(no subject)

I stole a bit of time out of my shift yesterday to go hunt up some more bits for my iPod. I can see this becoming a regular obsession - there is so much cool gear available!

Let's see. I bought an iPod Touch a few days ago. With it I got a protective cover - which pretty much doubles the size of my slender gadget - and a car cradle/FM broadcaster.

The idea was to mount the iPod in my cab, and have continuous access to a wealth of music. The cradle is an all-in one device which mounts in the power outlet, displays the iPod conveniently, and broadcasts the output through the car's radio system. This all worked very well, up to a point, once I'd sorted out the various bits, got my iPod loaded with music and photos, and become familiar with the interface.

The power outlet in my cab is located down low, next to the meter. No matter how I arranged the gooseneck, my iPod ended up obscuring some of the climate and other controls. I depend on being able to find all the relevant switches without taking my eyes off the road, or in the dark of night. Having an iPod in the way makes this difficult, and if I glance down, I've got some of the switches completely covered up. If there's a smelly truck in front of me, I want to hit the control to close the vent immediately, not after a few seconds of fumbling.

Having the iPod down low also meant that I had to look down to change albums or tracks. Not a good look for a professional driver to be peering down near the gearstick and running into other road users.

Worst of all was the amount of slack in the mount. The iPod touch is quite a heavy little thing, it slots into a reasonably bulky transmitter box with a display and its own controls, mounted at the end of a gooseneck protruding from the power plug. There were various rubber contraptions I could fit to stop the plug moving around in the socket, but no matter what arrangement I tried, the iPod would inevitably rotate slowly down, tilting the display and covering the meter. I considered having some sort of string or rubber band arrangement to hold it upright, but it would look tacky. And probably not work anyway.

I got sick of adjusting the position every time I went through a roundabout. Canberra has a lot of roundabouts.

So yesterday's shopping adventure was aimed at finding a new mount for the car. What I really wanted was something similar to my existing arrangement, except that it would mount off a suction cap on the windscreen, much like the various GPS navigation displays.

I ended up getting three different bits. First was a suction cap affair, designed for iPods. This is excellent - it matches the car's charcoal-grey interior, it holds the iPod up at eye level, and it allows me to switch quickly between upright and landscape orientations.

Second is a "Tunestick" FM transmitter, which fits onto the iPod's dock socket. It has a remote control which velcros onto the steering wheel, so I can control frequencies, tracks and so on without having to take my hands from the wheel or my eyes from the road. And third is an AC power adaptor to keep the thing charged up.

The power outket has been a disappointment, as it hasn't worked. Neither has the solution of plugging the iPod's USB cable into either of the car's two outlets - one at the back of the dispatch screen, the other in an AC adaptor plug. In theory, the power goes via a pass-through socket in the TuneStick, but it doesn't. Removing the tuneStick doesn't work either. In fact, the only way I've found to recharge the iPod is via my computer's USB outlet.

This needs further investigation.

But, all in all, this has proven to be a great addition to the cab.