Tom -

I've had my DICE unit installed in my 2007 Cabrio for about a week now. Most of the time, it works beautifully. Every once in a while (roughly once for every hour of iPod listening time), the stereo changes modes without warning, and I suddenly find myself listening to the radio. A quick tap of the Mode button always gets me right back to iPod, but this routine is starting to feel a bit tiresome.

My connections all seem to be tight, and the problem continues even after restarting the car and the ipod in various combinations. Any thoughts?

 

The module will be in the cabin area with you - you will only need those connection points. The module is about the size of a deck of cards, it is very small.

 

If the battery was not disconnected during installation, it can cause this on some vehicles since it was never properly initialized. Here's what I recommend:

1. Disconnect iPod from cable
2. Remove battery cables, negative first
3. Touch battery cable terminals together (away from battery) for +5 seconds, a small spark is normal as this is stored power draining from the system.
4. Allow cables to remain disconnected for about 5-7 minutes
5. Reconnect battery cables onto battery, negative last.
6. Reboot iPod by pressing on MENU and CENTER buttons for +5 seconds and then reconnecting to the DICE cable after the reboot process is completed.

Let me know if these steps correct the problem.

 

I know, dumb question but I just wanna be sure When you disconnect the battery, the only thing you'll lose are the radio presets correct?

I'm worry that I would lose all the personal settings such as the comfort opening mode, follow me home light interval, auto locking and so on.

 

When you disconnect the battery, I think the only things that get reset are the trip odometer, the on-board computer (speed, consumption, mileage numbers), and the time of day clock. Personalized settings and even radio presets are saved.

 

It was not tough to get slide the wires behind the plastic trim panel. If I remember right, I removed the screws holding it in place to allow for a little more movement.

 

Ah yes, I see the screws in your pics. So remove the two screws, then gently nudge the side panel so the connectors can slide under. Then plug into the CD changer harness. Gotcha.

 

It's probably been address before but there's 14 some-odd pages on this topic but I need help.

The unit works fine. But I can't seem to get the text function working. My car is a July build 2005 with H/K, no navigation. All the dip switches seems to be in the correct position. I even swtiched them to the ipod mode and nada. So switched it back to Dice mode.

I tried disc #6 then selected track #1 and nothing Did I miss a step?

 

I believe I just responded to your email also. Here's what I recommend:

1. Disconnect iPod from cable
2. Remove battery cables, negative first
3. Touch battery cable terminals together (away from battery) for +5 seconds, a small spark is normal as this is stored power draining from the system.
4. Allow cables to remain disconnected for about 5-7 minutes
5. Reconnect battery cables onto battery, negative last.
6. Reboot iPod by pressing on MENU and CENTER buttons for +5 seconds and then reconnecting to the DICE cable after the reboot process is completed.

Let me know if these steps correct the problem.

 

My brother who's a Acura/Honda tech told me disconnecting the battery should be my last resort. He said something about the engine running differently b/c the ECU would lose all the stuff it learned from my driving style.

So anyways, I disconnected the unit from the factory CD changer plug and re-plugged it again. Then I tried again. Nada. So then I switched the ignition to position #1 and voila TEXT . Before I only tried the Dice out with the ignition in the off position . Duh.

Oh, I just wanna confirm one more thing. The text is only for the track and not for the playlists correct? The Dice would be perfect if it displayed the name of the playlists as you toggle through pre-set #2.

But other than that, the dice is a great product. And Thanks for the quick reply

 

Wife just ordered an 07 MCS and wants to use the DICE device for her iPod. Is the DICE device compatible with the 07's yet?

If not, any idea on when it might be?

 

Nothing on DICE, but we do have the MINI iPod kit in stock, this will be going up on the website soon.

 

After installing two of these kits in both of our MINIS over the period of the last few months, I can definitely say this product is not ready for prime-time. Both kits were installed exactly by the book, and I have reset both according to the directions above on several occasions, just to get them to work properly. They still don't work correctly half the time, and there is no rhyme or reason to it...

 

Let's start with what problems you are experiencing so we can offer a helping hand.

 

Any update?

