Emu Hunter

Thanks. That'll probably do it, adding this one to my mod list!

davesiar

currently have the FRDAUX04 PIE unit installed, because it lets me plug my ipod and Sirius Starmate player into it and lets me listen via the aux button. I know this unit allows you to control your ipod, but would it allow me to control my sirius starmate also, or would I have to use a FM modulator to control the Starmate?

S197 V6

Does this adapter allow any control at all from the ipod or is it all done from the radio controls?

MaverickMLFD371

negative, once its plugged in, it transmits all the controls to the headunit.

Cheese302

just remember that if you have factory sirius, you have to unplug the ipod to use the sirius. i know many woundln't care but i would rather have the auxiliary in, then have to fiddle with the brandmotion kit just to use my factory functionality. Awesome product for what it does though if i didn't have factory sirius, it would be in my 07

myangeldust

I installed it in my '06 Mustang GT with a Shaker500. I give it a 8 out of 10 rating. The installation WAS a breeze. The sound quality is good too. However, there are three issues with the Brandmotion unit:
1. No memory- the unit will not start the music where you left off when you turn off the car for more than 10 minutes. The default sort order is by "Album" not "Artist". Each time you start the car you must call up your preferred music order or playlist and select shuffle (my preference). That's about 8 or more tedious button pushes everytime you get on the road.
2. No charge- Sometimes the iPod will not recharge in the car or it stays on after you turned off the car. I've had to recharge the iPod from my PC.
3. Frozen iPod- On rare occassions I find the iPod frozen. Doesn't respond in or out of the car. I let the charge run out and recharge it on my PC. Then it works in the car again.

These are really strange occurrences and Brandmotion never gave me an answer as to the cause of this. The iPod was purchased at the same time as the Brandmotion unit.

Anybody else discovered the same? Let me know.

WaltM

Mav...

You said the install was easy, did you need to remove the radio?

jim010

I have this for my factory navigation unit.

I also have no memory and no charge, but have not encountered the issue of hte ipod freezing up.

I like it, but really wish it had memory. Charging isn't as big a deal, but it would be nicce, too.

Yes, you do have to remove it.

Andretti1

Ive been meaning to post my overall opinion of my Brandmotion I installed last year for months now. Thanks for resurrecting this thread so I can now do it.

While there are other ways to use your ipod and have it output on the car speakers, I want to be able to put the iPod up and use the radio to control the music if I need to. I know there are other ways to do it, so dont waste your time trying to tell me since I am not a big believer of having more crap in my hands as I'm trying to drive (read: phones and all that crap. I'm a fireman and I've seen too many wrecks and deaths related to idiots who continue to drive and gab or text totally oblivious to their surroundings and the issues their inattention causes). There are many cheap ways to hear the music through the radio, but all I found required me to have to have the iPod within reach so I could manually it when I needed to change a song or do anything else, which was EXTREMELY unappealing to me. I want to hook it up and leave it alone. I also belive that there is much less likelihood of the dreaded 'whine' you typically hear that alters pitch as you rev the engine while listening to it.

I use to have the other adapter that was manufactured by "peripheral" known as the P.I.E. adapter sold at Best Buy among other places. Due to MANY issues with mustangs (caused dash instrument failures among other things), I eventually had to remove mine and sent it back to the manufacturer for a full refund as did a ton of others who also had one. They did eventually come out with a second updated unit that was suppose to address the initial model issues, but after sitting on it for a few months, I started to read about more of the same problems so I decided not to buy another and get the Brandmotion one instead.


