USA-Spec PA12-BMW Full Video Review and Pictorial Installation Guide

btw - you are not limited to 99 songs per playlist.

Originally Posted by steve.325i

btw - you are not limited to 99 songs per playlist.

yeah. you know yesterday I actually went over the 99 song mark in my BMW1 Playlist for the first time...in like 5 months of using my USA-Spec.



USA-Spec is awesome indeed. I find that I use it way more than my Sirius, CD-MP3 and FM-radio.

Wow ... I'm getting old. I've been loooking for this chart for a couple of days now & I just found the pic in one of my albums on this site. Geesh, I guess I need more sleep.

The following link identifies the signals on the 3pin & 6pin connectors (trunk interface) and gives the wire color used at the connectors and the colors used for both the Dice Silverline & the USA-Spec PA12-BWM.

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/album.p...pictureid=8582

What this list does not include is the wire color used at the HU connector. They may or may not be the same colors used at the trunk interface. If I wasn't so lazy i would pull my HU, count pins, and indentify the colors for you ... I wonder if the Bentley list the colors acturately.

Alright, I just got back in town. I haven't had a chance to try grounding any wires yet, but check THIS out. I don't know if the two are related, but I was gone only four days, and my battery is DEAD! I just bought the car a little while ago, so I don't know how old it (the battery) was to begin with, but it never gave me any trouble or reason to think it was going bad. In fact, I remember saying to myself, "this battery seems really strong," not too long ago. The only modifications I have made to the electrical system are the USA Spec and a hard-wired V1, but I took my iPod and V1 with me when I went out of town, so they were not hooked up. All the doors were closed and lights were off. Coincidence? I wonder!

My battery went dead on me once over a year ago when I did my angel eyes install. I guess I had the doors open too much or something, but I couldn't really explain it to my satisfaction.

I don't know. A wire in your truck interface could be pinched and shorted to ground somewhere along the way & no now that you are plugging into it, you may be creating a false current path. I dunno, I could be grasping here. Hooking up to the HU would help in this case as well.

What is a V1?

Hey,

Have been searching for an answer to this question for a while, even emailed USA SPEC but only got a five word answer back that didn't really answer the question, so here goes:

Can anyone with a 99-00 HU comment on the 'double press' issue with the buttons when using the US Spec. ie, Do you have to press twice for a playlist? to change songs? on the steering wheel? Does it annoy the hell out of you or is it ok to live with? Is this also a problem on the DICE?

Cheers guys (and any girls).

Originally Posted by HelixAngle

Hey,

Have been searching for an answer to this question for a while, even emailed USA SPEC but only got a five word answer back that didn't really answer the question, so here goes:

Can anyone with a 99-00 HU comment on the 'double press' issue with the buttons when using the US Spec. ie, Do you have to press twice for a playlist? to change songs? on the steering wheel? Does it annoy the hell out of you or is it ok to live with? Is this also a problem on the DICE?

Cheers guys (and any girls).

I have a 99 unit. When I first installed my box, I was pleased to find that I wasn't having to double press at all. Everything worked the first time from the steering wheel and HU. But then I noticed I wasn't getting text display. It turns out there is a switch on the unit that switches text on (only for 99-01 HUs perhaps?). With that on, I get text BUT I have to double press to change playlists and change tracks from the HU but from the steering wheel (which I use all the time anyway) it only takes 1 press. I have had a few other very minor issues with it but I'm very happy with the device.

tl;dr Double press isn't a big deal, but you can give up text display to fix it if it bothers you.

Originally Posted by HelixAngle

Is this also a problem on the DICE?

Yup, it's actually an issue with the older HU's, not the ipod interface.

Thanks Gents. Good to know it's not an issue with the steering wheel buttons.

Have ordered a PA12, but have to wait a week for it to ship to NZ.

SOMEDAY I hope to try out your suggestion of grounding those wires. My battery turned out to be bad, so hopefully it is unrelated to the wiring. And a V1 is a Valentine 1 radar detector.

