ltc

Figured it's been a while, so here is your www.densionusa.com iPod/MOST adapter update for today, 18 February 2006:

ltc

Needed some music to go along with this..................

http://www.barbneal.com/wav/tvthemes/mission.wav

alex911s

Hawaii Five O is still the best

ltc

And this just in.....from Germany:
http://www.dension4u.de/shop/product...0a18a8f9a8e1fb

(BEGINNING of 2006......
)

wingless

Lewis, you are the MOST Houdini. Cool.

Once this is added, does the vehicle need to be configured with the PST2 to allow usage?

ltc

Depends on implementation.

If the device replaces a CDChanger and emulates it, then no.
If the device is a new node on the ring, then yes, the headunit will need to know what to do with it once it's recognized.

I don't know what Dension is up to....then again, I don't know if they know what they are up to.

mudman2

Based on performance to date (the moon landing was quicker) they MOST certainly have no clue what they are doing.

Budget M3

I sure hope they don't do it this way...BMW's iPod adapter emulates the CD changer, too, which certainly simplifies development, but is useless from a customer perspective....basically means you can create any playlist you want on your iPod, as long as the playlists are called BMW1, BMW2, ...BMW6. How dumb is that

ltc

Agreed.
However, this issue is simply reduced to how much support the OEM (in this case Becker via PAG) is willing to provide.

IF you can get the OEM to provide you with an appropriate user interface and S/W behind it, then you're all set....you can pretty much have what you want. Of course, this will likely require paying the OEM up front NRE $ and likely a royalty/licensing fee for each unit sold (as they will have to validate YOUR S/W with THEIR overall unit, just to make sure there are no issues for which they get stuck dealing their their customers)

IF you don't, then you are left being required to 'reverse engineer' a module which looks and acts (to the headunit), just like the module it replaced...and you live with those shortcomings....the OEM is left out of the loop.....of course until they discover you 'reverse engineered' their proprietary extentions and begin to ask 'how the hell could he have figured that out'?

Dealing with/designing for car manufacturers is sort of like watching a glacier move; it does, just very slowly. The design cycles are still 3-4 years out, so once a design/architecture is frozen, then you have a snapshot in time......a lot of neat stuff may come along in that 3-4 year window, but you can't incorporate it until the next 3-4 year design window opens up. I won't mention how some car OEM's will then require you to support the H/W and S/W for 10-15 years (expected useful life of the vehicle).

But hey, it is what it is.

TimC.

After reviewing their site recently looks like 2 out of 3 of their flagship products are discontinued....guess they are betting the farm on the ice>Link: Plus ??

PRODUCTS
ice>Link: Plus
DH100ix Discontinued Item. No longer in stock.
DMP3 Discontinued Item. No longer in stock.

ltc

BUMP

I've been 'away' for a bit......anyone have a calendar.....look for 'any day now'

Moogle

Dension and their employees have been lying about Porsche stuff for the last 2 years.

Every time you ask , or read their webpage, their target introduction is sometime in the 'next 2 months'

as for LTC's comments about OEM backend support, not for a company like Dension, whose products are all based around reverse engineering.

That company has serious issues with honesty and alot of the guys over at the m3 forum regularly have issues with their products and tech support/ returns/etc.

Porsche isn't too keen on releasing "SDK type packages" for their products.

That said, as I don't like the idea of hardwiring an FM transmitter, so i use some of the excellent and very novel solutions from http://www.griffintechnologies.com (no affiliation) to get the ipod signal into the radio.

they have some very nice and OEM looking charger/FM modulator combos.

ltc

I know.....I just like having a bit of fun with our Moderator on this topic.......

mudman2

Actually it has no meaning, they live in the Tardis.

ltc

Hmmmn....3 minutes.....you're slowing down when it comes to detecting me