Installed a Dabmotion Rola....

[gIzzE]

I installed a Dabmotion Rola to the older C320 I bought which had no DAB.

DABmotion ROLA in-car wireless digital radio interface

I have to say it is a cracking bit of kit, it works by finding an FM frequency that has nothing in it, and automatically changes if you move to an area where there maybe interference.

You can set up you 4 favourite channels with the preset buttons, and also use the rola control to go up and down the others.

So I have Radio 5 Live on preset 1, this makes going to 6 Music or 5 live Extra dead easy.
I then have Talk Sport on 2, which allows me to go to Radio X etc. easily or the other national non BBC stations.
You could then have a local dab station on another preset that allows you to easily flick between them.

I actually have R6Music and Classic FM as I listen to those a lot.

I have it tuned into preset 0 on my Comand head unit, and I listen to R5Live 90% of the time so completely seamless most of the time.

It displays the station name on teh radio, and you can see the menu on the radio too, all very simple as sent as RDS text, but works well.


Install was really easy, you only need 12v switched, so bought a female ciggy lighter extension and wired into the back of the car lighter. Then ran the aerial under the glove box trim and up the a pillar, reception is great, no drop outs so far.

For £99 delivered (eBay seller) it is a great way to add DAB and is hidden away. (I hate wires showing!).

 

[amiller81]

How are you finding it? Sound quality? Choice of stations?

 

[gIzzE]

Yeah very good.

Sound quality is great, to be honest with DAB being 320kbps at best and often far less, and FM being cut off above 15khz frequency it sounds exactly the same as a good FM reception, it is only some of the lower bitrate channels where it can sound a bit flat, but they are often the AM channels that were pants on AM, so a win win.

It has every DAB station, the limiting factor is the 4 presets. but you have DAB1, DAB2 and DAB3 so 12 presets in reality, but I just have them set up for the 4 I use normally.

All in all it has made me now consider cars that don't have DAB which is not something I could have said with the units available before.

 

[amiller81]

Did you hard-wire the unit or use the cigarette lighter?

 

[gIzzE]

I just spliced into the back of the lighter, I bought a ciggy extension....

Chopped the male end off and spliced into the back of the lighter.

Then dropped the trim under the glove box and pulled the power through to there and stuck the dab unit on it too.
The aerial then runs out of the side and up the a pillar, all hidden.

 

[SilverSaloon]

i too have one of these. Indeed a great piece of kit.

i actually was using a very similar one last year but the remote was a standard "tv" style remote, which doesnt work well with cars i find.

I liked the way this had a better suited remote that I have velcro'd onto the dash panel just near to the headlamp switch out the way. i too generally switch between LBC and Smooth radio so hardly use the remote, but its easier when i do.

 

[amiller81]

Thanks for the info. I've just ordered one and hopefully it will be here before Xmas. Let you know how I get on with it

 

[Alps]

looks a nice bit of kit

 

[Porteo]

I bought the snooper version a few months ago and couldn't get a decent signal at all, even bought an upgraded aerial and still nothing. It's all boxed up and say in the garage somewhere now.

 

[gIzzE]

Must have been something wrong with it then.

Why not return it and get it replaced?

 

[amiller81]

Kit arrived today. Connected everything up in my lunch break at work, will hardwire it all in when the weathers a little drier and warmer but have got to say it's an awesome bit of kit! Not been able to pick up many stations (only 15 or so) but what I have picked up sound it crystal clear.

 

[Porteo]

Must have been something wrong with it then.

Why not return it and get it replaced?

Worked fine in wife's car, they did say to return it but I never git round to doing it and only remembered when I saw this thread :fail

 

[tec]

The Pure/Alpine DAB addons have much better sound quality as they use AUX input instead of the poor quality of the FM units.

 

[ash59fifty-uk]

The Pure/Alpine DAB addons have much better sound quality as they use AUX input instead of the poor quality of the FM units.

I've got a £25 Bush DAB pocket-sized receiver, plugged in via Jack input and charged by the USB input beside it, cheap and cheerful

Sound quality is amazing and have only experienced drop out once which is in my village

 

[Porteo]

Pocket sized bush??


I'll get my coat

 

[b1g1an]

Interesting...what does the aerial look like in situ?

 

[gIzzE]

The Pure/Alpine DAB addons have much better sound quality as they use AUX input instead of the poor quality of the FM units.

Don't agree with this at all, most stations broadcast in either 64kbps, 80kbps or 128kbps, so you will find that most stations actually sound better on FM than DAB if you have a decent FM reception.

Just listen to BBC R3 on DAB and then on FM, the FM is the better sounding of the two and R3 has the highest bitrate in the UK of between 160 and 190kbps.

Then you have the issue with the aux inputs, typically aux inputs on Mercs are not sensitive enough, so they can loose some dynamics and also be far too quiet.

 

[gIzzE]

Interesting...what does the aerial look like in situ?

It is one of these types...

 

[PhilLinda]

I just spliced into the back of the lighter, I bought a ciggy extension....

Chopped the male end off and spliced into the back of the lighter.

Then dropped the trim under the glove box and pulled the power through to there and stuck the dab unit on it too.
The aerial then runs out of the side and up the a pillar, all hidden.

How did you do this? Did you solder onto the back of the existing cig lighter socket? Where did you access the wiring?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[gIzzE]

I did solder onto it, however, I think you could just pull the plug apart on the factory connector and tuck the wires in and it would be fine, or crimp it on.