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iPod won't connect

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While not having the ability to select playlists and tracks from the screen is a disadvantage of Bluetooth, I'd accept it if it connected reliably. Mine does not, and in a more than $100,000 car I should not have to spend 5 minutes getting my iPod to connect.
Patience, grasshopper. No need to throw price tags around. Alpine didn't get any more than $2,000 of that. Your followup posts seem to indicate that it is working for you now, in any case.

I don't require specifically high definition radio, but I do not want to give up the ability to listen to FM radio. Especially since Sirius requires an expensive subscription and their a-la-carte plan is not available for the Alpine unit.
The main Alpine head unit supports FM radio as a basic feature. Only HD Radio, Sirius Satellite, and Bluetooth are features that are added by external boxes. In other words, it's not possible for you to lose FM radio unless you remove the entire head unit and leave a hole in your dash.

Note that HD Radio does not stand for high definition radio. It's 64kb MP3 quality digital radio. In other words, it's highly compressed, lossy quality.

I do not see any audio-in plug on the iPod connector or on the unit. Nor is there an AUX-in selection on the Source menu.
The audio-in plug isn't plainly visible on the iPod connector - it one of the many tiny pins that you see inside the connector. It's the other end of the cable where the obvious audio-in plug appears, and hopefully you haven't torn into your dash. If you check the owners manual and/or browse through the menus (not while driving, of course, but with the parking brake engaged) then you'll see that the AUX-in selection is enabled or disabled by a menu setting. I haven't used it myself, but at a minimum you'll have to enable it.
 
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The main Alpine head unit supports FM radio as a basic feature. Only HD Radio, Sirius Satellite, and Bluetooth are features that are added by external boxes.
So, if I had a professional remove the HD unit, would that restore functionality of the iPod connector cable? That would be ideal for me.

The audio-in plug isn't plainly visible on the iPod connector - it one of the many tiny pins that you see inside the connector. It's the other end of the cable where the obvious audio-in plug appears, and hopefully you haven't torn into your dash. If you check the owners manual and/or browse through the menus (not while driving, of course, but with the parking brake engaged) then you'll see that the AUX-in selection is enabled or disabled by a menu setting. I haven't used it myself, but at a minimum you'll have to enable it.
So does this mean that with the proper setting, I'd plug the iPod into the cable and I'd have audio out from the iPod to the Alpine, just as if I'd plugged an audio cable from the headphone jack into an AUX connector? That would certainly be easier than BT, considering how complicated it is to get the BT to connect.

I gather that BT is often kind of flaky. I have a friend who has to pair her phone to her 2010 Prius every time she starts the car. And I'm always reading about this or that device won't pair with this or that other device.
 
I searched through all the menus, both on the Alpine, and (though I didn't expect to find anything there) on the car's touch-screen display. Car in Park, hand brake set. I didn't find any setting to set the iPod connector to be AUDIO IN.
 
Not sure if there are menus more "advanced" than I'm getting into, but I am seeing the wrench, and that gets me into some menus, including the time zone and clock stuff mentioned in your link. But the audio menu is all about balance and audiophile stuff I don't understand. Nothing about an AUX IN function for the iPod connector. Firmware Update (or whatever the label is) is greyed out, leading me to believe I have the latest firmware. The first link in your post wants to download an exe file. I would not know what to do with that.
 
You're getting into the correct menus then.

I believe you put it on an SD card and use that to install on the Alpine unit but the Tesla Ranger did if for me after they dropped my car off from service (went to Chicago to get the air conditioning fixed). If you're getting service done anytime soon, they can do it for you.
 
Update: Over the long weekend the Bluetooth has been working. It seems (though I'm not sure) that I need to turn on BT in the iPod after the Alpine unit is on. This is acceptable, but still disappointing, as with BT I cannot change playlists from the Alpine's screen.

