Well I took some time away from here and thus far things are ok. So here is my review at about a month into having the DICE installed.

No drop outs and I am pleased with the sound. I still get display on NAV and Radio at the same time, not always successful at moving the display to radio only to use the nav other than by turning off the tags entirely. Overall, I am pleased with the unit. It does what I want, and it cost me a fraction of the dealer installed option. (Paid about $500+ for the option on my wifes BMW) There are some obvious bugs in displaying tags with NAV but (shrug) I am not too hard to please in some regards. The tags were a bonus as far as I'm concerned but overall I am a happy camper.

 

OK, mine just arrived. Sneakerspray now I'm curious- you have to turn off the tags completely in order to take it off NAV display? Hmmmm...


...(pads out to the gradge)

 

...(pads back in slightly annoyed)

Yeah I see what you mean. The instructions lead you to assume you can route the text to just the radio, but unless you turn text off completely it takes over the NAV. Not exactly desirable. There was a point I was able to get the title in the NAV as well as GPS and elevation, but I haven't driven with it yet so I don't know if it would update.

On a sound note, the level does seem about only 70-80% volume of a CD.

other than that, it was a snap to install (10 minutes to hook up, including opening the package- more time needed to make it neat) and all functions are go.

More research needed.

 

FIX THIS THING SO NAV USERS CAN PURCHASE AND USE IT!!!! :impatient

How hard can it really be to allow No text on NAV and text on the radio?

 

Well, this is just speculation, but I have an aftermarket Bluetooth phone adapter and when a call comes in, the HU display says "phone" and the NAV goes into the phone page (which doesn't say anything, but shows the button to hang up or return to NAV display - I believe that, with the OEM phone adapter (the wired one more popular in Europe) the incoming number or caller display would be here). I also have iceLink Plus (which takes over everything if you select text). I bet that there isn't a way to inject text data into one display and not the other. I doubt that it would ever work - and to that end, it looks like 2007 introduces a whole new radio/NAV system so ours is EOL. In my mind, it wold be sweet if they could inject text on the NAV where the temperature is displayed - now THAT would be cool. I have temp on my OBC anyway.

I wouldn't ever expect it to work, although if it did, I'd probably spring to upgrade.

On a related and unrelated note, I've recently noticed buzzing in my iceLink when I step on the brakes. It may have been doing it for awhile, but I have transitioned from loud music to a lot of podcasts and the quieter ones (WWR for one - they should master like TWiT! - and no, I don't have a Nano) reveal this problem because they require more headunit gain.

Does anyone experience noise on DICE specifically coinciding with the brakes? Or on their iceLink for that matter?

 

FWIW, I don't hear any noise while braking in either of my ice-link equipped cars. The ground pin mod fixed all of my noise issues.

Not sure if I see any point with upgrading to the Dice unit as it does not fix anything and makes playlist navigation worse since the names are not displayed. I'm currently very disappointed. AA YMMV

 

Yea, I did the ground pin when I installed it about a year ago. The noise thing I just noticed recently.

I also noticed that when I go over a hard bump, I lose audio in the right channel. I would suspect a loose connection, but the curious thing is that, to get the audio back, I have to switch to another mode (CD or radio, for example) for just a second until I hear audio come back and then I can go back to iceLink.

Ghosts in the machine.

 

Installed my (second) replacement unit tonight and text tags on the head unit are no longer displaying garbled characters. Took a bit to convince Dension tht I had a bad unit but now I'm happy. Also installed the Icelink+ replacement Dice unit in my wife's MCC tonight - no issues. Finally!

 

Thanks to the many people who contributed to this thread. It made my decision easier in choosing which ipod adapter to buy. I took deliver of my SB MCS last Thursday. I've ordered a DICE interface and can wait to get it installed. Hopefully everything goes well, if not, you'll be hearing from me with some questions. Thanks again.

 

I'm sorry but where is the CD Changer socket in the boot of the Mini? Thanks in advance.

 

Look in the right hand compartment in the boot. If you have the Harman/Kardon option installed, it'll be buried underneath the amp, but still accessible. My connector was actually wrapped in felt tape and zip-tied off, so it took a flashlight and close looking to find it, but it was there! Bring some snips/scissors and a light to help you out when you go looking for it.

