This should be easy and simple to find online but it isn’t, so advice here is needed. I have an iPod classic, which uses a 30 pin dock. Recently my clock radio (1990 vintage) died and I’ve decided to replace it with one that has an iPod dock and, after a recent business trip, I decided to get an iHome radio based on the one in my hotel.
So now I’ve discovered the “lightning” connector and nothing out there has a 30 pin plug anymore. I would like to buy an adaptor that would let me connect a lightning male into a 30 pin female but all I can definitely and confidently find online are adaptors that do the reverse.
I have, however, found adaptors that accept micro-USB plugs and connect to 30 pin ports but I can’t find a clear answer as to whether a micro-USB is the same as a lightning.
Does the type of adaptor I need actually exist? I would greatly appreciate any information on this.
The reason you see so many adaptors with MicroUSB/lighting/30-pin is that the EU requires cell phones to allow MicroUSB charging, which Apple does via an included adaptor in those markets.
MicroUSB looks like a squished “D” end-on, it fits in only one direction and is a “dumb” (electronically speaking) connector – it’s just wires and the connector.
Lightning is a reversible connector (like the new USB-C, it’s symmetrical and plugs in either direction), and requires a fair amount of electronics in the cable itself; it’s a “smart” connector (which is also why Lightning connectors/cables are somewhat more expensive than USB ones).
At a guess, even Apple will move to USB-C soon, and this stuff will all finally be standardized (they already have with the new MacBook) with a small, reversible connector.
Funny, I have the opposite problem: I have a clock radio with iPod dock that I like but my iPhone 6 doesn’t fit in it. I can still use it through the aux in, but that way the clock radio can’t tell the iPhone to start playing music when it’s time to get up. And I’m too cheap to buy the adapter.
There must have been tons of these old devices out there, I’d think you should be able to find one on Ebay. I don’t think there are any adapters because all of this is more complex than a simple cable and there are probably only very few people interested in such an adapter, so it’s not worth the effort to make one.
are you sure about that? I know Thunderbolt cables are active; wasn’t aware Lightning cables were too. I thought the device itself (iPhone/iPad) handled all of the multiplexing/mode switching.
Thanks for the info. I’ve partially caved and bought the iHome clock radio with the lightning connector and using the USB port with my iPod classic. I know full well that I’ll have to replace the iPod in the next few years (I assume) but when that happens I presume that lightning connectors will be obsolete and superceded:mad:
There are rumours that Apple will soon drop the iPod.
Sales, thanks to the iPhone, allegedly have dropped precipitously, and Apple last updated the iPod Touch a couple or three years ago.
The most recent iPod uses the long obsolete iOS A5 processor. The current processor in the iPad and iPhone is the A8, with the A9 under development.
I have an iPod 2 Touch (I use it only in the car for music). It’s so old it uses a processor that precedes all the A’s. It runs iOS 4.2.1 and can’t be updated.
I’ll have to decide after Apple’s next dog and pony show in June whether to buy a new one even if the company doesn’t announce an update; no processor update probably will mean the iPod’s imminent death, and I have no need for an expensive smart phone just to play music.
Of course I’d be stuck with the outmoded 30-pin charger wire that plugs into the car’s power outlets (cigarette lighters). Apparently the adapter that Apple flogs costs as much as a new wire.