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My DICE iPod Integration Review

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by riot, Aug 31, 2007.

  1. riot

    riot New Member

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    Being a technology enthusiast, I was extremely excited to purchase my 2007 Prius with navigation. The only option it didn't have that I wish it did was a tighter integration with my ipod. My wife's scion xb came with both an AUX input as well as a proprietary ipod cable...why not the prius?! I figured I could deal with the AUX input on the prius until I find a better solution.

    About a week ago I came across this website and noticed the DICE sale that was going on. I read approx a dozen pages of the now 26+ page thread concerning the DICE unit. I decided the DICE unit sounded exactly like what I needed, and placed my order. I would soon be cruising down the highway with my ipod tucked away tightly and controlling it via the touch screen (...or so I thought).

    Last night I received the unit and immediately ripped open the package to examine the contents. There were two car specific cables, one ipod cable, and the unit itself. I immediately began plugging things in, and my first impression of the quality of the DICE unit wasn't too great. It felt cheap. The plugs felt like they were going to snap off if I pressed too hard. So I went out into the garage and began disassembling the dash. Being that I've worked on many other cars in the past, the prius proved to be extremely easy to disassemble. I located the empty CD changer plug on the back of the stereo, and plugged it in. Or...tried to plug it in. The instructions mentioned you would feel it *click*...so I pressed harder...no click...the plug obviously fit REALLY tight. I wasn't too impressed with the fitment, but figured it was more than secure, so I pressed on (no pun intended).

    I plugged the ipod in, checked the instructions for the dip switch settings (ALL UP...lol), and fired up the car. Of course I could hear music immediately..."why is it auto playing?...that's retarded"...so I pressed CD/AUX and found no way to control the ipod or even see what song was playing, so I turned everything off. After reading through 90% of the previously mentioned 26+ page thread, I found out that I needed to set the dip switches to UP DOWN UP UP for my 2007. I ran outside and did this and quickly turned on the car. Well...half way there...now I'm looking at ARTIST/SONG both saying "DICE" but neither the artist or the song was anywhere close to DICE...Wth. I re-read the instructions a few times and just couldn't figure it out. I pulled the DOME fuse, unplugged everything and started over...no dice (pun intended). So, I called it a night.

    This morning I woke up and went to work pretty upset. While there I reread the instruction manual again stating that I need to change the input on DICE unit by pressing DISC 5 and pressing the advance button on my steering wheel...*BAM* I now had text. So I started poking around to see if I can change the artist. After a few minutes of reading and pressing buttons, I found out there was no way to control the artist via the touch screen if I didn't have it in a playlist. What a crock of crap! The whole reason I bought this unit was because I didn't want to have to fiddle with my ipod while driving. I suppose it would be rather difficult to hack the Toyota software to allow a true integrated option. I put the unit in SAT mode as opposed to MP3 mode, and tried to enjoy my ride home this afternoon. I was 4 blocks from my house when my stereo turned to AM radio all by itself. I hit the SAT button again, and nothing happened...it was as if the DICE unit just decided to turn off.

    So I got home, put it back in MP3 mode, and finished the install by running the wiring to the drawer under the cupholders. It worked out pretty well, but I have to admit I really expected more out of this unit.

    The Good
    1. I can answer a phonecall and not have to worry about pausing my ipod
    2. I can advance the track without having to fumble with my ipod
    3. I can press the audio button and see the song I'm listening to.
    The Bad
    1. I have to pick up my ipod just like before if I want to change artists
    2. The price of this unit is WAY too high. For the quality of the product, I would only consider paying up to $75 for it. I paid WAY too much
    3. The system is clumsy and awkward. There's no way my wife is going to know how to operate it.
    4. The unit is flaky. I've caught it skipping through tracks at random and even completely turn off.
    The Ugly
    If I could return this item, I would. I don't think it was worth the money I spent on it, but alas, I'm not going to make a big deal out of it. The few features it has are cool when they work. I really wish it offered more functionality; I really feel as though DICE was onto something but just stopped short. I'm going to hang onto this unit for a little while in hopes that it changes my mind. If I continue to receive problems with it, it will be removed from the car and thrown in the trash.
     
    #1 riot, Aug 31, 2007
  2. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    A fair assessment I'd say. The instructions were difficult to understand and the integration is far from 'integrated'. Now that it's clear that the DICE unit is causing both my NAV and my CAN-View to malfunction I'm really not happy. It cost far too much to not work perfectly.
    I'm not sure what I'm going to do. At this point my DICE unit is unplugged but still connected. I'm seriously considering pawning it off on some other poor unsuspecting subject on Ebay and just getting a FM modulator/charger for the Prius ('04 doesn't have the aux in plug) so I can at least listen to the Ipod in the car.
    I'd like to hear from DICE that they've figured out how to integrate the unit without screwing up the other stuff in the car...if I could at least have the "good" features you mention without the "ugly" issues i'm experiencing I'd be OK with it. But at this time I consider it almost unusable unless I'm willing to sacrifice both CAN-View and NAV.
     
    #2 efusco, Aug 31, 2007
  3. aaf709

    aaf709 Ravenpaw of ThunderClan

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    Too bad. It's amazing how the results vary. I have a 2005 with NAV and it's done exactly what it was supposed to do since I installed it in May '06. Once in July '06 it gave nothing but a hiss, but cycling through AM, FM, CD, CD2 a couple of times cured it. In fact it was because of the DICE I got an iPod.
     
