Grom Audio USB Adapter works in my 2005 Lexus SC430
12-21-10, 11:35 PM
#16
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
Followup note on the Grom Audio USB adapter in my 2005 SC430:
The Grom manual says their device will do 99 virtual CDs and most car stereos support that. I found out my Lexus car stereo only supports 32 virtual CDs; which is OK with me since each virtual CD has 999 tracks.
When I first posted this subject my USB Flashdrive memory stick only had 29 folders (virtual CDs) on it and it worked great. Since I had a 32 GB USB memory I filled up the rest of the Flashdrive with Audio books and Radio Drama Podcasts. This gave me 52 folders or 52 virtual CDs. When I plugged it in the Grom and turned on the car stereo, it would not play anything and locked up blinking on CD #1.
I removed the Flashdrive and deleted 10 folders bringing it to 42 CDs. It played OK but when advancing CDs when I got to 32 and told it to go to 33, it went to 1. It also locked up the Grom and I had to remove the center console heater controls and pop the gearshift cover to get to the Grom which is under the front cup holder.
Unplugging the Grom for a minute fixed the lockup problem. I have been running it for several days now with just 32 folders on the Flashdrive. 29 are song playlists and 3 are Audio books. If you buy one of these, a 16 Gb Flashdrive will work for the 32 virtual CDs.
If you do this Grom USB adapter on a newer SC430 it would be interesting to know if you could play more virtual CDs than my limit of 32.
-Rockysc
The Grom manual says their device will do 99 virtual CDs and most car stereos support that. I found out my Lexus car stereo only supports 32 virtual CDs; which is OK with me since each virtual CD has 999 tracks.
When I first posted this subject my USB Flashdrive memory stick only had 29 folders (virtual CDs) on it and it worked great. Since I had a 32 GB USB memory I filled up the rest of the Flashdrive with Audio books and Radio Drama Podcasts. This gave me 52 folders or 52 virtual CDs. When I plugged it in the Grom and turned on the car stereo, it would not play anything and locked up blinking on CD #1.
I removed the Flashdrive and deleted 10 folders bringing it to 42 CDs. It played OK but when advancing CDs when I got to 32 and told it to go to 33, it went to 1. It also locked up the Grom and I had to remove the center console heater controls and pop the gearshift cover to get to the Grom which is under the front cup holder.
Unplugging the Grom for a minute fixed the lockup problem. I have been running it for several days now with just 32 folders on the Flashdrive. 29 are song playlists and 3 are Audio books. If you buy one of these, a 16 Gb Flashdrive will work for the 32 virtual CDs.
If you do this Grom USB adapter on a newer SC430 it would be interesting to know if you could play more virtual CDs than my limit of 32.
-Rockysc
12-23-10, 04:52 PM
#18
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
Grom Audio USB Label on Car Radio
I do not use my 2005 Lexus SC430 internal 6 disk CD player anymore since I installed the Grom Audio USB adapter. It gave me 32 external virtual CDs on a 32 GB memory stick and each CD can have 999 tracks.
I attached a photo of the label that I put over the car's CD player slot that shows me the memory stick Playlist names for my 4000 songs, Audiobooks and Radio Dramas Podcasts.
I wanted to assure all of you that it was very easy to pull out my radio and install the adapter myself. Like most of you I was not about to do it myself so when my Grom Audio arrived at home, I found a local car stereo dealer where the installer used to be a mechanic at a Lexus dealer. I watched him carefully take my console and dash apart. I was surprised by how easy it was. This Lexus car has excellent engineering in its design.
Grom had sent me the wrong cable so I took a photo of the back of my radio and had the car stereo person put it all back to normal. I sent the photo to Grom who then sent me the different cable. Since I saw how easy it was, I did it myself when the new cable arrived.
It anyone is interested, I can post a very detailed step-by-step procedure of how to do the job.
-Rockysc
I attached a photo of the label that I put over the car's CD player slot that shows me the memory stick Playlist names for my 4000 songs, Audiobooks and Radio Dramas Podcasts.
I wanted to assure all of you that it was very easy to pull out my radio and install the adapter myself. Like most of you I was not about to do it myself so when my Grom Audio arrived at home, I found a local car stereo dealer where the installer used to be a mechanic at a Lexus dealer. I watched him carefully take my console and dash apart. I was surprised by how easy it was. This Lexus car has excellent engineering in its design.
Grom had sent me the wrong cable so I took a photo of the back of my radio and had the car stereo person put it all back to normal. I sent the photo to Grom who then sent me the different cable. Since I saw how easy it was, I did it myself when the new cable arrived.
It anyone is interested, I can post a very detailed step-by-step procedure of how to do the job.
-Rockysc
12-24-10, 10:11 AM
#20
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
Looks better covering the ancient cassette hole
My dear wife saw my label covering my SC430 CD radio slot and pointed out to me a few things:
1. On trips she likes to bring along a few of HER favorite artist CDs to play and would appreciated it if I would leave the CD slot open!
2. The overhang of the AC panel puts the top of the radio in shadow and after dark you can not see the letters in the top of my label.
3. It is pointless on the label to have the names of the audiobooks on the CD # because they change as the months go by but the song playlists do not.
