When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Hey, everyone! I hope your are having a wonderful evening. I have an R53 that we are having an issue with and I hope someone here has some insight.
I have been able to charge my iPhone 8 and play my music on it by using the Belkin adapter that plugs into the lightning port on my phone. The unit has a 3.5 mm earphone jack which plugs into the auxiliary port in my car along with a lightning cable to the cigarette lighter USB adapter. With all three plugged in, it worked very well for a long time. Charging and music!
Recently, I haven’t been able to do this. As soon as I plug in the lightning cord to charge the phone while music is playing, the stereo drops the “aux” and goes to the regular radio. We have checked and changed the fuse for the cigarette lighter. We have tested the Belkin unit with my headsets and charging in the house. It works well. So the issue doesn’t look to be the Belkin unit. We also tried with two different cigarette lighter USB adapters. Plus it be the cigarette lighter unit in the car?
Does anyone here have any ideas as to what could be wrong. I sure don’t want to run my phone battery down. And I hate listening to local radio.
It's a common and well known problem with the 1st generation MINI (search for "ground loop isolator" in this forum).
The solution is to put a ground loop isolator between your phone and the aux input.
RKW, so if I add ground loop isolator, I’ll be able to charge my iPhone 8 and play music at the same time?
This is the Belkin unit that plugs into my phone. The other two inputs are the auxiliary jack and for the lightning charging cable to the cigarette lighter USB. This system worked flawlessly until recently. So, to make sure I’m understanding correctly, the ground loop isolator would plug into the aux jack input in the car and then the aux line would plug into both the ground loop isolator and the Belkin unit. Is this correct?
The connection would be Aux In => ground loop isolator => audio cable => Belkin (and the Belkin also connected to power and iPhone). Unfortunately with the number of cables and dongles it may be a bit messy.
A possible alternative is a Bluetooth receiver plugged into the Aux, and the phone could use Bluetooth for both audio and hands-free calls, something like this:
I use the same adapter with my iPhone X. Not sure with the older ones, but like was mentioned, the group loop isolator may be it. Also, with mine, the aux cord must be a 3.5mm 4-conductor auxiliary cable, not the standard 3-conductor like you would use for headphones....hope this helps
Hey everyone! Thanks for the insight. We got it fixed! Went Bluetooth and not a bunch of extra wires! Here’s what we got. Light it at Best Buy! My phone changes while my music plays! Yay!
Hey everyone! Thanks for the insight. We got it fixed! Went Bluetooth and not a bunch of extra wires! Here’s what we got. Light it at Best Buy! My phone changes while my music plays! Yay! ����������
Glad it worked out. The only problem is that the Bluetooth receiver runs on a battery that needs to be recharged periodically. You can keep it charged up by leaving it connected to 12V power, but then it would probably need the ground loop isolator.
Hope you don't mind me jumping into your thread, but I just picked up an R53 with the factory radio and HK speakers. I have a 30 pin plug and a AUX jack in the glove box. I used the AUX jack to plug into my ipad pro and I can't seem to get any music going. I've changed the mode, but a AUX feature doesn't display, is only switches between radio, CD, and CD magazine. I can't find a magazine cartridge housing either, on the right passenger cargo area there is a door and behind it appears to be an amp for the HK speakers.
Hope you don't mind me jumping into your thread, but I just picked up an R53 with the factory radio and HK speakers. I have a 30 pin plug and a AUX jack in the glove box. I used the AUX jack to plug into my ipad pro and I can't seem to get any music going. I've changed the mode, but a AUX feature doesn't display, is only switches between radio, CD, and CD magazine. I can't find a magazine cartridge housing either, on the right passenger cargo area there is a door and behind it appears to be an amp for the HK speakers.