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iPod to Europe - power question
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: San Francisco
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Going to France and England with the family in a couple months and plan to bring the iPod as our source of music. Will the Griffin Powerpod be compatable with european autos? Will our rental car be a 12V system? I will be using a cassette adapter which gives me great audio results here but have not seen anything about potential voltage incompatabilities and the Griffin page does not mention it. Thanks for any insight.
Harry
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Transatlantic flight, first class, third row, aisle seat
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European cars are 12V as well! (unless you plan on driving some huge truck or coach, which would probably 24V or something, that is  ) Hey, we might be doing some stuff differently, but at least the car voltage is the same 
How's your audio quality with the cassette thingy? I am using one with my mp3 player and the quality is ok, but quite some way from perfect HiFi. Do you have any special brand?
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- What is your nationality?
- I'm a drunkard. That makes me a citizen of the world.
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: San Francisco
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First I tried the iRock FM unit which some find to be good but was terrible in my volvo wagon which has the antenna in a back window - perhaps too far for the unit to broadcast. I returned the unit to Radio Shack and exchanged it for the Radio Shack brand cassette adaptor (about $20) which is totally acceptable to my nondiscriminating ears. Sorry that I cannot be a better source of info on that. Do a search on the forum, there has been alot of traffic on that issue. Thanks for the info on european auto voltage.
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Last edited by hab; Apr 8, 2004 at 02:03 PM.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Edinburgh
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Originally posted by Ambassadeur:
European cars are 12V as well! (unless you plan on driving some huge truck or coach, which would probably 24V or something, that is ) Hey, we might be doing some stuff differently, but at least the car voltage is the same
How's your audio quality with the cassette thingy? I am using one with my mp3 player and the quality is ok, but quite some way from perfect HiFi. Do you have any special brand?
My top tip on cassette thingies - if the sound's a little bit muffled it's likely that the head on the cassette isn't aligned properly with the head of the stereo. Lets face it these things are pretty much slapped together so there's a good chance it's out. The head is often squint in the case as well. If you've got a car stereo where you can touch the end of the cassette when it's playing, try pushing it gently up or down and if the sound improves it's a sign the alignment's out. Also, if it sounds radically different depending which way you put the tape in that's an indication too.
To fix just prise the cassette body apart and you'll probably find the head's just sitting there loose. Take it out and use a few layers of tape on the inside of the case beside where it sits to push it into the position you want, make sure it's lined up straight with the case and put it all back together. You may need several attempts at fine tuning to get it to work. Just make sure you don't have any bits of tape sticking out where they shouldn't and that the case is properly back together, as either could cause the adaptor to jam in the stereo.
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Mar 2002
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So the autos in Europe are 12V - Great.
However, are the cigarette lighters in European autos the same dimension and/or compatible?
I emailed Griffin about their powerpod and asked if they fit autos in Europe. The tech responded "The powerpod is designed to fit standard cigarette lighters in the US. If the socket in cars in Europe are a different dimentsion, it will not fit." Well, duh.
Anybody have success with US made cigarette adaptors on their European trip?
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Body in London, mind elsewhere
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i'm 99.999999% sure they are the same.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Manchester, UK
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They are the same in the US and Europe.
I live in the UK, but I bought my Belkin iPod power adapter in the Las Vegas Apple Store.
It works fine.
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Computers - Au MacBook 2.4Ghz, iMac 24" 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo
iPods - 5GB original iPod, 4GB nano - Red, 1GB 2G shuffle - Silver, 4GB 3G Shuffle - Black, 16GB touch, 16GB nano Red, 16GB iPhone 3G.
OSX User Since Public Beta, current OS 10.6.1, iTS UK purchases - 5377 songs.... and growing!
My website - www.idparkinson.co.uk
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Transatlantic flight, first class, third row, aisle seat
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Originally posted by hab:
So the autos in Europe are 12V - Great.
However, are the cigarette lighters in European autos the same dimension and/or compatible?
Yes they are - great, isn't it?
As long as you talk standard cicarette lighters for standard cigarettes. I guess you might have seen some european cars on the states' streets too, and people driving these cars are able to use their cigarette lighters for lighter-powered equipment as well.
Good luck for your trip then - Enjoy!
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- What is your nationality?
- I'm a drunkard. That makes me a citizen of the world.
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