Audio & Video Tech General discussion of audio and video for the Ford Ranger.

Playing your MP3's wirelessly in your truck

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Old 09-23-2006
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Playing your MP3's wirelessly through your vehicle speakers - How-to:

Someone started a thread earlier about hooking up an external HD to their headunit and playing their MP3's. That got me to thinking about hooking up my laptop to my HU wirelessly using Airport Express.

Now before you PC guys roll your eyes and close this thread, keep in mind all this WILL work with PC's too.

I don't know if it's been done, I'm sure it has somewhere, but I didn't research on it.

Onto the pics to show how I did it.

Materials needed.

Laptop
Airport Express
Power inverter
Audio cable



Hook up your power inverter



Plug in your airport express



You can see where the interverter goes in and where the audio cable from the airport express goes in.



Full shot of everything. A good mounting spot will have to be found.



Playing my itunes from outside of my truck.



I thought it would be cool for car shows, being able to control your songs from outside of your truck.

Another advantage is being able to leave the inverter and Airport express in your truck and simply just get in your truck, open up your laptop and push play.

It has it's pros and cons. Not something I'm gonna do because it's easier to just use an ipod or play my burned CD's, but might be helpful for someone. (Plus I need my airport to run my home network)

Enjoy!
 

Last edited by buzzair; 09-23-2006 at 05:30 PM.
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Old 09-23-2006
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Thats cool. I have a wireless FM transmitter for my PSP.
 
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Old 09-23-2006
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what is an airport express?
 
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Old 09-23-2006
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Its basically a router made by Apple.

It also can act as a printer server and shares your MP3's over a network.

http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/
 
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Old 09-24-2006
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I guess it's the apple product that causes a lack of responses/interest lol
 
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Old 09-24-2006
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*rolls eyes* boo0ooo apple products (i actually want one but cant afford it ) lol..but yeah...wooOt PC...i just use the aux cable that is on the back of my unit..connects into my mp3 player
 
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Old 09-24-2006
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lol...BUT this will work with PC's :) The airport express connects both Macs and PCs using itunes. You don't need the ibook or macbook.
 
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Old 09-24-2006
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this is probably similar to what i'm going to do, while i'm saving up the funds for the external hard drive system that i'll be puttin in
 
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Old 09-24-2006
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Is the only purpose of the HD to hold your MP3's? Are you just going to have your external drive or have your laptop AND your external drive in your truck?
 
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Old 09-24-2006
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Originally Posted by buzzair
Is the only purpose of the HD to hold your MP3's? Are you just going to have your external drive or have your laptop AND your external drive in your truck?
just the external drive...smaller then my laptop would be.....and when i'm not driving the truck i can take it out and plug it into the computer and transfer songs back onto it.....then when I'm driving the truck I can just hook up the external HD and use it the same way you'd use Itunes through an external input or whatnot
 
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Old 09-24-2006
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hmmm thats pretty cool... i just have a fm transmitter for my ipod but i also dont have a ibook
 
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Old 09-24-2006
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Originally Posted by Otis_Ranger
just the external drive...smaller then my laptop would be.....and when i'm not driving the truck i can take it out and plug it into the computer and transfer songs back onto it.....then when I'm driving the truck I can just hook up the external HD and use it the same way you'd use Itunes through an external input or whatnot
Yea, ok. That's a pretty good idea. Good luck with it and post up your results
 
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Old 09-24-2006
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Originally Posted by D.
Inventive Well thought out. I have a factory mp3/mach head unit but plan on installing a Sony head unit soon. This might be something I will look into .

D.

Then it was all worth it :)
 
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Old 09-24-2006
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Originally Posted by gatorblue92
hmmm thats pretty cool... i just have a fm transmitter for my ipod but i also dont have a ibook
You don't need an ibook, any laptop will do. Dell, Gateway, HP. You just need the airport express for it to work.

FM transmitter can be tricky when the blank channel becomes a working channel while driving. Quality ain't always the best.
 
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Old 09-24-2006
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Originally Posted by buzzair
Yea, ok. That's a pretty good idea. Good luck with it and post up your results
will do!
 
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