Belkin bluetooth aux car audio
My favourite USB battery power Pack
This is the excellent USB power pack I use when I travel.
2 x 2.1amp outputs. 8400mAh capacity.
Two digit Led display shows battery level
What SD CARD should I buy?
If you want an SD Card for your camera — these are the ones I use and recommend.
I’d strongly recommend not to buy any SD cards off ebay — I’ve heard about too many issues with counterfeit cards — often sold on by unwitting resellers. My inbox regularly gets messages from people who bought a £150 camera then cheaped out and bought a £3 memory card on ebay — Then when it doesn’t worth they blame the camera! It doesn’t make any sense. Good memory is cheaper than it’s ever been — see the links above.
A lot of HD cameras will not work properly with cards larger than 32GB (cards over 32GB are usually SDXC rather than the SDHC standard used by 32GB cards. SDXC cards use the ex-FAT system rather than FAT32 — in short they are a different standard). — so don’t just buy the biggest card you can afford — read the specs in the manual to see what it accepts.
UK & US LINKS & PRICES BELOW
RECOMMENDED CARDS (for action cams — see dashcams below)
CLASS 10 UHS-1 CARDS (For HD Cameras)
SPECIAL DASHCAM CARDS
The SD card in a dashcam is re-written over, more frequently than in other types of cameras. Some manufacturers void their guarantee if an SD card was used in a dashcam. So, no surprise, there are special High Endurance SD cards made just for dashcams. here’s some.
VERY IMPORTANT. These links take you to the product, however Amazon have three different ways of selling. There’s Amazon Direct — This means that you are only dealing with Amazon themselves, then there’s other sellers that use Amazon’s facilities — these show as Fulfilled By Amazon and finally there’s Market Place sellers that advertise on Amazon, but operate independently. I strongly recommend that you only use the first. the Amazon Direct — Sold By Amazon option . Even if it appears that you are paying a couple of £/$ more it is more than likely you are comparing the price of a real item against the price of a fake.
To give you an idea of the extent of the fake goods problem. In a 2016 survey by Apple — 90% of the ‘Apple’ chargers sold through Amazon — using the other the two methods..which includes the «Fulfilled by Amazon» option — were found to be counterfeit. 90%!
CarAudio Connect AUX with Bluetooth®
AirCast Auto lets you make hands-free calls and play music from your playlist directly through your car speakers. Simple setup, intuitive one-touch controls and exceptional sound quality make this the perfect in-car accessory for your smartphone.
Just one button does it all. Use the Call/Play button to switch between talking and playing audio files stored on your phone or streaming Internet radio*—without taking your eyes off the road. If music is playing when a call is received, it will automatically pause and you’ll hear the phone ring through your car speakers. To answer, tap the AirCast Auto button and the caller’s voice will come in loud and clear through the speakers.
Belkin Caraudio Connect Aux
Belkin’s CarAudio Connect Aux system is the perfect universal bluetooth product for those who are looking to add Bluetooth connectivity to their car. It uses an aux chord to hook into your existing car’s stereo, along with a Bluetooth transmitter to connect to your phone (so your car will need to have an aux input at least).
- Seamlessly switches between incoming calls and music
- Echo-cancelling microphone
- Aux-In connection
- Micro-CLA power adapter with USB power port
Simple Setup AirCast Auto easily connects your smartphone to your car stereo—no need for professional installation. Simply plug it into your car’s auxiliary input jack and use Bluetooth® to pair with your phone. A convenient light ring makes it visible at all hours and blinks when calls come in. Plus, the power adapter with USB port lets you charge your smartphone while you drive
Loud & Clear The microphone embedded within the Call/Play button—can go just about anywhere. Choose a spot that’s convenient and close to you for the best voice pick-up, then attach it magnetically to the dashboard.
Wireless Freedom Bluetooth® provides convenient wireless connectivity with excellent audio quality for calls and music. After an initial pairing process, just push the AirCast Auto button to reconnect—even if your smartphone is in your pocket or a bag. Plus, with built-in echo cancellation technology specifically designed for in-car use, Bluetooth® ensures that you get optimal sound during calls.
Compatible Device
- Compatible with all Bluetooth enabled devices with a 3.5 mm aux input
- All iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and iPod nano models, iPad mini, iPad mini with Retina Display
- All Android smartphones and tablets including Galaxy Note, Galaxy Tab, Galaxy S
Belkin Hands-Free Bluetooth CarAudio Connect Aux
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Top positive review
The bad: The only button is very picky. You have to be exact on your timing. If you quickly press it, most of the time nothing will happen. You have to hold it in for much longer than we’re used to holding buttons down in the days of mice and touch screens. To change songs, you double tap the button, but if you’ve ever used a mouse, you’re going to double click the button too fast and it won’t work. You really have to hold each press down for much longer than you would expect for it to register the press. Pressing the button once (if its already connected to your phone) will either pause/play your music, call someone, or turn the hands free kit off. It decides which of these you want by how long you hold the button down and there is no audible tone or vibration or anything else to let you know if you’ve held the button down long enough for what you want. Sometimes it can be hard to place a call, because you’ll either just pause/play your music or turn the kit completely off if you let go too soon or too late. You get pretty used to the timing after a week or so, but its definitely weird. It would have been better to have two buttons or use tripple clicks or something rather than having to know how long you’ve been holding the button down for. Or even an audible tone each time you’ve entered a new setting. Before the first beep, it would pause the song, after the first beep it would call someone, after the second beep it would turn the device off. At least you would know what you’re choosing.
