I want to build a dock for my car

Great forum - I can see that a lot of help is being given & civility rules (!).

I got my Fuze to use in my car, as a replacement for a 100 or so cassette tapes (yeah, I know “Cassette tapes!!”).  I tried using an FM adapter that my wife has, but that sucked & I got a Griffin tape adapter that works very well.

The tape adapter connects through the headphone jack, but there’s a couple of features that I’d like to have & I’m hoping that I can get them by using an LOD instead.  I’ve found & understand the diyLOD at http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?p=326983.

First, is charging - I assume that supplying +5v on pins 1,2/3,6 of the sync cable connector will do it.

Second - I’d like the Fuze to turn on when the +5 is applied (I’ll build a 5v supply controlled by the radio, or ignition switch).  When I connect to my PC, it turns on automatically, so I assume that it’s the presence of the +5 that does it.  I’ll not connect to the USB signal pins, so the Fuze will play.

The third & most desirable feature that I want is probably not going to happen.  That is for the Fuze to turn off when the radio/car is turned off.  I’m prone to forget that it it’s on & come back to find the battery run down & having missed a bunch of songs on the playlist.  I assume that removing the +5 won’t do it, since disconnecting from the PC doesn’t turn off the Fuze.  So, the big question is: is there some way to use the LOD to turn off the Fuze?  I.e., a signal to some other pin, or something?

Thanks,
Bob

Message Edited by TomJensen on 05-03-2010 05:18 PM

“If the Fuze turns on when juice is applied, then it should also auto-shutoff when juice is disconnected.”

By “should”, do you mean that’s the way it was designed & if mine doesn’t do it, then something is wrong?  Or do you mean theoretically it should?  BTW, my “Version” is V01.02.28A, according to Settings/System Settings/Info.  It definitely does not turn off when I disconnect it the PC USB sync cable.  Should it do that?  Or is it different when the USB signals aren’t there?

 “The more important question is whether it’s a good idea to leave it sitting in the car.  …”

Not a problem, definitely.

 “Personally, I’d go simple and get a USB-lighter adapter … and stick the Fuze into the cup holder. Not the prettiest setup, I admit.”

I do agree with the  “Not the prettiest” part & it doesn’t solve the turn-off problem, which is my highest priority.

Thanks,

Bob

BTW - here’s a pic of the holder that I made for the car.  The headphone jack is molded into the bottom, so the connection is made just by slipping the Fuze into the holder.

“So, the big question is: is there some way to use the LOD to turn off the Fuze?  I.e., a signal to some other pin, or something?”

Doing some more web searching, it doesn’t look like there’s any known pin in the sync cable connector that would directly do this.   That still leaves the possibility of indirect function (i.e., removal of 5v if no USB data pin was used).  Or, an as-yet-undefined pin.

Bob

Message Edited by TomJensen on 05-03-2010 05:18 PM

Mine shuts after some wait (about 5 min, I guess), IF it’s paused.  But if I just disconnect the USB adapter, it continues to play (“forever”).  Does yours turn off even if it isn’t paused?

Thanks again,

Bob

Message Edited by TomJensen on 05-03-2010 05:18 PM

I found that both the Sansa Base Station and the Altec Lansing iM413 remotes can control some functions of the Fuze (on/off, volume, forward/reverse).  I agree with you that they likely use the USB data path to do it.  There is both hardware and protocol in place for syncing and it makes sense that the docks would use that for their control.  In which case, it’s well outsuide the scope of what I could/would do in my car dock.

Too bad.  I guess that I’ll just have to learn to pause the Fuze when I turn the car/radio off (pausing is so much easier to do than stopping with that absurdly hard to use slide switch.

