Hi,

I think I accidently ordered the kit that wires in to the CD Changer wiring harness instead of the radio kit.

That's OK.

But can anyone tell me WHERE the CD changer wiring is on a 2005 MINI Convertible?

CORRECTION: I think I DID get the Radio install kit. The instructions it came with are for the trunk/cd changer installation. But looking at some photos online I think the cable that came with it is actually for the radio install.

I think.

 

Send me over a quick email and I can reply with instructions on how to remove the radio.

 

Tom: I need your help


Everything has been working great with my DICE for about a month now. Well, yesterday I went to our local MINI club meeting and I was telling all how much I liked my DICE. Now, here's where I screwed up: One guy asked to see it work so I demonstrated it to him. Unfortuntately, I started pushing buttons on my HU, and next thing I know, no more text, just the old "TR01", etc.

When I got home last night, I did the battery reset and the IPOD reboot. It fixed the problem, or so it seemed. Today it is not working again. That is, I can play the IPOD through my HU, but I get no text at all (other than the TR01, etc.). No that I've had all of the text working for a while, it sucks being without it.

Please tell me what to do to fix this.

Thanks.

 

Try the following steps:

1. Press CD6
2. Use the << arrows to move to CD6/TRACK99
3. Press CD1
4. Press CD6 again and use the >> arrows to move to CD6/TRACK1
5. Press CD1

Let me know if this works.

 

Tom: this didn't work initially, but it must have done something because I am now getting scrolling text again. That's good Now for the bad news; since this latest problem, whenever I get into my car during the course of the day and turn on the ingition, my Dice starts up and my Ipod starts playing for about 5 seconds, and then it stops playing and shows "paused" on the HU. I have to turn the power off on the HU, then back on, and then the Ipod/Dice starts playing again. This didn't happen before. Once I started the car the Ipod would start playing right around where it stopped when I last turned the car off (again, this is during the course of my day, I always pull the Ipod off at night so I can download my new podcasts, etc.).

Any ideas how to stop it from pausing everytime?

Thanks.

 

i know this is somewhat unrelated to the DICE unit but i love the scrolling text and im curious why so FEW aftermarket headunits have the RDS feature (that shows the artist and song info when listening to the radio) but the factory stereo has it. Makes me not want to upgrade my stereo if they dont have things my factory unit has.

 

Hey Tom,

Thanks for all your help. I was able to get my DICE unit installed. Aside from my own brain trying to make it more complicated than it was the install was relatively easy.

Once I got the stock head unit out I sat there for probably 15 or 20 minutes looking at the big connectors on each end of the wiring bundle that came with the DICE unit trying to figure out what the "catch" was. I just couldn't believe it was as simple as plugging one end in to the back of the head unit and plugging the other end into the wiring bundle that had been connected to the head unit.

My brain just couldn't accept the reality that it was that easy. But it was.

If my thick-as-a-brick brain and eleven thumbs can install this thing, than anyone can.

My only suggestion for EAS would be to include the appropriate instructions with the DICE unit. The instructions that came with mine only had instructions for installing for a trunk mount CD changer. Since I got the DICE that installs behind the radio head unit I had to rely on emails from you and info. I found online.

If I'd relied soley on the instructions that came with the DICE unit I would probably still be sitting in my garage trying to figure out.

Thanks for all your help.

Dan

 

The pausing would mean it's waiting for a command.

 

RDS has nothing to do with CD Text, which is what the DICE needs to display. Only 3/2005+ radios have CD text.

 

I know, im just i guess trying to ask between getting a DICE for my stock headunit or buying an aftermarket unit like an Alpine iDA-300 series with the ipod connection. I love everything about it except it doesnt have RDS and my stock unit does. I know this isnt exactly the right place to ask, i just know theres a knowledge base here.

 

Tom: You da man! Thanks Bro!

 

Hey all,
Was wondering if you could help me out.
I've installed my kit but there are two problems.
1. It doesn't seem to charge my ipod. I have a 3rd generation iPod (2003) and the firmware is version 2.3.
2. It plays one song and then just stops. I try to push NEXT on my MINI controls and the iPod...both don't work. My iPod screen displays the "OK to disconnect" whenever it's plugged in.

I thought it might be my iPod but I tried a friend's (3rd generations iPod Nano) and it does the same things.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

Were the battery cables disconnected when your install was performed?

 

Yes, I disconnected the battery before I installed the kit to the radio.

 

any known issues with the iPhone? I want to be able to have the text display on the headunit, but i also want to be able to either control it from the iPhone or from the stereo controls. And im also assuming the steering wheel controls work too.

 

I'm using it with my iPhone 3G and have so far no problems.
Just be sure that you get a newer DICE unit, like from Tom's website, as they have the new cable that allows you to charge the new iPhone.
The old cable worked for play as well but didn't charge. Just to mention it in case you are eyeing an used unit on ebay etc. In that case you could buy the new cable as separate piece, but it is $50 alone...

To be honest, I have it currently set up to
- NOT showing the text on the display
- controlling it fully on iPhone
- this still allows to use Head Unit/Steering Wheel control to select previous/next song as well as volume of course

My iPhone is mounted next to the HU, so it makes no difference when I look, on what display I look. Plus, I think as soon as you hand over the text display to the HU, you also can only control it from the HU... and lets be honest, why would I give up a touchscreen display to control my music ? Others pay big bucks to integrate a Carputer or the likes and here I would disable it ? Nope

I had previously tried to use my iPod fully controlled via HU... didn't really appeal to me. I start listening to a song for a while and suddenly remember another song, not in the same playlist, somewhere in the middle or the other end of my list and play that one (drives my wife bonkers).
For that I need a fast interface and there iPhone/iPod can't be beat.

 

Can you give me a call from your MINI so we can troubleshoot in real time?

 

You can't have both - you will have to choose one or the other.

 

only reason i think i want to keep the iphone screen controls is for stuff like internet radio and apps that use music. i cant control them if it locks out the screen. Tom so i can only have one or the other in terms of controlling the iphone? IE screen control or headunit/steering wheel control? what about display on the headunit? is that tied into the controls feature?

 

You can perform a hard reset while plugged into the DICE to gain access to the iPod features - it's a "grassroots" approach to gain access to the UI.

One caveat - text display will not be in sync with the song in play.

 

Not quite true.

1)iPhone screen control/display - still possible to control previous/next on the Head unit/Steering wheel

2)Head unit display of text - not possible to display (therefore also no control) on iPhone screen

 

Tom i sended you an email i need the instructions for the radio kit interface i got a 2005 mini cooper

 

Received your email - reply coming shortly.

 

umm are you sure you sended it back to me? I still haven't received anything

 

Resent - check your spam folder to make sure it wasn't caught.