That someday turned out to be today. Grounding the wires had NO EFFECT on the background noise. So this means I will have to wire directly into the HU, right? So I'll have to cut wires on the factory harness, I'm guessing I'll have to cut the connectors off the USA Spec harness as well? I may try to live with it for a while and see how that works. I wasn't planning on keeping this car more than a couple years, so I am a little reluctant to start hacking up the wiring. But at the same time, when I sell it, nowadays most people would probably appreciate a PROPERLY working iPod interface compared to a CD changer. On the other hand, even if I do decide to go ahead with this, I will STILL be unhappy with the sound system, b/c my front mid speakers are BLOWN (and possibly my right-front midbass too)! I ended up just disconnecting the mids up front, because the buzzing was driving me NUTS! I have also been unsuccessful at eliminating several rattles in the front doors. All the rear speakers sound great, in fact, I am VERY happy with the sound system when sitting in the back seat. The only problem is, YOU CANNOT DRIVE FROM THE BACK SEAT! I'm sure a BSW stage 1 setup would cure MOST of my blues, but again, I don't think I will keep this car very long so it's hard to justify the $600 price tag. My car has the H/K system, and I've spent a good amount of time browsing these forums. From what I have found, an upgrade for the front speakers (other than BSW) is not very easy or cheap, as in it requires a separate/new amp because of the odd ohms rating and crossovers built in to the factory amp. I feel lost, and really don't know what to do. Like I said, I guess I'll just have to think about it for a while. What would YOU do (anyone)?

Originally Posted by rxman

And a V1 is a Valentine 1 radar detector.

Ah! Illegal in Canada so I had no idea.

Originally Posted by rxman

Grounding the wires had NO EFFECT on the background noise. So this means I will have to wire directly into the HU, right?

Just thought of another possibility. Original owner may have had HU changed or made a mod themselves. The 10-pin on the back of the HU may not be fully seated / have bent pins / or been hacked in some way. I think it's worth checking out. Popping the trim and two screws & the HU pops out ...

Sorry my previous suggestions didn't get you anywhere.

Steve,

Perhaps you can help me out with an annoying issue I'm having with the PA-12 as of this afternoon.

Everything was working great until I pulled and unplugged the HU (was considering replacing it but changed my mind)

When I put it back, put the fuses back in, and fired up the iPod/PA-12, I got the weird "no magazine" message and then a "No Disc" message when I hit buttons 1-5. A power cycle on the PA-12 and iPod fixed that, but now I can't get artist name/song title to display. It just shows "TR XX"

I checked dip switches (#2 and 3 on, everything else off, just like before), and unplugged both wires from the device and restarted the iPod touch. Nothing- still just "TR XX"

Haven't pulled the fuses or battery yet.... wanted to check if there was anything else I should do before that?

Thanks in advance!!

Originally Posted by steve.325i

I have had the USA-Spec in my car since April/09 ... not once have I even thought about doing a battery reset -

On two occasion I have had the HU display NO MAGAZINE when I switch to iPod mode. BOTH time where right after my wife borrowed my car. I have NO idea how she did it but ...

Both time i was able to correct the behaviour by pulling either #7 or #41 fuse ... I don't remember which one but I know it was the 5A one, not the 30A.

Originally Posted by mohan12

Steve,

Perhaps you can help me out with an annoying issue I'm having with the PA-12 as of this afternoon.

Everything was working great until I pulled and unplugged the HU (was considering replacing it but changed my mind)

When I put it back, put the fuses back in, and fired up the iPod/PA-12, I got the weird "no magazine" message and then a "No Disc" message when I hit buttons 1-5. A power cycle on the PA-12 and iPod fixed that, but now I can't get artist name/song title to display. It just shows "TR XX"

I checked dip switches (#2 and 3 on, everything else off, just like before), and unplugged both wires from the device and restarted the iPod touch. Nothing- still just "TR XX"

Haven't pulled the fuses or battery yet.... wanted to check if there was anything else I should do before that?

Thanks in advance!!

