I doubt it. When I found the iPhone's own white USB cable allowed it to charge just fine, but wasn't recognized as an iPod by the Mini, I thought maybe it was the missing audio cable plug.

So, I took an iPhone dock (the one you can buy from Apple), and plugged the white cable into that. The dock also has a 1/8" audio line-out on the back, so I connected a cable from that to the aux audio input next to the USB port on the Mini.

No love - still not recognized as an iPod. Although it did charge consistently (just like with the white cable by itself).

There's something in the Y-cable that makes everything behave differently...

 

I just found two posts, one on a BMW forum and one on the Apple discussion forum, which both said the Ridax adapter was working.

Has anyone here tried it?

http://home.swipnet.se/ridax/connector.htm?connipod.htm

EDIT: never mind; three pages back in this thread folks tried it and said it didn't help. :-(

 

More observations - not conclusive, but repeatable (i.e. 3 times in a row)

Steps:
1) Open driver's side door
2) Sit down and plug iPhone into the Y-cable - I get the lightning bolt
3) Start car (with door still open) - still have the lightning bolt
4) Close door - still have the lightning bolt

While driving to work, I check at red lights once-in-a-while, and the lightning bolt was there every time.

This morning, I started with a less than full iPhone battery. after I parked the car, I unplugged the iPhone and checked the usage area. It said "0 minutes" since last full charge.

Keeping my fingers crossed, though I'm sure voodoo and lunar alignment may be involved.

 

Yes that little black box in the middle of the cable is a serial to USB converter that is needed to make it work.


Edit: Found the post that shows it.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...0&postcount=40

 

Bumping this back to page 1.

Has anyone had luck w/the 09 version of the Y-cable?

 

I have an 09 JCW with what I'd imagine must be the "09 cable" and suffer the same issues everyone else here does. I've spoken to my dealer who are aware of the situation and know of no new cable; nor do they know of a fix.

Also, neither the Passport nor the Ridax adapters made any change in the operation or the charging status of the iPhone.

 

It's a bit ridiculous that BMW and the other manufacturers have allegedly known about this for 3 yrs...

Here's a solution I found from Googling the issue - Kensington 4 in 1 Charger w/pass-through:

 

I'm willing to give anything a shot. Fortunately the Apple Store is quite good with returns!

 

Our car is an 09 made 10/3. It will only charge if the phone is more that half full below that it shows the plug(with the bat not full) and does not change.

 

Its less that $15 so I may give it a shot. The only thing is the apple site does not show it as working with iphone so it might not help. Might have to do a test dirve at apple first.

http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-333.../dp/B000FSQ6EG

 

It says it's compatible w/the iTouch 2 and I did read on one of the Bimmer forums that it'll work so best of luck.

That Amazon price is top-notch - might have to pull the trigger myself...

Edit: pulled. Will report back soon.

 

http://scosche.com/products/productID/1667 is another inline converter.

Rob

 

I took a trip to LA and back yesterday, the door trick worked both ways, didn't start with the door open though. Just open door, plug phone in (and dismiss the Airplane mode suggestion), close door, start car.

 

Hey japtor - just curious if this is still consistently working for you, as I think there is some voodoo involved... I find that if the battery is (roughly) half full or more, than this door thing seems to work. If on the other hand, the battery is more than half drained, then this doesn't seem to work.

Has anybody got any definitive results with the Scosche Passport prioduct? Their website (FWIW) says guaranteed iPhone 3G compatible.

 

Hmm, I'm going to try the door trick today with my 06. Hopefully it works!

 

I was going to go to the apple store today but not after what I read on the apple store site reviews. I guess it fixes the firewire usb thing but it cant make the MINI cable give more current than it was designed to do

"This does not work for connecting between cable supplied by BMW included with 2009 5 Series as of November 2008 and iPhone 3G. The cable supplied by BMW does not charge the iPhone 3G. I tried connecting this Scosche Charging Adaptor between the BMW cable and the iPhone 3G with phone on and engine running for more than an hour. The iPhone 3G charging level remained at the exact same low level as when I started the test. "

"I have a mini cooper whithin which I used this adaptor. Like others have found, IT DOES NOT WORK!!!!

