Warning, Will Robinson

Posted on by Ian C.

(and yes, I know it’s really “Danger”, but this isn’t very dangerous … and if you’re too young to know what I’m referring to, here’s a timely reminder)

This morning, GBMINI#5 reported it’s first warning – it gets quite excited with an audible signal, a graphic on the upper tach display and a text description on the NAV display! These messages clear after a while, but a “warning triangle” remains visible in the lower tach display:

It’s curious how I’ve used up all the washer fluid in just a week – either the R56 tank is incredibly small, or maybe MINI of Peabody didn’t check all fluids before delivering the car!

Key differences #3 (R56 remembers, or forgets?)

Posted on by Ian C.

If you order “comfort access” for an R56, you get two keys which can be used to open doors and start the engine without needing to press any key button, or insert it into any slot – very nice. A user-replaceable battery inside the key provides power for it to transmit and be detected by the car.

Without “comfort access” you get a key which must be inserted into a slot before you can start the engine – and the key is also recharged while in that slot, eliminating the need for a battery (and sealing the key since the owner doesn’t need to open it). OK so far, just like the 2005/6 MINI keys which also have no battery (and unlike the original 2002/3/4 keys, which do have a battery inside).

Little problem – how do you keep the key charged … answer: you have to use the key!
I have a habit of swapping between GPMINIs two keys about once a month, that way the spare key will always be charged in case it’s needed.

So today I swapped R56 keys – I sort of expected the result that I got, but even so … the R56 has this “clever” feature where the car’s settings/presets/etc are associated with the key being used. So guess what happens when I use the other key:

Yes – no settings or presets!
First clue was that the car only unlocked my door, not the passengers side. Then, as you see in the picture above, the radio presets are all gone. Similarly, no satellite radio presets, and no doubt the tone/fader settings were at default, etc, etc.
I suppose I could have spent time re-configuring everything, storing presets, etc – but even then, any changes I make to one key won’t be reflected when I swap keys.

Presumably this “associated memory” feature is useful if two drivers use the car regularly; each person has their own settings. But when only one person drives the car, it’s just an annoyance! There should be a way to disable the feature, if you don’t want it.
As it is, my spare R56 key will not get regularly charged … hope I never need it!

R56 NAV/stereo: FM radio

Posted on by Ian C.

To summarize, the stereo system on the NAV equipped R56 is a big let-down! Most important is the poor sound quality – it’s been a long while since I’ve heard a stock R50/53 MINI stereo, and of course comparing most systems to GPMINI is unfair, but I’m really underwhelmed by the R56 sound.
There’s close to no bass; if you turn the bass level up it doesn’t have a lot of effect (except distortion if you turn it up too much) – worse still, there’s just not much clarity to the sound. Coincidentally, I just came across this post on NorthAmericanMotoring which discusses replacing the speakers, which says “ALL are 4 ohm speakers and are as cheap as can be. NO tweeters anywhere. All drivers appear to be treated paper and sound like they have screw drivers stuck in them”; I’m not going to disagree with that 🙂

Having the NAV system moves the radio displays on to “the big screen”, which offers some small benefits – to begin with, here is FM radio in “manual” mode with the curved line representing the FM spectrum from 88MHz to 108MHz; you tune up and down by rotating the joystick (you can also use the MFSW buttons, or two tiny hard-to-reach buttons to the right of the volume knob on the center console – see this pic).
More practically, you can select “all channels” mode – now the line straightens out, and shows only received stations:

The line will “scroll” left and right as you rotate the joystick, so that all received stations can be accessed.
In the pictures above, “RDS” (radio data system) is turned off, and the stations are listed by frequency – but you can click on the joystick to call up a menu, and enable RDS, after which the stations are identified by their RDS station name – but now, the stations are listed in alphabetical station name instead of frequency, which I found a little confusing – especially since some stations don’t appear to broadcast sensible station names; I’ve seen some stations “cheat” their RDS by broadcasting the artist or track name as a station name – this “magically” makes an RDS radio display artist/track information, but I think it messes up this MINI concept of displaying stations by name:

 

Finally, you can store stations to a preset list, and then access your FM radio by “presets”; once again they display frequency if RDS is disabled, or station name if RDS is enabled (but thankfully they remain in preset order!):

Here you start to see how the NAV display screen is somewhat wasted – lots of screen space showing a list of stations, and just the little space bottom left where the current station information is displayed … on the other hand, there’s not much information to display for an FM station, although the RIVER was trying to wish someone a happy birthday!


More downsides of the NAV / joystick combo include having very few dedicated buttons – as you can see here, there’s an FM/AM button (who uses AM these days?), a button to select the source (radio/CD/AUX), and left/right buttons (which can tune, step through CD tracks, etc). The steering wheel MFSW left/right buttons have the same function, and are easier to reach!
There are no preset select buttons – if you want to choose a preset station, you first have to be in “preset” tuning mode, then you can press left/right to step from one preset to the next; not as easy as just pressing the “5” button (or whatever one you want).

I’ll have to check out the R56 non-NAV radio, but I suspect it’s more practical than this NAV version, just because it will have dedicated buttons for many of it’s functions.