Hmmm, something is out of sync. Ok, first i should state that I have had the No Magazine message a third time since I made the post that you referred to and I was wrong, I had to pull the 30A fuse to recover operation.

Ok, that said - you power cycled only the PA12 and you got back music but no text. So that means that the PA12 is responding to comands from the HU, but the HU is not listening to the text coming back on the i-bus.

By pulling the fuses (both 7 & 41), count to ten & re-insert, you will restart both devices @ the same time & they should re-negotiate and do the plug & play dance and talk nicely after that.

It sounds like you did this the first time, but ....

I also recommend plugging in the 5A fuse first (#7) & then the 30A fuse (#41). That will power the radio standby first & then bring the accessories on line.

There is always the possibility of an ESD event taking the interface out during re-connnection, but I really doubt the chance of that happening - specially if you are in a humid location.

Thanks for the input, but no luck- resetting the fuses (7 & 41) didn't do anything.

The weird thing is, I don't think pulling the fuses actually "resets" the PA-12, b/c when I put the fuses back in, the song text is still not displaying and the song resumes from exactly where it left off.

Very frustrating.... to eliminate iPod as the issue, I tried two (pics below) as well as the HU display (TRXX vs. the display text that showed before briefly recycling power to the HU yesterday)

Any other suggestions prior to a battery pull (which would be disappointing and the first "kink" in the otherwise great PA-12) ??

(pics- sorry they're a bit blurry)

HU Display (sans display text)


Jumper Settings (#2 & 3 on)


iPod #1 (synced- "BMW")


iPod #2 (synced)

Originally Posted by steve.325i

Hmmm, something is out of sync. Ok, first i should state that I have had the No Magazine message a third time since I made the post that you referred to and I was wrong, I had to pull the 30A fuse to recover operation.

Ok, that said - you power cycled only the PA12 and you got back music but no text. So that means that the PA12 is responding to comands from the HU, but the HU is not listening to the text coming back on the i-bus.

By pulling the fuses (both 7 & 41), count to ten & re-insert, you will restart both devices @ the same time & they should re-negotiate and do the plug & play dance and talk nicely after that.

It sounds like you did this the first time, but ....

I also recommend plugging in the 5A fuse first (#7) & then the 30A fuse (#41). That will power the radio standby first & then bring the accessories on line.

There is always the possibility of an ESD event taking the interface out during re-connnection, but I really doubt the chance of that happening - specially if you are in a humid location.

Try making sure the iPod is not connected to the PA12 when doing the reset. I think there may be enough power from the iPod to keep the PA12 from doing a reset. I know that Dice needs the iPod disconnected to reset and I wouldn't doubt the PA12 does as well. It sure wouldn't hurt to try.

Originally Posted by mohan12

The weird thing is, I don't think pulling the fuses actually "resets" the PA-12, b/c when I put the fuses back in, the song text is still not displaying and the song resumes from exactly where it left off.

Once when I still had the Dice Silverline & I was attempting to debug the text not scrolling on my HU, I was probing at the 3-pin connector with my oscilloscope & the ground clip suceeded in slipping & shorting out the power to ground on the 3-pin connector. I don't remember which fuse I blew, but it was one of them. So that is my reason for beleiving that the power to the 3-pin connector flows through one of those fuses.

The song resumed from where it was because the iPod paused in that location. I believe your 'bookmarks' in the other playlists would have been lost with the power cycle.

All that said, I still have not helped you.

From your pics your dash matches mind. The CD soft button is also lit up over button 6. That should not be there.

I wish I remembered how I had my switches set. I might have to pull my backseat & check.

Honestly - a "battery reset" is overkill. Pulling 7 & 41 is sufficient.

My gut feeling right now is that your HU is not detecting it properly. If it's not too much trouble, I would try pulling the fuses, disconnect the PA12, put back in the fuses & operate the radio without anything connected to the CD changer interface. Then pull the fuses again & reconnect the PA12 & see if you get it back.

Thats all I have at this point. I will continue to ponder.

Anybody else experience anything like this?

Thanks for the input- this is a real pain in the ass.

