Having problems with Dice functioning properly

F

Flycaster

Member
 Boynton Beach, FL
Installed my Dice/iPod the other day and don't feel it is working as it should. The Dice was installed properly (battery disconnected during install) and intialized properly into my system via the trunk (only have a single CD player). I'd like to know if you guys with a Dice are experiencing similar problems and how you handled them.

Overall, although the sound is good, Dice functions seem to be inconsistent. Sometimes it scrolls, sometimes not. I could be on disc 3, yet it will read CDC1-sometimes. Sometimes I can't move on to the next song via the > button on the steering wheel as the Dice seems to hang up on one song and not advance to the next one. I'm not sure if shuffle is functioning properly, or it may be me: All playlists on the iPod are set to shuffle. The radio is set to RND*. Shouldn't songs/artists/albums shuffle with these settings whan I quickly press >? Or, are my setting incorrect?

Got the unit from EAS and called for support early yesterday. Was told that a Dice tech would get to me shortly. Well, I'm still waiting...
 
Yup, all familiar problems. I find that I need frequently need to reset the connection by disconnecting the iPod, turning it off, and reconnecting it. Typically, I have to do this if I have not used the iPod for a few days. Once it is reset, it will remain functional until the next extended period where it has not been used.
 
ay8306 said:
Yup, all familiar problems. I find that I need frequently need to reset the connection by disconnecting the iPod, turning it off, and reconnecting it. Typically, I have to do this if I have not used the iPod for a few days. Once it is reset, it will remain functional until the next extended period where it has not been used.
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Have you gotten an "official" answers as to why all this is happening? is it the Dice or the iPod? I got the Dice because my icelink crapped out on me after 2-3 years of good use. Even if I weren't having problems with Dice, I still would say it is nowhere nearly as functionally good as the icelink. Icelink offered far more control over how one chose what they wanted to hear. For example, as far as I can tell, when in albums, you have to listen from beginning to end without jumping around within the album.
 
Tom (from EAS) suggested 'rebooting' the Dice unit by disconnecting the battery for a bit then reconnecting. This has not helped. I too have been somewhat underwhelmed with the Dice unit. As you said, the sound quality is good and at a basic level it does function, so I have not felt that it would be worth ripping it out and replacing it. I have thought about checking to see if there is some sort of firmware upgrade that might address the problems, but never got around to it.
 
I have been using DICE for quite some time now between my wife's X3 and my Z4 and all I have learned to hope for is that it allows me to listen to my iPod. I gave up on any useful navigation a long time ago and simply load up playlists that have what I want to hear in the order I want to hear it and then set it up manually to play that list and then pause the iPod before I plug it into the car. That way all I have to do is select the iPod source and let it play. The only thing I expect out of the DICE is to let me skip forward on a song or pause the iPod by turning the stereo off.

It works great when you lower your expectations to basement levels and ignore the stunningly useless navigation features.

I just dumped the DICE in my wife's X3 for an Alpine IDA-X100 - amazing what can happen when you have a head unit that was designed for the iPod interface. Add on devices will never even come close to a ground up design.
 
Actually. Alani, I thought that the icelink worked real well, good navigation throught its functions and good sound. But it died on me and Dice was my budgetary alternative. If i were to cmapre the two in terms of useful and stable functionality: Icelink=8=9, Dice+1-2. However you are quite right about having lower expectations when using the Dice, and I wouldn't buy Dice again if there were some other replacement that wasn't much more expensive.
 
Dice is not that cheap though? I went the Intravee / Alpine route but did not think it was that much more expensive though?

Only caviat is that the Intravee is best used on a satnav screen though.
 
pvr said:
Dice is not that cheap though? I went the Intravee / Alpine route but did not think it was that much more expensive though?

Only caviat is that the Intravee is best used on a satnav screen though.
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I was going to go for the Intravee and then when I saw that Dice had done an upgrade to the Silverline model I thought they had ironed out the bugs so I bought the upgrade which was $99 US.

Sad to say it has all of the misfeatures of the first version and I should have spent the extra bucks on the Intravee.

Dice still sounds great and as long as I am not looking for any navigation beyond skipping to the first of a song or to the next one I am fine. All of my iTunes collection is recorded in Lossless format and I only load up my iPod playlists with what I want to hear in my car so I am never navigating through thousands of songs/artists while driving. I pretty much use my iPod as an extended and more convenient CD changer.
 
On the car trips, I have Mr PVR junior with me, and he can never listen to an ipod song completely and changes it every 3 minutes or so to another playlist.

THanks goodness for the Intravee ...
 