-Paul!

PS - My DICE is still working fine - no problems other than during quiet portions of CDs that were recorded low to start with, I can hear a digital sounding 'dit-dit-dit'. But it happens so infrequently, and I have to have the volume basically maxed to notice it, I can live with it.

Since it only seems like a few are having this issue though, I'm wondering if it only applies to H/K system owners? I'm guessing that the H/K amp is amplifying some noise from the DICE that non-H/Kers don't hear. But since I'm the only one in the area that owns a DICE unit, I have really no-one to test my theory with.

 

Seems like the remains of a previous problem, just not as bad. I've got the H/K as well- I'm going on the first long trip with the DICE tomorrow so I'll listen and see if i've got the dit-dits as well.

...sounds like something you pick up in a foriegn country.

 

Thanks Paul, found it. I don't know how I didn't see it when I first checked that compartment. I'm hoping to do my DICE install this weekend, wish me luck.

 

I received my Dice ipod adapter today. Got everything connected in 5 mins. Everything seems to be working as expected. The connections are really easy, I think the challenge will be routing and hiding the cable from boot to maybe the glove compartment or somewhere in front. I'll try to figure out how to accomplish this over the weekend.

 

Well I had the first big run with the DICE last weekend and I must say it was pretty sweet. Unending music, charged ipod, songs pickup where you left them.

It's not all flowers and sunshine- one big feature i was looking forward to was the track info on the head. Well with Nav you can get track info on the head and the display- both or neither. If you flip through the display options by choosing disc #'s on the head unit you can get a hybrid of track info and nav display, but the nav info is limited to GPS and route direction- no map. Periodically the map would reappear, but only for a split second as the track info would start scrolling again and override the map.

Looks like the DICE interface with the MINI nav is not quite bug free. If you don't need the nav at the moment, you can leave the track info up. Or if you know all the songs on your ipod you can disable the track info and then turn it on temporarily if a song comes on that you have to check.

As reported on this forum earlier, the sound output is about 70% of the CD output, resulting in earsplitting nav directions if you have it cranked. There is some dit-dit noise audible between tacks, or when searching, but I did not detect any during playback.

All told it's pretty handy and convenient. I routed it up the passenger side and under the glove box so the wire comes out by the cigarrette lighter, with enough tail to hold the ipod in your hand. Gotta figure out a clip point for sexier travel (as well as the 4 inches between the rear seat and the door gasket).

Hope this helps for any Navvies out there still wondering.

 

Just wondering if there is a problem with this that I haven't thought of. If the DICE works really well at operating the ipod, could'nt I avoid having to wire the unit up to the dash by storing the ipod in the little chamber where the cd hook-up is?
Thanks

 

Grrrr. I got my DICE in the mail today (finally!), and just tried to hook it up. I spent about 15 minutes scraping my fingers up trying to find the CD changer cables, to no avail. I "felt up" the tape wrapping some of the cables, and there's no way a connector is in there. There's a small brownish coil of cable towards the front of the car under the H/K amp, but it doesn't want to pull out. I really can't feel any connectors.

Next step I guess is... what? Should I pull out the amp? I see the one bolt holding it in, but is there another? Should I pull off the whole plastic panel on the right side of the boot?

 

No, really. It isn't there. I've just spent another hour in that little cubby with a flashlight and a pair of cutters. There are no connectors in there. I can't get the amp out because of a screw that's buried behind the plasic panel, but I can kind of tip it out of the way a bit. I'm freakin' out here man. This should be a 5 minute job by all accounts...

 

Aminiman,

Err, dunno what to tell you... Maybe for whatever reason, it's taped further forward than it should be. You could remove the trim and took for it. It's really not too bad of a job, but it is time consuming. Make sure you have at least half a day that you can devote to it.

You'll need (from memory) to take off the plastic trim around the boot latch, the rear seats, a couple of screws, and then the side trim pops out as one big piece. I would also have a couple of trim panel clips to replace those that will inevitably break.

