I recently received an ipod for my birthday. I'd like to install it into the mini. Does anybody know what the best option is?

 

I'm very happy with my Dension ice>Link: Plus and Panavise "in-dash" mounting bracket. About $240 total, and I installed it myself. You could also do the MINI iPod adapter, which puts the iPod in the glovebox. I prefer the Dension unit because I can choose any playlist and I get song info on the iPod display.

 

Personally, I don't use playlists and tend to listen to albums on my iPod, so I prefer the $40 auxiliary jack to any of the much higher-priced options out there, which don't actually let you control anything other than playlists on the iPod. Plus, if you buy the kit, you can install it yourself and put the jack anywhere you want it, instead of in the glovebox, which makes no sense to me. I have mine on my parcel shelf, which works great!

 

There's several options to connect directly to the radio:
The cheapest and simpliest is the Aux input. $40 Not the best sound, but definately the most flexible of the options. You can connect anything with a standard heardphone jack for audio out into it and it will pipe the sound into your radio. If you have steering wheel radio controls you can only adjust the volume with it. NOTE Does not work with 2002 radios and some early build 2003 radios.
Blitzsafe adaptor. This was THE way to go to get an external device to pipe audio into the radio until the Aux jack came out. I don't know much about them, but Blitzsafe has come up with many improvements to their adapters. There's a rep from Blitzsafe here on NAM, and they are listed in the sponsor directory. Definately check them out.
Monster iCruz: This is relatively new. I dont' know of too many people who have it. But from the impressions I've seen it's not the most elegant of solutions.
MINI/Apple iPod Connector: Developed jointly by Apple and BMW for the MINI. Only 5 playlists are accessable and they require special names in order to be recognized. Plus side, official MINI part and it works with your steering wheel controls (if you have them). Down side, limited access to playlists, no ID3 tag support for the HU.
Dension IceLink+: This is the one getting all the notice lately. If you have a new 2005 and the proper firmware for the device it will display your ID3 tags on the radio. It's available with a cradle or a dock connector, versions are available that can be connected directly to your HU, or to the CD changer connector in the boot. It provides great sound, full access to your playlists, and works with the steering wheel controls. But, it's still a bit buggy (but better than it has been) and the interface isn't the most user friendly either...

 

Use search, this has been covered many, many times.

 

The search function of vBulletin sucks rocks.

 

Another vote for the denison ice link.

 

I broke down and bought the iCruze with some of my tax refund money. Although more expensive than most, it was a very easy install and the sound is crystal clear. The 2 boxes that come with the iCruze are quite large (1 a little bigger than a deck of cards, the other a little smaller than a paperbook novel) so I installed in the corner of my glovebox for now. It charges your iPod and you can control 6 playlists using your steering wheel controls.

 

Actually I think the biggest problem isn't the search function, but that hasn't been a compilation of all the iPod options out there. It's all scattered across lots of threads over the last several years...

 

True, but the search function still sucks. There's no way to do a logical AND of two words or search for an exact phrase. Searching for two words (like "throttle response") will return posts with just "response". Those alone makes searches worthless. It's gotten so bad, I've contemplated whacking together a crawler for all the MINI-related vBulletin sites and running them through Lucene so I've at least got a local index.

 

Is there any way to control the iPod by using the iPod controls, charge it, and get the audio source from the bottom of the iPod (i.e. not from the headphone jack)? Will the ice>link do this, or does the ice>link only allow you to access playlists? I know there's a belkin solution, but that involves using the 12V cigarette lighter for power.

I've been trying to figure this out by reading posts, but with no luck. I finally decided to post and ask.[font=Arial][/font]

 

Yes, the IceLINK does this, you can use either a dock connector or a cable connector, however both plug into the bottom of the iPod and charge it while connected. I believe that the MINI one does this as well.

 

and you can control the iPod by the controls on the iPod? You can select individual songs/albums?

 

No, I know the Dension solution disables the controls on the iPod, and I'm pretty sure the MINI one does too. The display works, but you can't control the iPod when it's connected...

 

Yes, the Dension ice>Link will allow you to do this; there's an option from the ice>Link menu to access the iPod UI. I *think* you can still use the steering wheel/head unit controls like you would the iPod remote, but don't hold me to that.

The ice>Link allows you to access each playlist *and* the iPod as a whole via its menu. With the newest 2.B1 firmware, you can also access "Artists" and "Albums" from the ice>Link menu, but only when text is being sent to the head unit.

