Adding a hard drive to Sync!
7/8/12 | 02:38 PM
#2
Thread Starter
Tasca Super Boss 429 Member
Joined: December 11, 2007
Posts: 7,272
Likes: 11
From: Uxbridge, MA
One thing I was disappointed with my 2013 Mustang is that there was only one available USB port with Sync. I wanted to be able to hook up my Zune (mp3 player) and be able to use a USB charger for my cell phone. Since there was only port, I could only do one or the other unless I bought a cigarette lighter adapter for it.
So I went out and bought a cheap USB hub to add more ports, but when I hooked it up, Sync told me it doesn't support hubs. Great.
So after some research I found out there IS a second USB port hidden away!
I had also heard of people hooking up a portable USB drive to Sync too so I looked into that too.
This port is on the behind the dash and above the glove box. So what you need to do is drop the glove box.
Start by opening it up and then you need to squeeze the sides in so that the rubber stoppers can get past the sides and drop down completely.
Once that is down, look up behind the dash and you should see a box with a couple of cables coming out of it, a white label with info, and FoMoCo molded into the plastic. This is your Sync Module.
Where the FoMoCo is molded on, you will see a cable sticking out. Right next to that is an empty connector.
This connector accepts a male 5 pin mini USB. What you would need is a cable with a 5 pin mini to a USB-A.
Cable can be purchased here.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2
Now, since the USB is male, and your MP3 player cable is male, you need a gender changer to turn that male plug into a female.
That can be purchased here...
http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2
Once you have your cable and gender changer, just plug mini USB end into the empty connector of of the Sync Module.
From here you can close up your glove box and you now have a USB cable hooked up.
Next step is to plug in the gender changer...
And that is all it takes to add a second USB port into a 2013 Mustang. I'm sure this will work on previous models with Sync, but I have no access to them to verify.
All you need to do is hook up your MP3 player, set Sync to USB2 and away you go.
Not all vehicles can access USB2 directly. My navigation radio lets me access it by pressing the screen. You may have to press your voice button and say "USB2" for access.
So I went out and bought a cheap USB hub to add more ports, but when I hooked it up, Sync told me it doesn't support hubs. Great.
So after some research I found out there IS a second USB port hidden away!
I had also heard of people hooking up a portable USB drive to Sync too so I looked into that too.
This port is on the behind the dash and above the glove box. So what you need to do is drop the glove box.
Start by opening it up and then you need to squeeze the sides in so that the rubber stoppers can get past the sides and drop down completely.
Once that is down, look up behind the dash and you should see a box with a couple of cables coming out of it, a white label with info, and FoMoCo molded into the plastic. This is your Sync Module.
Where the FoMoCo is molded on, you will see a cable sticking out. Right next to that is an empty connector.
This connector accepts a male 5 pin mini USB. What you would need is a cable with a 5 pin mini to a USB-A.
Cable can be purchased here.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2
Now, since the USB is male, and your MP3 player cable is male, you need a gender changer to turn that male plug into a female.
That can be purchased here...
http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2
Once you have your cable and gender changer, just plug mini USB end into the empty connector of of the Sync Module.
From here you can close up your glove box and you now have a USB cable hooked up.
Next step is to plug in the gender changer...
And that is all it takes to add a second USB port into a 2013 Mustang. I'm sure this will work on previous models with Sync, but I have no access to them to verify.
All you need to do is hook up your MP3 player, set Sync to USB2 and away you go.
Not all vehicles can access USB2 directly. My navigation radio lets me access it by pressing the screen. You may have to press your voice button and say "USB2" for access.
Last edited by denlem; 7/8/12 at 05:03 PM.
7/8/12 | 02:50 PM
#3
Thread Starter
Tasca Super Boss 429 Member
Joined: December 11, 2007
Posts: 7,272
Likes: 11
From: Uxbridge, MA
After I got the USB2 up and working, I went out and bought myself a portable hard drive. It just needs to be USB powered and portable.
The size drive you buy depends on your music collection. I started with a WD Passport Essentials SE 1TB drive. Stay away, it won't work. WD Passport drives should work, but this one didn't Could be because of the Essentials or SE part. Dunno.
What did work for me was a Toshiba 750 Gig drive. Overkill, but I like to have plenty of room.
Before you can use the drive on Sync, it needs to be re-formatted to FAT32. Most drives will come formatted for NTFS which only windows can read. Even though Sync is a Microsoft system, no go.
To reformat it, you need to get a formatting utility off the web somewhere. Windows won't format a big drive to FAT32.
You can download a simple program to reformat to FAT32 here:
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/ind...?guiformat.htm
The quick format option works fine and will be MUCH faster than a full format.
WARNING: Make sure you are formatting the correct drive! You don't want to wipe out the wrong one!
After you're formatted, just copy your music over. I keep songs in a music folder, then sub folders by artist, the all their albums in the artist folder. Sync works fine like this.
You may want to just copy a few albums over first and test it before you copy over a massive music collection and not have it work.
Once you connect the drive to Sync it will initialize. Depending on your music collection this could take 1-15 minutes or maybe more. I put 16,000 songs on (yes 16K) and it took at least 15 minutes.
