Cooper S USB and Iphone charging

[G2M]

Help.........

I have a new Cooper s and a 3GS Iphone. What is the technical issue with a standard Iphone USB cable not working?

Is it Apple - or BMW that are exploiting me for the £40 cable? Please help as I do nt want to pay the robbing so-and-so's the £40.00

Geoff

[G2M]

Hi again - just looked to see if anyone can shed any light on this issue as it seems bizarre that it charges from the USB on the side of my Lenovo PC - and not the USB in the Mini.

I thought that the "U" in USB meant UNIVERSAL.... so is it Apple or BMW that does not understand this concept?? It is really irritating me and spoiling my new toy

Geoff

[MikeyD]

Hi G2M

Ive just bought an '07 'S' with Ipod cable in glove box. Ipod works fine but my new Iphone does not. Apparently Apple have made subtle canges to the pin out on the 3Gs phones which require an interface to make them work. Not tried out the following yet just research results. But check this out

NewMINIStuff.com

"The latest iphone & ipods have changed the charging pins & voltage. As a result most ipod kits (car & home) won't charge the latest models. This adaptor plugs between the dock connector & the ipod & resolves the charging issues. For iphone 3g, nano 4, ipod touch 2nd gen NOTE: This works fine with the Mini retro fit ipod kit in the storage compartment but not with the Mini Y cable USB ipod kit from the factory"

Hope this may help!

BR

[cheswick]

It's an issue with Apple as usb keys and other mp3 players work fine through only the usb. And no matter how much you complain about it, it won't make it work. My dealer gave me the cable for free. If you don't wanna spend the money buy an aux cable for a few dollars.

[DaFlake]

The issue is this...

Apple used to utilize the firewire power pin to charge their devices. This was the norm up until the 3G IPhone and all newer devices where they decided to stop supporting firewire. So, they moved it over to the USB power pin causing all the older chargers to not work with newer devices (power is going to the wrong place).

This device...

NewMINIStuff.com

will allow you to "crossover" that power and get the 3G and newer devices charging on older chargers.

[G2M]

hi guys - thank you for the help and advice, it seem like I need to buy that adapter and just take it on the chin.

I hope you are having as much fun as I am... opened it up for the first time yesterday on the motorway having just gone over the 2,000 mile mark.

rgds

G

[andrewk]

The firewire charging problem is irrelevant when you are trying to charge from a USB port (but those adapters are very useful if you are using a device with a dock connector which uses the firewire charging method - like my Denon DAB-52 for example).

The issue with charging from the Mini's usb port is a little different.

A USB port has four connectors: 0v (earth or ground), data +, data - and +5v power.

You might think that if you just connect the 0v and 5v pins, then the iphone will charge. Nope. Sorry. One of two other things must happen. Either there must be some intermediate voltages present on the data lines (easy to manage with three resistors), or the USB port must undergo a "handshaking" routine in which the two devices talk to each other using the data lines to determine what power is available.

This is why some USB chargers (mains chargers, or car adapters) work, and some don't. Even if they will work with other USB accessories that just use the power (like a keyboard light, for example), they will only work with an iphone if one of the additional interfacing options is used. Chargers that do work with an iphone will almost always use the resistor option, as it's very cheap and easy to implement electronically.

The mini USB port implements neither of these options, so it won't work with a standard Apple usb lead.

The special BMW lead does implement one of these options (I'm not sure which one, but since it also handles data, it's probably the handshake option). If you have another device with a USB port which won't charge your iphone (like the USB port on the front of my denon S50) then the BMW cable will probably make it charge.

This is why you can charge your iphone from a computer: the USB ports on a computer are smarter than the ones in a charger, and will do the "I can supply power" handshaking thing. Some laptops allegedly even leave this circuitry active when the laptop is turned off, so you can give your iphone a quick battery boost without having to turn your laptop on. I've never seen this in real life, though.

There's no reason why you couldn't get a USB/dock lead which had the resistors built in, and then you could charge your iphone from any old USB port, but this would probably stop it from working with data transfer - that lead would only be able to charge. It would, actually, be quite a useful lead to have, and I've toyed with the idea of making one, but haven't got round to it yet. I haven't seen one on ebay yet, strangely.

[DaFlake]

Actually the adapter should work just fine if an older IPod will charge. The adapter converts the power from the firewire pin over to the USB side for the IPhone 3G and beyond. I haven't found a place where it doesn't work yet. Although I have yet to try it in a 2nd Gen. My IPhone 3G charges fine in my 06 with an old Alpine Ipod Interface that does not support the IPhone 3G.

[Oz_scouse]

G2M
40 quid for the USB cable sounds like a bargain to me. In Australia my Mini dealer wants $155 for one (that's about 96 of your quids at our very good current exchange rate).
I have ordered one from the USA on Ebay for $18 delivered. waiting for it to arrive and will give feedback when it does.

As an aside, why can't my wife's 2009 Cooper S do bluetooth music streaming, or can it ? - (we're new but proud Mini owners).

My knockabout commuter a 2009 Hyundai Getz has BT music and phone functionality built into the radio - and works perfectly (shame about the rest of the car though!)