I strongly suspect the drop-off is a firmware glitch to be corrected. It appears that it's crashing. The HU, at least for me, continued to display the frozen track text...

I'm going to go another three or four days and see if it can be replicated. Hasn't done it since the first time...

 

I got my airbag warning light taken care of (it appears to have been unrelated and coincidental) and reinstalled the DICE unit last night. It's still a "temporary" install, with the cable running between the back seats and the excess coiled in the rear footwell. On my way to work this morning, it crashed in the middle of the first song I played. Stopped at Dunkin Donuts, turned the car off, bought some donuts for work, and when I started the car again the DICE was working again. It was OK for the rest of my (~10 minute) drive to work.

Also of note, I've been unable to get ahold of anyone in Dension tech support this week.

 

Mine does the same with the track text. Any idea if the firmware in the DICE is user upgradeable?

 

claancy -

Seems like I read somewhere that the DICE firmware can be upgraded only by sending it back to the mothership . . .

 

Catalyst, that IS correct.
This is, my friends, the bleeding edge of public QA/QC I'm afraid. The price we pay for having it NOW.

 

TRDL -

You're right about the pitfalls of early adoption! I would have waited a bit longer for the DICE, but I've got a much-anticipated road trip to Yellowstone coming up in a couple of weeks, and I *really* wanted the iPod along for the ride.

With my Cooper, I was more patient - it's a 2002, but is a 9/03 build . . . and I'm very glad I waited for several of the early foibles to be dealt with.

 

Sorry, it's been a very hectic couple of days!

Anyhoo, if you look at the website for the Neo iON website (www.mp3yourcar.com), there's two things that stand out that make me think that they're different units. One, there doesn't seem to be an AUX port. Two, the units look different. Looking at the picture on their webpage, the unit looks like that it has a row of DIP switches on one side, and a connector to the left of that. On the DICE, there's two blocks of two DIP switches on one side, and all of the connections are made on the other side.

BTW, something I noticed about the iON website. It doesn't mention the MINI adaptor having text capabilities, but it does mention the capability for certain BMW radios. The radios it mentions for BMW though are cross-compatible with the MINI radios! (ie, the DICE adaptor for MINI is the same one that's used with a myriad of BMW radios.) Hmm...

-Paul!

 

Same as others are reporting, freezing of track info on HU and auto switching back to radio mode. On the good side, they only want me to return the box itself as I have already snaked the control cable from aft to dash .

 

he assures me that they will have the bug fix ready to go on Tuesday, and that they identified the problem, and it was minor.

Me, skeptical?

Ha

Anyway, still working without a second crash so far...

 

I hope the fix is a simple "upload software" fix. I would hate to have to send the unit back to Dension every time there's something wrong ......

Paul!, regarding your comments, I emailed the guy and asked him to confirm what he's selling (again). Also to send some photos of the actual unit he's shipping out. He also told me the text will appear on my nav screen. I'll believe it when I see it. Reason being, most BMWs with Nav you can control the radio functions thru the nav screen. With Mini's you can't. So I can't see how connecting an interface to the CD changer port will automaticly change the software of the nav.

Once I hear back from him, I'll post the results

 

TRDL -

So far, I haven't had a second "drop-out" either, but I've yet to test it on anything approaching a decent drive . . .

The info you relayed is encouraging, but I'm like you (and Michael Shermer) - skeptical . . . about the depth/purity of the fix, and about the timescale of the shipment/return process.

Time = money, and vice versa, especially at my age - LOL.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

Installed mine last night. No clicking sound, but I had the drop-out happen today.

I'm a little disappointed that the playlist and album selection modes do not display the names. Also, the website says artist mode, but it is really the chapter mode.

Anyone else notice that the album selection mode only selects among the albums in the currently playing playlist? I was expecting to be able to access all of the albums, but I guess it makes sense, as it wouldn't be too practical to cycle through the large number of albums one is likely to have. I typically don't have playlists with a lot of songs from the same album in the list, so it won't be too useful for me. Artist would be better.

