[robwoods]

Hello

I have a non-Nav car, therefore use the Y-Cable to get the iPhone tracks onto the LCD screen in my F25 X3.

Trouble is, the Y Cable is very short and I want my iPhone to be on a windscreen mount so I can use the TomTom app. Therefore I have extended the Y-Cable with decent quality 3.5mm audio and USB 2-metre extension cables. Both fully wired.

Trouble is, I get a lot of messages on the iPhone that it is not charging, which normally happens if there is not enough power. It does work sometimes, but mostly not.

BMW say their USB socket gives 500mA, which is the standard for most PC's too, but the iPhone mains charger that you can buy is 1A I believe (iPads have a 2A mains charger).

Anyone else tried to extend their Y Cable with success?

I wonder if the following Lindy product might help, although I'm not sure how it would manage to suck more power from the USB socket?

http://www.lindy.co.uk/usb-charging-...pad/73336.html

Any help would be appreciated.

[sfax]

Originally Posted by robwoods

Hello

I have a non-Nav car, therefore use the Y-Cable to get the iPhone tracks onto the LCD screen in my F25 X3.

Trouble is, the Y Cable is very short and I want my iPhone to be on a windscreen mount so I can use the TomTom app. Therefore I have extended the Y-Cable with decent quality 3.5mm audio and USB 2-metre extension cables. Both fully wired.

Trouble is, I get a lot of messages on the iPhone that it is not charging, which normally happens if there is not enough power. It does work sometimes, but mostly not.

BMW say their USB socket gives 500mA, which is the standard for most PC's too, but the iPhone mains charger that you can buy is 1A I believe (iPads have a 2A mains charger).

Anyone else tried to extend their Y Cable with success?

I wonder if the following Lindy product might help, although I'm not sure how it would manage to suck more power from the USB socket?

http://www.lindy.co.uk/usb-charging-...pad/73336.html

Any help would be appreciated.

I've seen a few reports about the Y cable not charging iPhones. Various charging adapters have been offered as a solution. One on here for example

http://gdgt.com/question/iphone-3gs-...pod-option-ns/

If nothing else works, you might be able to get something that will charge off the cig lighter (this will definitely always work) and allow you to use the USB for iDrive as well.

[mhrir]

Does your TomTom app work without being in the TomTom cradle? No matter where I put it I can't get decent enough reception without the cradle.

[Waffle]

Don't know whether this helps but I am able to charge an iPod Touch and iPad using the Griffin Power Jolt in the arm rest 12V power supply. The cable provided also connects the iPod Touch to the iDrive.

At the weekend I noticed that when I charged my Blackberry from the 12V power supply, the digital radio disabled itself and as soon as I unplugged the lead it reconnected itself. I haven't worked out why.

[robwoods]

@mhrir Yes TomTom works fine on my 3Gs on a basic windscreen mount. I don't have an upgraded 'comfort' windscreen, maybe that doesn't help with satellite pickup?

[robwoods]

Hi Waffle, how does the Griffin Power Jolt help? I thought it just came with a normal USB to Dock Connector cable? I can see how a Y-Cable would allow simultaneous connection to the Power Jolt and the USB connector in the centre console, but otherwise struggling to understand?

Thanks for your help, I've still not got this one nailed.

[Nahoa]

The Griffin I used previously (not sure if that's the Power Jolt) came with a cigarette lighter plug. The USB cable plugged into that. So the power was coming from the lighter vice the USB port. That worked well.

[sfax]

Originally Posted by Nahoa

The Griffin I used previously (not sure if that's the Power Jolt) came with a cigarette lighter plug. The USB cable plugged into that. So the power was coming from the lighter vice the USB port. That worked well.

Does that still allow you to connect to the iDrive via USB at the same time? I wasn't sure if you could. If it does, it's a winner. You'll never get a problem charging from the cig lighter socket

[robwoods]

I agree that something with two male USB ends (one for cigarette lighter charger and one for iDrive USB socket) and one female end (for the Y Cable to plug into) would do the trick. Can't find anything like that in the UK currently.

Interestingly I've noticed that it charges fine when directly plugged into the iDrive USB socket via the BMW Y-Cable, but not once extended with a Lindy 2m USB extender cable. It's like the power can't make it all the way along the extender, but I'm not convinced about that.

Still persevering......

[sfax]

Originally Posted by robwoods

I agree that something with two male USB ends (one for cigarette lighter charger and one for iDrive USB socket) and one female end (for the Y Cable to plug into) would do the trick. Can't find anything like that in the UK currently.

Interestingly I've noticed that it charges fine when directly plugged into the iDrive USB socket via the BMW Y-Cable, but not once extended with a Lindy 2m USB extender cable. It's like the power can't make it all the way along the extender, but I'm not convinced about that.

Still persevering......

It's probably borderline, i.e. just enough power to be able to charge, and the extra length of wire tips the balance because of the increased loss of voltage. This is pure conjecture on my part and electrical engineers are free to correct me.

I know that there is a trickle charge mode where the iPhone takes ages to charge and a normal charge mode (e.g. from a mains USB charger) which is much faster. If you're on trickle and you add a longer wire, it may stop charging altogether.

I don't think you can get a F+M+ cig lighter charger, which is what you would need. Not sure how it would know where to send the data and where to send the charge, or if it can just split all of it