Hello everyone.

2017 SuperDuty XL. Plain Jane Amish stereo. AM/FM/CD/AUX in.

I have played around with a couple bluetooth devices where you plug one end into the power point and the other into the aux and it streams music and uses the AUX as the input to the stereo. Works fine but I have a fetish about a clean dashboard area.

I toyed around with hiding everything but didn't like the way it turned out.

Heres my question... Does anyone make a simple A2DP (music streaming. don't need phone hands free) module that plugs into the factory system. Something that is more integrated/plug and play? I know iSimple has made some quality stuff in the past that even showed text on the factory display. The radios in thes pretty much looks like the radio in the F150 XL for the last few years.

Also, does anyone know where the AUX plug on the dash end up on the radio side? IE: Where is the other end of the aux plug. They used to end up on the back of the radio but I have a 4 inch screen with a tiny plug going into it and a CD player would an antenna in and another harness. Not sure where the actual "brain" is on this.

Anyway, thanks for any insight people may have. I know these things are new.

 

So this doesn't help right away, but...

Mine's even simpler, I don't have a CD player. I'm planning on building an in-car computer, originally to replace the radio, but I've changed my mind, so I'm going to splice in to the line-in and use the line-in in the dash as the line in to the computer and put the computer's output to the line-in on the radio. I'll definitely post here when I do that with what I find on the way.

I'll probably work through pulling the radio out week after next so that I know what it's going to take for me to do it, I'll share what I learn.

 

Ahhh. Yes. The carputer. have done things like that in the past (Blogs - MP3Car.com is a great resource). Trying to keep it simple. Super simply this time.

Thanks for replying, though.

 

Yeah, I don't like LCDs, so mine's just so I can play MP3s and read things like battery voltage, OBD codes, engine load, etc. and display it on a monochrome OLED or similar. I'm a bit odd.

 

You should put in a reel to reel and have some dash mounted VU meters

 

Physical gauges are cool! No, really it comes down to night vision. Color displays have to be somewhat bright to be visible, and that doesn't help your night vision. I like monochrome displays because you can view them at night with very little light and easily read them. Plus, it's easier to get the information you're looking for quickly. Give me 8 different displays rather than the current trend of 8 pages to scroll through on one display, which we only really use an eighth of anyways

That said, cool things could be done with clever software and amoled or igzo displays, but I'm not going to spend the time and money needed to do those cool things (unless someone wants to pay me. In which case, lets talk.)

 

I am starting to understand the practicality of LCD type displays. Good gauges are expensive and the usual automotive gauges are crap. Most are relative indicators rather than gauges. How many are fooled by the Ford oil pressure gauges of the last forty years. Either oil pressure or no oil pressure displayed with a needle. Ever see a Ford truck with low oil pressure???

My biggest gripe with LCD gauges and cell phones too is the inability to read them with polarized sun glasses. Although my best driving glasses are Serengeti Drivers I often wear polarized Ray Bans for their darker shade and the anti glare feature but then I have to constantly push them up to read practically everything electronic in today's world.