Wargoose

Finally received and installed my DICE unit today. All went well - with all of the various instructions available through these forums, it would be pretty hard to screw up.

I used a mini-din extension cable to provide enough of the DICE box to iPod cable that I could mount it in the secret storage compartment with a good 3 feet of cord left for easy access to people in the front or back seats. I fed an aux line down to the back of the ashtray for a Sirius Starmate 4 that I will be fitting in there and ran the sat antenna from the back parcel shelf with the wire hidden all down the door sill of the passenger side and then up into the dash behind the glove box and down to the ashtray. I a detached the lighter unit and just plugged it in loose behind the ashtray to plug the sat car adapter into. I'll take photos of that part once I get mine cut and fitted.

Works as promised, though it is slow to reverse selections (stepping back through tracks) - moving forward through them is faster. Sound through either the iPod or the satellite radio is clear and loud - CD quality if the sampling rate is good. I had a USASpec iPod unit in the '01 Maxima SE-AE I owned before the RX-8 and the DICE sounds pretty much the same as that one did and I never had any complaints.

I mounted the DICE box between the glovebox and the head unit, sitting vertically and zip-tied to a metal brace. It's fairly easy to get at by just dropping the glove box (which requires no tools at all).

I managed to plug the DICE wire harness in without completely removing the stereo by unlugging the HVAC wires and then tilting the unit forward enough that I could get my hand just back in there. By reaching in through the glove box opening with my other hand and using a small mirror, I could plug the cable in easily. The mirror was also very handy for unplugging the HVAC cables by holding it beneath the headunit and using a tiny screwdriver to push in the retention clip.

The satellite radio antenna gets full reception inside the car sitting on the parcel shelf, which is where I had it in my Maxima as well.

I'll add photos once I have the ashtray modded up completely.

MadeULook

I just installed the kit but I cannot browse through my music using the touch screen. I can browse through my pictures but once i click on music or movies the touch screen just says Accessory Attach. I have a 32gb touch. The steering wheel and dash work prefectly. Anyone have a similar problem?

Ever Hernandez

Try holding the Home button when you're in the "Accessory Attached" until it goes back to the Home Screen.

It works on my iphone, guess it should work for your ipod.

P. S. Once you enable the ipod interface, you'll lose the car controls.

MadeULook

From the home screen, it brings me back to Accessory Attached when i touch the music icon. I want to mount the Ipod, but if i can't browse on the touch i'm just going to relocate the wires to the cup holders.

rztom

Wargoose - did you get the text display to function as it should?

When I hit the trigger to display text on the radio display, all I get is a random number displayed. Subsequent pushes of the Text/Tune button do nothing....

I called Dice tech support and got a less-than-knowledgeable techie on the phone who told me maybe it was my docking cable that had come loose from the adapter, causing the problem. Seeing as my ipod initializes just fine everytime I plug it in, I doubt that is the issue. I think I got a bad/failing module.

What's your experience?

Wargoose

I have an '04 with no SAT button - as such I had to order the R1 version of the DICE unit. To get text support you need the newer radios with that button and the R2 version of the DICE unit. Ergo, no text for me...

rztom

Sorry... duh - should've been my first question - R1 or R2 unit

Wargoose

Two issues I am noticing are an alternator whine when using the aux input, which is likely from me using the lighter socket to plug the Sirius radio power adapter into. I will be running a new tap directly from the fuse panel that I can properly ground, which should get rid of that noise.

The second issue I've not yet figured out. There is at times what seems to be a feedback sound through the stereo when using the iPod. It goes up and down with the volume and at first I thought it might be hard drive feedback from my 5th generation video iPod. However I borrowed a friend's new nano, which is solid state, and the noise is still there. I even played the same track on both units and the noise was there with both. When the iPod is played through the aux input (headphone jack), the noise is not present.

I don't know how best to describe the noise, it's almost a cross between static and something mechanical sounding.

I'll take the dash apart again this weekend and start moving cable around and such to see if I can figure out the source or if it's just a faulty unit. Other than that noise, it sounds flawless, so I hope to get rid of the bug.

maskedferret

iTrader: (1)

I don't mean to hijack this thread since I am actually following this and considering switching from an AudioLink to the Dice R2, however I am having similar issues with my iPod video on an AudioLink. It sounds like noise from the internals of the iPod itself is leaking into the audio (mechanical sounds, and some sort of slight squealing noise). I can silence this interference by changing the volume on the touchwheel, but the moment i remove my finger (not sure if it'd have to wait for the backlight to fade first), the noise returns. At other times, i'd get an interesting clicking noise as if the HDD was seeking to something. Unfortunately I have yet to try another iPod to see whether it is a fault of the adapter or the iPod. Any ideas on what this might be from?

Additional information; my AudioLink has a Y-splitter to a 3.5mm minijack that is currently not plugged into anything (I have electrical-taped the end). I plan to plug it into my carPC once I get it back up again. Could this noise be fixed by proper grounding somehow?

A question I have about the Dice adapter: Can it run with the iPod AND aux input simultaneously without degradation? My AudioLink will pass sound from both channels at the same time, but the gain gets severely reduced, and i could swear it sounds worse in general.

DeViLbOi

iTrader: (1)

Try disconnecting your Y Adapter and see if your noise level drops...it should.

maskedferret

iTrader: (1)

Nice, I like this... I didn't even know that porthole was there until i lifted up the felt mat. I'm going through the front side currently, but want to do this instead; Is the Dice iPod dock cable long enough to do this?

