After a few email exchanges with GROM Audio, we still cannot verified whether their BMW/Mini USB adapter (GROM-USB2P-BMWT) would work on my '08 MCoupe as their website have our cars listed as having the MOST bus, which isn't true. Also, I wasn't sure if I needed their DSP adapter either. Since they have a 30-days return policy, I decided to give it a shot and just ordered the unit by itself without the DSP adapter. As expected, it worked, but not without a few minor bugs.
Installation was quite straight forward. After taking the rear covers apart, I spent the most time looking for the 3 & 6-pins connectors. Found them taped to the body of the car behind the AMP, which is where I ended up stashing the GROM unit. My car has DSP, but it worked without needing their DSP adapter. The unit did come with a USB extension cable, but I found a Logitech extension cable that had a nice base, which provided a good surface for taping it to the console area. The extension cable was fed through an access hole under the center console by removing the breakout tab.
The 32G flash drive will provide enough music that I don't think I will hear a repeated song for quite some time. Music is organized by making 6 main folders - 1 for each "CD". You can have as many subfolders as you wish, the unit will just flatten them all out.
The unit isn't perfect...so now comes the bug list:
- Out of the box, you can't select "CD6". Pushing the "6" button will bring up an option menu, which is similar to pressing the "SEL" button, but presented in a slightly different format plus a few more features. This bug can be somewhat patched by using a config file (to disable auto 16:9 NAV detect) placed on the root directory of the USB drive. Now, I can play the content of "CD6", but the unit still thinks "CD1" is selected...if that makes sense (take a look at the provided picture, and you'll understand - the content of "CD6" is being played, but still showed CD1 as selected).
- If you don't exit a menu a certain way, some of the button will no longer function correctly. When this happens, you'll have to select AM/FM, then MODE to get back into USB and everything will work again.
A Minor gripe about the text display...it's horrible as it can only display 10 characters and it toggles back & forth between Artist & Title. I'm hoping that GROM can correct this so it will display MP3 tags similar to the OE CD Player.
I've reported these minor bugs to GROM, and hopefully, they can provide a cure for them. Overall, I'm very pleased with the unit.