I would think they have to approve some of them?! They include the option for the armrest, without approved snap-ins its useless.

 

When I was buying the Razr cradle and phone, my dealer gave me a list of about 6 or 7 cradles that were available through Mini, and Mini approved. Once I got he razr cradle, it just says BMW all over the box.

 

I visited my dealer this morning and the parts guru agreed that the BMW iPhone Armrest Snap-In, Part Number 84 10 9 182 792 is what I want for my 2008 MCS armrest.

He charged my credit card $140 + tax and told me to wait patiently for 2 weeks. I expect a call when it arrives.

 

please post a picture when you get it

 

Does anyone know if the iphone cradle part will work in the arm rest for the R-53 06?

 

That's funny. I bought a cradle from my dealer. It took about 2 weeks. Once installed (I didn't pick it up in my Mini to test it immediately) a couple days later it wasn't working. It wasn't charging my phone (this is with a Razr). So I add this to my list of things and a month later I take my car in for service and my list of requests.

I get a call from them saying the cradle I had is dead and they will replace it under warranty. A few hours later they call and say my car is ready. The next day I pick it up and to my surprise, they had the replacement cradle in the car. They said they overnighted it. Between 2pm in the afternoon and 8 am the next day they got a new cradle shipped in. Was a nice surprise. This one works too. Wish they got all the parts I request that fast.

 

So, the two dealerships I've talked to say it should snap in and you are ready to go. But reading this thread, I'm not finding that it is that simple.

Has anyone had the experience that it's simply a snap-in item?

 

From another thread



It would be cool to mod this thing to work with the iPod adapter.

 

They just snap in. Very easy to get in and out. If you look at the front of the armrest with it open there is a large button with a speaker looking picture. Surrounding that button is more black plastic. That part of the plastic is pushed down to release the blank insert or a phone cradle.

That's one problem when using this cradle. If you want to use your iphone for music, you can't have it in the cradle since it only charges and connects to the cell antenna. They really need to integrate that and the USB/aux input together.

 

Maybe I'm missing something with this accessory.

Essentially, all it does is act as a charger, correct? Same as the iPod interface does? So, if one has bluetooth already installed, the iPod interface would provide the charging AND the music library access and bluetooth would provide the cell phone connectivity with the car audio system.

The armrest provides power and an at-hand resting place, but since the in-car antennna does not work with the iphone, it seems this is a pretty limited-functionality accessory.

The ipod interface seems a much better expense, as far as value for the money. Am I missing something?

 

You've got it right. The armrest adapter for the Iphone doesn't fully integrate it with the car since it doesn't allow music through it.

If you look in that picture of the cradle, it appears to have a metal loop at the left end of where the phone sits. This is how it "supposed" to connect to the car's antenna, not a real physical connection. My Razr is the same way and it only jumps the signal strength up 1 bar when it's in the cradle.

If I had an Iphone, I'd wouldn't bother with an armrest cradle.

 

I just talked to the parts guy at Morristown Mini today, He said the the pin-in is different on the BMW iPhone Armrest snap-in part, and it will not work. He recommended to wait for the Mini approved one.

 

Good question!!!
Anyone??

 

Got it yesterday, installed it, works fine.

 

That’s good news. any pictures?
Wonder why Morristown Mini recommended to wait for the Mini approved one.

 

So this doesn't help with using bluetooth in the MINI? Please educate me

 

The cradle has no effect on bluetooth. The cradle only provides a connection to the roof antenna and charges the phone. The bluetooth function can be used with any supported phone. You don't need the cradle to use the bluetooth function.

 

Thanks

 

Got one for my Iphone 2 days ago, works perfectly, charges and improves cell reception.

 

What connector is at the bottom of the cradle? Is there room that it could it be rewired for iPod USB connector? If you have a closer picture of the cradle connector, surely we could figure it out...

 

Don't think it's possible, it's some kinda of BMW proprietary connector. next time I snap-it out I will take a picture of the connector.

Just installed it today, works good, some pictures.

 

Putting my engineering hat on, I believe it's doubtful that Mini's iPod USB connection pinout is any different than an iPod PCs USB pinout as the Mini interface is supposed to be designed to interface with several USB memory or MP3 devices. From everyones description, it sounds like only the power leads are populated in the armrest cradle and not the rest of the iPod USB interface pins.

The question is does the cradle have the room for a full iPod interface connection? Are there any other wires taking up space for the antenna coupling preventing use of the entire iPod connector? If there is room, its just a matter of making a longer "USB/AUX y-cable" to run to the armrest.

 

Looks like you need to check your email Bonk. 78 unread messages, yikes!

So did you wait for the mini version or did you get the BMW mentioned earlier?

 

Hum, does the iPhone get charged? I was looking at the above picts and it doesn't appear to be charging? (Normally there's a lightning bolt through the battery indicator at the top right of the interface to indicate it's charging).

I'd get one, but the main point is to have it charge the iPhone for long trips.

 

This sounds like an instructable in the making. Just need to know if there is enough room to install the "USB/phono jack cable" in the armrest cradle. Then its a matter of routing a USB and audio extension cable to the connectors under the center console. Will have to make a trip to the dealer to see what the iPhone cradle looks like or wait another and see when our new Mini gets in...