Car-G7: Bluetooth - FM Transmitter

What is a Bluetooth - FM Transmitter

I own a ten-year old car which had been fitted with a great audio system when I bought it. The audio system sound is still great after all these years and I enjoy my music immensely while driving. Sadly, however, while technology has moved on, I haven't been able to enjoy the benefits of the new technology with my old audio system.

With new cars and their audio systems, bluetooth is a given. Pair your phone once and thereafter, every time you get behind the wheel, the system automatically starts playing your favourite playlist where it had last left off. This would make me green with envy. For my audio system, I have to burn a new CD every time I want a new set of songs to play on my car stereo.

To make matters worse, my audio system doesn't even have an aux input which would allow me to play music from my phone on the car stereo. The only option I thought was to replace my old stereo with a new one that has bluetooth support.

But there is a better way...

Car-G7

There is a fantastic device available on Amazon (India) that costs around Rs 500. The name of the device is  "ApeCases® Carg7 2.5A Bluetooth Car Charger Fm Transmitter USB Hands-free Mobile". Quite a mouthful, but essentially a bluetooth-FM transmitter.

This device has the ability to communicate on two different technologies: Bluetooth and FM.  It connects with your phone via bluetooth in the usual way. Once paired, it behaves similarly to a bluetooth speaker - that is to say, the phone sends music to it as it would to a bluetooth speaker.

Now, instead of playing the music as a speaker would, this device behaves like an FM radio station. It transmits FM signals at the frequency of your choice. Now, the last step in the process is to tune your car stereo FM tuner to the frequency set on the Car-G7.

Voila! Music from your phone starts playing on the car stereo.

Connection and Setup

It sounds very complicated to make all this work, but it's a breeze. Really.

There are basically three things to do: (1) set up the FM frequency, (2) tune your car stereo to that frequency and (3) set up your phone to connect over bluetooth to this device.

Setting the FM Station

The first thing to do is to plug the device into your car cigarette lighter socket. The shape of the device is such that it fits the socket in any car model. You might not find the fit to be very snug but it is quite adequate.

One the device is plugged in, press the "CH" button. This puts the device in the mode to select the FM transmitter frequency. Use the + and - buttons to change the frequency to your choice. You can choose any frequency in the range 87.5 - 108 Mhz. Make sure you choose a frequency that is not close to a commercial FM station. (I chose 102.9 MHz). 

Tuning your Car Stereo

The next thing to do is to tune your car stereo to the same frequency as you have set for the Car-G7 FM transmitter station. This procedure will vary from car stereo to car stereo. However, the steps are very similar:

a) Select the TUNER mode. Typically, this involves pressing the "SOURCE" button till the display shows "TUNER"

b) Select the radio band. Typically, this involves pressing the "BAND" button repeatedly till the display shows "FM" (or FM1 or FM2)

c) Select the tuning mode. Typically this involves pressing the "TUNE" button repeatedly till it shows "MANUAL". This means that you will set the frequency to a fixed value.

d) Finally press the FWD and BACK buttons (which you use to change tracks on the CD) to change the frequency to your choice.

Connecting Your Phone over Bluetooth

The last step in the process is to connect your phone over bluetooth. 

As soon as you plug in the Car-G7 device into the cigarette lighter socket, it goes into a pairing mode. In your phone settings, go to the "Bluetooth" settings. The Car-G7 device will show up as BT-Car in the list of devices.

Select this device from the list and click the "Pair" button. In a few moments, the device gets paired and you hear the announcement "The device is paired-uh-successfully". And you are ready to go.

Playing Music and Answering the Phone

At this point, start playing music on your phone and it will play through the car audio system. All the features of playing songs from your phone are available to be enjoyed through the car audio system: playlists, shuffle, all songs, everything.

The added convenience is that the volume control is on the car stereo panel which is MUCH easier to find than the volume control on the phone especially while you are driving. You can even forward to the next song or repeat the current one or go back a few songs by pressing the + and - buttons on the Car-G7 device. Again very easy to find and operate (and almost impossible to do on your phone when you are driving).

And there is a further bonus. When you receive a phone call, the device intercepts it - it cuts off the music and announces the phone call. Pressing the "Call" button on the device is the same effect as the swipe required to accept the call on the phone (only it is infinitely easier). And the device has a small microphone that allows you to take the call hands-free.

With all these features packed in, the Car-G7 qualifies at the top of the list of Fantastic Devices.