Originally Posted by drinksjdalot

Hi

I just wanted to try and help anyone who might be thinking of installing a Dension gateway 500 to their E60 or might be having problems... hopefully this post might come in handy to someone, somewhere. The solution seems obvious now, but at the time I was tearing my hair out. Hindsight is always 20 20 !!!!

The problem I had was that once installed, the car could "see" but not "talk" to the Dension, I shall explain.

So where do I start ???

I have a 2007 E60, with no cd changer, no sat nav... just the standard BMW single slot cd player - I phoned two dealers in the UK giving my car details... they both said the car was cd changer prep'd.
After reading lots of useful posts on this forum I decided to give it a go myself (ex mechanic).

So I bought and installed a Dension Gateway 500 following the "mickey mouse" instructions supplied with the kit - diagram '3a' for me and dip switch settings being one, two and six up/on and the rest down/off.... so far so good.

I then contacted Autologic and found a garage near me who could "code" the car (£60 from garage £120 from my local dealer!). So I went along to my local Autologic approved garage (who is also an independent BMW specialist) and had the car "coded". Unfortunately, although correctly coded the car could not "talk" to the Dension. By this I mean that I could now see the cd changer disc options on my Idrive(version 3 on an E60) , but I couldn't select any as they were "greyed out" just like on a pc when an option is not available.

Thankfully the person coding the car was also an approved Dension installer with lots of experience - unfortunately for me, not enough!

The installer and I spent the next four hours checking, then re-checking all connections, dip switch settings and wiring - but found nothing wrong - honestly, we stripped and rebuilt my dash so my times I can do it l blindfold... it now takes me 12 minutes to strip out the cd player and complete glovebox including side trim without causing any damage. Anyway... I digress...

As we seemed to have hit a brick wall, the installer phoned Dension tech support in the UK (armour automotive) and spent around 40 minutes on the phone to them - no joy. Next he called a friend in BMW tech support who didn't know either ! Next he phoned another installer... yip you guessed it... he didn't know either !!!

Everyone we spoke to had never heard of this problem... I was seriously thinking about selling it on Ebay at this point, but I decided not to give up just yet.

Not having ever worked on an E60 before or had experience of Dension I was baffled. I went home without a working Dension and tried to think of something I'd missed (surely my 20 years as a mechanical engineer could help somewhere)

I re-checked all the forums I could find relating to the Dension Gateway 500 but found nothing close to my problem...

In the end, I decided to go back to basic fault finding principles and remove the "car" from Dension circuit. I simply connected my head unit using the fibre optic cables directly to the cd player (head unit) - to my amazement it worked !!

This obviously pointed to the car being the problem... but how. Stating the obvious now, a fibre optic circuit, like any circuit, must be a "closed loop" otherwise it wouldn't work (like I said... obvious). I then remembered a very useful forum explaining the MOST ring connector located behind a flap just below the torch in the glovebox. As soon as I located the connector behind the flap I realised my problem... like many E60s I had two ends of fibre optic cable going into a "dead end" connector... no closed loop. Obviously I needed to "close" the loop but at the same time leave it available for someone at a garage or dealer to connect to if required at sometime in the future - could it be done? I decided to phone my "still baffled" installer friend from yesterday and explained what I had found. I won't say exactly what he said, let's just say he was angry at himself for not thinking of that earlier. I asked if such a part existed from BMW... "of course" was the answer, but before giving me the number he phoned BMW tech support to find out if what I had planned was officially sanctioned... it was/is !

So ladies and gentlemen, what I required all along was a "MOST ring diagnostic plug/connector" BMW part number 61 13 6 917 514. I'll try and attach a pic. Just beware, my local dealer said that this wasn't officially apart for my car... he had to look at a 7 series listing to find it !

Attachment 126402


Maybe there is another solution to my problem but this is the path I found. After many cups of strong coffee and scratching of heads I got there in the end...

If anyone reads this post right to the end and would like some help... please just let me know... I'll do my best and never quit !


And before I go,I must say thanks for all their help to...


Michael at M-Tek Services Glasgow (BMW specialist and Dension installer)

and

Safi at Car Communications in Blackburn (I bought the kit from them).

These are two very patient, helpful people - I highly recommend them to anyone.

Originally Posted by tom_il

I am also looking into the Dension as a future project as i miss having a USB connection. (i can play the mp3 on both the CD player and DVD player).

Yesterday i got confirmation i don't have the CD changer prep. Didn't found the wires but i 100% wasn't sure as maybe there where somewhere hidden. But now i am sure sure i don't have the CD changer cables.

Looking around i found nowhere how the put those cables in myself. But i did found how to install the I-pot retrofit. If i am not mistakes, if i would have this cable i could connect the dension to it.
Or can i also use the MOST diagnostic fiber ?

Not sure how to proceed here there is loads of info around to connect the Dension with the CD changer prep or CD changer itself installed but not when the cable isn't there.
Would like to have more info i start this project.