Hmm, I take it back. I did notice today while driving around listening to an album that was recorded rather soft, that during the quiet parts and between songs, a kind of a steady 'dit... dit... dit...' chirp kind of noise. It was about 1.5 chirps a second. And it was there with the 3G, the Nano, using the AUX, and even with no iPod connected!

I'm going to do a bit more driving around later to see if it's loud enough for it to be a problem for me.

Other than that though, no other oddities to report!

-Paul!

 

That sounds exactly like what I've been hearing. Kind of hard to describe that sound in words, but I think you did a good job of it. I too noticed that it was still there even with the iPod disconnected. Can you try to turn off the text display, and see if it goes away, like it does on mine? Very carefully, select disc 6, then push the "previous track" button to switch to track 99 to disable text. To turn it back on later, just select disc 6 again, and it defaults to track 1 for HU text display. I think that the chirp is still there with no iPod because it's still displaying text (to display "DISCONNECTED".

I'm definitely glad to hear that you haven't experienced any weird switching-away-from-the-iPod issues since you accidentally triggered it with your text display screwup.

It also sounds like nobody else has had the airbag light come on, or other screwiness. I have an appointment to get that looked at on mine later this week.

 

So guys, let's see if I got this straight...
There are problems...
Originally Posted by Paul!
Hmm, I take it back. I did notice today while driving around listening to an album that was recorded rather soft, that during the quiet parts and between songs, a kind of a steady 'dit... dit... dit...' chirp kind of noise. It was about 1.5 chirps a second. And it was there with the 3G, the Nano, using the AUX, and even with no iPod connected!


That sounds exactly like what I've been hearing. Kind of hard to describe that sound in words, but I think you did a good job of it. I too noticed that it was still there even with the iPod disconnected. Can you try to turn off the text display, and see if it goes away, like it does on mine? Very carefully, select disc 6, then push the "previous track" button to switch to track 99 to disable text. To turn it back on later, just select disc 6 again, and it defaults to track 1 for HU text display. I think that the chirp is still there with no iPod because it's still displaying text (to display "DISCONNECTED".

And the return policy is a whopping 14 days with a 15% restocking fee and we are still rushing to buy???

 

If there are truly reproducible problems with the units, they could be pressured to take them back. Too high-profile...

 

Claancy -

I just received my Dice last week for my '06 MCS, standard stereo, no NAV or Sirius with Nano via cd changer cable. Had it running in 5 minutes, but have recurring issues of the iPod turning off mid-song and switching to FM. The text on the stereo screen is messed up after that. Usually I have to shut the car off and on to reset it all, and unplug the box.

Called Dension, they told me to call in again if I keep having trouble.

If you're thinking of buying I'd wait a week or two and see if us early adopters can resolve the probs!

 

yeah for sure on waiting... or does anyone know of the Neo iON that Waylen of Way Motors sells?

 

Alright, I just came back from my MINI, and switched to track 99 on disc 6, disabling the display. I still heard some digital noise, but not the 'dit dit dit' I described earlier. And this noise was a lot quieter, but still audible (quiet enough that if anything was playing, I couldn't hear it). I also tried disabling the iPod/stereo communication by turning off the two DIP switches on the DICE, and it had the same results as turning off the display in the normal mode. I also noticed that other things made digital noise while using the DICE, like changing the volume made a faint 'tickticktick' noise. I'm thinking that the DICE is somehow picking up noise from inside the amp, even though the unit itself is up front. Maybe through the cabling? I've got to do a bit more toying with it to see if I can get any better/different results. Displaying text definitely seems to make a difference though.

It seems as though manufacturers have difficulty keeping something (the amp?) quiet when something is plugged in via the CD changer connectors. Before the DICE, I used the adaptor from Crutchfield, and the digital noise from that was unbearable. About 100x worse than what I'm getting now. I called the company that built that adaptor (USA Spec) and they basically told me that there was nothing that they could do for it, a replacement was likely to have the same problem, and to return it for a full refund. (at least they were honest! ) And there's a post above saying that the BlitzSafe isn't any better. Plus I find it interesting that other iPod adaptor manufacturers, i.e. Peripheral Electronics, doesn't even bother making an adaptor for BMW!

