alright, heres a thought I had, and the goal here is to spend the least amount of money possible. here is what I have:

I have plenty of desktop hard drives, and can get an enclosure cheap.

I have one laptop, its old, and it needs its pwr connector fixed which isnt a big deal, but it still works.

1 clarion MP3 player already installed since the first week i had my truck.

how would I go about, connecting all this together into one big happy family, so that I can listen to all my MP3's in my truck, instead of using CDr's?

 

I hope im understanding you correctly. One idea would be to get one of the car audio cassette adapter. You push it into your tape deck (if you have one) and on the other end you plugg it into your mp3 player or laptop output.

Another idea (if you have an aftermarket stereo) is to use the aux jack for an imput

 

I don't know how old your clarion head unit is or how many feature it has but I have a Pioneer Premier DEH-860M and I have my MP3 Player hooked up to it (The cheap way) It cost me probably 30 bucks to do everything. What I did was got a long cable with the headphone jack to plug into the MP3 Player but on the other end had the red/white RCA cable. If you have Inputs on the back of your head unit you can plug them into there but I have mine used so I got an XM Sattelite Cable which Is like a pin that plugs into the back of the unit which I did and hooked the RCA up. If you get me the model of your HU, I can probably tell you another way. But thats how I did it and it cost me about 30 bucks total.

 

If your already hauling your laptop into your truck...just buy a power adapter for the laptop and hook up laptop speakers. Play and listen to your songs via your laptop and not the cd player. Thats pretty cheap, right?

Seems kinda silly to me to bring your laptop into your truck when you can just burn them onto 25 cent CDs....takes up less room too

 

well id actually prefer to use dvds, mp3's on dvdr's however it appears this is yet to be a reasonable head unit option. as far as age of my head unit, i had my truck two weeks when my HU came in. so like mid september 04? I just think it would be easier, and more convient to have access to all 8,000 songs, instead of trying to remember exactly what is on what cd.... not only that, I have noticed that cds have like a 2 year car life span before they die out.... anyways, I remember reading somewhere that someone did this, and it wasnt very difficult...

 

Well what head unit model is it?

 

[headunit]RCA===mini-plug----laptop(audio out)



this is assuming your headunit has RCA in's. (aux setting)

Cable's like 5 bucks.

 

option 1

aux in with a cable above

option 2

fm modulator


assuming you get the laptop in good working order in your truck

 

aux cable > fm modulator

 

fm modulator > nothing

Blhde has it right. However if there is no AUX in capability on his head unit.. the modulator is his next best option..

 

haha.. this is true

 

Go with a $25 Belkin FM Modulator that plugs in to your headphone out port of your laptop. The sound quality is decent enough that most people can''t tell the difference (particularly former Jar Heads like me who can't hear a thing). If you really want MP3's buy and ipod and a compatible deck, if you are looking for a good quick fix just do the modulator.

 

I actually have a FM modulator that can plug straight into a USB port. I never used it that way always had a portable device hooked up. Maybe I will give it a shot this weekend on my way home with my laptop.