iPod MFD Integration Unit Group Buy

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dgstan @ May 27 2006, 11:21 AM) [snapback]261780[/snapback]</div>

I think it is designed that way. It shows PLAYLIST, ALBUM, CHAPTER, AUX1 or STOP if you are playing Video from the iPod. The track name appears. It would be nice to see the names. I wonder if that is because the Playlist isn't in the mp3 tag? The album is in the tag, though.

I've updated my firmware and printed up lists of albums and songs to begin testing.

 

Anyone with an '06 want to post some pics?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(LurkAzusa @ May 27 2006, 12:03 PM) [snapback]261796[/snapback]</div>

I think you're right. My mindset is geared toward playlists. With this unit, it doesn't have to be that way. In addition to playlists, you can play albums or the whole Ipod all from the steering wheel!

Another note: From what I can tell, the first playlist DICE uses is a playlist consisting of the entire Ipod, correct? The first playlist on your Ipod is actually playlist #2 as far as DICE is concerned.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Danny @ May 27 2006, 06:50 AM) [snapback]261745[/snapback]</div>

Yes, that's what I found out. At least I was correct when I said to you the units had not shipped. :blink:

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dgstan @ May 27 2006, 11:59 AM) [snapback]261814[/snapback]</div>

Not quite - the first playlist is whatever your iPod happens to be doing. If you have it on shuffle, it will continue to play in shuffle, etc etc. Another way to put it is that it's up to the iPod to say "This is what's next" when you hit the track advance button.

 

The AUX port works exactly as advertised. Gain, Bass, Mid, Treble are fine. I didn't need a ground loop isolator for my iRiver H340 using Line Out or Headphone jacks. Sounded great.

The track, playlist and album all work with the wheel controls. So to say that if you were to hookup your ipod and you use the wheel and screen controls only, it does a great job. I would consider it saleable in its present form. It just needs a bit of fine tuning. You know us forum folks, always looking for more!

The track number does match the track number in the playlist for the Disc 1-Track. The track number sequence shown on the screen has some inconsistencies for the Disc 2-Playlist and Disc 3-Album. The playlist number, album number are not as exact. I don't have any books or podcasts, so I haven't tested chapters.

The playlist starts with 1 but when toggling next it also shows 2, still playing playlist 1, as dgstan said. You can toggle 1 seq beyond the final playlist. So if you have 140 playlists, the final playlist shows 141 (screen shows 41. The field length is 2, so you will see 1-99), but can be toggled to 142 while it plays the final playlist. The sequence number is not hard assigned to the playlist sequence, so if you use the iPod controls to play any random song and then use the Disc 2 to select playlist 26, you won't necessarily get to that playlist.

The album number continues to increase beyond the last album, while playing the last album. This causes the beginning album number to be overstated when using previous to scroll back. So in a 10 album playlist, album 10 may become 15 if toggling 5 more than necessary and album 1 becomes 5 when using previous. If you toggle previous 5 extra times, album 1 continues to play, while reducing the track number back to 1.

If you use the iPod controls, again it will play whatever you tell it to.

Going back and forth between iPod and Car controls has some behavioral things happening. That is what I plan to concentrate on now.

I have a Video 5g, so to use the iPod to play videos works great, the sound plays thru the speakers. If you then use the wheel controls to toggle next track, it will being playing the next video track audio over the first video audio, while playing the first video image. I guess you could use this to make your own music mash-ups, just kidding. Editted to add that to correct this, just select a song on the ipod and the unit returns to normal operation.

Once again, I highly recommend the unit. Be aware this is beta and we are meant to try to break it. So far nothing a stop and start wouldn't fix.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(LurkAzusa @ May 27 2006, 02:41 PM) [snapback]261826[/snapback]</div>

We are 8 Prius-owners in Germany and Switzerland who like to buy a iPod Integration device and try to decide if we should buy VAIS or DICE.

With all this things that does not work like it is supposed to in the beta, it is probably way more clever to buy the VAIS, if we don't want to send the thing back to the US for firmware-updates, because I guess it is very probable, that not all the bugs are away in the first "non-beta" release. Or what do you think?

with best regards

Tobias

 

"With all this things that does not work like it is supposed to in the beta, "

Everything I mentioned doesn't effect playability at all. It is just a numbers thing on the screen. Most of the time you won't even be looking at the track number on the screen. I'm sure they can easily fix any of those kind of issues. The hard part they've done very well. We have a working unit for the Prius with Nav!

As I said in my post, the unit works fine and I highly recommend it. Part of the process is learning how it works. The structure is you can choose a playlist, then you can use the album select to go to the album you want and then you can use the track select to view the artist, album and track information. So everything works back to the playlist level. I am reorganizing my playlists by Genre, as for me that would be the easiest method of selecting the music I want to listen to.

