OMG, you beat me by 6 cents, dang it!

 

I just checked using a standard cable and a dock, and i'll confirm it does not work for song names. It does charge and play via line out, but the onboard controls will not work with just the dock.

 

I see the pinouts for this here:

http://pinouts.ru/Devices/ipod_pinout.shtml

Probably just need to tie pin 21 to 500ohm.

 

I also ordered the cable from the etronics link and it was shipped a few days ago... Waiting waiting waiting. I just got a 3rd Gen iPod Nano in Black to minimize the "I see it through the window" factor when I leave it in the passenger side net. I would love to route the Kenwood cable into the secret compartment instead.

 

Might sound like a few of us just wasted a few bucks on the Kenwood cable. Should find out here in a couple of days...

 

Well I received the cable from etronics today. The crazy part is that my Clubman is at the dealer being serviced so I can't test it until tomorrow. AAAAAARRRGHHHH!!!

 

Didn't work for me. I might try grounding pin 21 with a 500 ohm resistor... now to find pin 21, ugh.

 

Mine didn't work either. It's a good thing I have another use for the cable!

 

I just got the Kenwood cable and it didn't work in my '08 Clubman. Oh well.

 

I'm not surprised the Kenwood cable didn't work. The blackbox on the MINI cable is USB to serial adapter, it talks the old iPod Accessory Protocol (iAP) which used serial comms. The kenwood cable just looks like a USB dock cable, possibly with the right accessory resistor so the iPod goes into the USB iAP mode. Newer iPods (from the nano/video on) can speak iAP over USB as well as over serial, they can also do digital audio over USB.

MINI/BMW is really behind the times about how it uses USB.

I've been thinking of getting a USB extension cable and mini-jack extension cable. Alternatly I might get a Griffin Auto Pilot, I use one of those in Tristan because the adapter is so annoying, the new version shares a lot of those annoyances.

 

I have tried this, and it did work with several ipods. I got the track info, and was able to control from the steering wheel, and it charged the Ipod. The only thing I didn't try was if the playlists worked.

My problem now is, that I got a new Ipod Touch, and it does NOT work with only the standard white wire, and I do not have that aux/usb wire from the dealer.

 

which gen ipod works with white cable only? i'm very excited to hear this!

 

After 3+ hours of testing different cables, settings and quantities of music i have found the following.

All generation iPods will work with the white standard iPod cable. The difference is that the car DOES NOT think it is an iPod it beleives that it is just a USB drive and has the same limitations that a USB drive would have. That is to say that there is a 20,000 item limit. Items consist of the mp3 tags for each track. So if there are 5 tags for each track you are limited to 4000 tracks and if there is 10 tags per track you are then limited to 2000 tracks.

This limitation is brought on by the CCC and ULF and other modules in the car. I.E. the computers that run the ICE (in car entertainment) system. These limitations are because of the lack of memory in the ICE system. All the music information (tags) is read by the ICE system and then can be displayed on the screen in the speedo be thru the nav screen or the basic screen. If you have more music than what the ICE system can contain some of it is lost until you try to access it. When you go to access music that is not in the ICE system but is on the USB device it takes some time for the ICE system to find it as it has to go thru and index it into memory.

The way to see this is to hook up the iPod with the white cable and press the audio button it show across the screen Tuner, CD, USB, Aux as seen in the first photo below.

But when using the Mini Supplied cable the iPod actually show up as an iPod. This function can be seen in picture two below. When the system sees the iPod the only limitation to the amount of music is the amount the iPod can hold. There is no 20,000 item limit because the iPod actually controls the music and playing of it and the ICE system is just a dummy interface that controls the iPod.

The reason that the other cable that have both the usb and audio cable such as those from Kenwood or others do not work is because they do not have the correct resistance between pins on the usb connector to tell the ICE system that it is an iPod that is connected.

Different cables have different resistance in them to tell the unit that they are connecting to what software protocol to use.