Meanwhile, off the thread topic but still on the Alpine, the NAV does not show the names of cross streets, and I cannot find a setting to turn that on. I finally found where to turn off display of icons for every restaurant, bank, and gas station (!!!) in the map area, but I cannot find how to make it show the names of the cross streets, which is far more important than the name of the street I'm on, because I almost always know what street I'm on, but I want to see what street I am approaching.
 
Not sure about the NAV but it's better to control the music from your iPod. The UI on the Alpine is horrible. With it attached to the cable, it locks the iPod out in terms of controlling the music.
 
My experience (with my iPhone 4) is that I must wait for the Alpine unit to be completely booted up BEFORE I plug in the phone, otherwise it won't recognize it. I've used bluetooth for phone a number of times and audio a few times and it's never failed to connect.

EDIT: I tried on my drive home this evening and I had to select "USB Audio" (I had been listening to FM Radio on my drive in to work) and THEN plug my iPhone in to get it to recognize. But yeah, it's fragile to say the least.
 
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I searched through all the menus, both on the Alpine, and (though I didn't expect to find anything there) on the car's touch-screen display. Car in Park, hand brake set. I didn't find any setting to set the iPod connector to be AUDIO IN.
Sorry for the 'tech' bias, but you have to think about this in terms of the Alpine system installed in a generic car. There aren't any Tesla-specific menus, just the Tesla splash screen.

Anyway, the Alpine does not know what you plug in to the AUDIO IN, so you won't find a menu that refers to the iPod connector.

Instead, look for a menu that adds AUDIO IN to the list of choices on the input screen. I think that it is normally left off the list, assuming that you haven't plugged anything in. The menu option is there so you can tell the Alpine that something useful is plugged into the RCA jack. That said, I'm only suggesting it as something that you can try - I have not actually confirmed this myself. Also I learned recently (while looking over the shoulder of the Tesla service staff while they were testing my iPhone) that the Alpine unit has at least two RCA inputs, and I don't know whether one is dedicated to iPod and the other is literally the AUDIO IN, or if some other configuration has been designed. I do wish the Alpine manual was more explicit, but you should at least read through it before trying too hard at this.

Update: Over the long weekend the Bluetooth has been working. It seems (though I'm not sure) that I need to turn on BT in the iPod after the Alpine unit is on. This is acceptable, but still disappointing, as with BT I cannot change playlists from the Alpine's screen.
If you completely avoid the use of the USB connector then you should be able to turn on Bluetooth just once, pair it with your Alpine, and then use your Tesla several times on several trips without touching anything. I literally left my iPhone in my back pocket, with the Alpine set to play from Bluetooth. I've run several errands back to back, and each time I got back in my car and drove away, the Alpine would start up, pair with my iPhone, and play music from the last moment that it left off. All in all, that was actually more convenient than plugging my phone into the cradle every time. I had my iPhone set to play songs at random from my entire collection, so it was like having a private radio station with only my favorite songs.

That said, I am now using the USB cable and trying to work out the bugs.
 
So, if I had a professional remove the HD unit, would that restore functionality of the iPod connector cable? That would be ideal for me.
Two things:

A) This would void your Tesla warranty on the Infotainment system, so I recommend against even having a professional modify things. I asked Tesla about the Alpine 30W booster amplifier that is specifically designed to improve on the 18W head unit, but even though I would be adding Alpine to Alpine, I was told that this would void my warranty. If you do anything, get permission from Tesla in writing that your warranty will remain in effect, unless you're ready to just toss out the provided radio and start over with a system at your own expense and third-party warranty.

B) I wish I could give a 100% certain "Yes" answer to your question, but the truth is that we have not tested this for longer than part of a day. Since the standard installation is 90% successful, I hesitate to promise that the altered setup would be 100% reliable until I have tested it equally as long. We could easily have witnessed a false positive. I am currently trying to convince the local Tesla Store to 'downgrade' my Infotainment system by skipping the HD Radio box, and if they make the mod then I will be under warranty. I will certainly report back what I learn, but it will be a while before I have the modification made.
 