Almost all electronics have firmware updates throughout their lifetime. That's a good thing. Improvement is always a good thing. For the price you can't beat the features of unlimited playlists and songs and auxiliary port. While I'm sure VAIS is a fine product, I believe they are also in the beta testing phase of their development. Just give them both a couple weeks to work out the final quirks and then make a solid decision based on final shipping units.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Vagabond @ May 26 2006, 12:07 PM) [snapback]261366[/snapback]</div>

Does anyone (beta testers maybe) know whether this upcoming DICE unit will acknowledge the "I Agree" button? I thought I read somewhere that DICE may have this in the next release depending on the model of the car...

Thanks.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(breathnach @ May 28 2006, 10:53 PM) [snapback]262233[/snapback]</div>

I doesn't at this time. Vagabond said in post #161 that it may be offered in the future.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(snoeber @ May 28 2006, 02:30 AM) [snapback]261990[/snapback]</div>

Actually, I believe I read somewhere in their stuff you will be update the firmware yourself. You'd need a cable from them to hook it up from your PC, but that's it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(saftaleah @ May 29 2006, 02:17 AM)</div>

While a 6' cable would be nice for what you're saying, there are people who wouldn't necissarily want to do it that way (maybe just stick it in the glove box), in which case the cable is way to long and they have to figure out where they're going to stick all the extra slack.

Instead (and maybe one of the beta testers can answer this), is the DICE interface (where the cable plugs into the box) a universal type of plug (eg. USB, firewire, etc. The picture looks like it's maybe S-video) for which an extension cable can be purchased at Radio Shack or is it something special/proprietary?

 

"This allows the MP3 device (he has something other than an iPod, and his adapter came with a 6' cable)"

Since he won't be using the cable for the iPod, he can purchase a cord the length he needs to connect the auxilary port to his mp3 player. It doesn't come with that cable.

I think I will plan on putting the box behind the center cover on the floor under the dash. Then run an auxiliary cable to the center console, but run the iPod cable to the drawer beneath the console. More thieves probably aren't aware of that drawer, where the arm console is obvious.

The iPod connector end is the size of S-Video, but it has different number of pins. 2 on top, 3 center, 3 bottom. Looks like an 8-pin Mini-DIN male. The 3 bottom pins are in a straight line, but maybe it will fit. Here's a link for one that looks like it might fit
http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat%5Fid=206&sku=02315

I took a long drive yesterday just to enjoy the music and shuffle is the greatest thing ever.

 

I noticed something last night. When in "track" mode (disc 1), pushing the previous track button (down arrow on steering wheel) takes you to the previous track.

On a standalone Ipod or our CD changer, pushing that button takes you to the beginning of the current track (two pushes takes you to the previous track).

I hope the above comments make sense. It not a big deal, but the behaviour is a little different than what I'd expect.

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Is anyone compiling these issues to be sent to DICE? I doubt they're monitoring this thread. Or are we sending our issues/concerns directly to their support group?
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Also, I drilled a 1/2" hole in the back of the cubby hole below the radio and fed the Ipod cable through there. It sure is nice of DICE to use that small 8-pin mini-DIN connector (as mentioned above), so we don't have to create a giant hole for the dock connector. There's nothing immediately behind the rear of the cubby hole, so drilling the hole was not an issue. No dash disassembly was required.

One final note: I went on Ebay last night and bought a used 4th Gen 40GB Ipod for car use only. It was ~$130 and will replace my 4GB Nano that I'm using now.

 

I sent my detailed comments to Jessie at Denison and Danny.

 

Have him check the Volume Limiter and turn off any Sound Enhancer or Equalizer. Sound Check is ok to leave on. What kind of balance is he using between iPod volume and car volume? If he is using the auxiliary jack, he needs to turn down the gain. I'm not having any audio issues.

I can confirm that an 8-pin mini-DIN M/F extension cable does work. I picked up an 8' one for $10. It's called an Apple Serial Extension, used for the old imagewriter printers. Mine is made by Cable Connection AMF-8808B.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Danny @ May 29 2006, 12:29 PM) [snapback]262413[/snapback]</div>

Is the software on the iPod up to date? They adjusted the sound output with the latest version.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dgstan @ May 29 2006, 10:32 AM) [snapback]262382[/snapback]</div>

Yes, I'm monitoring this thread closely. I talk to one of their people daily.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ May 29 2006, 06:52 AM) [snapback]262330[/snapback]</div>

Not to mention it would drive up the cost a few bucks.