dealy663

Hi Guys

Last night I installed a Dension 500S Bt in my 2006 997. So far the only thing I've been able to get working is paring it with my phone (Samsung Galaxy Nexus). I can make calls and receive them. But there have been so many problems, I'm totally frustrated now.

Whenever I turn on the PCM after a moment or so I get a message saying that the CD Changer cannot be found. I have to manually clear this message. I have disconnected the fiber optic cable from the cd changer (it never worked anyway) and attached a fiber optic loopback in its place.

On the phone, sometimes the bluetooth connection never happens. It just sits there saying connecting.

I've not been able to figure out how to play any music on my phone through the PCM via A2DP. The manual says this has to be turned on via settings, but doesn't say how to actually do so.

I put some music on to a USB flash drive and plugged that into the Dension. It recognizes that there is a USB connection, but still plays no music from the flash drive.

Finally the last issue is that when receiving a phone call there is just silence from the dension. The PCM indicates that there is an incoming call and my phone actually rings. But no audible ring through the speakers.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get this thing working properly?

Thanks, Derek

SAN997

I Derek, I recently installed the same Dension unit on my 997.1 2007 with PCM. It actually went pretty smoothly, and everything seems to work OK. A couple of observations:

1. The old firmware that came preloaded on the Dension did not display the "CD Changer Not Found" error. Upgrading to v46 firmware caused this error to appear. I just checked with v45, and I also get this error...although it might be a little less frequent. I must have had v44, although that doesn't support iPhone 5.

2. USB music works very well for me, and is actually faster than the iPod. One thing you probably want to do is to download the Dension Indexer. Run this indexer on the flash drive, then insert it into the Dension in the car. Also, make sure your USB drive is formatted FAT32 and that you have only MP3s on it. It might work with other formats, but MP3 is the gold standard for compatibility.

3. Check to see if your PCM is running version 2.1b software. If not, I would have the dealer or an indy update it.

4. After you insert the USB stick, you have to actually select the USB stick as the source from the menu system. This is kind of awkward. You use the forward/back buttons to navigate the menu. Hold for 3 seconds to activate a choice.

5. Dension firmware is kind of buggy. You might try different versions, not just the latest.

drummin4fun

My upgrade to the latest software yielded the same results. Dension is really not a very consumer oriented company. I have been waiting for a couple of months for a resolution. Unfortunately I don't have the previous version to which I can "degrade".

RetroMan

Hi there, you seem to sit on the information I am looking for! Of course I did my part of googling and searching the Dension web site, but I can't find the info I am looking for. Maybe you can help!

I am curious about the way of working and the limitations of the Dension 500 with a USB flash drive. I already understood FAT32 is the preferred format; and that MP3 is the best compatible file format. Both are perfect for me.

To give an idea: I currenly have a 128GB flash drive containing 2800 songs in MP3 format, most of them are 320 kbit CBR. The total amount of data is around 35GB. The flash drive does not have any folders, all files are in the root. The data is not pre-processed in any way, files are just copied using Windows 7 explorer. This works like a charm in my BMW1 and it would be perfect if I could just take the stick out of that car and put it in the Dension. But I doubt if this is possible.

May I fire some questions?

Is it possible to put all mp3 files in one directory?
Can all mp3 files be put in the root folder of the flash drive?
Is there a limitation of maximum number of files by the Dension system (so not by the FAT32 format) and if so, what is the maximum number of files the system can handle?
What is the maximum memory size the Dension 500 can handle?
I read something about an indexer tool. Is it neccessary to pre-process the flash drive in order to use it with the Dension?
Is it possible to have the Dension 'shuffle' through ALL of the songs on the flash drive whether they are in different folders or not?
Does the Dension handle 320 kbit CBR well without stuttering or delaying?
Does the flash drive need to be scanned by the Dension before all songs can be accessed?
Does this scan run every time the Dension is started?

Well, I can go on and on, but I hope you (or someone else) are able to answer these questions 'for starters'.

Thanks a lot and hope talk to you soon!

ps: Is it correct I assume you are runnning the 500 in a 2.1 PCM 997 setup?

Frankie P

Hello to all from Naples, Florida. I just acquired my first 911, a 2006 Carrera S with the Aero package. 6000 miles, super clean, one-owner car. I'm very excited.

Dampening that new car euphoria are my failed attempts at getting the Dension 500SBT to work in my car. What follows is my most recent email to Erik Sklut at Bumper Plugs, who, as many of you know, has been great. He's as frustrated as I am. Any insight or recommendations is appreciated. Thank you.

"Dear Eric,

I thought I would take an opportunity to review where we are and what we've done to date with regards to the Dension install.

I have a 2006 Carrera S "Aero." It is an early build 2006, actually manufactured in 2005. I don't have any other devices on the MOST loop i.e. no phone, no CD changer, nonavigation.

Installation of the Dension is well within my comfort zone, having successfully completed more complicated projects in the past. You'll just have to trust me on that, but we can both agree, all things being equal, installation of the Dension is not rocket science.

My car has each an inbound and outbound orange optical cable. Arrows on each denote which direction the light travels.

My initial installation was that of the typical installation i.e. inbound from car to inbound of Dension, outbound of Dension to inbound of PCM, and outbound of PCM to outbound of car.The connections were checked and rechecked. The DIP switches were checked and re-checked. The connections to the remote unit were confirmed as correct. Power is uninterrupted and confirmed at the Dension unit. the CD changer side of the Dension waslooped to itself. The PCM was programmed by the dealer with the Dension in active mode. He confirmed seeing the "+" sign in both columns on his laptop. The PCM now indicates that a CD changer is not available, which it did notdo prior to his programming. Despite all of this, I see no blue blinking light on the Dension nor does the PCM recognize the changer.