Good luck!

-Paul!

 

You could probably get away with this if you have only a couple of playlists or albums on your iPod. Otherwise, it's just too clunky doing major song/artist/album/playlist searching via the radio interface.

-Paul!

 

Something of an update:

I did end up going as far as removing the HK amp from its' little hole in the boot. After much frustration, I finally came to the conclusion that the CD changer cables ARE NOT THERE. I phoned my dealer and spoke to a service tech who took down my month/year of production and said he'd call back. When he did, he told me that the cables aren't necessarily run in all MINIs. Either they've decided that it's not cost effective to prewire MINIs for the CD changer, or maybe they aren't doing it for Canada. I'm not sure which, but the end result is that I won't be connecting the DICE unit through the cables that should be in the boot.

On a better note, I phoned DICE and explained my situation. Before I could politely ask to send the unit back for a refund, I was told that they do in fact have a harness that will connect the DICE directly to the back of the radio in the CD changer socket. I haven't heard of anybody else doing this, so I'm skeptical that this will work, but it's worth a shot. It's being sent to me, along with an RMA number for the other harness.

Oh, and it's worth mentioning that I was told I was lucky since it was the last such harness they had in stock, and that they don't usually keep much of a stock of them.

More to follow...

 

It may be the harness I just sent back to them. They recently replaced my wife's IceLink+ with a Dice unit (since the IceLink+ has been discontinued) and I purchased the boot (long cable) to connect the Dice. When I sent the IceLink+ back to them I included the headunit harness. In any case it was still in perfect working order and when you get it you'll see why they stuck with the rear connection.

 

When I upgraded from my 40gb iPod to my current 60 gb video iPod, i did just what you are asking about. My 40gb model stays in the MINI permanantly, and only take it out to update it when I get new music. I have about 6000 songs on my iPod in the MINI, and I've created 5 different playlists that I can change to, or what I have been doing most of the time is just setting the iPod to play my entire library.

I've not had any problems as of yet (knock on wood). I did learn real quickly though that if you do stick it in the cubby where the cd hookup is, make sure that you flip the switch to lock the iPod, otherwise it could get bumped and put the iPod into a state that it doesn't play anything.

I live in Texas, and it gets very hot here, and I haven't had any problems related to heat (the MINI is garaged at home and at work, so it doesn't sit out in the hot sun all the time.

I've had mine this way since March of this year. I wrapped my iPod in a cloth to help protect the screen, as well as provide some padding for the iPod itself, since the cubby that I have mine in also has my Sirius receiver, and the H/K is in the other cubby. It's a little bit of a tight fit with all the extra cable and the receiver, but it closes up fine, no rattles.

I'm hearing a little of the engine whine, so I think I need to search for the instructions on the mod aht everyone talks about for I believe the ground wire.

Even if you don't have 2 iPods, it only takes about a minute to grab it out of the boot to take it with you.

The main reason I did this was because I didn't want to have to run the long boot cable up to the front (removing the side panels and such just wasn't something that I wanted to tackle at the time). I also did so that the theives couldn't see that I have an iPod in my MINI. Nobody knows it's there unless they are in the car with me and see the text scrolling on the head unit.

 

FUEGO, whaht are you getting at? I don't mind pulling the radio to attach the cables, but are there problems connecting it this way? I thought it might be better since now I don't have to snake the harness from the back of the car to the front. It should be a cleaner install, no?

As to leaving the iPod in the car... nah not for me. I use it when I'm walking around too. That, and I'd have to pull it out all the time anyway for my WRR podcasts

 

It will work fine for you its just about 18" of odd wires (not really cables) to stuff 'neatly' back into the area behind the headunit. Once in place it makes for a really clean installation. After installing the standard DICE cabling in my MCS from the rear to the glovebox area I figured out that it really wasn't all that difficult to hide the wiring. So I gave Dension the headunit connector when I returned the IceLink+. Using the rear cable connection gave me a little more room to move the module up and behind the glovebox instead of wedging it in the cubby area along with my Auto-up circuit. And it also gave me an easy place to unplug the DICE module if I need to 'reset' it.