Well,
After many late nights of internet research on this and many forums. I have no answer for which is the best setup for adding an IPOD.
Gateway 500. Seems to be very popular on this site and has lots of other ports. Most expensive.
DICE. Used to be part of Denison. Have read good things about this also. Does not seem to be as popular on this forum. I may have read wrongly but it seems on the website that they claim to have text of songlist on the HU.
NEO. Other cars then MB seem to have luck with this.
Any other IPOD integration anyone has ideas on.
I am leaning towards the DICE as it has texting on the HU.
My wife is convinced it is just an excuse to look at porn on the internet because she is doubtful that anyone would spend so much time reading about IPODs.
You may have seen something about the DICE iPod adapter for D2B offering song titles (text); I looked, but certainly could not find it; none of the Mercedes D2B head units were text capable, so I have my doubts. Some manufacturers went to the MOST standard before MB did - so cars of the same vintage as the D2B equipped Mercedes may be text capable, but they would be MOST bus equipped. D2B is a Mercedes proprietary standard, so no one else used it.
The DICE site compatibility page does list most of the D2B Mercedes cars; however, go to the support section. There are absolutely no installation or user guides for any Mercedes. That's one of the biggest problems with DICE: Vaporware. They have been promising Mercedes compatibility literally for several years now. I haven't seen anything delivered. Perhaps other D2B owners can provide some comment.
One third party vendor site said "The I-MB-D2B interface allows control of the iPOD from the factory radio, or the steering wheel controls or from the iPOD itself, all at the same time, all without the user having to change any settings! You can browse the iPOD by song, artist, playlist, album or chapter, and it supports unlimited playlists."
What that did not say was that you got any text, song titles, artists' names, or album titles on a D2B COMAND or any other Mercedes head unit from the DICE unit. The old Dension (marketed by DICE when they were called Dension USA) ICE>Link Plus gave that kind of control as well, but left you guessing where you were all the time; you'd get to something they labeled a CD (it could be any of the sort options of the iPod - a "CD" could be a playlist, an album, or whatever) and then you got Track Number within the sort - no song title. In that regard, it's something like the Gateway 500 for D2B, except the GW 500 for D2B lets you know you are sorting by playlist, album, and artist with some certainty even without text.
There was also a menu option on the old ICE>Link Plus (as there is with the GW 500) that lets you make all of the selections on the iPod itself. The steering wheel then controlled volume and next/previous song selections. Perhaps that's how the 3rd party vendor is covering that claim. I don't know.
Last, you have to bypass your CD changer when you install the DICE unit (as you do with the Nav-TV unit). You can usually keep it with the GW 500 (though there are a few cars where you can't keep it with the GW 500 either).
When DICE Electronics was Dension USA (before splitting with Dension Europe), their support was terrible for the old Ice>Link Plus. Maybe they have improved, but I haven't seen anything laudatory about them.
Keep in mind also that in the forseeable future, the GW 500 for D2B may provide output to the CAN Bus - if they do that you'll get song titles on your instrument cluster (but not on COMAND). The Version 3 electronics are already shipping for the MOST bus cars (but the CAN Bus cables aren't shipping yet) - it is likely, according to one of the GW 500 developers (screen name GW500) that the D2B Version 3 box will also be equipped with CAN Bus output for text display on the instrument cluster.
While the DICE D2B unit is less expensive than the GW 500, the MOST version costs more.
Anyway, if you go ahead with the DICE unit, let us know how it turns out.
__________________
2005 S500 4-Matic
with Gateway 500 iPod integration
Formerly: 2000 S500
with Ice>Link iPod integration
Moto V710 phone with MikBox
Upgraded Voice Control
D2B is a Mercedes proprietary standard, so no one else used it.
Jaguar has also D2B cars (e.g. the X-Type).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skylaw
One third party vendor site said "The I-MB-D2B interface allows control of the iPOD from the factory radio, or the steering wheel controls or from the iPOD itself, all at the same time, all without the user having to change any settings! You can browse the iPOD by song, artist, playlist, album or chapter, and it supports unlimited playlists."
One interesting issue came to my mind: in practice it can be done with some older iPod FWs that you see the iPod text on your (text capable) Head Unit while you still have the control through the iPod wheel. That can be reached by mixing two protocols while communicating with iPod.
