Tools required:
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Materials required:
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| Difficulty: | Easy |
| Time: | 1 hour |
| Drilling/Cutting: | None |
| Broken Nails: | 1 |
| Lotus Positions: | None |
| Symbiotic projects: | V1, RC10 Remote |
Start by removing the radio, following the instructions in the manual:
Next, remove the start button panel. Remove the two screws underneath:
Slide the panel firmly straight down, then swing the top out:
Disconnect the main radio harness, connect the iPod adapter harness, and reconnect the
main harness:
Next, fish the iPod dock connector end of the cable through the radio opening, over to
the start button cubby. For instructions on how to do this, see my
V1 install instructions
. Once the connector is fished through to the start button cubby...
...feed it downward through the square opening in the bottom of the wiring area. Again, for
detailed instructions on this step, see my V1 page. You should feed the
iPod connector along the same route as described on that page to get the connector into the
driver-accessible area of the start button cubby. Once that's done, close up the start
button cubby area, and connect the iPod:
Note how the iPod Mini is a particularly nice fit in this area. It fits snugly, and does
not move during spirited driving:
Now simply reinstall the radio, and you're done! As a final step, you can upgrade the firmware. The documentation that comes with the iPod adapter is completely useless, so here's my version. The unit comes installed with the "Basic" firmware. This shows the playlist and track number. It gives you access to 9 playlists, and 99 songs per playlist. With the Acapulco MP54, you have two upgrade choices. You can install the "Text" firmware, which gives you the same features as Basic, but shows the song name (ID3 tag info) on the head unit. The other option is the "MD" firmware, which allows 999 playlists, and 999 songs per playlist. The downside is that you lose the ability to choose a playlist with the 1-6 buttons. You can only use the up/down arrows to change lists.
That's the official version of the firmware choices. As with many things, the reality is slightly different. I've tried all three firmwares a few times to compare. As far as I can tell, none of them work quite as advertised. None of them display the playlist name or full ID3 info on the head unit. None of them give access to the playlists with the 1-6 buttons. The ability to have more than 99 songs with the MD option also does not seem to work. Since there's no perceptible difference between the 3 firmwares, I installed the Text version, which is the "recommended" one for the Acapulco MP54.
The firmware files are only available on the German and UK Blaupunkt websites, and you have to dig for them. I've got them here, for your convenience:
To install the firmware of your choice, download it, and use iTunes to copy it to your iPod. They are MP3 files, and if you play them, you hear a flat tone. Next, start playing the song on the iPod, while the iPod is not connected to the car. Then, turn on the radio, switch the headunit to CDC (CD Changer) mode, and connect the iPod to the car. You must do this within 40 seconds or so, before the firmware "song" finishes playing. The car can be off while you do this, as long as the headunit is on. Watch the iPod display. It will say "Firmware upgrade complete", or something to that effect. When it says that, power off the headunit. The iPod will then show your new firmware version on its display, so you can verify it worked. Disconnect the iPod, and delete the firmware "song" from the iPod. Leave the radio off for 2 full minutes. A convoluted process, but it does seem to work (although, as stated above, upgrading the firmware seems of limited use).Next, you need to configure the radio to display song names. Go into the VARIOUS Menu, and change the CD Display option to CD TEXT. More details on this are on page 20 in the US version of the radio manual. This step is needed to activate the song name display feature of the Text and MD firmwares.
The head unit gives you access to 9 playlists. The first one is a special one that plays all the music on the iPod (your "Library" in iTunes). Playlists 2-9 are the playlists on your iPod, in alphabetical order. I made 8 special playlists named "02", "03", and so forth, to make it easier to tell what to put where in iTunes. Lastly, note that you can only have 99 songs in a single playlist. If you have more than that, the playlist will be quietly skipped when pressing up and down (unless, theoretically, you have the MD firmware).
To access the playlists, connect the iPod and switch the headunit mode to CDC (CD Changer). Use the up/down arrows to change the playlist, and the left-right arrows to change the track within that list.
That's all there is to it. To summarize, here are some pros and cons of this device:
Pros
Cons
Overall, I think it's a worthwhile solution to the age old problem of taking one's iPod everywhere one goes. :)
One last thing. After living with this setup for several months, I have found a couple of tips are in order:
That's it! You're done.
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