Thanks for your help,

Bob

Well, there is a way that should work, but it might be risky unless you have a player to sacrifice for testing! The Fuze and most modern day electronics will shutdown if there is a short on one of the power supply voltages. The Fuze DIY lineout cable uses pin22 as a 3volt feed to pin7 to enable the lineout function (Hey, that’s my claim to fame here!). You could wire a tiny momentary pushbutton switch from pin7 or 22, through the switch and then to ground. Pushing the switch will ground out pin22 which will short the 3volt supply to ground. This should cause an instant shutdown of the player due to current sensing shutdown. I would not attempt this without testing as it could be death for the Fuze if wired wrong.

I have found the communications method between the dock and the Fuze, and it’s not through the USB port.

So far I have programmed a PIC microcontroller to control all the same things that the Sansa dock can do, and 

as soon as I get some free time I’ll go looking for additional commands (just for fun).

I’ll be making a 12 volt to 5 volt supply next, with switching for the Fuze, so I can detect and respond when

the car gets shut off.  It’s one of those “Oops” things…We want to turn the Fuze off AFTER the power is shut down.

But that means my little car-lod will need two power lines. One switched to tell me when the key has been turned off,

and the other to keep my circuit alive just a little longer… long enough for the Fuze to power down, and THEN I’ll send

the “Power” signal. At least I can make sure it’s a good quiet power supply.

It’s been a lot of fun so far. I wish I had more time to play with it.

I’ll probably start a separate thread once I have it a little more complete.

LyleHaze

@lylehaze wrote:

I have found the communications method between the dock and the Fuze, and it’s not through the USB port.

So far I have programmed a PIC microcontroller to control all the same things that the Sansa dock can do, and 

as soon as I get some free time I’ll go looking for additional commands (just for fun).

 

I’ll be making a 12 volt to 5 volt supply next, with switching for the Fuze, so I can detect and respond when

the car gets shut off.  It’s one of those “Oops” things…We want to turn the Fuze off AFTER the power is shut down.

But that means my little car-lod will need two power lines. One switched to tell me when the key has been turned off,

and the other to keep my circuit alive just a little longer… long enough for the Fuze to power down, and THEN I’ll send

the “Power” signal. At least I can make sure it’s a good quiet power supply.

 

It’s been a lot of fun so far. I wish I had more time to play with it.

I’ll probably start a separate thread once I have it a little more complete.

 

LyleHaze

 Wow - good work!  How did you find out the interface details?  Or, is it a trade secret? <G>

 I’m looking forward to your thread describing it!

 Bob

 

 

 

After buying my Fuze, I found this forum while looking for better ways to hook it up in the car.

I saw this thread, and I got curious about how the docks communicated, so I bought one.

I think I had my dock for about an hour before I cracked it open and connected the Oscilloscope. :slight_smile:

Quite honestly, I don’t have much use for a dock in my house. But I want the car hookup to be

just right, and I’m willing to work for it.

Anyway… the first PIC I used didn’t have comparators, so that had a problem reading 3 volt signals

into a 5 volt PIC… I found an older PIC that has 2 comparators on board, and things were looking good.

I wrote the code, and it worked, but not reliably.  After two days of looking for trouble in the code, I

raised the clock speed of the PIC from 8 Mhz to 20… and suddenly it worked perfect. If it ain’t right,

run it faster!

Regarding the “ugly details”… I’m not sure yet how much I’ll tell. I think this forum is a really great

resource, and I want to make sure I won’t be upsetting our “host” by making the information available.

If any admins want to comment on this, I’d love to hear it!

I was also considering selling a few of these, but it’s not lending itself easily to that end. The connector

itself has to be hand-wired. I thought of doing it the way SanDisk did the stock cable, but it turns out that

they used an unusually thin circuit board. Normal FR-4 is too thick to fit between the two rows of pins. 

It’s certainly a bit more complicated than just a jumper too…

Maybe for now I’ll just build mine, and see what happens after it’s running. I’ll try to get my next parts

order out this week, and might be soldering things together by the middle of next week.

More details will follow… as I get time to finish this.

LyleHaze