Flycaster said:
Installed my Dice/iPod the other day and don't feel it is working as it should. The Dice was installed properly (battery disconnected during install) and intialized properly into my system via the trunk (only have a single CD player). I'd like to know if you guys with a Dice are experiencing similar problems and how you handled them.

Overall, although the sound is good, Dice functions seem to be inconsistent. Sometimes it scrolls, sometimes not. I could be on disc 3, yet it will read CDC1-sometimes. Sometimes I can't move on to the next song via the > button on the steering wheel as the Dice seems to hang up on one song and not advance to the next one. I'm not sure if shuffle is functioning properly, or it may be me: All playlists on the iPod are set to shuffle. The radio is set to RND*. Shouldn't songs/artists/albums shuffle with these settings whan I quickly press >? Or, are my setting incorrect?

Got the unit from EAS and called for support early yesterday. Was told that a Dice tech would get to me shortly. Well, I'm still waiting...
Click to expand...

Hey mate,

Try...

1. Disconnect iPod from cable
2. Remove battery cables, negative first
3. Touch battery cable terminals together (away from battery) for +5 seconds, a small spark is normal as this is stored power draining from the system.
4. Allow cables to remain disconnected for about 5-7 minutes
5. Reconnect battery cables onto battery, negative last.
6. Reboot iPod by pressing on MENU and CENTER buttons for +5 seconds and then reconnecting to the DICE cable after the reboot process is completed.

I had the same problem as you, worked like a charm...

Regards,
Tom
 
Thanks, Tom. I will try all that you suggest except touching the battery cables together...many have said that is a no-no. BTW, does rebooting the iPod as you suggest, undo the existing musical entries therein?
 
Rebooting iPod only restarts at OS level, does not mess up any music info.

Agree on the not touching of the battery cables.
 
Flycaster said:
Thanks, Tom. I will try all that you suggest except touching the battery cables together...many have said that is a no-no. BTW, does rebooting the iPod as you suggest, undo the existing musical entries therein?
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The instuctions I have given is an email I got from Tom@EAS!
 
I believe that I have previously seen the "cable touching" bit from TomG, but I'm still very weary of doing it.
 
Been fooling around with the Dice without any help from Dice ot Tom G at EAS. Here's what I did: Disconnected the iPod and re-booted it (held menu and center button for ~5 seconds). Disconnected the car battery cables for about 5-7 minutes (it was suggested that the cables be touched together, but didn't do that as I thought that it wouldn't be a good move). Reconnected the iPod to the Dice and reconnected the battery cables. On first try, there still were problems, so I did it again. This time initialization and detection of iPod appeared to be right.

Now for functionality. I still don't know how to get randomization, but here's how I got to choose different tracks within a specific playlist, tracks within a specific artist and tracks within a specific album (from post above). Remember one of my problems was that, for example, when in a album and pressing next/previous, I would get the next/previous album but not the next/previous track within the album I was in. So, when in album (or for that matter, artists or playlists), press disk1 and then next/previous to hear tracks within that album.

Ran a quick test. Going from Albums to disk1: Some times scrolls, some times doesn't. Some times moves on to next song, some times stays with just one song and have to manually go to next one. Stopped playing once with "Stopped" on radio field. Sound still good, but if I am doing things right, then the Dice sucks as there is no consistency to its functionality.
 
My experience is that when it works, it works consistently. As you said, when it is in Album mode, you move forward/back through albums in the active playlist. When in disk1, you move forward/back through songs.

What is not consistent is the initialization. I frequently need to disconnect and reconnect the iPod to reinitialize the connection. Do not bother with rebooting. If it fails to initialize, just disconnect and reconnect. I have gotten used to checking this before I start my drive home.

I agree that it sucks :thumbsdown: but I find it just functional enough that I don't want to spend the time or money to replace it. :headbang:
 
ay8306 said:
My experience is that when it works, it works consistently. As you said, when it is in Album mode, you move forward/back through albums in the active playlist. When in disk1, you move forward/back through songs.

What is not consistent is the initialization. I frequently need to disconnect and reconnect the iPod to reinitialize the connection. Do not bother with rebooting. If it fails to initialize, just disconnect and reconnect. I have gotten used to checking this before I start my drive home.

I agree that it sucks :thumbsdown: but I find it just functional enough that I don't want to spend the time or money to replace it. :headbang:
Click to expand...

Good to know that I am not nuts in my complaints about the Dice. Guess I'll learn to live with its quirks. And if all it takes it a disconnect and reconnect to get to work partially decent, I'll accept that in lieu of spending more $ on it.
 
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