So the conclusion is that you either accept the limitation using just the standard iPod cable, Buy or get your MA to give you a Mini cable, or make one from a cable such as the one that Kenwood sells.

I will try to see if i can figure out what the resistance is and how it is hooked up in the cable. When I do i will post it so that others can try an make their own cable and save some money over purchasing the Mini cable.

EIDT: if you go to the link in post #28 of this thread it tells you a little about the different resistances for pins 21 and 27 and also about 5vdc power to pin 25. So by minipulating these values the system will see the iPod differently.

 

Thank you! Now it all makes sense.

I've saved the picture someone posted of their wire, hopefully if I see the dealer about it, they'll know what I'm talking about... they didn't know much about it when I picked up my Mini, so I have a feeling this wire that comes from Mini is going to be a surprise to them to *sigh*

 

Well al the problems and threads on this issue got me to thinking "What is different about the Mini iPod Cable?"

So i have taken a chance and taken it apart. There is much more going on inside that little block in the middle of the cable than i expected.

I have taken photos of what is inside and i will have to search around to find out what the parts actually are and what they do.

Her are the Pics and no wonder they charge $100+ for it, they can. It will not be a resistor add to another cable to make it work.

I will report back about what i find out about the electronics inside the cable.

 

Very interesting. I will now make sure to get this cable when I pick up my car!!

 

Just a note that with NAV, the menu still says "AUX," but your playlists show up when you use the MINI cable.

 

Does the USB Symbol change to iPod?

What year is your car?

I ask because the one (1) vehicle I tested at the dealer with nav changed to iPod and eliminated the AUX

 

'08 MCS, build end of May 08. The 4 choices in the Entertainment menu are FM, AM, CD, and AUX, even when the iPod is plugged in, but again the iPod works like it's supposed to (playlists appear, playback resumes at exactly the spot it stopped or where you stopped when listening to the iPod elsewhere). Don't know if this is a software change or irregularity, but it works and I'm happy .

 

So, let me see if I have this correct:

The AUX port at the bottom of the console by the cupholders is standard.

If I use that and have a Nav unit, my tracks and playlists will NOT show, is that correct?

 

Excellent work Schatzy!

Also when you're looking for pinouts, keep in mind that at some point (5th gen iPod?) Apple went from using Firewire interfaces to using USB interfaces. (There's at least one gen with Firewire and dock support.) The significance of which is the voltage (10 vs. 5v respectively). I've seen situations first hand where newer iPod devices powered by older generic car adapters would overheat and ultimately ruin the battery.

Consequently, some pinout listings that have firewire and not usb voltages are the old pinouts and the resistance "standards" on those listings should be regarded as out of date.

Cheers,
JnC

 

Yes.

Makes sense- aux in is just audio, no song info. That comes via the USB port. So you will get music, but no song/track or playlist info. If I'm wrong, I am sure those who know more will correct me.

 

BTW, if you don't have the USB interface and want to add the ability of displaying tracks and playlists on your Nav for an iPod/iPhone, then you might consider using a product called mObridge. It's rather spendy depending how you option it (bluetooth and XM are optional), but it's claimed to provide a better interface in that it's faster and not subject to the 250 file limitation per playlist.

I have no affiliation with the product.

Cheers,
JnC

 

Very interesting. I Googled and saw that it is carried by NAM vendor EAS: http://www.europeanautosource.com/pr...oducts_id=1653. At this point, it should be considered an alternative to the dealer installed MINI iPod adapter (which is different from the USB/Bluetooth option). However, mObridge will release their Bluetooth integration soon. If their claims are accurate, they have superior integration for both iPod and Bluetooth than OEM, but at a higher price. I like that their unit has upgradeable firmware and they would likely offer better support for updates and fixes than MINI.

 

I'm seriously considering the mObridge product as I'm currently going thru the Mini configuration process. I'm handy when it comes to ICE installations, but I'm a bit leery that the published time for speedometer radio related access is on the order of 3 hours.

You may need to "remove" the device from the MOST bus for dealer service. Fortunately it has a mode to do that.