If I didn't have the H/K, at this point I probably would have changed the stereo and added my own amps. But since I do, and it costs a fortune to replace the H/K, and I like the H/K otherwise, I'm kinda stuck.

In any case though, I have to do some more driving around with it. I'm still not sure that the noise is audible enough in normal driving circumstances for me to return the unit for a refund. And I really like the DICE otherwise! Tomorrow, I'm going to give their tech support a call, and see what they have to say. I'd do it now, but it's off to school I go...

As for others, I'd wait a bit to see how these issues resolve. It seems as though that those of us that bought it early are indeed public beta testers. We'll keep you posted!

-Paul!

 

Eliminating the background noise may be a difficult thing. All of these aftermarket devices do two things that MINI never really intended - they tap into the communication bus on the car to offer control of the device and display of the devce condition and they route audio signals into the stereo for amplification. The problem is - if any spurious noise from the communication bus leaks into the audio signal, it gets amplified also. Car audio systems like those in the MINI are carefully engineered through shielding, wire routing, and isolation to eliminate these problems. Introducing a third-party device can often upset things.

That said, I have similar problems with my iceLink+. They aren't deal breakers and the level is so low that I rarely notice. The times that they are bothersome usually occur when listening to well recorded podcasts (i.e. TWiT) that have low background noise or audiobooks that are relatively low level and require a lot of gain (need to be turned up) to play at a comfortable level relative to music.

Chances are that a manufacturer would need quite a bit of engineering exposure to make this work flawlessly and, in general, I'm happy with my iceLink as I imagine much of it (from both the iPod and MINI perspective) has been reverse-engineered.

I am, however, anxious to see how all this susses out with DICE. I'd like more responsive control and NAV integration. The jury's still out, I guess, on that one.

Steve

 

Wow! That's intresting to hear....especially because that's the iPod adapter that I was planning to get before I heard about the DICE unit! I tried to call support today, to see about getting a replacement for my unit, but I couldn't get ahold of a live body (just a recording of "the person you have called is unavailable" when I select technical support). I'll try again tomorrow.

 

Wow...after hearing all this, I think I'm going to wait for the new BMW adapter...I'll use my crummy FM adapter until then , and make a few MP3 CD's to hold me over.

 

I think you may be waiting for a long time. From what I understand, the new BMW adapter is designed to work with the BMW joystick control found in some BMW models. Similar control of various systems is anticipated for the '07 MINIs. I wouldn't expect this to work in our cars.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Steve

 

Guys,
Two things .....

Firstly, since I live in Canadaand Dension on ships within the USA, I’m sorta screwed on ordering this unit. They told me to call a local Canadian dealer and I found out that these local dealers markup the $159.99 price so I really don’t want to pay over $200+. So I found this guy on Ebay that has over 50 DICE units in stock - http://cgi.ebay.com/BMW-iPod-Adapter-DICE-i-BMW-t-Dist-by-Dension-USA_W0QQitemZ9731115130QQcategoryZ58350QQssPageNam eZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem[/FONT]
He was willing to ship to Canada so I was working out a deal with him. I later went to his webpage (www.carplayer.com) and found out that he sells a NEO iON unit. He told me "The Neo iON is the same as the DICE. It will come with the DICE labeling, manuals, etc." he also stated “its not a Dice knock off... its a re-branding. Only the sticker is different. It is exactly the piece seen at densionusa.com. There is a full 1 year warranty." Anyone know about this? He ensured me they are the same unit

I have navigation and I’d love for the iPod’s screen / menu to show up on my nav ……
Anyone test on a nav equipped car yet or am I going to be the test goat? lol

Secondly, what's with the new BMW adaptor? Anyone know the specs? Better or worse than DICE??? When's it going to be ready to the public?????

Peepers

 

A quick search of Motoringfile I think verifies my impression of the new adapter:

"The new version uses BMW’s new generation of audio systems to allow not only ID3 tags but actual navigation of the iPod’s interface itself. This is a huge improvement over the previous version which only allows for navigation to specific playlists, from song to song, and volume control. So why are we covering this on MotoringFile? Simple; the next MINI will be equipped with almost identical systems and will be compatible with this new generation of iPod adapters."

