TL;DR version: I found a Bluetooth adapter and a fusebox tapping method to allow my phone to auto-connect for streaming music (via the AUX-in of my CDR-30) when I start my 987.2.
Full Version:
I have spent a fair amount of time on these forums and on the web in general looking for a solution which would allow my phone to sync with a bluetooth adapter (connected to the AUX-in) when I get in the car, rather than having to do it manually via the adapter or phone. This would allow me to start my music right away rather than having to mess around with menus and devices.
The phone has always auto-connected to the CDR-30 (via bluetooth) for use as a phone, but never to stream music. Using the AUX-in via an external cable or bluetooth adapter was the only reliable way to play music from the phone. And up to now that always required me to manually trigger the connection in some way (yes, first-world problems).
So anyways, I finally have a solution up and running!
There are two essential problems that I had to fix:
First, I needed a Bluetooth adapter that would auto-connect with my phone at startup. Up until now, I had been using a GOgroove BLUEgate RCV adapter. It was great in that it a) worked as designed; and b) had a battery to maintain the connection if not plugged-in to a micro-USB power source. It was insufficient in that it a) wouldn't auto-connect with my phone unless I pressed its button and held it for a few seconds (not always easy to access in the armrest when I'm driving and realize I forgot to connect the phone), b) would drain its little battery if not connected to a power source; and c) would drain the car's battery if left connected to the 12V socket in the passenger footwell.
Second, I needed to find a way to have power supplied and terminated with key insertion in the ignition so that I didn't have to fear draining the battery by leaving a bluetooth adapter plugged-in to power when I'm not in the car.
For the first problem, I hunted high and low for a bluetooth adapter which:
There were many adapters out there that would cover 1-3 of the above points, but not all four. Finally after hours of searching online, I found the HomeSpot NFC-Enabled Bluetooth Audio Receiver. It covered "all of the above" and didn't have an internal battery (which is important, because it would power-off when the power source was disconnected). It even has NFC for easy pairing with a phone, but I have yet to use that feature.
Here's a photo of it in my armrest cubby, connected to my aux-in (note that the micro-USB cable is unplugged in this photo):
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That solved the first problem.
Now for the second problem. And frankly, this was solved by searching the Planet-9 forums (thank you!). So I am shamelessly stealing/consolidating/customizing the solutions noted in other threads here. This is how I applied the lessons and hopefully they can help others.
Recall, the second problem was finding a way to cut power to the 12V socket when the car is turned-off. I took it one step further in that I wanted to have power applied to the socket when the key was in the ignition, both before and after the ignition was activated (a subtle distinction). More on that later.
So based on what I learned on the Planet-9 forums, I settled on a fuse-based solution:
First, I surfed-on over to Amazon and bought a Littelfuse FHA200BP ATO Add-a-fuse Kit. Also, I bought a WirthCo 3001 Fuse Tap Kit for ATO Fuses.
The plan was to pull the fuse from the 12V sockets (Row B, Position F8) and then connect it to another fuse that was only supplied power when the key was in the ignition. The latter part was actually quite difficult. Most fuses in the box either a) have power with no key in the ignition, or b) only have power when the ignition is activated. Even the radio has power full-time (I didn't know that until today)!
Below is a photo of the fusebox:
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I have noted above where the location of the 12V socket fuse is on my 987.2 (Row A, position F8) -- I have already pulled the fuse in this photo and that's why it's missing. It is a 7.5A fuse.
Note I have annotated which the "hot" contact is (where the power comes from the car) and which "cold" contact is (where the power goes to the device).
On the row below that (Row B) in position F9, there is an unused socket with only a "hot" contact (which you can see in the photo -- there is no metal contact in the cold position for that plug). According to my fuse diagram on the inside cover of the box, this position is for "Tiptronic Position Switch TRM 86S (Only 997)". Given the "Only 997" label, my guess is that it is safe to assume that this position goes unused in all 987s like mine. And as luck would have it, this plug is only supplied power when a key is in the ignition or when the ignition is activated. It was the only one I could find where this was the case (I tried a bunch, but not all).
