Does anyone know of an adapter cable to attach a Sansa Fuse to the many different types of ipod devices? It would need a 30 pin to fit ipod on one end and a 30 pin to fit Sansa on the other. This could also possibly allow transfer of files (with the same file extension of course) from one device to the other. I have the Sansa Fuse and my son has the ipod. This could simplify an old mans life. Kind of new to the MP3 scene…
There is no such beast. Everything I’ve heard says damage will occur to your fuze if you plug it in to anything not rated for Sansa, which I’m sure you already know.
Brings up other questions for me though. If it isn’t compatable with ipod, why have a plug that is the same? Wouldn’t the plug config. itself ALSO be patented? Can the Sansa be made compatable via firmware? Has anyone done a side by side comparision of the pins?
Apple’s connector is proprietary, and I doubt they would license anyone to make a plug that would simulate that on the iPod itself (that would be required to connect to things designed to plug into the iPod). Its to their benefit that most accessories only work with iPods.
Message Edited by bdb on 11-24-2008 04:29 PM
The 30-pin connector is the same because alot of devices use it, its not like Apple invented it or anything, its just a convenient way to have alot of “channels”, so to speak, in a single interface. Ipods and Sansas however use entirely different pin configurations. This means that such things such as USB, line-out, headphone out, video, etc are on different pins, so they wouldn’t match up. Other things such as control inputs and proprietary data channels wouldn’t even be the same formats. You can’t change the pin outputs, because its a hardware thing, its simply where each pin is connected on the mobo. It shouldn’t be that hard to come up with a cable or even an adapter that would reorganize the pins so compatible outputs would match up, but due to the massive licensing issues involved, I doubt that any company could or would do it. It wouldn’t be impossible for someone to do, just find an ipod 30-pin connector, and a Sansa data cable, find pin-out diagrams for both players, and run the appropriate wires. But as I said, this would be tedious, and you could certainly run into licensing issues. Besides, you still would only be able to use USB and maybe line-out, I doubt any other outputs would be compatible. And I believe that ipods actually use a different power input, so attempting to charge with this cable could fry your Sansa.
Still, I hate that EVERYTHING is made for the ipod, and you can’t find accessories compatible for anything else. There’s literally about 4 devices on the market with a Sansa dock, everything else for Ipod, with a few Zune pieces here and there. That pisses all of us of, but that’s the price you pay for not being a sheep and getting anything other than an Ipod (aka, a good value). Still, I think it would be great to crosswire a sansa and ipod connector so you could put your sansa on top of any ipod dock device just to transmit line-out, if that would work. If I had a bit more electronic expertise I might attempt it, but the problem you run into is if you tried to sell it, even to a few people, you would run into TREMENDOUS licensing issues, and Apple would have a cow. They pay alot of money to make sure everything is compatible with ipods and nothing else.
For now, just do like the rest of us do, and use a basic male/male 3.5mm stereo input cable, or a Griffin dock if you want line-out.
If the ipod devices has an earbud output or input, then you can use the fuze. Only the pin connector will NOT work. So if you have speakers that have the same size connector for the earplugs, then you will be fine. My speakers (link) said iPod or MP3 and they work for the Fuze just fine. If there’s a device that has a 3.5 mm jack, then you’re fine, however for somehting like speakers where the ipod fits in the pin and the fuze uses a wire to the jack, you may not get the same volume, as a pin connector will give you a better volumne. You may need to purchase something to go from the Fuze to the device, such as an extra wire, but that’s fine, I’m sure you could find them (maybe at radioshack).
Read the instructions very carefully to make sure it will be fine.
So if you’re looking for something for both of you, just make sure there is more then one way to use it, or more then one option. Even if the product says iPod, it may also say "compatible with any audio player with a 3.5 mm jack. " or something similar.
Message Edited by Dalaug234 on 11-24-2008 11:25 AM
All I want to do is output from my Sansa and plug into a device that is made to dock an ipod. Is there a cable that plugs into the headphone jack on the Sansa devise and on the other end has a plug that fits the ipod dock/
It would only make sense if you could use an adapter for the Sansa connector to the ipod dock, what would be the point of a headphone jack output adapter? Almost all devices w/ an Ipod dock have an input jack on them somewhere, so just use that. Besides, the headphone jack isn’t line out, so why would you want to put it into a line-in input? Not to mention that its not like you could put it on top of the dock, anyway. I’d love to have a cable or dock adapter (like they have for the Nano) that could step down power and re-route the pins for USB and line-out so it matches up, anything else, just use the input cable and live with it.
Recently I’ve run across 2 iPod docks that didn’t have an input jack and I wasn’t able to use the Sansa. Just trying to think of a way to always be able to use it in that situation.
