800 bucks USB Pen Drive only HU with no CD & no casette

[kittigadu]

I have seen this setup in shakir's jeep where the head unit takes only a USB pendrive. No casette and no CD. It has a fm radio too. The total unit costs only 800Rs. And shakir has been using it for the last 1 year without any problem. The sound is pretty decent and enought for a jeep. i was very much satisfied and wanted to get the same for my jeep too.
Note: Shakir is a fellow OTR buddy i met at the solagiri trip. but thats not the point. The point is,
A Total cost of Rs800 HU+Rs 400 speakers+Rs 500 4Gb pendrive gives me peace of mind without worring about the unit getting stolen from a half open jeep. Even if it gets stolen, i dont have to whine the whole week and curse the population for that. Also, with 4Gb pendrive, its not that you keep swapping it every 30Minutes or so. Which means, the unit can be hidden in the glove box too.
Shakir bought that at JC road bangalore. i have lost his contact details.

The question is, have anyone used that kind of a HU.
From what i remember, it is not a branded company. Probably some malay or taiwanese. now, can i get a USB only HU and at a resonable cost of say 2000Rs from a reputed brand. can anyone help.

Krishna
Bengaluru.

[live2drive]

man!! an usb enabled HU for 800 bucks??
AMAZING!! UNBELEIVABLE!!

[abhibh]

Well i have seen AUX / USB FM transmitters at ICE shops. I think they cost around 500 - 700 bucks not sure. Will try to post the pic by tomorrow.

[vinit.merchant]

But the question is do they give the desired sound effects. I have my doubts.

Better option would be to connect the speakers to your MP3 player/Ipod by installing a converter or something (Not sure).

Once I had connected my Creative 2.1 Speakers (PC) to my MP3 player in my car as a temporary Jugaad using an inverter. This inverter was plugged in to the Lighter socket and the Speaker adapter was plugged in to this inverter.

And the Sound effect was wonderful. But cant rely on this arrangement as the inverter would cut off when it heats up and then have to wait till it is cooled.
Nevertheless, as a temporary Jugaad, It was wonderful. Worth a try.

[kittigadu]

man!! an usb enabled HU for 800 bucks??
AMAZING!! UNBELEIVABLE!!

Thats the reason why i made it a point to see it in action. We were in a hurry that time. So i couldnt write his details nor the shop details properly. He said somewhere in JC road, bangalore that sells only car audio.
Abhi,
Somehow, iam not happy with the FM transmitter types. They need a mp3 player for the input and use the existing HU's radio to be tuned to its freq.
I havent used one nor seen one but iam not ok with the logic of buying a HU+mp3Player+fm transmitter and speakers and other stuff.

And BTW, if you have a mp3 player, the HU iam talking about can take that too. shakir demoed his transcend 2Gb player hooked up to the unit.

Once I had connected my Creative 2.1 Speakers (PC) to my MP3 player in my car as a temporary Jugaad using an inverter. This inverter was plugged in to the Lighter socket and the Speaker adapter was plugged in to this inverter.

This is what i have tried for a few days untill i met shakir. Insted of an inverter, i have used my computer UPS. The sound lasted untill the charge lasted. It was kinda temporary test setup to see if i can use my creative 4:1 in my jeep. Though the quality was good, i was really bowled over after i have heard his system. Which made me think other wise in using my computer speakers for my jeep. And then a 4:1 would cost another 2K. He has a 400Rs speakers 2 of them in some wooden casing placed right behind the front seats. As i said, the sound was decent enough for me. Then again, i have to say that the vehicle was not moving when i heard the sound. But shakir is very much happy about it.

regards,
Krishna.

[greenhorn]

why not do what GTO did for his jeep . get a blau amp with aux in, install it somewhere high, where it cannot be submerged, and hook it up to an ipod or similar player
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/ask-gu...ll-work-7.html (Crazy Idea - Direct connection to Amp (no HU) - Will it work?!?)

[kittigadu]

why not do what GTO did for his jeep . get a blau amp with aux in, install it somewhere high, where it cannot be submerged, and hook it up to an ipod or similar player

well, ipod + Amp will bring the cost close to almost 5K. isnt it. Then also have to consider ipod car charger etc. This thing iam talking about is much more simpler.

krishna

[greenhorn]

Local electronics shops sell LA4440 IC based stereo amplifiers which run off 12V DC and should work fine with the auto 14.4V. some of them have FM tuners as well. they cost well within 1k. It would be better if you got one custom made with no transformer ( shoud work out even cheaper)

SQ isnt great , but its cheap

[deky]

Hi, another question regarding the same. I have an integrated HU with an auxillary in (pin type). Is there a way by which i can connect my pen drive with it? I mean is there a convertor available in the market with a pin at one end to go in the HU and a usb port on the other end where i can fix the pen drive. And will this work?

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by deky

Hi, another question regarding the same. I have an integrated HU with an auxillary in (pin type). Is there a way by which i can connect my pen drive with it? I mean is there a convertor available in the market with a pin at one end to go in the HU and a usb port on the other end where i can fix the pen drive. And will this work?

No, it wont. You need a MP3 player to do that. The pen drive is just a storage media, not a player & the aux in is just an input receiver.

[deky]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

No, it wont. You need a MP3 player to do that. The pen drive is just a storage media, not a player & the aux in is just an input receiver.

But the aux in is in the player, would it still not work??

[greenhorn]

the point is , the USB drive is just as good as CD. unless something converts the data to music, it cannot be played back. in an ipod or other mp3 player, the device can do that. but a simple thumb drive cannot. Has anyone made a CD or HDD to aux in adapter ?

pretty much the same point.

[DerAlte]

@kittigadu, just ask any car accessories shop on JC Road, Mission Road or Lalbagh Road for Chinese HU without CD or tape, like this one or this one. They are not known by make or model number, so take it easy and just ask for the functionality. There are plenty of these in Bangalore taxis, and many drivers connect their mobile handsets or PMP's to it (Bangalore is really high-tech now!).

greenie, sometimes really simple (but complete and decently packaged, not needing cobbling together at component level) solutions is the need of the hour. The objective is listening to songs, without being dogmatic about the quality of the sound.

[greenhorn]

thing is , I've seen them in use in video coaches etc, where they are hooked up to the output of the DVD player, so the same thing should be available.
Decently packaged, possibly not , but they are pretty well built, and easily serviced - cheap, locally available components etc, something you cant do when the chinese HU gets flooded with water when offroading

[kittigadu]

DerAlte,
This is exactly what i have been looking for. Shall go to JC road in the next few days. Any reviews and user experiences available ? Has anyone in this forum used them ? Chinese stuff looks cheap and all that, but what the heck if it plays good and its so simple and cheaper and a no nonsense solution for a jeep.

Krishna.