Anyone else notice, when disconnecting the iPod, the iPod may be in a funky state where the name of the playlist displayed at the top of the screen does not match the list of songs in the main part of the display? It's happened to me a few times. Once you navigate away from that screen it is okay.

 

Since Monday I've been making a point to use it (instead of Sirius) to get a feel for it. Overall it has worked well but I have had 3 types of problems so far. 1) I had the drop out problem 3 times where it dropped out to FM or AM mode (whichever was used last prior to going into CDC mode; 2) Once complete lockup where the text stayed frozen on the H/U display after the lockup and the text wouldn't go away even after I changed the mode to FM/AM/Sirius and they actually played; 3) Time actually stood still Clock on the speedo actually stopped and kept displaying the same time for about an hour while I was driving home. I tried to reset the clock and get it going again while driving without success, and tried again after unplugging the module [still just a temporary install]. Clock only went back to normal operation after I got home and turned off the car and unplugged the module for about 45 minutes - probably didn't need that much time.

I'll keep an eye on what else transpires here and will wait for any feedback on the firmware updates before contacting DICE.

 

After I was convinced that the DICE was working fine for me, other than the little chirp that I mentioned earlier, I performed a 'professional' install of the cable. Meaning that I took out my back seats, the kick panel above the latch in the boot, the back right side paneling, the paneling next to the door sill, the glove box, the center console, the down tubes, the switch box, and other various parts, and drilled the right downtube so I could run the wire through it. It took me about 4 hours yesterday, and I'm still not done. The cabling is fully routed and ziptied, and completely hidden, I just need to put some remaining bits back together, and clean everything up. (And it should look pretty sharp when everything is said and done! I'll be sure to post pics! )

I went out for a drive today, admiring my handiwork so far, and it drops to FM as you and others described!!! I couldn't get DICE to respond after that, and I had to yank my radio fuse to 'reboot'. Upon doing that, everything worked again.

I'm very glad to hear that they just want the box itself back for troubleshooting/upgrading, as I would be fuming if I would have to un-route the cabling....

As for others reading along who are contemplating a purchase, definitely hold off for now. As it is, I think that nearly everyone posting in this thread who has purchased a DICE is currently having issues.

I still believe that the DICE can be a great unit, but this public Q/C and beta testing that us early purchasers are being put through is absolute BS.

-Paul!

PS - Peepers, keep us posted! I'd definitely like to hear exactly what you receive and how well it works! Good luck!

Edit: Happened again this morning. Had to pull the fuse to get everything working correctly again. Why couldn't this happen during the week when tech support was actually open???

 

I've been working on this as an hypothesis, too . . .

It's very preliminary, but I've not had a second case of the "drop out" where the DICE unit spontaneously changes into the radio or in-dash CD player and no longer recognizes the iPod.

I had three separate decent motoring outings today without any problems.

It *might* be a random thing - too few data points so far, and the statistics of small sample sizes are not reliable - but I've been performing a consistent shut-down routine whenever I park the Cooper that may be relevant.

My procedure has been: before turning off the ignition, I hold the iPod's forward/pause button down for 5 secs to turn off the iPod, before turning off power to the HU. After turning off the HU, the iPod's screen re-appears, and I again hold down the forward/pause positon.

After the iPod goes blank again, I remove the dock cable and turn off the ignition.

When I go out motoring, I attach the dock cable after starting the car, and then I power up the HU. The iPod appears as "CD 01" on the HU display, and I've had complete functionality.

It could be, as TRDL surmised, that these drop outs are a firmware problem, wherein the DICE unit can't always recognize the various states of the respective devices (iPod, HU, ignition, DICE(?)) when shutting down.

Just a theory at this point, and I'll let you know what I learn as I continue to innvestigate.

I've had fine sound quality throughout, and I hope that these (minor, IMHO) gremlins can be sorted quickly . . .