I don't think the new BMW adapter will work with our generation HU. Press releases have mentioned that the current adapter will continue to be sold for previous generation systems (although I think some people have had difficulty finding them).

 

Mine is sitting here in it's box... too bad I left my ipod at the loft! No sense in going out there and rigging it up without the source! Hopefully tonight...

 

Peepers, I'm kind of in a rush right now (so why did I check NAM?? ), but I think that the DICE and the Neo iON perform slightly different and are not the same unit. I'll elaborate later!

-Paul!

 

I'd really like to learn the difference between Neo and the DICE unit.

 

five minute install, and 4 1/2 of it was finding the best way to snake the cord from the CD connection in the boot, past the rear seats, and under the passenger seat. Click, click, then click. INIT for a few seconds, and it's good to go. No ticking or pinging artifacts... the interface works great, either from the HU or the MFSW. So far, so good!

 

I wonder what an '07 HU will cost, and would it plug right into an '06 Cooper and older?

 

Are you saying you were able to hide the cord all the way from the boot to the iPod in 4.5 minutes?

The one thing keeping me from buying the DICE unit is having to run/hide the cord...can anyone give a step-by-step?

Thanks...

 

Paul!, any update?? I'm intrested in hearing what you have to say ......

 

wsalopek... it's not perfect. Starting from the boot, I have the cord peeking out of the right rear panel, so that panel door's left side isn't fully closed, and the wire harness, wrapped in fabric, sneaks a few inches over to the seat line. Then, it's tucked in between the right rear seat and the body, hidden. It reappears on the floor as it makes it's way to under the passenger seat. It is not visible or catching or exposed when raising or folding down the rear seat. Anyway, the module is under the passenger seat. It's the size of a pack of playing cards, more or less. Then I have the ipod connector run from the front of the passenger seat to loop back along between the seat and the console, and put the ipod in the rear cup holder. If you wanted to make this a semi-permanent installation, I'm sure there's a way to route the harness to the car interior from that boot stowaway pocket without having to have it poke out of the door like I have it... and then you could run it under the carpet along the door sill... I'm just not going for permanent.

I also tucked away my Valentine 1 wiring at the same time, so things are cleaning up.

:::

On the functionality/interface issues with the DICE, so far in my un-scientific, non-controlled experiments last night and this morning, there definitely IS some klugey thing going on with the DICE module itself, and how it sequences it's mimicking of the CD changer. It may have to do with how you turn on or off the engine, and whether the ipod is on or off. WHatever I did confused it. It jumped to Artist, grabbed the first one, and played that twice and then shut down. I didn't realize that I was in Artist mode, so at first I was taggling with the MFSW a bit to see what was going on (I usually have it set to random shuffle of the entire volume) and then in the course of playing with the cd changer buttons on the HU, I discovered it had jumped over to Artist. But as I redirected it to Album, Playlist , etc. the ipod didn't actually make the change, and the HU display locked up, though I could still nav the ipod in it's current mode from the MFSW (and of course do anything I wanted actually AT the ipod controls) ... then it just dropped the Dice connection altogether. The HU displayed the frozen track name display, but FM was on, and mode switching just took me to CD and back to FM, so it had lost the changer/Dice. I had to unplg the Dice from it's harness connector and re-connect, and to turn on and off the engine, to restore functionality. Now back to normal. I suspect in short order we'll learn what exactly causes the buggy behavior and how to mitigate it. At this point, I have too many spurious correlations in what I was doing to know exactly what flipped it out.

DOn't be scared off though. It is a simple plug-n-play interface allowing you to access ipod controls through MFSW, HU or ipod simultaneously, sounds great, and is mechanically simple. It does what it needs to do very well. It's the CD changer mimcry interface that will take time to understand better.
t

 

I installed my iceLink+ about a year ago - so this is from memory:

Open the right side access panel in the boot.