S-2000:
This is a slight deviation of the topic, but is sounds like you are as up on this configuration as anyone:

My Alpine unit does not seem to recognize the BT connection to my iPhone 3G when I try to place a call unless one of two things happens first (note: iPhone not plugged into the car, just sitting in my pocket):
1. I receive a call (which will be displayed and answered on the Alpine unit)
2. I stop the car, put in park, cycle the parking brake so I can get to the BT setup menu and manually connect the Alpine to the phone.

Either 1 or 2 will then allow me to make calls from the Alpine unit. I usually get in the car (my iPhone is always on with BT always on) and turn the car on. I wonder if the Alpine needs to be booted before the iPhone tries to connect. Any recommendations?
 
It is not at all safe to play with the iPod while driving. It is much easier, and safer, to click on a track or playlist on the Alpine screen.

Actually, it's much faster to switch playlists with the iPod screen than the Alpine. You have many more screens of interface to go through with the Alpine than the iPod but I agree, ideally you shouldn't be messing with any screen while driving.
 
S-2000: Thanks for all the info. I think I now have two possibilities: I could ask the Tesla Ranger, next time s/he is in town, to remove the HD radio and see if that fixes the problem. Or (what I'll do now, and may stick with, if I like it, since the BT works now) is create a new playlist with all the music I might want to listen to in the car. With everything on a single playlist, I could control it all from the Alpine. It would just be slow to move a great distance within the list. I've learned that road noise, especially with the top off, limits the kinds of music I can listen to. Music with soft segments disappears in the road noise.

Now if I could just figure out how to make the NAV show me the names of the cross streets as I approach them. This is the worst NAV I've ever seen.
 
Or (what I'll do now, and may stick with, if I like it, since the BT works now) is create a new playlist with all the music I might want to listen to in the car. With everything on a single playlist, I could control it all from the Alpine.

I have a 5thG iPod Nano with software version 1.0.2 and it works beautifully with the Alpine. Press the 'search' button the Alpine touch screen and you can see all your playlists or choose by artists, albums etc.

Now if I could just figure out how to make the NAV show me the names of the cross streets as I approach them. This is the worst NAV I've ever seen.

The NAV could be better, but I found the solution to this problem is just to zoom in a little and the names of the side streets appear.
 
My Alpine unit does not seem to recognize the BT connection to my iPhone 3G when I try to place a call unless one of two things happens first (note: iPhone not plugged into the car, just sitting in my pocket):
1. I receive a call (which will be displayed and answered on the Alpine unit)
2. I stop the car, put in park, cycle the parking brake so I can get to the BT setup menu and manually connect the Alpine to the phone.

Either 1 or 2 will then allow me to make calls from the Alpine unit. I usually get in the car (my iPhone is always on with BT always on) and turn the car on. I wonder if the Alpine needs to be booted before the iPhone tries to connect. Any recommendations?
I do not understand what you mean by that last sentence. The iPhone cannot try to connect to the Alpine before the Alpine turns on its Bluetooth connection. I also don't know what you mean by "manually connect the Alpine to the phone" - do you mean physically, via USB, or just the discovery process?

I think that a lot of the behavior here depends upon the preferences in your iPhone. Bluetooth works by discovering devices, but there must also be a priority list when multiple Bluetooth devices are in range. Do you have a Bluetooth headset or anything similar?

As a point of reference, my iPhone and Alpine only had to be paired once. From then on, every time they're both on my iPhone will connect. In my case, though, the Alpine is the only Bluetooth device that my iPhone has ever discovered (besides perhaps my PowerBook). Until I messed with things, they always connected automatically and the music would start playing on its own. This even lasted through the process of Tesla service taking out my Alpine, removing power, and reinstalling it.

Where things got tricky with Bluetooth is when I started making a few calls and manually selecting the iPhone speaker and microphone because of the road and wind noise. After I changed the iPhone settings from Bluetooth to built-in, I started having more trouble with the previously automatic connection via Bluetooth.

