Friday, July 20, 2007

Sirius Solution

Remember my rant about Sirius? I could NOT get a new car dock for my S50 in time for my trip this weekend. So with a little thought I figured out how to have my Sirius radio in my car, in time for today's ride.

The home dock works. The receiver works. So how to make the home dock work in the car? It needs a power supply. Quick call to my local Radio Shack, and voilĂ  - power supply! They make an adapter that converts your cigarette lighter into a regular plug. Kewl, yes?

Next issue - The car dock somehow works with the car radio and uses its speakers. How could I hear what was now coming through? Inelegant but simple - buy speakers that run only on batteries. Also found at Radio Shack. They aren't great, but I can hear the broadcasts!

So my outbound trip was a Sirius success. The bad news - the adapter is so large it interferes with the poorly designed cup holders in my Passat. So I have no place to put my water bottle while Sirius is playing. The good news is I found a power outlet in the trunk of my car. It appears to be the same cigarette-lighter in the car. So I plug the adapter in there in my trunk. Then I will buy an extension cord which will wend its way under the back seat, floor mats, under the front seat... where the home dock can plug into it. VoilĂ  Home dock successfully in use - AND I get my cup holder back.

I tell you... problem solver is my middle name. ;-) I still need to find out if there is a way to connect this to the sound system in the car. Any ideas?

2 comments:

PERL said...

Susan, I really enjoyed your blog on the inavailability of your Sirius radio and your ingenuity in fixing the situation. I have mine with me all the time, at home, in the car, and as soon as I can manage I will get one to carry with me.

Hopefully will see you in Memphis\Priscilla

SeattleSusieQ said...

Updates - there IS an adapter that looks like a cassette but has a "line-out" cable to plug into the Sirius dock. You put it into your cassette player, switch to "cassette" and voila again - car speakers are used.

I was thinking about getting the Stilleto for the Memphis trip, but since I had to buy a new camera, it just doesn't really make sense at this time.

Looking forward to seein you, too.