Now that I had identified the two plugs which I needed to bridge in the fuse box, I had to "adapt my adapter" to function properly.
The adapter comes looking like this:
![]()
And I "adapted" it to look like this:
![]()
Getting the fuse tap into the end of the Littelfuse adapter was a bit tough. I had to trim a little bit off the end of the tap, and then use pliers to fold/bend the tap so that I could insert it into the round hole of the blue part of the Littelfuse adapter. It was a classic "square peg / round hole" problem and thus I had to modify the peg to make it fit in the hole. I don't have a photo of this, but when presented with the problem the solution becomes pretty apparent.
Once I got the end of the tap modified and inserted into the Littlefuse adapter, I then had to crimp the blue part of the adapter so that it would hold the tap in-place. This required strong pliers and a strong grip. Finally, I had to flatten the entire tap so that it would insert cleanly into the fuse box.
With that complete, I had to bend the blue portion of the adapter to an approximate right angle so that it didn't protrude from the fuse position and prevent the fuse box cover from going back in place. You'll see this in the last photo of the post. Below is a close-in view of the connector I built using the Littelfuse and bent tap:
![]()
With all of that complete, I was ready to insert the Littelfuse adapter into the fuse box. I plugged it into the Row B, F9 position, and then plugged the blue/tap end into the "cold" contact of the Row A, F8 position. Worked like a charm:
![]()
I put the fuse-cover on, and everything worked as-intended. Now, when I insert my key in the ignition, the 12V socket in the passenger footwell gets power, which then turns-on the Bluetooth adapter, which then auto-connects with my phone.
If you're curious which USB adapter I use in my passenger footwell, it's the Scosche USBC242M 12 Watt USB Car Charger. It is pretty low-profile, has lots of power, and two USB ports. I use one for my Bluetooth adapter, and another for my Nexus wireless charger. I would add a photo, but I'm at my limit for this post.
Full Version:
I have spent a fair amount of time on these forums and on the web in general looking for a solution which would allow my phone to sync with a bluetooth adapter (connected to the AUX-in) when I get in the car, rather than having to do it manually via the adapter or phone. This would allow me to start my music right away rather than having to mess around with menus and devices.
The phone has always auto-connected to the CDR-30 (via bluetooth) for use as a phone, but never to stream music. Using the AUX-in via an external cable or bluetooth adapter was the only reliable way to play music from the phone. And up to now that always required me to manually trigger the connection in some way (yes, first-world problems).
So anyways, I finally have a solution up and running!
There are two essential problems that I had to fix:
First, I needed a Bluetooth adapter that would auto-connect with my phone at startup. Up until now, I had been using a GOgroove BLUEgate RCV adapter. It was great in that it a) worked as designed; and b) had a battery to maintain the connection if not plugged-in to a micro-USB power source. It was insufficient in that it a) wouldn't auto-connect with my phone unless I pressed its button and held it for a few seconds (not always easy to access in the armrest when I'm driving and realize I forgot to connect the phone), b) would drain its little battery if not connected to a power source; and c) would drain the car's battery if left connected to the 12V socket in the passenger footwell.
Second, I needed to find a way to have power supplied and terminated with key insertion in the ignition so that I didn't have to fear draining the battery by leaving a bluetooth adapter plugged-in to power when I'm not in the car.
For the first problem, I hunted high and low for a bluetooth adapter which:
- Will auto-connect to my phone when powered-up or when I get within range
- Will only stream music/nav from my phone and not the phone functions (the car was taking-care of the latter)
- Is powered by micro-usb or some other source that could easily work with the 12V power socket in my footwell
- Is small enough to fit in the armrest compartment where my aux-in is
There were many adapters out there that would cover 1-3 of the above points, but not all four. Finally after hours of searching online, I found the HomeSpot NFC-Enabled Bluetooth Audio Receiver. It covered "all of the above" and didn't have an internal battery (which is important, because it would power-off when the power source was disconnected). It even has NFC for easy pairing with a phone, but I have yet to use that feature.
