Upgrading existing car radio to receive DAB radio

DAB is a bit old fashioned why not just use your phone ?

Or look at an Apple CarPlay / Android head unit ?

Yes... Can you stream the radio station from the Internet? That would be the easiest solution if the radio station you want streams live, rather than retro fitting DAB hardware.

I thought about using my phone but that uses data. Can you use a portable dab radio and an aux in or does it need a better aerial?

I pay £14 a month for unlimited data, text and calls with 3.

I thought about using my phone but that uses data.

It actually uses relatively little data, about 1mb per minute/60mb per hour. And phone plans with loads of data included are easy to find.

I'd go with using your phone and connecting it via Bluetooth to the inbuilt radio. If the radio doesn't have bluetooth, use one of the Bluetooth FM transmitters that plugs into the cigarette lighter. They're about ten to fifteen quid and work pretty well IME.

In fact we've got this one, and it's only eight quid.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254921948183?hash=item3b5a883c17:g:ZrcAAOSw-IlgIQu6

If your car has a standard double din slot and iso connectors, it should be relatively easy to drop a new head unit in. You'll just need to fit a dab antenna, which you can get for the windscreen and easily route the wire through the dash. Took me about 10 mins to do mine and it works better than any FM antenna I've had.

Using a phone while driving is a crap idea unless you're able to connect it to the existing headunit, you'll need to pull over any time you want to change stations.

Using a phone while driving is a crap idea unless you’re able to connect it to the existing headunit, you’ll need to pull over any time you want to change stations.

Nah not if it's in a cradle, it's no different to using your head unit radio then.

A DAB radio will live or die on its aerial. IIRC, a lot of Renaults have (had?) some sort of weird reflective windscreen which crippled internal aerials.

As others have said, I'd just use your phone. Absolute has its own app, and there's apps like TuneIn which will pull in a lot of what's on DAB (and has a car mode IIRC).

Are you caching all your Spotify songs before heading out? That uses data also otherwise.

Nah not if it’s in a cradle, it’s no different to using your head unit radio then.

I don't think this is true. You're allowed to use a phone for navigation, streaming, etc. And you can use it hands free (i.e. Voice control), but physically interacting with it is something else entirely and could land you with a large fine, and for good reason. It's also crap for radio IME.

I think butcher may be right, I think the law may have changed again, certainly used to be OK if it was in a cradle, not sure it is anymore.

Regarding DAB, signal can be pretty patchy but hardware software can be a big issue as well. Different situation to you but my brand new Kia has terrible DAB reception, way worse than older model I was driving. Allegedly been improved with a software update but I don't fancy messing with an expensive new car so it's either have a go at the dealer who has been pretty rubbish up until now, suck it up and look at moving to using the phone. Just changing contracts to increase data and improve reception so that might be a good call. It's not like I swap stations once I set off usually.

I'm just here to say I'm shocked someone is still listening to AM. I'd completely forgotten that it even existed 🤣

We fitted one of these https://amzn.eu/d/1vlGIw s">Pure DAB units into my partners Nissan.
It's really good. Works great most of the time, but now and then the internal windscreen antenna drops out.
A powered roof top aerial would sort this I imagine.

A lot longer ago, I fitted a cheap one off amazon into my van which has always been great. I did fit a roof aerial too.
Don't know the brand but it was cheap and there are a lot of them about.

Edit-it was https://amzn.eu/d/fm6BWa k">This one but it says its unavailable now.

It also has Bluetooth so I can connect my phone to it and do podcasts on long journeys.

The law hasn't changed regards to using a phone in a cradle, you can still do this. The rules are then the same as any inbuilt device where the offence would be driving while distracted if the use of the device appeared to be distracting you from driving. Just using the device in a cradle is perfectly fine provided it doesn't distract you any more than using an in built radio would.

It wouldnt make much sense to ban you from using a phone in a cradle as you'd then have to ban all built in touch screens etc

Using devices hands-free
You can use devices with hands-free access, as long as you do not hold them at any time during usage. Hands-free access means using, for example:

a Bluetooth headset
voice command
a dashboard holder or mat
a windscreen mount
a built-in sat nav
The device must not block your view of the road and traffic ahead.

From gov uk

Hands-free access generally means not using your hands. The gov example specifically talks of voice control to operate. There's some ambiguity there, but you still risk a fine the second you touch your phone. Unlike inbuilt interfaces your phone isn't specially designed for vehicular use, and the police car driving past isn't going to care much what apps you're using as you tap away. Every piece of advice from official bodies that I've read, is that you need to pull over to operate your phone by hand.

