There's no way to play music through the USB port. You'd need a USB controller (ie a computer chip) that our radio obviously doesn't have.

For playing music using the D2B network, there's already an aftermarket device called the Dension GWL1DB1. But it's way too expensive imho.

Yes, this charges your device when the car is off. I can leave stuff in the console overnight and it's ready to go in the morning. This is exactly why I designed this thing. I was unhappy with the fact that the cigarette lighter is switched.

I did consider making some of these and selling them here, but decided not to for several reasons:
- The process is quite time-consuming (easily a few hours per unit)
- I live in Canada where shipping is $$$
The parts are quite expensive (especially for that 5V chip)

Basically factoring in everything, I don't think I can do it for $100 a unit.

 

slammer, nice work, yet holy hell that's a lot of effort and money for little reward.

I bought a $10 USB Aux Plug (http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows....jsp?locale=en) and it just needed to be wired to +12V and ground. This one is super easy to install: just drill a hole large enough, push the plug through from the front, then screw on the back - I didn't even use the mounting bracket.

Since that phone plug is useless for most of us, drill it out a bit, install this. Its flush mount design is cleaner than having a cable sticking out. To wire it up just lift the centre console (easy, 6 bolts, instructions on this site somewhere) and wire the aux plug to the cigarette light. Rip out the silly phone cable at the same time.

I installed this at the back of the storage space under the radio cause I wanted to mount my phone on a vent clip and use it for GPS, so I needed the power source to be closer. Picked up a retractable USB plug too.

 

**Update - for smartphones**

Now that we're all in the age of smartphones, the next question is optimizing my design with Android, Apple etc.

Standard USB ports provide 0.5A (aka 500mA) according to the USB specification. This is what you'd get in most USB 2.0 computer ports. Some phones can draw more juice, but only if their circuitries detect (ie "handshake") that the host device (charger) is capable of supplying more juice.

As mentioned earlier, I had suggested shorting the D+ and D- pins, which tells certain devices to charge instead of communicate.

Nokia (2011 or earlier - no idea about 2012+) - one example where the phone won't charge unless the data lines are shorted together. Not sure how much juice it'll draw, so do your homework. All I know is that it's 0A if this short isn't there.

Android - most devices will draw the full 1A when it detects the short. Otherwise it will only draw 0.5A.

Apple - of course they use their own standard. What you need to do here is add a voltage divider to add specific voltages to the data pins. 2 shorted data wires will result in 0.5A being drawn. To modify the amount of juice, do the following: Source

1.0A (iPhone, iPod) - D- = 2.75V, D+ = 2.0V
2.0A (iPhone, iPod, iPad) - D- = 2.0V, D+ = 2.75V

No matter what configuration/device, make sure your circuitry can handle the amperage. For example, if you are using a 1A regulator, do NOT configure your data pins for 2.0A! You'll fry the chip and possibly light up your car.

For 1.0A, you can either buy some resistors and do the wiring yourself, or you can use for the sake of simplicity. (Plugable USB-MC1)

If this device works as advertised, having one while your circuitry data pins are shorted would mean you can fast charge BOTH Android and Apple. Just use the dongle with Apple, and no dongle with Android. This would be the Holy grail of charging.

No I don't work for Plugable or Amazon. Going to order a couple of these things and see how well they work.