 

Not yet - we're still working on a solution.

 

I too have sporatic problems on a 2007 MCSCa with H/K and Nav and they don't seem to have any rhyme or reason as to why it occurs.

1) Without notice, but often after the car has sat off for over a day, the Dice can not figure out where the iPod is at in terms of what playlist it is on, what song it is on, etc. What happens is that you can not change the individual songs via CD 1. You also can't change the playlist via CD 2. The only thing you seem to be able to change is the album. Once you have picked a new album, switching back to CD1 does nothing (you can't change the individual songs within the album).

2) A day later after the above occurring, it seems to work fine! Bizzare

3) If you change the playlist on the iPod manually, the Dice can not readily figure out where you are at. For example, if you have 10 playlists, for the sake of example Playlist1, Playlist2, etc. and you manually change the playlist to Playlist5, and then want to change to the next playlist using the DICE, it goes from Playlist1 to Playlist2 as shown on radio. It is like the DICE doesn't know that you were already on Playlist5. In fact, it appears to just increment the playlist by 1 (therefore putting you actually on playlist6 where the radio display says you are on playlist2.) This is hard to explain but hopefully that made sense.

Let me know if you have an answer or ideas to this Tom.

I too am waiting for the NAV fix so that both can be used (text display and NAV system. Can't wait till you have a solution.

For those that are not aware (as I was not when I purchased), the DICE system does not show anything but the song name on the radio (or NAV); it just says "Playlist 1, etc, Album 1" etc and not the actual name of the album nor the playlist. This could have been my oversight when revewing the product, but bottom line for others considering the Dice, you just get the name of the song displayed.

 

I get "Song * Artist * Album" to scroll/display on my head unit. Could what you are experiening only be for those with NAVs? I do not get playlist names though, but that's ok. Sounds like you have the text disabled or something.

 

Tom...

What kind of solution are you shooting for? The moon or something more realistic? Seems to me there are two possibilities:

1. The moon - display of track names on Nav such that it scrolls along the bottom or otherwise allows display of both Nav maps & track info at the same time on the Nav screen.
2. More realistic - disable Nav text output altogether, and only output track info onto the head unit, therefore not interfering with the Nav at all.

I certainly hope you're targeting the more realistic solution first, because I imagine it would be a much easier problem to solve and give us a very workable solution. The moon can wait until afterwards!

Having the "all or nothing" choice today isn't really a great choice for us Nav people.

 

I don't need a constant display of iPod info, and I'd be satisfied with an even simpler approach. Does DICE currently allow toggling between these two modes:

1. Display iPod info, including taking over Nav screen
2. Disable iPod info (both Nav and headunit). Nav displays map.

If DICE allows quickly and easily toggling between these two modes (preferably with a single touch button), it would be acceptable to me.

 

I've posted this twice now in this thread and have yet to get any response from anyone. I have an '03 MCS with NAV. I bought an '06 radio head unit on ebay and installed it with my DICE unit. I get text info on the radio head unit and my NAV still functions normally, the screen has a small blue strip less than a centimeter tall across the bottom but otherwise the NAV functions normally and the map is displayed. Is mine some sort of fluke? Tom? Anyone?

 

Playlist directory listing on the radio is not permitted by the iPod, this is not a DICE limitation. You are able to browse Playlist directories via the iPod directly if you wish.

 

If the iPod is not used for some time (depending on settings and generation of iPod) it will go into "deep sleep" mode and cut off communication with the DICE. Removing and reconnecting the iPod will fix this.

The DICE should be giving the next command as if you were scrolling playlists and pressing the >> on the iPod's clickwheel. Are you saying this is not happening on yours?

We all are - I'll update the thread as soon as we have a fix.

 

No fluke - it's bringing up a screen that is not normally used in the MINI. At this time, text is not compatible with NAV, we are working on getting this issue resolved.

 

We're trying to diagnose the issue first and was able to gather enough data to go through in our last session. We do not like to give ETAs as this is still in the developmental stage, but will do out best to arrive with a solution in a timely matter.

We're not looking to the moon, just get our feet planted and the issue resolved.