This leads me to the Brandmotion. On paper, I thought it sounded like it would work much the same as the peripherial one, but without the problems it caused the dash. After installing I did find it mostly the same except that when you were trying to navigate around it actually took longer than the peripherial one which was maddeningly slow already. This became a TOTAL pain in the *** over time and really hastened my dislike of the Brandmotion completely. Yes, in addition, mine will NOT charge the iPod....EVER, but will instead run the battery out of the iPod no matter what as long as it is still hooked up (after initially installing I noticed this problem and spoke with Kevin about it and he asked me to turn the radio off before turning off the car to see if that might help, but after trying it numerous times it proved to never work. This of course was no fault of his in any way). The memory part worked the same for both units....once the car is off for more than a few minutes, you'd have to start over though the navigational process to get to a song you want to listen to or continue listening to. Mine also will NOT shuffle. This is another HUGE strike for me and in all likelihood, the absolutely biggest issue I have with it. While the peripherial one did cause numerous iPod lockups, that is one of the only things I havent had happen with the Brandmotion one.

All in all....the Brandmotion is probably one of the very few things I've ever spent money on my Mustang for and ended up totally regretting.

There is at least one thing you can do to make it easier to deal with, but its actually when setting up your ipod on your computer and nothing to do with your car. In iTunes after loading the ipod with music.....blank out EVERY album listing of every song you put on it. Why?? Because if you want to listen to 'AC/DC-War Machine' and forget it is actually on the AC/DC album Black Ice and not on say...Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, it is practically impossible to back up and change albums once you've selected one (when you choose a song, you first choose by artist, then by album, then you finally get the category for songs off of the chosen album. If you get the album wrong of a particular song, Brandmotions programming makes it almost, if not completely impossible to backtrack to go to a different album of the same artist). This may not sound like all that big a deal, but now imagine already killing 3-4 minutes pressing the **** button just to get to the 'T's" for Theory of a Deadman to then choose the wrong album and basically having to start over AGAIN and deal with this agonizingly slow interface). By blanking out the album titles, as long as you can remember who the singer is of a song, you can get to the right sub-menu and choose the song directly. Oh...and another problem with it??? As I mentioned before....you have to press the button EVERY friggin TIME. You cant just press the proper button and hold it down and it 'scan' within the artist list to get to the n's or the t's....you have to press it once for 'a', then again for 'b', then again for 'c'....and on and on which is beyond stupid. God help you if you've loaded your ipod with much music cause it will take you forever. The only other advice that might make dealing with either unit 'slightly' easier would be to create a ton of playlists. This way, you can make scanning for a specific song easier, but of course since you've created so many playlists, you'll have to navigate through all of those as well.....

If I was going to do it 'right' now after all this BS?? I'd just change out the freaking stock radio to one that interfaces directly with the ipod (again, one that lets me control the ipod through the radio) and does it reasonably fast. Unfortunately I've already spent my $300 so I'm married to Brandmotion likely for the duration.

Hope this helps anyone who might be on the fence but I'd highly recommend passing on Brandmotion. -5 out of 10

Andretti

myangeldust

You explained it well. I use playlists. It goes like this: AUX > Category (3x) > Playlists > "All Songs" > "AllNew" > Shuffle PY. Every time I enter the car. Of course, after "AllNew" comes "AllFavs", "AltIndie", and so on, then hit Shuffle PY. Each playlist requires some wait time before selecting the next. Every time I enter the car. Or just hit AUX > Shuffle All. Boring.

Brandmotion was my only hope? "No, there is another..." Two more option really: 1) a SYNC radio from an '010 Mustang. The units appear similar in size but will it fit and will adaptors connect? 2) I saw an aftermarket SYNC unit for $400. It was an in-dash box and an external button/mic combo. I lost the link to the dealership that sells them.

Believe me folks, it's the only way. To say what you want to listen to (followed by "shuffle") is the only way to get this working. There's a lot of music on our players. It would also be nice to get a Zune instead because I have a feeling the iPod's shuffle is not truly random. Mine keeps playing the same songs in different order while other songs never get played at all.

SallyStang

I have just received a USA SPEC from Crutchfield that will charge your iphone 3gs and do all that the Brandmotion does.. Not sure they have one for the nav system but they do if you have a shaker 500 or 1000. Hope to install it this weekend.. I have this unit in my Honda Pilot and it works great..

myangeldust

I'm not sure it's that much better than the Brandmotion. I wonder if I can just buy a 2010 SYNC radio from the dealer and get it to work with my '06.