Here's a photo of it in my armrest cubby, connected to my aux-in (note that the micro-USB cable is unplugged in this photo):
That solved the first problem.
Now for the second problem. And frankly, this was solved by searching the Planet-9 forums (thank you!). So I am shamelessly stealing/consolidating/customizing the solutions noted in other threads here. This is how I applied the lessons and hopefully they can help others.
Recall, the second problem was finding a way to cut power to the 12V socket when the car is turned-off. I took it one step further in that I wanted to have power applied to the socket when the key was in the ignition, both before and after the ignition was activated (a subtle distinction). More on that later.
So based on what I learned on the Planet-9 forums, I settled on a fuse-based solution:
First, I surfed-on over to Amazon and bought a Littelfuse FHA200BP ATO Add-a-fuse Kit. Also, I bought a WirthCo 3001 Fuse Tap Kit for ATO Fuses.
The plan was to pull the fuse from the 12V sockets (Row B, Position F8) and then connect it to another fuse that was only supplied power when the key was in the ignition. The latter part was actually quite difficult. Most fuses in the box either a) have power with no key in the ignition, or b) only have power when the ignition is activated. Even the radio has power full-time (I didn't know that until today)!
Below is a photo of the fusebox:
I have noted above where the location of the 12V socket fuse is on my 987.2 (Row A, position F8) -- I have already pulled the fuse in this photo and that's why it's missing. It is a 7.5A fuse.
Note I have annotated which the "hot" contact is (where the power comes from the car) and which "cold" contact is (where the power goes to the device).
On the row below that (Row B) in position F9, there is an unused socket with only a "hot" contact (which you can see in the photo -- there is no metal contact in the cold position for that plug). According to my fuse diagram on the inside cover of the box, this position is for "Tiptronic Position Switch TRM 86S (Only 997)". Given the "Only 997" label, my guess is that it is safe to assume that this position goes unused in all 987s like mine. And as luck would have it, this plug is only supplied power when a key is in the ignition or when the ignition is activated. It was the only one I could find where this was the case (I tried a bunch, but not all).
Now that I had identified the two plugs which I needed to bridge in the fuse box, I had to "adapt my adapter" to function properly.
The adapter comes looking like this:
And I "adapted" it to look like this:
Getting the fuse tap into the end of the Littelfuse adapter was a bit tough. I had to trim a little bit off the end of the tap, and then use pliers to fold/bend the tap so that I could insert it into the round hole of the blue part of the Littelfuse adapter. It was a classic "square peg / round hole" problem and thus I had to modify the peg to make it fit in the hole. I don't have a photo of this, but when presented with the problem the solution becomes pretty apparent.
Once I got the end of the tap modified and inserted into the Littlefuse adapter, I then had to crimp the blue part of the adapter so that it would hold the tap in-place. This required strong pliers and a strong grip. Finally, I had to flatten the entire tap so that it would insert cleanly into the fuse box.
With that complete, I had to bend the blue portion of the adapter to an approximate right angle so that it didn't protrude from the fuse position and prevent the fuse box cover from going back in place. You'll see this in the last photo of the post. Below is a close-in view of the connector I built using the Littelfuse and bent tap:
With all of that complete, I was ready to insert the Littelfuse adapter into the fuse box. I plugged it into the Row B, F9 position, and then plugged the blue/tap end into the "cold" contact of the Row A, F8 position. Worked like a charm:
I put the fuse-cover on, and everything worked as-intended. Now, when I insert my key in the ignition, the 12V socket in the passenger footwell gets power, which then turns-on the Bluetooth adapter, which then auto-connects with my phone.
If you're curious which USB adapter I use in my passenger footwell, it's the Scosche USBC242M 12 Watt USB Car Charger. It is pretty low-profile, has lots of power, and two USB ports. I use one for my Bluetooth adapter, and another for my Nexus wireless charger. I would add a photo, but I'm at my limit for this post.
