Hi Everyone:

I was finally able to get hold of a USB mini-B male to USB-A female adaptor, so I could try to figure out what works and what doesn't work on the stereos that have been included on some models of 2010 Elantra Touring that feature only a mini-B connector. The following are the results of my tests.

Devices Tested

• 2G iPod Touch (16GB)
• 3G iPod
• USB key
• SD card reader

Power Output

My multimeter died, so I wasn't able to measure power output. However, whatever it is, it is insufficient to recharge either of the iPods.

2G iPod Touch

Attempts to control or playback music form the 2G iPod Touch were completely unsuccessful. The stereo kept flipping between attempting to read from the USB, and radio mode. The stereo was completely incapable of talking to the device.

3G iPod

This is a old, hard drive based white iPod. The goods news here is that some form of communication between the stereo and the iPod was established -- the stereo switch to USB mode, the hard drive spun up, and the iPod's display showed that it was in "synchronizing" mode. The iPod, however, is currently formatted as HFS+, so my guess is that it couldn't read the file system at all. I'm going to re-attempt this test after reformatting the iPod as FAT, to see if it's successful or not. It may be that car is treating it as a standard mass storage device, and that it may not be able to see the directory structure iTunes uses to write music to the drive (even if it is encoded in MP3 format). Further tests are warranted.

USB Key

This worked as expected. The can navigate directories and will play MP3 formatted music just fine. As this test was expected to succeed, I also attempted it using all AAC/M4A music (the format the majority of my library is in). The stereo is unfortunately unable to do anything with such files, and simply ignores them.

SD Card Reader

The reader tested was from an old Palm MP3 kit -- it's a simple plug-in reader with a single SD card slot on it. Coupled with a 16MB SD card (I haven't been able to locate my spare 512MB card, and my 2GB card was needed in my camera on the day of the tests), I moved three MP3s onto it, and tested them out.

Reading of the card and playback was just fine. The card could be removed and re-inserted without causing the stereo to encounter any issues or problems, so card swapping appears to be possible with this configuration. The only downside to this configuration is that between the mini-B to A M/F adaptor and the USB SD card reader, and then the card itself, they all stuck out of the dash a good 12cm, and I had to be careful when trying to remove the card that I didn't pull the reader out of the adaptor, or the adaptor out of the stereo. This would probably be a decent solution if you could find a small mini-B SD-card reader that could plug directly into the car's stereo, without the adaptor.

That's what I've discovered thus far. At some point I'll plan to spend some time re-ripping my CD collection to MP3 for installation onto a USB key that can be kept in the car at all times. Hopefully it helps others who have found their ET's shipped with this stereo, in place of the one with the proper USB-A connection in the arm rest, which do have proper iPod and AAC support (oh how I wish my 2010 ET GLS shipped with one of those).

Yaz.

 

Thanks for all the testing! I was considering buying an adapter for my Ipod Nano. Looking at your results, I think I'll stick with my AUX cable!

For the info, where did you buy your adapter? Didn't found any in local stores.

 

I bought my adapter on DealExtreme, and I find it works with any thumb drive I have tried so far (about 6 different ones, Corsair, OCZ, and Kingston, varying sizes from 2GB-8GB). Best $1.50 I have ever spent I just leave my 4GB Corsair Flash Voyager GT plugged in all the time, and every month or yank it out to change the music which is on it. As the manual implies (or rather, does not specifically say) this radio does __NOT__ work with iPods, the only way it does work is when the devices present themselves as USB mass storage devices. If your device has this mode it should work.

 

Sorry for the late reply. I followed Balinus' recommendation, and got mine from DealExtreme as well. It took some weeks to arrive, but for just a couple of bucks (CDN) it was worth it. I've put a black Sony 4GB USB stick in, and it works pretty well. My only major complaint (other than no AAC support) is that the stereo won't remember what it was playing when the car is shut-off; when you start it up again it selects a new song to play.

Yaz.

 

Very annoying that the set up is like this. Test drove a 2012 Elantra sedan and a 2012 Elantra Touring GLS Sport before settling on the 2012 Touring GLS. Both the Sport and sedan had the direct ipod hook up while for some reason the GLS only had aux and mini usb. Why mini usb????

Anyway so I will use the aux for my ipod. I have a charger/radio transmitter that I used in my old car. I will see if I can use that to charge the ipod while playing via the aux.

Might upgrade to something like this eventually: Monster Cable iCharger 200 iPod Car Charger : iPod - Best Buy Canada