AMI - Wanted

[tonupkid]

Originally Posted by PsYcHe

If you jsut want the AMI, it's a straight swap for the CD changer anyway.

Keeping the CD changer seems a good idea to me. Its very straightforward.

Without the CD changer.....
How do you update the MMI firmware
How do you play those motorway services/holiday busker impulse buy CD's

On second thoughts can it

[Godders]

Originally Posted by PsYcHe

Then get one of the deals with an HDD and cable (audi braded HDD usually) from eBay and you're sorted.

To save some cash you can use any 2.5 inch (I think that's the right size) USB powered HDD, the trick is to format it as FAT16 (lots of utilities on the web to do so) as FAT32 etc won't support large capacity HDDs - I'm currently using a 100GB disc that I had lying around.

You can get the drives relatively cheaply and you can get a hard drive caddy from eBay for a few quid e.g.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-5-IDE-US...item414a8b8106

Only negative as far as I can see using a HDD over an Ipod is that the Ipod will categorise tracks into artist, genre etc whereas the HDD is dumb and you will have to navigate the folders for your tracks.

On the plus side, I believe, the HDD will give a digital signal to the AMI and the Ipod only supplies an analogue signal.

[PsYcHe]

FAT32 is needed for larger filesystems, and while you can use any HDD essentially, those Audi branded ones definitely work and dont need any other power draw (and come with the USB cable).

If you use something like WinAmp to manage the media library and sync with the drive it's a scoosh and is no different to navigating an iPod, though you do get a second or so pause between tracks with USB, normally OK, but does break any seamless joins like live albums.

[Godders]

Originally Posted by PsYcHe

FAT32 is needed for larger filesystems, and while you can use any HDD essentially, those Audi branded ones definitely work and dont need any other power draw (and come with the USB cable).

If you use something like WinAmp to manage the media library and sync with the drive it's a scoosh and is no different to navigating an iPod, though you do get a second or so pause between tracks with USB, normally OK, but does break any seamless joins like live albums.

You're right it is FAT32 and not FAT16 as I said above - that was for something else

With a 'generic' drive, once formatted you need to move the boot sector after the main data sector as the AMI will only read a primary partition. I used EASEUS to move it around. Also most 2.5 drives only need the power supplied by the AMI through the micro USB slot (Anything that will power from a single USB slot on your pc)

Thanks for the hint about WINAMP, I'll give it a try

[daviesbike]

i have a 12 disc changer so how would that affect it ? i do want the ami i think its very handy but i to would like to keep one cd changer, ? can i get away with just the AMI and do the above mentioned by bry ?

[IT]

The 12 disc option, is just 2 x 6CD changers.

This makes fitting an AMI even easier, as you just remove one (the one on the right if you want to look original) and slot in the AMI. Sub 5 minute job. You may have to update the MMI software though, which is a multi-hour job.

Means you dont have to find one with a retrofit kit including the Y cable for the power and fibre connections, making it a doddle.

Enjoy

[daviesbike]

woooo thanks for that, i have updated my MMI only a couple of weeks ago its fully up to date now, i did have a misshap where it went into component protection so had to take it to audi and they only charged me £39 to do it that was shrewsbury audi was very happy considering cheshire oaks audi quoted me 145 + vat per hour and they would need 1 hour diagnostic first then 1 hour to fix the problem,

ok so i take the CD player out and place in this insead http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audi-Music...#ht_1771wt_932

and that will work for me no problem ?
the listing dose not say that it includes the hard drive ? but it is pictured is that a silly question

[IT]

Originally Posted by daviesbike

and that will work for me no problem ?
the listing dose not say that it includes the hard drive ? but it is pictured is that a silly question

Yup, that should do the job nicely..... but theres no hard drive in the photo...

There are two possible connection leads for the AMI - Ipod/Iphone or USB - It doesnt say it comes with either, so for it to work, you'll likely need one of those too...

Looks value for money to me though...

[A8_Tony]

I received my retrofit kit from him yesterday. Everything as expected, and good service. Pick up my hard drive & MMI update disks from Audi tomorrow, so I'll be fitting the bugger at the weekend

[daviesbike]

so how do you connect the hard drive to the mmi ? i would guess its usb ? not sata or anything ? also what hard drive would i need oem audi ?