How much of a re-route does it take to get there, DeViLbOi? DIY on this?

maskedferret

iTrader: (1)

Unfortunately, the Y-adapter and the dock cable are all one piece

Wargoose

One of the key reasons I decided against the Audiolink was due to the aux and iPod cords being tied together and the fact that you need to shut down one or the other to prevent them from bleeding over one another. With the DICE and most that have a separate aux plug, you switch between them via the headunit and you can leave both sources powered on without interference.

I've done some more experimenting - I received a second DICE unit and swapped it all out completely and played around with locations, cables, etc. No matter what, there is some kind of electronic noise coming through. In fact, it's even there on CD's, so it's got something to do with the head unit. If you put in a CD with a very quiet passage and max the volume, you can hear a steady pulse sound that seems to be matched with the track counter, like it's "beeping" in time with it (it's not an actual beep, but just a tonal pulse).

Once I switch to the iPod, the noise is louder still, along with some small interference noise - again this is really most notable above 30 on the volume. Not sure if this is something that would be present with anything hooked up to the external CD changer plug since I am thinking it's tied to the counter somehow.

Can anyone try a very quiet CD (possibly even blank) and crank the stereo to the max and see if they can hear any kind of steady pulse sound (it's quieter on the CD than the DICE).

Just curious...

maskedferret

iTrader: (1)

FWIW, I only get the noise sensation from the iPod; CDs are no problem. Have you gone back and taken the DICE unit out of the equation entirely instead of swapping to see if you get the noise from CDs playing?

I think I will be making that switch to a DICE unit.

DeViLbOi

iTrader: (1)

With the Axxess box my volume doesn't go above 10. Can't test for you...sorry.

Wargoose

Yes, I completely unhooked it all to start from scratch and then swapped out both DICE boxes, hook up cables, iPod cables, etc. It's not like the noise is horribly loud, but with quiet music I can definitely notice it.

rztom

OK... for those with the R2 version of the DICE module, I got the text display thing figured out. Turns out it was just my lack of knowledge of all the functions associated with the various buttons/***** on the 8's head unit. My problem started with trying to follow the user manual that came with the DICE unit. The instructions show, and are based on, the head unit from a Mazda3 (my wife drives a Mazda3 so I recognized the radio shown in the user guide...). So I was gettin' no love when I'd try and press/turn the same *****/buttons on the 8 as those shown in the guide. So, I did the unthinkable.... I opened and read the section on the audio controls in my RX-8 owner's manual (who ever does that... )

Turns out the 8's HU has a separate button for toggling the display functions, where on the Mazda3 that function is part of the station-tune ****, which incorporates several other functions as well - including text scroll, where on the 8 that is, again, another separate **** (see my pic from the 8's owner's manual of the HU).



Once I got clear on that, the text display from the DICE worked as it should. See pics below.



Repeated presses of the DISP button will toggle the display between playlist/artist/song, and turning the TEXT **** will scroll the display to the right. Auto-scroll would've been nice, but I guess you can't have everything.




The display has a 3-4 sec. "hold" then it defaults back to displaying the currently selected ipod function (TRACK, PLAYLIST, SOURCE, etc). Anyway, hope this helps other DICE version R2 users who are as frustrated as I was in getting the proper text display...

SSF8

Hey rztom, how do you have your DIP switches set? Also, did you have any luck using the radio presets?

I've got an 2007 with HU F/W 9.82 and a DICE R2.

Thanks

rztom

Hey SSF8 - welcome to the forum...

You have to set the DIP switches to "SAT" and "DICE mode" respectively. On the "car config" switches (left ones), both must be set to "on" - switches in the down position. This puts the adapter in SAT mode.

For the right, "ipod config" switches, set both of these to "off" - switches in the up position. This sets the adapter to "Dice mode" so that both the ipod and radio controls are active, and your display will read correctly.

No, I have yet to set my radio presets... but I'm going to - especially the one for toggling between ipod and aux inputs. Will make it much easier....

Spytec128

Well here is one for you. I installed a R1 into my 04 and connected a I-pod video and it worked great. It showed "EX 1 1 1'30"" on the display which indicates the track and track time. Then I switched to a Nano and now the display says "EX 1 66 1'30"" What I have figured out is that when I hit track up the 66 goes to 67, but my track does not go up. My display does not match the I-pod time anymore and I cannot reset the module. Actually the volume increases when I hit the track up button. The radio controls also stopped working except for the FFW and RWD buttons. I can't get the thing to operate right anymore no matter what I-pod I plug in. Does anyone have a clue about this? I'm calling DICE Monday.


Well it looks like the problem was all me. I was so excited about the new gadget I played with all the buttons on my radio to figure everything out. Well apparently I got it stuck in AUX mode. The great tech support from DICE walked me through getting it back to the Ipod mode. Everything works great.

robrecht

Ha ha ha ... Foghat! Reminds me of high school and that was a long time ago. Fool for the City.

rztom

^... yeah, I'm a classic rock guy - takes you back huh? "I just wanna make, luv to youuuuu..."

Gotta love mega-gig ipods.... and the ability to play them in your 8....

scremn8

do you have another amp hooked up.
i can hear a pulse thru my speakers from time to time that did not start
until i got an extra amp put in. it may just be a grounding issue..

Urban Legend

Yeah I recommend this unit to solve your problem with the text display. Shoot.... I can't wait to get mine this weekend!

RedLineShinka

Hello everyone,
I read all the way through the thread and am thinking of getting the DICE kit for my '05 RX8 Shinka. I have the Sirius SAT radio, and 6-disc in-dash changer which came with the Shinka so I'm concerned with all the SAT button re-maps, etc.

I just want a way to pipe the audio directly in, I'm not sure if I entirely care about control of the iPod as I can do that from the iPod itself.

Thanks in advance.