Has anyone out there ordered and installed the new ICELINK 1.1 for their IPOD? I have and am currently experiencing a problem. The connection sections of the wire are very sensitive. If I touch ithen or when my car goes over a bump, the connection would mess up and the car wouldn't be able to recognize the IPOD anymore. I have to unplug everything and hook everything up again. This is really annoying. Is there a way to prevent this? thanks

 

I've installed v1.1 and haven't had any problems with it so far. I'm even using an iPod mini, which isn't held very tight by the docking station. Sorry I can't be more help.

I did notice that I really had to push on some of the connectors to get them to 'click' when I was assembling all of the cables. The only suggestion I have is to make sure they're all connected properly.

Good Luck!

 

You folks that have one:

Does v1.1 have the ability to list the track names on the head unit or does it still say "Track 01, Track 02, or Track 03"?

That's the one feature I've been holding off for...

 

>>I've installed v1.1 and haven't had any problems with it so far. I'm even using an iPod mini, which isn't held very tight by the docking station. Sorry I can't be more help.
>>
>>I did notice that I really had to push on some of the connectors to get them to 'click' when I was assembling all of the cables. The only suggestion I have is to make sure they're all connected properly.
>>
>>Good Luck!

Did you instal version 1.1 using the connectors in the trunk or can you connect the Icelink 1.1 directly to the head unit? If you used the trunk how hard was it to run the cable all the way back to the front of the car to your iPod?
Thanks.

 

Version 1.1 doesn't show the track names on the head unit. I hooked mine up using the connectors in the trunk and it was very easy and fast. Probably took me around 5-10 minutes to finish the whole thing. I'm not sure if it can be hooked to the head unit. Version 1.1 came with a very long extention cable so you shouldn't have trouble running it back to the front. In fact, it was so long that I somewhat have trouble hiding the cable. I solved this problem by hiding most of the cable under the rear seats.

 

>>You folks that have one:
>>
>>Does v1.1 have the ability to list the track names on the head unit or does it still say "Track 01, Track 02, or Track 03"?
>>
>>That's the one feature I've been holding off for...

Then I suspect you will be holding off for some time. I don't think this is easily possible with the current iPods.

The only way I could see this happening is if Dension could build a piece of hardware that could drill down into the iPod's file system and retrieve the ID3 tag information from the song that is playing. This interface would have to go via the FireWire port on 1G and 2G iPods and the dock connector on 3G iPods and iPod mini.

And supposing that is possible (I don't know what sort of obstacles have to be overcome to do that) the other hurdle is...can the head unit accept that information and display it via the CD changer input? This capability doesn't exist with the CD changer so I would tend to suspect they didn't bother integrating that capability into the head unit if it wasn't going to be used.

My advice would be that if you're going to wait for that capability, you may be waiting a very long time :smile:

 

>>Version 1.1 doesn't show the track names on the head unit. I hooked mine up using the connectors in the trunk and it was very easy and fast. Probably took me around 5-10 minutes to finish the whole thing. I'm not sure if it can be hooked to the head unit. Version 1.1 came with a very long extention cable so you shouldn't have trouble running it back to the front. In fact, it was so long that I somewhat have trouble hiding the cable. I solved this problem by hiding most of the cable under the rear seats.

Maybe if you have the time, you can post your installation instructions :smile:
I am so afraid to tear up my interior trying to tuck the cables away!!

 

I didn't tear up my interior. I just tucked the cables under the edges of the rear seats.

 

>>Then I suspect you will be holding off for some time. I don't think this is easily possible with the current iPods.

>>The only way I could see this happening is if Dension could build a piece of hardware that could drill down into the iPod's file system and retrieve the ID3 tag information from the song that is playing. This interface would have to go via the FireWire port on 1G and 2G iPods and the dock connector on 3G iPods and iPod mini.
>>
>>And supposing that is possible (I don't know what sort of obstacles have to be overcome to do that) the other hurdle is...can the head unit accept that information and display it via the CD changer input? This capability doesn't exist with the CD changer so I would tend to suspect they didn't bother integrating that capability into the head unit if it wasn't going to be used.
>>


Well, I wasn't aware the headunit didn't display track info for the changer (if it used CD text).... that could be a problem.

The interface with the ipod, however, is relatively simple. I do Mac software development in Obj-C and Cocoa, and I've done some simple ipod interfacing stuff for various projects I've helped with. The filesystem on the ipod is very simple (either simple HFS+ for the older Mac only ipods or FAT32 and/or HFS+ if you format for the newer Mac+PC jobs). Now HFS+ could be a challenge, but for 3G ipods there are TONS of readily available IC's you could interface with that can do full access to a FAT32 filesystem.

As for the physical connection, I thought the IceLink 1.1 already used the dock connector for power+sound? If it doesn't then I can't clearly see any improvement over 1.0 other than the trunk-mounted install (which actually seems *worse* to me just for having to run the cable the length of the cabin).

Since the current head unit CAN display text (RDS comes to mind) it would seem at least feasible for this feature to come eventually... I can't think of any *major* technical blocks to accomplishing sucha goal. Alpine supposedly has a series of headunits on the way that do just this.... since I didn't get the H/K anyways I might just wait for these to come out and forgo the icelink altogether :smile:

 

Yup, the IceLink 1.1 uses a dock connector for power+sound.