 

Update:

I just got off of the phone with a Dension/DICE tech, and he said that there are firmware issues with the BMW/MINI DICE adaptors and '05-'06 head units, causing the drop to FM. Unfortunately, he explained, they're still tracking down the exact problem and troubleshooting. He told me to give a call back on Thursday or Friday, and they should hopefully have a fix by then. The fix though is to send the unit back for replacement. On a brighter note, they said that they do cross-ship (ie, as you send the defective unit back, they're sending you a new one simultaneously) when replacing a unit, so the down time should be minimal.

I also explained the slight digital 'dit-dit-dit' noise issue, and he seemed surprised that I heard noise while an iPod was connected! He said flat-out that the unit was defective and should be returned. We obviously agreed that I would return the unit when the fix is out for the '05-'06 head units.

So, all in all, I'm happy with the way tech support and Dension is handling this issue. I was on hold for mere seconds, and the tech I spoke to was friendly and matter-of-fact. Personally, while I would still recommend obviously to hold off on purchasing the unit for right now, but once the bug-fix is out (and it's tried and tested), I wouldn't hold any reservations.

-Paul!

 

Yep, today, I called the dealer I bought my DICE from, and got the same story, they are working on a fix and will have it ready in a few days. They will ship a replacement to the dealer, and I can then go in and swap units.

 

Yeah again, we are early-adopters. I'd love to see these worked out before launch, but for whatever reason their test car(s) didn't dispay the problem, they're on it for a solution now. I talked with a tech on Friday evening, who said they'd be working on it over the Memorial weekend (which they shouldn't have to do) and that this week sometime they'd figure it out.

All's well, just a little patience required!

 

Yup! My guess is that they didn't originally have a '05-'06 head unit available for testing, and they're just different enough to throw a monkey wrench into the DICE code. Plus, an intermittent problem like this without any obvious cause/effect situation is one of the most difficult to troubleshoot.

And I was really impressed with the tech support. Virtually no holding time, and the guy didn't beat around the bush. And if they worked over the Memorial Day weekend trying to fix it?

Well, as you said, just a bit of patience, and hopefully all will be well soon!

-Paul!

 

Well . . . I hope so.

It's encouraging that Tech Support reports that they are on the case.

Your drop-outs on newer MINIs may or may not have anything to do with the same issue on my 9/03 build '02.

I haven't had a repeat performance of the problem, but I'm still wary - and since I only listen to my iPod on random play, I've haven't explored the functionality of playlists, etc.

Thanks for the updates.

 

I just got off the phone with Dension, and they said that the dropping out is a known issue with the MINI, and that they should have it resolved in a couple days. I'm supposed to call back on Thursday.

Over this past weekend, though, I drove ~2 hours each way to visit my parents, and didn't have any issues with it dropping out during that period. Today on my way to lunch, it made some odd noises, but turning the HU off and back on resolved it, and the iPod picked up where it was (in the middle of a song, even). Hopefully they get this fully resolved for good soon....I'd like to run my cable a bit more neatly, but I'm not going to until the unit works the way it should.

 

I spoke with them again today... they believe they have narrowed to problem down to designing around one model year's radio, and disocvering that different years used different mfrs (ie Alpine instead of Blaupunkt) and different resulting BMW firmware on the radios for those years. They are currently working with a new firmware, testing on a 2006 MCS so we'll see what we'll see!

 

I have a 2004 MCS and I am experiencing the drop back to FM Radio. The only thing that seems to fix it when this happens is to unplug the unit and re-plug it in. So it not just on the new MCS.. Also the song title only shows up on the Nav and displays as a speed dial.

 

Re: the nav display, have you tried the different display modes via messing with the disc 6 setting?

-Paul!

 

Yes I have
6-1 for radio displays on my nav and pops up the speed dial and scrolls it where the number would be if I had the hands free option.

6-2 also displays on the nav but displays trak number and the word *DICE* on the left hand side.

The only other mode thats does something is 6-99 and it works it turns off the display on the nav and shows the map once again.

-MiniEP