Occasionally, when I press the big button for it to connect to my phone, it will briefly connect and then disconnect. I have Tasker (an amazing app if you have Android — not available for fruity phones) and when the app senses that it is connected to this device, it starts Pandora playing, begins reading aloud any texts that I get while in my truck and announces «Truck mode on.» On disconnect, it stops pandora, stops reading my texts and says «Truck mode off.» So occasionally I hit the button and it says both things back to back, so I know its connecting briefly, although the glowing ring stays orange (it is usually blue when connected). Its not an issue with my phone or Tasker, as I use a similar set up for working out with my bluetooth headphones and never have an issue. I’m not sure why this happens, but usually if I wait 30 seconds or so and try again it will work. Once I had to unpair the devices and re-pair them to get it to connect again. This doesn’t happen enough for it to be a big problem, but I wish it were fixed.
My truck does not turn off the power to the cigarette lighter outlets when I turn it off. That means I have to manually turn this kit off. To do that I have to hold the button down for about 5 seconds every time I want to get out of my car so that it will turn off. I’ve changed the way I get out of the car, so my left hand is holding down the button while the right is turning off the truck, unbuckling my seat belt and collecting my stuff, but sometimes it does keep me in the car for a second or two longer than I would have been in it otherwise. That’s slightly annoying, but it’s more the fault of my truck and its definitly worth putting up with. The bluetooth range is insanely long on this. This isn’t really a bad thing, except that since my truck doesn’t turn off its power, if I don’t manually turn the kit off, it will stay connected to my phone while I’m in my house which drains my truck battery. If the range were shorter, it would disconnect and the kit would just go to sleep after being disconnected for a certain amount of time, so I wouldn’t have to mess with holding down the button to turn it off.
The sticky pad that the device attaches to the dash with was not as adherant as I was expecting and I had to find a spot that wasn’t textured and hold it on pretty forcefully for a few seconds before it would stick. I used a flathead screwdriver to GENTLY push the wires between my dash panels (without damaging the wire) and it almost looks built in now and I didn’t have to remove any panels.
A small pet peeve is that I think there may have been some translation issues when it was made. When you try to make an outgoing call using this device, if you manage to time your press correctly, it will ask you to say the name of the person you want to call. Its been very good about getting the name correct, but it asks you «Do you want to call John Doe? Say OK or Cancel.» You naturally want to say «Yes» or «No» since it asked you a Yes/No question, but you are forced to say «OK.» Not at all a deal breaker, but its kind of strange that you don’t answer that question with yes or no and I feel retarded every time I say OK. I wish that it just let the phone use its native voice commands. That way I could make phone calls, open apps, navigate places, text people, etc, just using google voice commands. Instead I’m stuck with making phone calls and playing music. Of course, I can always pull my phone out and activate voice commands and it works fine through this kit, but I bought this so that I wouldn’t have to mess with my phone while in my vehicle. I’m being picky here, I know.
The good:
It does a superb job of acting as a hands free speaker phone. The people I’m talking to can always hear me loud and clear and vice versa. I use Google Voice to route my calls, so the fact that the call is clear while going through their service and my cell phone service AND through bluetooth is impressive. I haven’t had a single person mention call quality to me and have never wished that the call were more clear. Music pauses while you’re talking to someone and it resumes once you hang up and GPS directions are still read over the vehicle’s speakers while talking on the phone, so I can keep my phone in my pocket without getting lost. I do wish that it would read the caller ID aloud when it gets an incoming call, but I’m sure I can get Tasker to do that for me (didn’t think of it until now)
Music playback quality is no different than having the aux cable plugged directly into the phone, as far as I can tell. It is crystal clear. I have used lots of bluetooth devices and the sound quality on a lot of them just sucks. This thing sounds great.
The single button, while making some things difficult, makes it very easy to operate without taking your eyes off the road. The blue glowing ring is easy to see out of the corner of your eye and the button is big enough that you’re not going to miss it. Timing your presses is another story, as mentioned above. Nonetheless, it is great at keeping your attention where it should be — on the road.
When I get the timing right, it has been adequate at pausing, playing and skipping to the next song no matter what app I’m using to play music on Android, though I usually use Pandora.
This device is very good where it counts (call quality, music playback quality, keeping you focused on the road). It is not perfect and definitely has room for improvement in the future. Overall, I’m happy with my purchase and, if it broke, I would buy the same device again.