 

Yes, but there are two caveats here...

1) If you turn on the text display on your radio then the Access Pod UI option goes away... The only way to get that option is to turn the text off..

2) Even when you access the Pod UI in the IceLink, the controls on the iPod itself are still disabled...

 

You know what's really f'ed up - I NEVER NOTICED THAT BEFORE! Even on MY OWN FORUMS! I'm a ******* for not noticing, but strangely enough I have also not noticed the need, at least on my forums. I index a much larger text segment than standard, and perhaps my keywords work better than automotive related. I definitely see that as a limitation though, you are 100% right.

I researched the feature, and while it is indeed in VB, it's apperantly not fully supported by MySQL right now, and there are a few issues with using it. Hopefully that will change in the near future. I'm going to do some testing, I would definitely like to get it working on my box at least.

 

Ah. Hadn't tried that. I'm getting ready to hide my iPod in the glovebox and use my panavise mount for my phone or GPS.

Really? How do you navigate it, then? With the headunit/mfsw controls? That's odd...

Before the text-on-headunit firmware, I'd just remove the iPod from the cradle, navigate to whatever artist, album or song I wanted to hear, hit play, and pop the iPod back into the cradle. The ice>Link picks up from there.

I've not found a need to use the iPod controls or menu, obviously. The ice>Link works very well for my needs (but jumping ahead and back is something of a crapshoot...).

 

The iceLink has two modes of operation. The first (Dension UI mode) replaces the display of the ipod with the iceLink's display (even in a different font!). In the Dension mode, CD buttons 1-5 on the headunit correspond to the first 5 playlists (no special naming necessary) and 6 takes you to a menu where you can browse all playlists, adjust settings (when/how the unit charges, etc), browse albums, or switch to iPod UI mode where the Dension display on the iPod goes away and the standard iPod display/functionality comes back.

In both modes the MFSW controls (track forward/back) work as advertised.

The iceLink is a bit quirky - and it pays to read the manual carefully, as some of the setup operations aren't completely intuitive. I have 2005 with NAV so the id3 tag display doesn't work (yet?!?!) but others are reporting success in non-NAV vehicles. About the most difficult thing is that the display sometimes is a bit slow and I end up pressing a key too many times and get ahead of myself, but I got used to that pretty quickly. Also because of this it is difficult and slow to navigate a bunch of albums (I have a full 40GB iPod). Fortunately, if you have the cradle (excellent design BTW, I have it mounted with the Panavise mount) you can pop out the iPod, navigate to the album that you want (or playlist) start it playing and pop it back in. The iceLink takes over there and the MFSW works.

Steve

 

Well I spoke too soon. The current 3.5 version of VB DOES have full text search supported. I have not yet upgraded, as I don't feel like redoing all my hacks in the middle of our busy season and risking downtime.

 

I'll second that... although if you have the latest firmware (the one that enables the text display on the HU), you can forget about the manual... The menus and function of the iceLink changes a bit with the new firmware...

It takes a bit to get used to the iceLink, and even though you get the steering wheel controls, don't try and navigate you're iPod while driving. It takes a surprising amount of concentration to use the iceLink with the iPod... Much more than is required to use any other mode of the radio or for that matter the Nav system!

 

If you want to keep it simple and cheap with the Aux jack, AND you want full line-out quality (instead of the amplified headphone jack), just get one of these:

http://www.sendstation.com

I can't recommend them highly enough. Simple and very effective. Only downside is that you won't be able to charge the iPod from the cigarette lighter at the same time, unless you buy a "cigarette lighter to FireWire" or "cigarette lighter to USB" power adapter... which I now have, thanks to MatthewZ (thanks! ).

 

Chiming in here!!

The aux Input is the the cheapest solution. And if you use a charger/adaptor with line out, you'll get good sound.

Belkin makes several charger adaptors with built in line out - there's the tune dock that fits the ipod in one of the cup holders and a really nice one for the ipod Mini (which I have). The one for the ipod mini is on a metal flex arm which stays in place. there's a line out port at the base where the tune dock plugs in the lighter socket. I routed the aux input to under the bank of toggles. a short mini jack cable makes the final connection.

good luck.

 

I'm happy with the OEM iPod adapter. Got it for around $100 (can't remember exactly as it was awhile ago, before I had car it works as promised; I use the MFSW and drive along, iPod stays charged. Car stays OEM which is good sometimes.

You can wire it so that it comes out and sits on the Euro parcel shelf (then you have to buy the shelf too of course )