The offiicial statement from Apple was that this is a bug and the possibility will be removed from later iPod FWs.
Of course controlling through iPod without displaying text on HU, or full control on HU is not an issue.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skylaw
Last, you have to bypass your CD changer when you install the DICE unit (as you do with the Nav-TV unit). You can usually keep it with the GW 500 (though there are a few cars where you can't keep it with the GW 500 either).
GW500 Version 3 MOST panel targeted that few cars, surely you can keep the CDC in those "problematic" cars also.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skylaw
it is likely, according to one of the GW 500 developers (screen name GW500) that the D2B Version 3 box will also be equipped with CAN Bus output for text display on the instrument cluster.
Version 3 box was made only for MOST cars, the D2B box remains the same. With a relatively cheap additional accessory it will be able to write text to cluster display. But now I can't say this 100% sure when or whether this unit will be on market.
I have installed the Dice piece for a customer.It is a repackage sounggate Alpine Mbus cd changer adapter allows track up and down does not even support text on the Command radio. We tend to lean toward the Gateway 500 peice for any Fiber optic vehicles.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skylaw View Post
it is likely, according to one of the GW 500 developers (screen name GW500) that the D2B Version 3 box will also be equipped with CAN Bus output for text display on the instrument cluster.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GW500 View Post
Version 3 box was made only for MOST cars, the D2B box remains the same. With a relatively cheap additional accessory it will be able to write text to cluster display. But now I can't say this 100% sure when or whether this unit will be on market.
Any news on the D2B version 3 becoming available?
I am waiting for it (but not indefinitely).
I installed the Dice unit into my 2003 SL500. As Skylaw noted, the HU is not text compatible, so seeing titles, artists etc. is not possible. He is also right about installation. You are on your own with very little support. The instructions are vague at best, and to date mine is still not working.
They do claim that when it is working, it uses the six cd settings from the old CD changer to play your first six playlists. You can't see the info, but you can get to them. Control from the ipod itself is obviously much easier.
Hmmm... So I can confirm what rdrenning says 100%. Support and instructions for the DICE unit SUCK! The unit itself supports "Song Title" display on a HU with CD-TEXT capabilities. The D2B MB's do not have the capability, so you only get CDx TrackXX.
I've installed a couple now, and have managed to get all to work. I've posted some instructions here, but would be hard pressed to recommend this to anyone over the GW500. This is not based on personal experience with the GW500, but from frustration with the DICE. I've gotten three different power adapters shipped with the three different kits. Minor problem solved by 5 minutes with a crimper and $1.50 worth of parts from the dealer.
Of the three, one came with a bad fiber. Trying to get it replaced by the vendor was a joke - fortunately I have a friend who was able to fabricate an excellent replacement.
All the above said, all three work perfectly as advertised. I personally use the iPod control to do everything other than control volume and skip a song. Next person that asks for help will hopefully go with a Gateway and I'll have some personal experience there....
Found the source of the problem today. A fuse in the power line at the head unit needed to be replaced. After replacement, everything worked. Argos functions as advertised. All functions work on the steering, pairing to my Motorola Q was very easy and my iPod even automatically pauses when I get a call.
The Dice system functions as well. No text on the Comand Unit because it does not support it. Track # and elapsed time work. The unit emulates a 6 disk CD changer. The radio buttons work differently depending on which CD # you choose at the head unit:
Mode Next Previous Fast Forward Rew
CD 1 next track prev. track FF song RW Song
CD 2 next playlist prev. playlist ----- ------
CD 3 next album prev. album ----- ------
CD 4 next chapter prev. chapter ----- ------
CD 5 next source prev. source (this activates the aux port on Dice)
CD 6 ----- ------ ----- ------
Scan, Random and Repeat functions enable their functions respectively on the ipod.
It is easiest to start your playlist from the ipod and then use the head unit for navigation. Obviously, you are navigating blind, unless you use the iPod itself, but no integration kit will give you what the Comand Unit can't display.
All in all, for the price it is a good solution.
As I and others have said, though, you are pretty much on your own with implementation - instructions are fairly vague.
Linear Mode