I'm on the road until Fri and will def try this as soon as I get back. Fingers crossed.

Originally Posted by steve.325i

Once when I still had the Dice Silverline & I was attempting to debug the text not scrolling on my HU, I was probing at the 3-pin connector with my oscilloscope & the ground clip suceeded in slipping & shorting out the power to ground on the 3-pin connector. I don't remember which fuse I blew, but it was one of them. So that is my reason for beleiving that the power to the 3-pin connector flows through one of those fuses.

The song resumed from where it was because the iPod paused in that location. I believe your 'bookmarks' in the other playlists would have been lost with the power cycle.

All that said, I still have not helped you.

From your pics your dash matches mind. The CD soft button is also lit up over button 6. That should not be there.

I wish I remembered how I had my switches set. I might have to pull my backseat & check.

Honestly - a "battery reset" is overkill. Pulling 7 & 41 is sufficient.

My gut feeling right now is that your HU is not detecting it properly. If it's not too much trouble, I would try pulling the fuses, disconnect the PA12, put back in the fuses & operate the radio without anything connected to the CD changer interface. Then pull the fuses again & reconnect the PA12 & see if you get it back.

Thats all I have at this point. I will continue to ponder.

Anybody else experience anything like this?

Things have taken an interesting (and even more annoying) turn.

Steve- thanks for the suggestions. Here's what happened:

Approach 1:
-Key in "0" position (car off)
-Pulled fuses 7 & 41 (third one in on the top row, fourth one in from the left on the bottom) Confirmed that radio was indeed shut down.
-Unplugged iPod from PA-12 cord
-Unplugged all wires from PA-12 (cord to iPod, RCA connection cord, and cord to CD-changer plug in trunk)
-Waited a few minutes
-Plugged fuses 7 & 41 back in (7 went in smoothly, 41 sparked as it always has)
-Turned radio on to FM, cycled through modes (went from FM to AM to CD, no CD-changer)
-Let radio play for a few minutes, then turned radio off
-Pulled fuses 7 & 41 out
-Plugged all wires back into PA-12, waited a minute, and turned radio on
-Cycled through modes- FM to AM to CD-changer (CD 6, TR01- pressing any other number resulted in a "No Disc" message), to CD, back to FM
-Plugged iPod in to PA-12, heard familiar connection tone from iPod, and went back to CD-changer
-Radio displayed CDC 6 TR01, hitting #4 (as I always did before this mess) resulted in CDC4 TR01 (arrrrrrrrrgh)- MP3 display text still not working.

Approach 2:
-Similar as before, but after pulling fuses 7 & 41 and all wires from PA-12 and left them out for a few hours (thought/hoped that this may in fact properly reset everything...was out of other ideas)
-~3 hours later, come back to car to head home. Plugged wires back into PA-12 and put fuses 7 & 41 back in (41 sparked as usual)
-Turn radio on, see a brief message (less than a second) on the radio (I think it said "disabled" ??) before radio comes on. I cycle mode to CD-changer and again see CDC6 TR01 and then CDC4 TR01- still not working. This is starting to really annoy me, but the sound still works, so I decide to address it again when I get home.

Here's where it got weird/worrisome:
-En route home, I'm playing music through PA-12 when all of a sudden, the head unit shut off and all sound is cut. Completely blank, not even the clock is displaying. I'm not sure what just happened but can't pull over to inspect so I just tap the radio power button and it turns back on. Weird. When I get home, I realize that the radio has not turned off even though I turned the car off. Weird. At first I thought it may be a power issue due to AC being half-way up and phone charging in addition to iPod but the radio not turning off changed my mind. I decide to do some research on this before fiddling around.

-On the way to dinner, the same thing happened twice. I'd be listening to something via the CD-changer input/PA-12, then the headunit would randomly shut down completely. Tapping the power button would turn it back on and the music would continue where it left off. This is making me nervous and given that phone wasn't charging and AC was lower than before, I rule out a lack of system power being the issue.

