Becker radio question

Trev Latter

Member
Messages
1,213
My 3200 has a Becker radio (Mexico CC, I think) with a six pack cd player in the boot. I don't often use cds these days and prefer to use spotify/mp3s from my windows phone. Does anyone know if there's a way to hook it up? I'm not too bothered if it means losing the six pack to do it, but if if I could keep both, it'd be a bonus.
 

alfatwo

Member
Messages
5,517
There's an ipod lead available on eBay that just plugs in the back of the old Becker Mexico for around £40

Dave
 

Undefined

Junior Member
Messages
78
I think my car have the same setup as yours. I bought this one: http://www.yatour.net/shop/?type=list&classid=1

Well... it's a mainland Chinese brand, I got it from a ebay like Chinese shopping site. They have different cables that connecting to different brand/model of the radio. What I did was pulling the radio out, pulled out the connector to the disc changer and plug the cable from that device back to the same position. I route the wire from the back so that I put the device inside the storage box in front of passenger side.

Just put the SD card with songs inside and that's it. If you don't like using the SD card, you can plug in a USB thumb drive or using 3.5mm audio cable as well.

By searching the website for you, just notice they even have a new model that allow you to easily switch over their device and the CD changer again...

You may try to find something like this on ebay, believe they are not the only manufacturer doing the same stuff.
 

dunnah01

Member
Messages
648
I use a simple phono/3.5mm jack connection to a standard Becker C3 connector - this replaces the CD player connector in the back of the head unit. You need to set the head unit to see the CD player as an AUX input and then you can play everyting off your mp3/phone/tablet blah blah.. headphone socket through the Becker unit. Unfortunately you lose the CD player and you can' control anything but volume from the head unit but for about £10 it's an easy install.
 

Trev Latter

Member
Messages
1,213
Thanks for the info. That's probably the route I'll take. Does anyone actually play cds these days? I pretty much stopped buying them a couple of years ago when I moved over to using mp3s and Spotify. I've got over 2tb of music in total, so plenty of choice. Spotify is great for discovering artists. I've found some little gems over the years.
 

ecarca

Junior Member
Messages
320
I think my car have the same setup as yours. I bought this one: http://www.yatour.net/shop/?type=list&classid=1

Well... it's a mainland Chinese brand, I got it from a ebay like Chinese shopping site. They have different cables that connecting to different brand/model of the radio. What I did was pulling the radio out, pulled out the connector to the disc changer and plug the cable from that device back to the same position. I route the wire from the back so that I put the device inside the storage box in front of passenger side.

Just put the SD card with songs inside and that's it. If you don't like using the SD card, you can plug in a USB thumb drive or using 3.5mm audio cable as well.

By searching the website for you, just notice they even have a new model that allow you to easily switch over their device and the CD changer again...

You may try to find something like this on ebay, believe they are not the only manufacturer doing the same stuff.

Did you get it on Taobao? Could you possibly post a link? Thank you!
My disc changer is dead and I was thinking to put an after market head unit like Alpine or else but the stock one is actually quite good so something like that would be perfect for my MP3's ;)

EDIT: don't bother, I found links, I will get this Yatour one. Thank you for the tip!
 

Undefined

Junior Member
Messages
78
Did you get it on Taobao? Could you possibly post a link? Thank you!
My disc changer is dead and I was thinking to put an after market head unit like Alpine or else but the stock one is actually quite good so something like that would be perfect for my MP3's ;)

EDIT: don't bother, I found links, I will get this Yatour one. Thank you for the tip!

Good that you found that already. Yes, I got it from Taobao. Mine one is an older version, maybe you can order the newer version... seems like the newer version can even connect to your phone via Bluetooth....

I love using this as I don't need to change the radio... preserving the original style but still enjoy the MP3.... :D
 

ecarca

Junior Member
Messages
320
Good that you found that already. Yes, I got it from Taobao. Mine one is an older version, maybe you can order the newer version... seems like the newer version can even connect to your phone via Bluetooth....

I love using this as I don't need to change the radio... preserving the original style but still enjoy the MP3.... :D

Yes it seems that the model ending by 07 has an optional bluetooth connection. I will inquire this week. Thanks again for the tip!
 

ecarca

Junior Member
Messages
320
Undefined, which cable did you use exactly? I have the Becker Infotainment Unit (I think it is a 7801) or Online Pro. They don't seem to find what I need. I sent them pictures of the unit front and back but it doesn't seem to help so I guess I need your help ;)
You know how it works in Mainland I believe...
Thanks in advance
 

Undefined

Junior Member
Messages
78
Undefined, which cable did you use exactly? I have the Becker Infotainment Unit (I think it is a 7801) or Online Pro. They don't seem to find what I need. I sent them pictures of the unit front and back but it doesn't seem to help so I guess I need your help ;)
You know how it works in Mainland I believe...
Thanks in advance

Well.... Mine should be simpler... 'cos my car is 3200 and the head unit is Becker Mexico CC.... Actually, I did the same as what you did, I take a picture of the back of the unit from the manual.... and they confirmed me the Becker's cable is fine.