My second and more recent installation was that of the "GT3" variety. Given the early build of my car and the GT3-like appearance, I thought it was at least worth a try. I bypassed the car-side opticals completely, and simply looped the Dension with the PCM i.e. Dension outbound to PCM inbound and PCM outbound to Dension inbound. The CD changer side of the Dension remains
looped to itself. This installation produced the appropriate blinking blue
light on the remote, but the PCM will still not recognize a CD changer.

As noted above, my car has the in and outbound orange optical cables. However, if I shine a high-intensity flashlight in one, I do not see illumination in the other. I don't know if there are multiple explanations for this, but my knee-jerk reaction was that my loop was not complete, perhaps by
design. My car was not equipped from the factory with NAV, CD changer or phone, and I double-checked the CD changer area to confirm that there weren't any open plugs. There weren't. It would appear no CD changer was ever present, nor would it appear that any aftermarket components were installed previously.

I should note that in both above installations, my stereo worked fine. The single CD player played, the radio played, everything was fine in both. Just no CD changer.

I am at my wits end. I am confident in my installation, so I don't think I'm the problem. Any ideas?

If I have to take that dash apart again, I need to reach closure on the matter. I don't think I can stand another failed attempt.

Thanks for your support, Eric. I much appreciate it.

Frank"

iammulva

What was the final outcome on this? I'm about to try to install my Dension in a 2006 C2S with no nav, phone, or cd changer also. I am stuck trying to separate the optical cable from the PCM connector (got the blue thingy out of the connector but cannot get the cable out).

Curious how your problem got resolved.

shrines

Hi from SoCal. My first post. I spent most of the weekend installing and debugging a Dension 500S BT installation on my 2007 987. I am experiencing almost identical problems as Derek described; BT phone works, no A2DP. No USB music, CD Changer failure message.

I originally tried installing the 500S using the dual port configuration to allow me to keep the multi-CD changer but after hours of trying various combinations I took the CD Changer out of the MOST loop and put the 500S in using a single port with loopback in the second port.

I visited my dealer yesterday to have them check the MOST configuration. The PCM did not recognize the 500S as a CD-changer. I had the mechanic change the settings so I no longer have the CD-changer error message.

Having thought about it overnight I now believe that changing the PCM coding was a mistake on my part since the 500S is intended to emulate a CD player. If I solve the 500S problems I will have to go back to the dealer to turn the CD-changer code back on in order for the PCM to be able to control it.

I believe I understand what the problem is with the Dension installation, though I have yet to prove it.

There is a Porsche configuration file on the Dension website that is supposed to be loaded into the Dension 500S *before* it is installed in the MOST network. (e.g., when power is first applied.) The configuration file is loaded by putting it in the root directory of a USB stick, inserting the stick into the Dension USB port and applying power. On power-up the 500S supposedly checks to see if a USB stick is present and, if so, looks for a config file to load.

I now believe that the 500S *only* works with USB sticks formatted with FAT32. I think my installation failed because the 500S could not load the configuration file from the USB stick because it was not formatted as FAT32.

There are multiple software versions for the 500S on the Dension site. I downloaded the latest version and had it on the USB stick. The 500S checks for software updates on the USB stick after it is reset (as opposed to checking for configuration on power-up).

Again, I think the software upgrade did not occur because I failed to format the USB stick as FAT32.

I have a new USB stick formatted as FAT32 with the configuration file in its root directory. I will give it a try this weekend when I have the time to take the PCM side covers off so I can cycle power to the 500S. --Of course, I may not be able to tell if I fixed the problem since my PCM no longer reacts to the CD-changer.

--Steve

shrines

Oh, I forgot to mention...

My phone thinks A2DP is working. When I play music on the phone while my phone paired to the 500S music no longer comes out the phone speaker. The phone thinks it is routing music to the car via Bluetooth. However, the car does not receive/playback music from the phone.

Derek's and my lack of music from a Samsung phone may not be a Dension problem. There are comments on the XDA Developer's site that indicate that the Android A2DP implementation is flaky. Some folks have reported that Android A2DP works but only after un-pairing and re-pairing the phone a couple of times.

shrines

In case it helps anyone, here are pictures of the PCM screens showing the MOST-connected devices and the software versions of each. I have the Bose option.
Note that the PCM recognizes the Dension connected to my Samsung S4 as a built-in phone. These pictures were taken after the CD-changer was disabled with the PIWIS tool.

07C4S

Mine worked OK in my 2007 C4S w/ Navi, Bose, and the CD changer for a couple months. Then the ability to stream from my phone just stopped. Tech support is non-existent. The phone still works great and I can access the iPod I keep in the frunk. Streaming is the issue. I've tried 4 different iPhones, 2 iPads, 2 Samsungs, it just doesn't work. Connects fine, phone thinks everything is OK, just no music. The Dension is at fault and no fix...other then buying another one. I know our options are limited w/ Porsches of this vintage but what a POS the Dension is. Waste of money.

Jack Kwok

Hi there, I have a Dension 500S BT installed professionally in my 2005 C2S. The operation is a bit chaotic but I've got used to it and accepted the complicated operation now and the phone works well with it. However, there is a problem that i can never have it solved yet. Songs on the USB played well but, when I added more files into the USB, those new files cannot be read and simply are not even shown on the menu. Seems like the unit totally ignore the new files but only the files from the very beginning.
I tried to reset the whole thing by pressing the reset button with a paper clip and it came out with the same result.
Just wonder if anyone here have ever experienced problems like this. Thanks.

nzskater

You might find it has built and saved a playlist on the USB key - when it is plugged into your computer, look for files that are not music files and try delete them.