Do These Actually Work!?

Vibe

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Hello,
Just scrolling though ebay and i came across these
eBay - Item # 400764473269

It's a AMI to 3.5mm Jack and i was wondering if anyone on here had one and could say they actually work? this would save me a lot of money on a AUX retro fit in order to play spotify from my phone :)

Many Thanks,
Mitch
 
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There might be nuances to later A/S/RS5 models, but broadly speaking, yes - they do work.

Actually they're available as genuine accessories from your dealer. If the car has AMI, it can be connected to Apple [<spits>] devices, USB Mass Storage devices, and analogue audio via 3.5mm connection; it's just a case of getting the right cable.

There's the rub - there are (or were when I was looking a while ago for my C6 A6), putting a conservative estimate on it, around four million different revisions of the cables. While they all look largely the same, they can be pinned-out differently; so if you're buying from eBay without a specific part number, make sure the seller's willing to refund/replace if it's not right, and I'd tick 'UK Only' to save having to post stuff back to China.

If you reply with the year of your car; I'll see if I can find a correct 3.5mm AMI lead part number for it.

Also... If you're talking about getting a 3.5mm lead for Spotify from your phone, I'm guessing it's not an iPhawn (or you'd get an iPhawn lead)? In that case, you might want to google "Audi AMI iphone cable bluetooth mod" - basically, by shorting out a couple of pins in an iPhone lead, you can turn it 'dumb' - it'll forego any control signals and just open its analogue audio pins; if you then drop a tenner on an iPod dock bluetooth adapter, you can hang that on the cable (cutely taking power from the AMI), and connect your phone via Bluetooth Audio profile :)

[Let me know if you need any further help on that one]

R
 
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There might be nuances to later A/S/RS5 models, but broadly speaking, yes - they do work.

Actually they're available as genuine accessories from your dealer. If the car has AMI, it can be connected to Apple [<spits>] devices, USB Mass Storage devices, and analogue audio via 3.5mm connection; it's just a case of getting the right cable.

There's the rub - there are (or were when I was looking a while ago for my C6 A6), putting a conservative estimate on it, around four million different revisions of the cables. While they all look largely the same, they can be pinned-out differently; so if you're buying from eBay without a specific part number, make sure the seller's willing to refund/replace if it's not right, and I'd tick 'UK Only' to save having to post stuff back to China.

If you reply with the year of your car; I'll see if I can find a correct 3.5mm AMI lead part number for it.

Also... If you're talking about getting a 3.5mm lead for Spotify from your phone, I'm guessing it's not an iPhawn (or you'd get an iPhawn lead)? In that case, you might want to google "Audi AMI iphone cable bluetooth mod" - basically, by shorting out a couple of pins in an iPhone lead, you can turn it 'dumb' - it'll forego any control signals and just open its analogue audio pins; if you then drop a tenner on an iPod dock bluetooth adapter, you can hang that on the cable (cutely taking power from the AMI), and connect your phone via Bluetooth Audio profile :)

[Let me know if you need any further help on that one]

R

Thank you for the reply! Brilliant amount of help there :D I'll take note of what you said about the different types of pin layout, my S5 is 57 plate and unfortunately i do not have a iPhone, i have a Samsung galaxy S4.. So im assuming im not going have have much luck there with spotify without using the 3.5mm jack?

Again thank you with the help :)
Mitch
 
"unfortunately" you don't have an iPhone? :no: [I'm not an Apple fan]

I might've confused things trying to address multiple issues. The long and short of it is that you will be able to use your S4 just fine via the 3.5mm jack, so long as you get the AMI -> 3.5 jack cable which is correct for your particular car/AMI/year.

As a separate issue, I was saying that if you'd prefer to listen to Spotify in the car from your phone without fiddling with cables, with a little bit of fiddling, you can equip the AMI system with Bluetooth connectivity [which will work with any device capable of playing music to Bluetooth speakers/headphones].

The technique is to buy the AMI -> iPod/iPhone lead which matches your car/AMI/year; when you get it, open up the connector (AMI end, IIRC) and short a couple of the pins (obviously the correct ones - there's advice around the web) and re-assemble to connector. The pins being shorted fools the AMI into thinking there's just a 'dumb' i.e. analogue audio-only (effectively the same input as with the 3.5mm lead), but still via the ipod connector; which will be receiving power from the AMI unit, and can now therefore connect-to and power an iPod speaker dock Bluetooth adapter - there are any number available between about £10-£20, gadgets one might plug into a basic (i.e. non-Bluetooth) iPod dock which will allow one to stream music to it.

et Voila! Scan for Bluetooth devices on your S4 (or any Bluetooth audio enabled device) and connect to 'Bluetooth Speaker' or whatever your eBay/Amazon/AliExpress dock adapter reports itself as, connect and stream Spotify (or whatever else) to the AMI via Bluetooth.

I keep meaning to do it for mine, but I've not bought the iPod lead to hack-at yet. When I do I'll post a HOWTO, but there are guides out there if you want to get stuck in.

All the best,

Rob.

Here are the various cables listed against a 57 (MY2008) A/S5:

Amicables01

Amicables02

[If you're going down the 3.5mm route, item 11 appears to be the same as item 4, but with a decent length of cable on it (but I'd check before buying)]
 
Thats a very good plan and I could connect my S4 to the Bluetooth receiver but would that not interfere with my Audi Bluetooth telephone? im sure you can only connect to one? :/ i suppose i could buy a cheap ipod and do the Ami-Ipod modified cable? that seems the best option for my case
 
Again, you can get a 3.5mm cable and it'll all work just fine; no need to fiddle with Bluetooth or buy an iPod [and to be honest I'd buy a USB cable and a memory stick/2.5" hard drive before an iPod, at least then you're not tied to iTunes].

Just thought that if you fancied hooking-up the S4 via Bluetooth (quicker to connect/disconnect, can have the phone anywhere in the car etc.), it was worth noting that it is possible - albeit with a bit of fiddling. On the issue of potential problems with the telephone, you should be fine. The S4 has multi-point Bluetooth, so it's possible to connect the headsdet/handsfree part to MMI Bluetooth telephone, and the hi-fi audio/headphones part to the bluetooth dock adapter.

Anyway, like I say, the 3.5mm cable will work fine - the other options are just options :)

All the best,

Rob.
 
Only reason i said ipod was for spotify, i could play spotify and charge my ipod same time :)
I have the USB cable and connected my S4 to it which worked fine apart from some songs not being compatible ><

But still thank you very much for the options much appreciated!
Mitch
 
The S4 has multi-point Bluetooth, so it's possible to connect the headsdet/handsfree part to MMI Bluetooth telephone, and the hi-fi audio/headphones part to the bluetooth dock adapter.

I've 2015 MMI and I'd confirm that I have had my iPhone 5 connected via BT for music and a Nokia Lumia connected for phone at the same time. What I haven't been able to test is what happens to the music when I receive a call.
 
When i went to audi not long ago the tech guy was saying on the newer models you can play music via bluetooth but not on the older models, unfortunately mine is a 57 plate and cant do this
 
Yep, later generation vehicles like Statler's support both out of the box; but MMI 2G/3G didn't have the capability; and sort of weirdly, there's never been an OEM upgrade offered - I can't see that it'd be particularly difficult to stick a bluetooth dongle on the MOST bus; and I'm fairly sure they'd get away with charging a couple of ton for one!