The only problem with that many songs is that Sync won't allow you to voice search by song. I've heard the limit is something like 15,000 songs. You can still search by artist and album name. I'm sure there are limits there as well, but don't know the numbers off hand.
I wanted a hidden installation so I pulled the glove box back down. The back part of it was a perfect place to mount the drive. We use these velcro fasteners at work that are sticky on one side, so I borrowed a set. I mounted two on the bottom side of the drive, then peeled off the backing and mounted the other side to the back of the glove box.
Notice that when the glove box is down, the drive is right side up. When the box is closed, the drive will be sideways. It's okay for a hard drive to be run sideways, but you really shouldn't run one upside down.
After that, I just close the box up and the drive is out of the way and my songs will play for hours!
Adding songs means dropping the box to access the drive, but if anyone ever breaks into the car, it's out of sight. Unless of course they are reading this thread!
The size drive you buy depends on your music collection. I started with a WD Passport Essentials SE 1TB drive. Stay away, it won't work. WD Passport drives should work, but this one didn't Could be because of the Essentials or SE part. Dunno.
What did work for me was a Toshiba 750 Gig drive. Overkill, but I like to have plenty of room.
Before you can use the drive on Sync, it needs to be re-formatted to FAT32. Most drives will come formatted for NTFS which only windows can read. Even though Sync is a Microsoft system, no go.
To reformat it, you need to get a formatting utility off the web somewhere. Windows won't format a big drive to FAT32.
You can download a simple program to reformat to FAT32 here:
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/ind...?guiformat.htm
The quick format option works fine and will be MUCH faster than a full format.
WARNING: Make sure you are formatting the correct drive! You don't want to wipe out the wrong one!
After you're formatted, just copy your music over. I keep songs in a music folder, then sub folders by artist, the all their albums in the artist folder. Sync works fine like this.
You may want to just copy a few albums over first and test it before you copy over a massive music collection and not have it work.
Once you connect the drive to Sync it will initialize. Depending on your music collection this could take 1-15 minutes or maybe more. I put 16,000 songs on (yes 16K) and it took at least 15 minutes.
The only problem with that many songs is that Sync won't allow you to voice search by song. I've heard the limit is something like 15,000 songs. You can still search by artist and album name. I'm sure there are limits there as well, but don't know the numbers off hand.
I wanted a hidden installation so I pulled the glove box back down. The back part of it was a perfect place to mount the drive. We use these velcro fasteners at work that are sticky on one side, so I borrowed a set. I mounted two on the bottom side of the drive, then peeled off the backing and mounted the other side to the back of the glove box.
Notice that when the glove box is down, the drive is right side up. When the box is closed, the drive will be sideways. It's okay for a hard drive to be run sideways, but you really shouldn't run one upside down.
After that, I just close the box up and the drive is out of the way and my songs will play for hours!
Adding songs means dropping the box to access the drive, but if anyone ever breaks into the car, it's out of sight. Unless of course they are reading this thread!
Last edited by denlem; 7/8/12 at 04:53 PM.
7/8/12 | 04:12 PM
#5
Thread Starter
Tasca Super Boss 429 Member
Joined: December 11, 2007
Posts: 7,272
Likes: 11
From: Uxbridge, MA
7/8/12 | 09:52 PM
#9
Legacy TMS Member
Joined: June 20, 2012
Posts: 401
Likes: 1
From: Central Coast California
Here is another option for the cable.
USB 2.0 A Male to Mini-B 5 pin Female
USB 2.0 A Male to Mini-B 5 pin Female
7/9/12 | 08:08 AM
#13
Legacy TMS Member
Joined: June 18, 2004
Posts: 3,973
Likes: 29
From: Conroe, TX
Originally Posted by TomServo92
I'm curious, using voice commands, do you select the HD by saying "USB2"?
7/9/12 | 08:14 AM
#15
Thread Starter
Tasca Super Boss 429 Member
Joined: December 11, 2007
Posts: 7,272
Likes: 11
From: Uxbridge, MA
7/9/12 | 08:17 AM
#17
Thread Starter
Tasca Super Boss 429 Member
Joined: December 11, 2007
Posts: 7,272
Likes: 11
From: Uxbridge, MA
7/9/12 | 11:00 AM
#18
Member
Joined: March 21, 2012
Posts: 35
Likes: 0
From: NW Ohio
Nice research and documentation. I would like to do something similar, but I might be able to get by with a 128 GB flash drive. I also didn't want to tie up the usb port in the console.
Would like to see how the hard drive survives over time. They don't like being moved around when spinning. A solid state hard drive might be an alternative, if it can be formatted in FAT32. The cost is coming down on them, and they are much more reliable storage devices (no moving parts). I'm not saying what you did was bad, only that I would like to know if it holds up down the road. If it does I may duplicate what you did.
Would like to see how the hard drive survives over time. They don't like being moved around when spinning. A solid state hard drive might be an alternative, if it can be formatted in FAT32. The cost is coming down on them, and they are much more reliable storage devices (no moving parts). I'm not saying what you did was bad, only that I would like to know if it holds up down the road. If it does I may duplicate what you did.