At 75% charge it says it is charging but it is basically draining the battery. At a lesser charge, when hooked up, it does'nt even show it to be charging.

In addition, I had to carve some of the plastic off to make it fit with my phone cover.

Not very well thought up."

 

USPS delivered my $15 shipped Amazon



Kensington 4 in 1 and I gave it the old garage try-out in the dark just now w/some very interesting results...

It's not an unqualified success by any means but for $15 it's a keeper until MINI gets there shiznit together.

I have an 08 Cooper S Clubman and the 3g software v2.1 bought in September.

The bad news:

• w/the pass-through charger cable attached the HiFi stereo will only pick it up as an aux connection
• if you unplug it and plug the iphone straight into the Y-cable the HiFi still registers the iPhone as an aux connection unless you remove key - get out of car, close door and do a pas de deux
• the lighter socket thingie has to be shoved hard into the socket otherwise it doesn't make a connection

The good news:

• it charges w/the pass-through cable attached
• if you delete the pass-through cable - it's probably the neatest solution for charging using the Y-cable instead, plugged into the Kensington's lighter socket thingie USB charging port
• somehow somewhere it jogged some MINI or iPhone circuit into life because I unplugged/re-plugged the iPhone from/into the Y-cable at least 10 times and it registered as charging EVERY time - I've never had that much luck before w/any amount of door closing voodoo action

Excuse the crappy iPhone pics complete w/led Maglite lighting...



Damn - no "accessory attached" message...



Aux only w/pass-through cable



Better than 5 ft of wire hanging around...


Much better

 

So it's been a couple of days already and my phone is charging consistently.

Not sure if this Kensington thing is some kind of electronic voodoo doll but it's uncanny.

Before Kensington - hardly charged EVER.
After Kensington - charges EVERY time.

I can't explain it but I'm very happy about it.

 

Rexicon - please clarify for me.

It charges using the Kensington lighter plug plugged into the cigarette lighter or it charges using the Mini cable exclusively?

As in, somehow, someway, magically using the Kensington plug once fixed all the issues everyone here are experiencing?

 

To clarify:

when I plugged the Y cable into the Kensington widget it charged but wouldn't show up as an iPod.

However, subsequent to plugging the Y-cable into the Kensington widget my Y-cable (when plugged into the MINI USB port) has been charging the iPhone consistently regardless of whether the door's open, car is on or off etc.

Initial observations are that I'll report back in a week and give everyone an update - I'd love to be right!

 

had an issue / solved it. lol

 

I posted this message on similar threads. My MA sent this to me earlier in the week regarding charging issues with the iPhone:

This DCS message is directed to all BMW centers and MINI dealers with regards to charging the latest generation iPhone 3G, iPod Touch, iPod Nano and iPod Classic with the accessory iPod interface.
With the new line up of Apple devices, Apple switched from a (12 volt) FireWire charging protocol to (5 volt) USB, causing the devices to display the following error message:
"Accessory not made to work with iPhone" or "charging not supported"
We are aware of the issue and have started development of a new interface cable with an inline 12- 5 volt converter. The new cables are currently undergoing approval at Apple and will be available Q1 2009.
As these devices were created well after the development of the our interface it was unable for us to anticipate this issue.

 

Looks like too many hits from the ...

The Kensington 3in1 does not magically cure the Y cable problems. My charging successes must have simply been coincidence.

It does however still offer a pretty neat charging solution for around $15 shipped until BMW gets their act together.

 

OK, FWIW...

Got the new Mini on the 2nd Jan. It has the 6NF pack, and charges the first gen iPhone and original iPod (5th Gen) when plugged into the USB under the dash.

So far I cannot get the iPhone to act as an iPod and also I have a problem where the track names all show up as random characters.

Nightmare and my dealer does not yet know the answer.

 

I am having the same problem intermittently.