roskinc

hey everyone, last weekend i installed the GROM-MST3 on my 2004 525i. heres a little breakdown of the install

INSTALLATION: installation was very easy and straight forward. it was especially easy because my car came pre-wired for CD changer, the wire was pretty hidden as it was tucked in and wrapped in that fabric electrical tape BMW used, so it could be very missed if you don't look around for it as you have to unwrap it to expose it. it being pre-wired made it very simple to install and just required taping into the fiber optic line, i assume if you had a CD changer, it would be a direct plug-in play. if your car did not come prewired, the grom came with the necessary fiber optic line to plug into the back of your CCC/MASK unti, and for power, you will have to tap into a power and ground line, if your like me and hate the idea of taping into wires, in my video i show a 12v to + and - adapter you could use to plug into a 12v socket and tap into those wires. i tested it and it works just fine that way.

CODING: i used NCSexpert, added +IPOD to vehicle order, and coded in CAPPL cdc set to aktiv. some people also add $672 and $KMP3 instead of +IPOD, in the video i just added +IPOD and works just fine.

USING THE IPOD/IPHONE: first thing that i liked right away, is the steering wheel control. being able to finally skip songs without having to touch the iphone was long overdue, went on a long drive and it was nice to skip songs (works on pandora, songza, havnt tried any other music apps), it charges the phone as well. one thing i noticed that was very cool was if i turn off the car, unplug the iphone, and when i go back to my car and plug it in and start the car, it will continue playing where it left off...it wont start from the beginning or it wont make me press play, it automatically continues where it left off, unless of course you pressed pause before you unplugged it. the volume knob pauses the songs, so it doesn't just mute it which i liked because you can continue with the song when you unpause it (example, in a drive thru taking an order, can continue with the song when you leave without missing anything, pod cast etc). tracklist names, this one seems like it works only sometimes. when Ipod is selected it will take you to CD1, then it just says IPOD, if say you go to CD2, thats suppose to load a playlist, im not sure theirs a way to make CD2 play a certain playlist but CD2-5 are for selecting playlist. i notice it will show the track name on the first song it plays from the playlist, if you skip to the next track, it wont update the track list, it will continue to show the track name for the first song that played. i did notice that sometimes when you open up PANDORA or SONGZA it will change the track name to the first song that plays, but thats it, and wont update to the new songs. why it does this i don't know, i havnt yet figured out a trick to make it update track names. and like i mentioned, CD 2-5 are suppose to open up different playlist, but not sure how to tell which playlist it will play. BTW, the ipod cable is not included in the unit, you have to purchase it separately from them.

USB: the unit does have USB support, it came with a USB thumb drive. to use the usb drive, you have to make 6 folders, these folders each act like the CD player disc. example, you have 1 folder called hip hop, CD 1 will play the songs in that folder, folder 2 you have named rock, CD2 will play that folder. since CD 6 is the option for the GROM unit, to acess folder 6 you have to go to the last song on CD 5, and skip and it will take you to the folder 6 on CD 6. it does show track names, one issue i found is that it shows the track names twice, which are both selectable but only 1 plays, so if you hit next, you wont have to hit it twice to go to the next song. not sure if it has anything to do with the MP3 file, but i looked and it seemed fine. its not annoying since i dont have to worry about it playing twice, but it will if say you have a ton of songs and now have to see the list twice as long.

ANDROID: the GROM is advertised to work with the android phones via the USB plug, and all it requires is you download a app AALinQ from the google play, i tried it on a friends galaxy phone and we could not get it to work. so ill have to figure out why and update this post with how it works on androids. one problem i do see if you have to use that app to use the GROM, which playing with my friends seemed like a hassle, i dont own a android so i was only able to mess with it for a short while, if we get it working i will test out see if it works with pandora and other song apps.

BLUETOOTH STREAMING: the GROM is capable of bluetooth audio streaming and phone calls, but requires a purchase of a bluetooth dongle, which i did not buy because i already have bluetooth on my car, i figured that i could still atleast use the bluetooth streaming, so i was a little disappointed knowing i had to purchase another attachment to use it. i also cant review the use of the Bluetooth for calling.

AUX: it has an option for AUX, but again, requires a purchase of an additional cable. i already have AUX on my car, so i didn't order the cable, but i do believe it should come standard with this unit.

overall i decided to try this out as i couldn't find any reviews on anyone using it on the e60. the unit cost 399.99 not including the iphone cable i had to purchase separately. if you want to add the AUX and bluetooth, that is an additional purchase for each cable. i honestly believe the unit should come with all three cables. seems like too much to pay for just being able to use usb out the box. i did all the installation and coding, so not sure how much it would cost someone to have it done somewhere. overall the unit provides good quality sound as it uses fiber optic line, and charges the phone as well. comparing sound quality between a standard AUX and the GROM, i couldn't tell much difference. if the bugs with the track list where fixed, it would be a very cool unit, especially if it shows the pandora/songza track names, it is capable somehow because it does show it, but only on the first song. i just think a unit of that price should include the other accessories.

heres a video pretty much describing everything i just wrote, i hope you guys enjoy the video, and any questions ill try to answer. i hope to do more reviews on other products very soon.

visit the GROM AUDIO website for more info on the product. GROM USB, Android Smartphone, iPod, AUX, Bluetooth Hands Free Integration to a factory car stereo . i do not work for grom audio, so i can only help with answering questions from personally using the product.


part 1


part 2

tjackson9810

Keep up the good work. I appreciate how you video tape your DIYs.

gouki64

Great DIY videos on Youtube... appreciate the work you've done.

Que

Excellent work. Thank you for taking the time to make these videos.