10 Things You Should Know About Interfaces!

Our Tech Support operation fields many of the same questions containing many of the same misconceptions over and over again when it comes to interfaces, adapters and converters in general. Therefore, we thought we would summerize these into a list of the 10 things you should know:

Not every factory radio! - Not every factory radio in every vehicle has an interface, adapter or converter that will work with it. The reason is that many factory radios are just not capable of supporting auxiliary input devices connected to them, or the radio protocol is too difficult to reverse-engineer, making it too expensive for the interface manufacturers to R&D an interface, or the vehicle doesn't have a large enough installed base to warrant the cost of development of any interface products.

Not for every vehicle manufacturer! - Some car manufacturers have no interfaces, adapters or converters available for any of their makes and models of vehicles (Examples: Kia, Hyundai).

Know Your Rights! - Federal law, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act; Section 102c, says you can purchase and install any aftermarket products you want in your new vehicle without voiding the vehicle's warranty. This means that the vehicle manufacturer can NOT tell you that if you install any piece of aftermarket audio equipment, that it will void your vehicle's warranty.

iPOD Interfaces - Intuitive, Smooth & Seamless Operation? - There isn't any iPOD interface whose operation is 'intuitive, smooth, and seamless' upon first installing the device. Factory radios do not have built in protocols for controlling an iPOD. The iPOD interface typically uses the factory radio's ability to control either a factory CD changer or a factory satellite tuner, and translates those control protocol data streams into a data stream the iPOD can understand. There are a lot more control data streams in controlling an iPOD than there are controlling a CD changer or an XM tuner. Therefore, in most cases, iPOD interfaces must use button presses, or a combination of button presses on the factory radio to get the iPOD to perform the required function. Now, consider the steering wheel button controls on vehicles so equipped, and that results in fewer control functions allowed from the steering wheel buttons. Consequently, when first installed, the interface manufacturer's logic on which buttons to press to extract the appropriate iPOD operation may not always be intuitive to the end users. Consequently, the operation of the iPOD from the factory radio will most always seem clumsy at first, but become much easier upon additional use and operation of the interface. Therefore, give yourself some time before judging the effectiveness of your newly purchased interface.

Converting XM to Sirius/Sirius to XM! - You cannot 'convert' XM to Sirius, or 'convert' Sirius to XM. The basic format and signal protocols are different and connot be converted. If you have one satellite service and you want the other one, you must disconnect the equipment you have and install the other satellite service's equipment and antenna.

Identical looking radios do not mean identical radios! - Radios that look alike are not always the same radios electronically on the inside, even though they look identical from the outside and were manufactured in the same year by the same manufaturer. Some vehicle manufacturers have even issued the same part number to two different radios. Looks can be deceiving!

Vehicle manufacturers know vehicles; not interfaces! - Car dealers do not know enough about after market interfaces to determine if one model year's factory radio is the same as the new model year's factory radio with regard to if they will or will not support an interface, an adapter or a converter.

Don't believe what you read! - Much of the interface, adapter and converter information seen on the internet is inaccurate, misleading or both. Many forum posts are outdated, some by several years, so always check when the topic was posted, and make sure you cross-check your application information with several sources in order to insure you are getting the correct product for your application.

Installation instructions included! - All interfaces we sell come with installation instructions. However, the installation instructions do not include radio removal instructions, as most of the interfaces work in a number of year, make and model of vehicles, where the radio removal instructions for so many vehicles would require a 3 volume set of manuals be included. Typically you can find radio removal instruction in the specific vehicle forums on-line.

Interfaces are generally not noisey! - Roughly 95% of the noise issues that are associated with the installation of an auxiliary input device are caused not by the auxiliary input device but by the audio device connected to it. Typically, if the interface is generating noise by itself, without any device being connected to it, then it is usually defective and should be replaced. If noise is generated when the audio device is connected to the interface, chances are the audio device is the culprit.