    #3 aaf709, Aug 31, 2007
  4. Vagabond

    Vagabond Active Member

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    Nowhere is it stated that you can cycle through artists. 2, because it was installed in the wrong mode in the first place, give your iPod a reset and it will stop the track-skipping.

    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Aug 31 2007, 01:51 PM) [snapback]505133[/snapback]</div>

    I've never seen a car with a CAN-view so I have no idea how it's going to screw up the timing. Because it monitors so many things at the same time, it's possible there's too much going on in the data-bus because a device like that dumps ALOT of traffic. The only way to know for sure is to hook it up and read the system.
     
    #4 Vagabond, Sep 1, 2007
  5. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Vagabond @ Sep 1 2007, 01:43 PM) [snapback]505491[/snapback]</div>
    Not sure wha tyou mean by that last sentence. It's odd that things seemed to work ok for a couple weeks, it may be that things messed up the first time I tried using the NAV after installing the DICE..the CAN-View has been connected the entire time.
    I'll reconnect the DICE and see how things go for a few days..if it works ok for a while then I'll see if using the NAV makes things funky again.
    I'll update this or a new thread with my findings once I get a chance to experiment a bit.
     
    #5 efusco, Sep 1, 2007
  6. Vagabond

    Vagabond Active Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Sep 1 2007, 02:20 PM) [snapback]505535[/snapback]</div>

    It means we hook it up to a computer and record all the traffic on the computer system to see what's issuing commands at what time and to see if there's a conflict. Conflicts are rarely instantaneous. It's a matter of timing and speed. A 06+ Prius might fare better because it has a faster computer.
     
    #6 Vagabond, Sep 1, 2007
  7. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Vagabond @ Sep 1 2007, 10:06 PM) [snapback]505641[/snapback]</div>
    Ok, thanks for the clarification. Like I said, I'll try out some of my crude testing and see what's what. Wonder where I can get me one of them more powerful '06+ computers?! <_< ;)
     
    #7 efusco, Sep 1, 2007
  8. Vagabond

    Vagabond Active Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Sep 1 2007, 08:44 PM) [snapback]505672[/snapback]</div>

    I have one sitting on a desk. To swap it to my 05 I would have to swap the whole system :(
     
    #8 Vagabond, Sep 2, 2007
  9. kmilker

    kmilker New Member

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    Hi everyone!

    I just installed my DICE into my '07 with Nav, and I'm a little disappointed and/or confused by the optimal settings to use as well. I ultimately put it in MP3 mode after reading a bunch of forum posts here, and the basic functionality seems to be fine (songs play, I can see the currently-playing song album/artist/title, I can change songs with my radio buttons or steering wheel controls, I can change playlists when in Disc 2 mode), but something's amiss with the text functionality...

    When I try to view the files within a "folder" (playlist) they all appear with the name of one song in that playlist....is this just the way it works? Reading other posts here it sounded as if you could get playlists to show the first song in the playlist as its name instead of just saying "Playlist" (not happening) and also that you could see the names of all songs in a playlist (up to 99) once you expanded from the folder view into the file view. Instead I'm seeing Playlist as the name of all the playlists when in "Disc 2" mode and when I expand to file view there I see the correct number of songs in the playlist listed out, but they all show the name of the currently-playing song. Not sure if things are working as intended here or if there's something that I need to do to get it all to work to its full extent.

    Hopefully my DICE needs something else from me in order to let me see the song names listed and the Playlist names as something besides "Playlist." I'm happy with the basic functionality, but without the ability to browse the list of songs in a playlist from my MFD, the DICE will have bought me little more than the ability to change songs through my steering wheel, which isn't nearly as helpful/convenient to me as allowing me to see/browse song titles once I'm in a playlist.

    Oh, and a small comment for anyone trying to install this or other add-ons themselves with the guides available on PC...there are some EXTREMELY sharp metal edges just above the area where you'll be plugging the cables in. I made the mistake of feeling around back there due to the limited room to work and I cut the bejesus out of the tips of my fingers. Too bad my Prius doesn't run on blood...would get me a few more MPG for sure.

    Any ideas or confirmation that what I'm seeing is correct functionality would be appreciated! Thanks!!
     
    #9 kmilker, Sep 2, 2007
  10. Vagabond

    Vagabond Active Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(kuhehoh @ Sep 2 2007, 09:14 AM) [snapback]505865[/snapback]</div>

    No, it's functioning correctly. That's all it's supposed to say when you're cycling through the playlists. The computer system couldn't handle any sort of 'browse' of songs. The DICE does not use the 'folders' since they can only be used when the car isn't moving anyway.
     
    #10 Vagabond, Sep 2, 2007
  11. riot

    riot New Member

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    It would be really swell to figure out how to not make this thing autoplay. Anyone know how to make this happen?
     
    #11 riot, Sep 3, 2007
  12. Vagabond

    Vagabond Active Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(riot @ Sep 3 2007, 04:27 PM) [snapback]506470[/snapback]</div>
    You can't. It's part of the command to initialize. That's the only time a 'Play' command can be issued. While you're driving and if you issued a 'Stop' command instead of 'Pause' the iPod would attempt to turn itself off and the whole random playlist/initialize thing would happen.
     
    #12 Vagabond, Sep 3, 2007
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