I’ve got the same car, and did look into this. An aftermarket company makes a plug in conversion that makes the standard radio into a dab receiver by adding a box under the dash. It isnt much diffrent from the Pure unit above, but hidden away and 4 times the price. I settled for a Majority A10.
This sits on a mount that clips on the air vent exit above the existing radio, has 3 leads coming out of it, the aerial, a USB lead and a line out. The USB and Line out/in plug straight into the front of the existing radio, the aerial goes up and behind the dash, to be stuck on the window. It mostly works. Reception could be better, so Ive bought an aerial that goes on the roof, but havent got round to fitting it.
Majority A10

Oh, another option is to get rid of the original radio, buy a fascia kit, which fills in the hole made by removing the non standard sized radio, you’ll also need a wiring loom connector kit, as Renault did not use standard pin layouts, and any new DIN radio will then fit properly. This lot is around £100 plus the new radio, so not cheap.

Hands-free access generally means not using your hands. The gov example specifically talks of voice control to operate. There’s some ambiguity there, but you still risk a fine the second you touch your phone.

this is not true and does not reflect the law in the uk. you can use a phone however you like as long as you're not holding it. You can be charged with careless/dangerous driving if your driving falls below that standard.

https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/road-traffic-mobile-phones#:~:text=The%20phone%20or%20device%20does,Traffic%20Act%201988%20can%20proceed.

Hands-free access generally means not using your hands.

Yes. Hands. Plural.

The legislation doesn't say you have to use devices hands-free, it says you cannot use a hand-held device. Subtle but important difference.

The legislation doesn’t say you have to use devices hands-free

It literally says you can use devices with hands-free access. It's not entirely clear what the legal definition of Hands-free access is, which is where the ambiguity comes into it. It's all moot though, because you can still be charged with driving without due care, which is entirely up to police discretion.

I'm just surprised people are encouraging it on a cycling forum tbh.

It’s all moot though, because you can still be charged with driving without due care, which is entirely up to police discretion.

Which is pretty much what I'd said anyway.

How do you think your in car entertainment differs from a fixed position mounted touch screen phone? The law doesn't differentiate.

How do you think your in car entertainment differs from a fixed position mounted touch screen phone?

One is specifically designed to be used whilst driving. The other isn't.

It’s not entirely clear what the legal definition of Hands-free access is, which is where the ambiguity comes into it.

The change to the law last year actually changed very little. The purpose of the change was to update what is considered 'using a mobile phone' as technology has moved on since the regulation first came in to force in 2003.

For anyone interested this is the legal definition of hand held / hands free.

(6) For the purposes of this regulation—

(a)a mobile telephone or other device is to be treated as hand-held if it is, or must be, held at some point during the course of making or receiving a call or performing any other interactive communication function.

I don't understand all this talk about whether a phone in a cradle is 'hands free' etc.

Surely the answer is phone in cradle + google assistant? - I never touch my phone while driving, it's in a cradle (quadlock on the windscreen so I can see waze / maps for nav) and bluetooth to the factory stereo. Everything is just 'hey google, play radio xx' or whatever. I had android auto in the last car, I don't see any real difference with this arrangement so didn't bother upgrading the new car to android auto.

Hi, thanks for all your replies.

I think the way to go is use the phone with Google assist voice controlls.

As a rule I never touch the phone once I start driving.

Thanks

DAB is a bit old fashioned why not just use your phone ?

Considering how poor bandwidth is in many parts of the U.K., even on major roads, I’d hesitate to use a phone, unless it had a supplementary antenna. I had a DAB unit fitted to my old Octavia twelve/thirteen years ago, and once I had a proper roof-mounted antenna on it, instead of the supplied stick-on window one, I’ve never had an issue getting any DAB station anywhere south of Liverpool, and that goes for pretty much every vehicle I’ve driven over the last seven years. With the notable exception of a couple of Mercedes a few years back. I was getting a strong DAB signal in parts of South Wiltshire, Dorset and Devon where there was no phone signal literally for miles!

I hadn't thought about using voice control for my phone to control music. I've just been connecting it to the car using a ugreen bluetooth thingy plugged into the aux, starting the music and leaving it until I get to my destination. Now I can skip tracks, switch between YouTube music & bbc sounds, change volume, pause and probably all sorts of other things 🙂