From initial research, it appears that the radio shutdown issue is likely (hopefully) attributed to a blown or improperly placed fuse (if it was blown or improperly placed, wouldn't the radio not turn on??). They both look fine to me, but I think I should take a closer look and perhaps swap one out with another (associated with rarely used functionality) one and see if that resolves the issue? It seems that the headunit doesn't realize that the car is on and acts as if the car is off (and thus, auto-shuts down after xx minutes.) This makes sense- I hope this is the cause.

ALL THAT SAID- any suggestions on what I should do now? Has anyone experienced the HU shutdowns? How would this potential HU power issue affect the PA-12? All these issues started last weekend when I pulled the HU then re-installed it. Everything was perfect before that- display text worked just fine and the HU didn't just randomly shut off. I thought it may somehow be a loose power connection to the HU, but similar to my fuse question, wouldn't that result in the radio not turning on at all?)

What's also annoying is that I can't isolate the source of the issue- HU? PA-12? I eliminated iPod by trying two, but that's about it. Some potential issue sources: HU power/fuse issue (does 41 spark on insertion for others?), PA-12 box, one of the connections to/from the PA-12.......or something else?)

PLEASE HELP!!!!!

Here are pics of radio mode (which shows that display text works for AM/FM, which is why I haven't eliminate PA-12 as the issue) and CDC mode (which used to display MP3 text perfectly)

Radio Mode (w/ display-text)


CD-changer mode/PA-12 (display-text stopped working)

Originally Posted by steve.325i

Once when I still had the Dice Silverline & I was attempting to debug the text not scrolling on my HU, I was probing at the 3-pin connector with my oscilloscope & the ground clip suceeded in slipping & shorting out the power to ground on the 3-pin connector. I don't remember which fuse I blew, but it was one of them. So that is my reason for beleiving that the power to the 3-pin connector flows through one of those fuses.

The song resumed from where it was because the iPod paused in that location. I believe your 'bookmarks' in the other playlists would have been lost with the power cycle.

All that said, I still have not helped you.

From your pics your dash matches mind. The CD soft button is also lit up over button 6. That should not be there.

I wish I remembered how I had my switches set. I might have to pull my backseat & check.

Honestly - a "battery reset" is overkill. Pulling 7 & 41 is sufficient.

My gut feeling right now is that your HU is not detecting it properly. If it's not too much trouble, I would try pulling the fuses, disconnect the PA12, put back in the fuses & operate the radio without anything connected to the CD changer interface. Then pull the fuses again & reconnect the PA12 & see if you get it back.

Thats all I have at this point. I will continue to ponder.

Anybody else experience anything like this?

Originally Posted by mohan12

From initial research, it appears that the radio shutdown issue is likely (hopefully) attributed to a blown or improperly placed fuse (if it was blown or improperly placed, wouldn't the radio not turn on??). They both look fine to me, but I think I should take a closer look and perhaps swap one out with another (associated with rarely used functionality) one and see if that resolves the issue? It seems that the headunit doesn't realize that the car is on and acts as if the car is off (and thus, auto-shuts down after xx minutes.) This makes sense- I hope this is the cause.

Ahha! I think you have just debugged your problem!!! Well, narrowed it down to the 5A fuse or the connection to pin#5 (12V Acc) to the HU.

The HU will operate with the key in the off position or no key in the ignition at all BUT you will NOT get text from the PA12 when you do this.

I apologize - I should have though of this earlier.

I don't know why exactly, but the HU must ignore anything on the ibus when this happens, but it can still send commands to the PA12. btw – the Dice behaves the same way, so it’s a car thing & not a feature of the PA12.

So, the 5A fuse could look fine but still be broken OR the fuse element may be making intermittent connections. Regardless, change it.

If that doesn’t fix things then it’s time to pull the HU and make sure power is getting to pin#5. If it is, check for a bent pin.

There is also a fuse on the back of the HU. I do not know what this is for or what it would do if pulled.

I believe you simply have a bad 5A fuse.

Yes, you will get a little bit of a spark when you plug the 30A fuse in. This is the constant 12V to the HU and the spark is due to the inrush current of power supply.