4. She suggested making a smaller label of just song playlists and covering the empty hole of the ancient cassette player which we never use.
I did as she suggested just showing the CDs of my song playlists.
Not seeing a cassette player on my dash makes the car look newer!
I have to agree it looks much better:
-Rockysc
1. On trips she likes to bring along a few of HER favorite artist CDs to play and would appreciated it if I would leave the CD slot open!
2. The overhang of the AC panel puts the top of the radio in shadow and after dark you can not see the letters in the top of my label.
3. It is pointless on the label to have the names of the audiobooks on the CD # because they change as the months go by but the song playlists do not.
4. She suggested making a smaller label of just song playlists and covering the empty hole of the ancient cassette player which we never use.
I did as she suggested just showing the CDs of my song playlists.
Not seeing a cassette player on my dash makes the car look newer!
I have to agree it looks much better:
-Rockysc
Last edited by Rockysc; 12-24-10 at 10:19 AM.
12-27-10, 05:17 AM
#21
A must have on our SC's. For those who have done it on their 2002~2004, post up and good luck to you.
Very nice customization!!!
02-02-11, 02:57 PM
#23
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: TX
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So if I order this kit:
http://www.gromaudio.com/store/usb_a...interface.html
plus the TOY1 cable:
http://www.gromaudio.com/store/grom_...le-c-toy1.html
and bluetooth dongle $44.99
my 2004 SC430 will be good to use bluetooth for audio streaming music and cell phone, USB for my 500GB external hard drive to play all my storage mucis, AM I RIGHT?
Thank you so much for all your help.
This is my 1st post, please forgive if I made any mistake or errors.
http://www.gromaudio.com/store/usb_a...interface.html
plus the TOY1 cable:
http://www.gromaudio.com/store/grom_...le-c-toy1.html
and bluetooth dongle $44.99
my 2004 SC430 will be good to use bluetooth for audio streaming music and cell phone, USB for my 500GB external hard drive to play all my storage mucis, AM I RIGHT?
Thank you so much for all your help.
This is my 1st post, please forgive if I made any mistake or errors.
03-06-11, 06:57 AM
#26
Somebody....confirm this for 2002~2004. This is another good DIY.
03-08-11, 05:14 PM
#27
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
iTunes and Grom USB adapter
Another update …
It has been months since I did the non-invasive install of the Grom Audio Stereo USB adapter in my 2005 Lexus SC430 center console. It has worked flawlessly and has never locked up or had a problem.
And here is a bonus that I discovered …
The software in the Grom adapter works very well with my iTunes music library. For example I have playlists in iTunes where my songs are by genre (Pop, Rock, Country, Broadway, etc). In the iTunes playlist I can arrange the play order of the songs by simply moving them up or down the list. My iPhone’s iPad will play them back in that same sequence. I have 687 songs in my Pop folder and the first 100 are my favorites. They play the way I stack the list, not by song name or date. When I copy the playlist to my USB memory stick, the Grom adapter also plays the songs in the same order so I hear all my favorites first. For example the first 14 tunes in my Broadway playlist are songs from Les Miserables played in the same sequence that they are sung in the musical. This is a really nice feature!
I can also push the car stereo dash button for random play and the Grom will randomly play the USB songs.
I covered my Cassette Player hole with a printed card cut to the right size to overlay the opening. The card shows my Grom Audio Virtual CD Number and the Playlist assigned. My new color scheme has more contrast and shows up better after dark having white letters on a black background. The car also looks newer by not seeing a cassette player on the dash.
This is really a nice system. Easy to install and works great!
It has been months since I did the non-invasive install of the Grom Audio Stereo USB adapter in my 2005 Lexus SC430 center console. It has worked flawlessly and has never locked up or had a problem.
And here is a bonus that I discovered …
The software in the Grom adapter works very well with my iTunes music library. For example I have playlists in iTunes where my songs are by genre (Pop, Rock, Country, Broadway, etc). In the iTunes playlist I can arrange the play order of the songs by simply moving them up or down the list. My iPhone’s iPad will play them back in that same sequence. I have 687 songs in my Pop folder and the first 100 are my favorites. They play the way I stack the list, not by song name or date. When I copy the playlist to my USB memory stick, the Grom adapter also plays the songs in the same order so I hear all my favorites first. For example the first 14 tunes in my Broadway playlist are songs from Les Miserables played in the same sequence that they are sung in the musical. This is a really nice feature!
I can also push the car stereo dash button for random play and the Grom will randomly play the USB songs.
I covered my Cassette Player hole with a printed card cut to the right size to overlay the opening. The card shows my Grom Audio Virtual CD Number and the Playlist assigned. My new color scheme has more contrast and shows up better after dark having white letters on a black background. The car also looks newer by not seeing a cassette player on the dash.
This is really a nice system. Easy to install and works great!
03-10-11, 05:40 PM
#30
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: British Columbia
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I think you are wrong about the sc stereo only having 32 virtual cd's I have 53 so far in my 05 with vais up. I notice the stereo only goes as high as the number of virtual cd's I have on my ipod but when i add one on the ipod the car stereo recognizes it.