Does anyone know where to find the 9-pin ipod cable anymore? Bought my existing one at Radio Shack a year and a half ago for $8. Best Buy had it too back then for $24. Today...neither of the two carry it anymore. Scoured ebay and googled at length to no avail.

 

This?

http://www.suncoastparts.com/product..._Interioraudio

But why not just use an apple white sync cable? My CPO'ed .2 didn't come with the 9 pin so I asked the dealer for one. They didn't have one in stock but suggested I use my sync cable until it came in. That was almost a year ago and I never went back. Sync cable works fine for me and it keeps the iPod charged. Can't confirm but I heard the 9 pin doesn't charge.

 

Look on line, tons of cheap iPod cables. May not charge newer iPods because of apples change of charging pin arrangement, but, older iPods charge fine. Scosche adapter with regular cable may charge newer iPods, don't know for sure.
Newer Porsche cable was a dual cable USB plus power, to remedy the non charging for newer iPods, my 09 came with the older one, but, haven't needed the newer one yet.

 

Yes. I'm an idiot. Checked everywhere imaginable except for the dealership 5 miles from my house. Just didn't occur to me they would stock apple based cables.

You're exactly right. The 9 pin doesn't charge. And I didn't know the synch cable does the same thing in the car as the 9 pin. Have to try it.


Tons of cheap ipod cables but I've yet to find one 9 pin cable as discussed above. If Mark is right though a regular sync cable is actually better since it charges too.

 

Gents,

Here is a pic. Truly straight forward. If there are settings or changes required via the PCM to make this work I'm not aware of them as it was plug and play since day one for me. Plays...charges....apple USB found anywhere.

 

Thanks Mark for showing this. Evidently this works with Nanos. However, I and 'Mike in CA' verified that such a straight USB connection does not work with other iPod types (such as Photo) or iPhones 3GS or 4S. These latter devices are not recognized by the USB port. Strange, when the same USB port reads USB flash cards with MP3s just fine.

 

Just tried that same exact cable with my iphone 4S. Not recognized by my car. It can tell something was connected but not what it is. "Ipod not connected" on the PCM when ipod selected with the source button.

 

Correct! The USB port does not recognize iPhones and higher level iPods. Those need the round DIN connector cable, or the Y-cable (with DIN and USB), where USB is strictly used to power the device. This must be an Apple interface issue. I assume other MP3 players work just fine via the USB port.

The USB port works great with USB sticks. One can dump on a large stick (32/64GB) a full music library and be done. The library appears on the PCM with filtering options such as genre, artist, etc. and playlists if those exist.

 

I can confirm the iPhone 5 definitely does not work with the USB either. Even with a 9-pin DIN you still need a lightning adapter and I haven't tested to see if this works. Has anybody tried this with an iPhone 5?

+1 on using a USB stick. I use a low profile drive ( ) so you can barely even tell anything is plugged in. You can even create folders and the PCM will recognize them as "discs."

 

With the USB flash drives, whats the secret to creating playlists?

Folders for 'disks' is obvious enough, but what does the PCM3 USB inteface software look for to drive playlist functionality?

 

The PCM3 software sorts files and folders alphabetically. What I do is number folders in the order that I want each "playlist" to play. Like, 001 Radiohead, 002 Taylor Swift, etc. I would number the songs in each folder too, but I find that to be a little too much work for my tastes. Obviously if the song order within each "playlist" matters to you then you can number the songs as well.

 

Not really a play list but a file naming convention to get a specific playback order, but I get your meaning. So for a proper playlist solution, the iPod interface is the way to go.

Now I just need a new cable as my DIN end bent and broke a pin. (goofy design of a plug)

 

I have an extra one! Email me!

 

Just picked up new cable from dealer for around $30 or so for the Y one (DIN+USB -> iDock). The older straight one (DIN -> iDock) is actually a lot more expensive ($60) at dealer... and there is no point in buying that one at all.

(I'd managed to bend the pins in my DIN connector, as one channel was out (driver side) only from iPod source... turns out some crushed pin)

 

The newer devices are not recognized because Apple essentially "turned off" the ability to use the device as a hard drive. So it's not recognized as a USB drive using that port.
My older iPod could be used as a backup, computer hard drive. Iphones never.