I have a feeling that so long as you maintain a simple group of settings, everything works perfectly. But once you mess around with changing Bluetooth preferences it might seem to require more hassle. Lately, whenever I'm impatient, I just go to the Bluetooth screen on my iPhone and touch the listing for the Alpine. Since I'm usually on that screen anyway to enable Bluetooth (I leave it off when not driving to save my iPhone battery), it's fairly easy to force it to connect to the Alpine. I'm not patient enough to test whether it would eventually connect automatically to the Alpine if I waited longer.
 
I do not understand what you mean by that last sentence. The iPhone cannot try to connect to the Alpine before the Alpine turns on its Bluetooth connection.
I was wondering if I need to cycle my iPhone after the car is turned on and the Alpine is booted up. Basically, once the Alpine is on I would then turn on the iPhone.
I also don't know what you mean by "manually connect the Alpine to the phone" - do you mean physically, via USB, or just the discovery process?
If you go to the Bluetooth setup menu on the Alpine, and select paired devices, you can force it to connect with the device. This is what I mean by manually connect. When I first turn on the car, the phone and Alpine are not connected, though they have been paired and are stored in the Alpine's list of paired devices.
I think that a lot of the behavior here depends upon the preferences in your iPhone. Bluetooth works by discovering devices, but there must also be a priority list when multiple Bluetooth devices are in range. Do you have a Bluetooth headset or anything similar?
My Alpine is only paired to my iPhone. My iPhone has pairings with two other cars as well as the Tesla.
As a point of reference, my iPhone and Alpine only had to be paired once. From then on, every time they're both on my iPhone will connect. In my case, though, the Alpine is the only Bluetooth device that my iPhone has ever discovered (besides perhaps my PowerBook). Until I messed with things, they always connected automatically and the music would start playing on its own. This even lasted through the process of Tesla service taking out my Alpine, removing power, and reinstalling it.

Where things got tricky with Bluetooth is when I started making a few calls and manually selecting the iPhone speaker and microphone because of the road and wind noise. After I changed the iPhone settings from Bluetooth to built-in, I started having more trouble with the previously automatic connection via Bluetooth.

I have a feeling that so long as you maintain a simple group of settings, everything works perfectly. But once you mess around with changing Bluetooth preferences it might seem to require more hassle. Lately, whenever I'm impatient, I just go to the Bluetooth screen on my iPhone and touch the listing for the Alpine. Since I'm usually on that screen anyway to enable Bluetooth (I leave it off when not driving to save my iPhone battery), it's fairly easy to force it to connect to the Alpine. I'm not patient enough to test whether it would eventually connect automatically to the Alpine if I waited longer.
Maybe I'll try removing all pairings from the iPhone with the exception of the Alpine.
 
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I was wondering if I need to cycle my iPhone after the car is turned on and the Alpine is booted up. Basically, once the Alpine is on I would then turn on the iPhone.
In my experience, this should not be necessary. I only cycle my iPhone about once a month or even less often than that. I think I've only cycled the iPhone once since receiving the Roadster+Alpine. They should connect just fine without touching anything - at least that much worked for me for as long as I cared to use it that way.

If you go to the Bluetooth setup menu on the Alpine, and select paired devices, you can force it to connect with the device. This is what I mean by manually connect. When I first turn on the car, the phone and Alpine are not connected, though they have been paired and are stored in the Alpine's list of paired devices.

My Alpine is only paired to my iPhone.
I think there is a difference between the iPhone pairings and the Alpine pairings. I believe that the Alpine is basically a 'headset' or "hands-free device" as far as the iPhone is concerned, and thus I assume that the iPhone is the master and the Alpine is the accessory. In other words, I believe that the iPhone is in control - i.e. top dog; alpha male. I never needed to use that Alpine menu to get things working smoothly.

My iPhone has pairings with two other cars as well as the Tesla.

Maybe I'll try removing all pairings from the iPhone with the exception of the Alpine.
You may have found the key. I've never used hands-free in any other car, so maybe my iPhone has no delay connecting to the Alpine since it's the only accessory device on the list.

You should certainly try removing the other vehicles - at least for the duration of your testing - to see if this smoothes the process.