Remove the trim screw holding the right side panel near the opeining (you don't have to remove the panel - just need to allow it to flex)

Remove the lower back seat (sounds tough but it's easy - just grab the front edge and yank up. There are two clips, one on each side near the front edge of the seat that hold it in. Then pull the seat toward you and it'll pop out. To put it back in, slide the back edge in place push toward the rear of the car and push down hard to engage the clips on the front edge. Sometimes I just sit down real hard on each side to pop them back in.)

Using a straightened coat hanger witrh a loop bent into the end, snake it from inside the opeining down and toward the front of the car until it comes out the bottom edge of the panel.

Hook the cable onto the loop, flex the panel out for clearance of the plug and gently pull the plug into the compartment. You can plug this end in now and replace the panel screw.

Shove the rest of the cable under the right rear seatback. Pull it through and tuck it up against the outside of the panel. In mine only about 1/2" of the fabric covered cable shows looking in the boot - and it blends in nicely.

From inside the passenger compartment, snake the cable along the right side of the car, down the edhe of the seat and tucked under the carpet.

Now the only part where ytou need a tool. Remove the passenger seat belt anchor (I believe it's a T50 Torx). This will let you tuck the cord under the carpet along the sillplate.

When I got to the front of the car, I continued under the plastic trim up under the glovebox and under the top edge of the carpet against the firewall - from here you can easily get into the radio compartment from behind it.

Replace the seat belt anchor - be sure to torque properly (30 ft.lbs. I believe).

Replace the rear seat.

This took me no more than 15 minutes. It took me longer to mount the iPod cradle (I opted for the Dension cradle and PanaVise mount). If you are just using the cable connection, you are done.

Hope this helps. Don't be afraid of the trunk mount. I've been behind my radio many times (have blutooth phone adapter and AUX installed as well) and this was way easier.

Steve

 

Just spoke with tech support at Dension and was advised to return module for replacement. Apparently, there is a glitch with the shipped firm ware. Keeping fingers crossed.

 

ootah, what problem were you having requiring firmware repair??

 

Hey everyone -

I received my DICE unit yesterday also, and I installed it this morning.

I thought I'd chime in with my report and observations.

It was a piece of cake - the most time-consuming aspect was removing the 3-pronged plug from the CD changer!

I disconnected the negative terminal of the battery before doing anything.

I ran the cable over the hinge of the right rear seat, then underneath the cushion, exiting between the rear passenger side wall and the anchor for the passenger seat belt. From there, it was easily urged up underneath the plastic panel that meets the carpeting up through the front passenger foot well. I then ran it underneath the front carpeting across to the center area between the downtubes.

I have a felt-lined aftermarket "pocket" as a storage space between the down tubes, so I cut a slit in that and inserted the head of the cable there.

I placed the DICE unit in the pocket. I mounted my 30GB 5G (video) iPod on the passenger side downtube using the ProClip angled mount and padded adjustable holder. I've got the iPod in an iSkin, and it fits beautifully.

I'm running the DICE unit on iPod mode (no text display on the 2002 radio).

Reconnected the battery, started up the Cooper, plugged in the dock cable and all worked as advertised. Full control from the MFSW, quick response to shifting tracks, etc. Sound is very clean, no background hiss or "dit, dit, dit".

Went for short spin, and all was well. After a stop, I fired it up again, and after about a minute, input shifted to FM on its own . . .

The head unit did not recognize the DICE unit (only could toggle between the radio and the in-dash CD).

Pulled over, turned off the ignition, and got the same result on restarting.

Spent a little time re-plugging in the dock cable into the DICE unit, and everything has been fine since. I'll keep an eye on it and let you know.

When I first saw the CDC cable, I was a bit disturbed by its cloth (rather than plastic) sheath, but during the install, I realized that the cloth blends in much better with the carpeting, on the ca. 6" section where the cable comes out from the plastic side panel before it goes underneath the passenger side carpeting.

No unwanted electrical gremlins have appeared - I'm pleased, albeit still a little bit wary for a repeat of the "drop out" condition.

All in all - about half an hour, from opening up the bonnet to firing up the iPod.

I've appreciated your discussions - they helped me a lot.