mopar ipod adapter last week.. I suffered some issues with it and "Jaak" gave me some advice on how to resolve them. Using that advice as a stepping stone I "fixed" my issues and I thought I would share some of that with everyone.

First off, the instructions for Navigating the screens that came with the Mopar Ipod adapter SUCK.. they are the worst pile of monkey spunk instructions I have seen in ages..

Second, if you have the Pac-Audio Add an Input Device (AAY-CHY) it has to be removed from the system, it and the Mopar piece conflict with each other and scramble the canbus data making both units cancel each other out.


Ok Jaak and several others had told me that I should put ALL my songs into one play list on my ipod.

This is not acceptable to me, my ipod, like my computer is a big file cabinet, everything is organised to my taste. I have over 500gb worth of mp3's and I loaded over 9000 songs onto my ipod, for them all to be in one playlist is lame..

I now have 46 playlists and can navigate them from the REC Nav unit with the ipod interface...

first you have to press the PTY button twice, this will take you to a selection menu on the Nav unit:





now you will notice at the top of the list is says "Marc's Ipod" this is the name of my ipod, and if I chose that option, then it will play all the songs on the ipod, by-passing the playlists. This is the same as if you went to the Music Menu on the iPod and chose "ALL" - basically it plays everything.


the next item you see is shuffle, now I like shuffle/random so I chose this by using the joystick to scroll down to it, then press the "enter" button to select. Once it is selected, press the RIGHT advance button to toggle it on:



wait for the REC unit to update (it says updating channels) then press the PTY button twice again to get back to the Menu:

you can chose by artist, album, genre, or playlist and the following directions apply for all of them, but I will focus on playlists:

scan down to the very bottom to find playlists:





Press Enter to select, then by using the right and left advance buttons you can cycle thru the playlists (or artists, genre, album, etc) be advised that when you enter the Playlists selection, you are at the "top" of the playlists menu in the ipod, so if you press the "Left" advance button the REC actually takes you to the Artists menu. You have to start by pressing the right button to move down the list.

this action is similar to being in the ipods playlist menu and rotating your finger to the right to scroll down the list.. On the REC unit "Right = Down" and "Left = Up" if you are like me and visualize the ipod menus as you are scrolling thru your REC Nav unit.

as you can see, I now have the ability to see my playlists:

First Screen you see when selecting "Playlists"


then press the "right" advance button:


scrolling thru playlists:









you will notice the NAME of the playlist on top and on the bottom it tells you what menu you are in (in this case playlists, if I were scanning artists thenit would say artist, or genre and so on)

now once get to the playlist you want, press ENTER... it takes 3 -5 seconds for the REC to update and start playing your music, once it has you can now use your Tuning Knob (the knob on the lower right) to advance songs in the playlist... if you press the Right or Left advance buttons, then the unit will advance to the next Menu selection.


The way Mopar is interfacing this, is thru the SAT link, so all the ipod menu items appear as channels.. you can not scroll thru the lists like you would a CD, you have to thing of the ipod as a SAT broadcast and each song as a different channel... Kinda Lame to me, they should have interfaced it so it works like a CD or MP3 CD and you can scroll thru the songs and the menus just like you can on the ipod itself, but alas you can not.. So like me you have to change your mindset to thinking of your ipod as a SAT radio and each song/artist/playlist etc as a channel.

other than Volume, the steering controls seem pointless, because by pressing the up or down arrows on the steering wheel, is the same as pressing the advance track left/right on the REC, so you don't advance to the next song, but rather the next menu item...

but this is all we have, so it we have to make do... Not the most intelligent design I've seen, but it works...



Additionally I have found itunes to suck as well. this is my first ipod, up till last week I was using a Dell DJ, but it died, and they are no longer made or supported.

My Dell DJ sync'd with my computer like a USB Flash drive, when I plugged it in the computer saw it as a removable hard drive, and from windows explorer (aka "my computer") I was able to drag and drop songs or folders directly to it.

then once inside the folders I could right click and create or add to a playlist.

I found a program that works the same way. ANAPOD EXPLORER by RedChair Software. it's $25 but it allows me to use my ipod the way I want and not limit me to the itunes idiocy. Additionally the Mopar Ipod Adaptor seems to work better with the playlists I created in ANAPOD vs the one's from iTunes (different encoding i'm sure). Lastly itunes only allows you to sync to one library on one computer, I have several computers with music on them, and with ANAPOD I can sync with any computer without fear of it deleting my ipod where itunes will delete and overwrite when you attach your ipod to a different computer.

I have no affiliation with ANAPOD or RedChair, just sharing my findings.

[MDEWHEMI]

mr. incredible i need to hook up with you the next beach burgers meet because all i get from my ipod thu my unit is change songs and the volume not like you are showing here thanks,, THE DEWMAN MOPARS ROCK

[Mr. iNCREDIBLE]

no problem, or if you are close to L.A. you can swing by my office in the evening after 7pm..

Marc-