I suppose your GS could have a more sophisticated head unit? Mine cable is exactly the one in the pictures in the below link:
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z0k.6846101.0.0.Kpl6rC&id=13940002381
 

ecarca

Junior Member
Messages
320
Thank you Undefined!
Mine is a Becker as well, it is the 7801 and they list it (or at least they say from 7800). It's the same plug and plenty of Becker units are compatible so it is compatible for sure.
After 8 years here, there are still days when they manage to make me overly tired. I'll order this tomorrow!

The 3200 must be great, only a very few in mainland. If I could get my hands on a cheap one, I'd probably have my tuner remove the engine and give it a "special treatment" so I could put 2 bigger turbos :)
If I manage to get 450HP on a daily driven 2.0T I4, I am sure I could get at least and safely 600HP on a 3.2TT V8 ;)
 

Undefined

Junior Member
Messages
78
Hope that it will work well in your car!

You're right, the good thing about car in China is that, I think nobody cares on how you modify your car.... you can nearly do anything on your car without bothered by the authority like here in Hong Kong.... you know, in Hong Kong (I think the same as in the UK as well as Hong Kong follows the UK's law..... at least, still for now.... can't say that a few years later), you car can be towed by the police if they believe that you've modified your car nearly for anything.

And the best thing for you having such a car in China is that you can enjoy driving a very long distance to another province.... :D

See that your car's license plate was from Zhejiang, so believe that you got some restriction entering to Shanghai downtown during business days, am I correct?
 

Trev Latter

Member
Messages
1,213
Well, that wasn't hugely successful.

I've got the leads connected, but head unit doesn't "see" the aux input. I've tried looking through the menus on the head, but no sign of any way to tell head to look for aux in. Plug cd back in and all works fine as before.

I'm using the leads as per Dunnah01's suggestion.

Has anyone got any ideas please?
 

ecarca

Junior Member
Messages
320
You're right, the good thing about car in China is that, I think nobody cares on how you modify your car.... you can nearly do anything on your car without bothered by the authority like here in Hong Kong.... you know, in Hong Kong (I think the same as in the UK as well as Hong Kong follows the UK's law..... at least, still for now.... can't say that a few years later), you car can be towed by the police if they believe that you've modified your car nearly for anything.

It's funny you are mentioning that. I just was telling today a friend from HK that I had removed the secondary cat and he told me how much the MOT in HK was a pain. He said that before you could bribe the guys but not anymore since some crack down ;)
He also said they keep a file with plenty of pictures of the original car in order to detect any modification.
This said, he said they don't bother for bikes and he has straight pipes on his.

And the best thing for you having such a car in China is that you can enjoy driving a very long distance to another province.... :D

See that your car's license plate was from Zhejiang, so believe that you got some restriction entering to Shanghai downtown during business days, am I correct?

Well I'm not driving that much outside actually. At most I will drive 3 hours to the bamboo forest in Moganshan and that's about it. I still have to do a proper road trip but I'm not really set on where to go since nice places are really far away.

I have a Zhejiang plate on that car because I could not transfer it to Shanghai because of its age. The restrictions only apply for the elevated highways and the rings, weekdays from 7.30 to 9.30 and 16.30 to 18.30. Since I have a Shanghai plate on my other car, I don't care. And I mostly use the GS in the week-ends. When I went to do the custom job for the exhaust, I was right at the restriction time. I actually realized it was faster to be under the elevated because all the drivers get up there and when there are traffic jams at the peak hours it is better to get the traffic lights and a clear road than a jammed highway ;)
 

CatmanV2

Member
Messages
48,539
Well, that wasn't hugely successful.

I've got the leads connected, but head unit doesn't "see" the aux input. I've tried looking through the menus on the head, but no sign of any way to tell head to look for aux in. Plug cd back in and all works fine as before.

I'm using the leads as per Dunnah01's suggestion.

Has anyone got any ideas please?

Can you tell the head to be on CD when the lead is plugged in?

C
 

Trev Latter

Member
Messages
1,213
Only when the cd is plugged in. The lead on it's own does nothing. Having done a bit more web research, it looks like I may have the wrong lead, so I've ordered another, so we'll see how we get on from there. At least they're only a few quid, so no great loss if it won't work.
 

dunnah01

Member
Messages
648
I've got the leads connected, but head unit doesn't "see" the aux input.

For my unit I just to followed the user manual instructions and it worked first time:

"Select user menu by pressing the multifunction
button to the second view of the user menu.
Using the multifunction button --> select either:
Aux Mode (on) or Aux Mode (off).
The setting is stored automatically.
In CD mode, press the multifunction button in order to
select AUX mode."
 

Trev Latter

Member
Messages
1,213
Aux is not coming up in the user menu. Lots of other stiff shows up. Led, drive side etc. Interestingly, if the cd unit is unplugged, it doesn't try to find it from the input select button. I.e. just tape and radio, but if plugged in again, it appears again.

I'll have another play tomorrow. It's probably just me being a numpty.
 

Howard

New Member
Messages
24
You can buy a mini FM transmitter that plugs into your phone/ipod etc which transmits to free radio channel - no wires, no removing head units. Going to get one for my GS and already got a little standalone Bluetooth unit to avoid digging out the dashboard. Seen both in Maplin.

Howard