Please Note: The following is provided for entertainment purposes only and neither Northeastern Motorcycle Tours nor myself recommend that one make modifications to the K1200LT which are not recommended or endorsed by BMW. Possible injury or damage to motorcycle or other components may occur. Modifying the DICE wiring harness may invalidate the warranty on the Silverline unit. Obviously, one should fully disconnect the battery on the bike before doing any of the following.
For those interested in doing this whole install from scratch, here's the long version of what I did (with as much detail as I can recall). I know pictures would be great for all of this but I didn't have that luxury as I was working on this on the road (long story). Hopefully, the next person to do this will be able to photograph each step.
When I first bought my LT in 2000 I specifically opted to not have a CD changer because it uses up a good deal of the (valuable) space in the right luggage case. It also places the changer right in line with the rear wheel which almost guarantees a good amount of shock from bumps, etc. The better solution, I think, would have been a DIN size changer built into the area ahead of the oddments cover. Similar in-dash changers do exist for cars. Alas, BMW chose another way.
My rule of thumb with audio is keep input cables (signal to amplifier) as short as possible because every bit of electrical interference picked up by an input cable gets fed into the amp. and is amplified. So mounting an Ipod in a saddlebag and then running the signal connections all the way to the stereo seems to involve a lot more cable length (and potential electrical noise) than should be needed. It also requires disconnect plugs so the Sting Ray can be removed for servicing, etc. So not only does the standard BMW harness/cable replacement method seem needlessly expensive to me, it also makes the electrical paths much longer and more complex than they need to be.
My goal was a cable about a foot long that would simply run from the back of the stereo directly to the DICE unit (which would be mounted in the oddments case with the Ipod). That way the electrical paths would be short and all the components would stay together when the Sting Ray was removed for bike servicing (no new plugs to mess with or wires to re-route). The whole stereo, DICE unit and Ipod could essentially be self-contained in the Sting Ray.
The signals for a CD changer come from the left side 10-pin male jack on the rear of the stereo (see close up attached in post above). To get to this:
1. Pull the Tupperware and remove the Stingray (instructions for this should be on the site somewhere)
2. Place the Stingray upside down on a soft towel and remove the screws (6 of them I think) that hold the stereo tray to the outer Stingray bodywork.
3. Remove the cover that protects the cables at the front of the stereo tray (2 screws I think)
4. Holding the tray in place against the bodywork, gently turn the Stingray right side up and set it on the towel
5. Gently lift the bodywork panel away from the stereo tray, you'll see a cable that connects the stereo to the display panel in the bodywork panel
6. Lift the outer handle at the cable connector for the display panel. It should automatically remove the male plug from the female jack.
7. Set the bodywork panel (with display unit) aside in a safe place
If all has gone well, you should now be staring at the top of the stereo.
8. Looking at the stereo from the rear, there should be a large connector block on the right side of the rear panel. Pull up on the connector block sliding clip (can't think of the proper name) which should have finger holds on either side. You may need to use a flat head screw driver to ease this up all the way. It may come only part way up and seem to be finished. Don't be fooled. When it is really all the way up the connector will automatically pull away from the stereo. You shouldn't need to pull back on the connector plug at all to remove it.
Optional: If you want to temporarily remove the stereo from the tray remove the two screws in the front (they hold a metal brace over a rubber seal) and one nut that holds a bolt which goes through a bracket at the rear of the stereo. This nut will be located on the other side of the tray. Once the two screws at the front and the rear nut are removed, the stereo (with the rubber seal attached) can gently be worked out of the tray.
This optional step above may not be needed at all. I suggest skipping it until or unless you need the extra working room it allows.
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Perhaps the most interesting part of this is locating and modifying the 10-pin female plug that will go into the back of the stereo. I found mine by going to an auto salvage yard and having it removed from a 1997 or 1999 BMW 5-series (wagon). I suspect that a lot of BMW cars from certain eras all use the same connector but I don't know. Maybe look at 1996 - 2003 3 and 5 series models with CD changers? (Just did some checking, it looks like the stereos in E-36 3-series cars ('94 - '98) use this same CD changer plug. E46 cars may use it as well.) I suggest having the yard cut the cabling about 12" from the stereo and buying the whole connector block that goes into the back of the car stereo. The part cost me all of $10 and the CD changer plug it included was a perfect fit for the KLT stereo.
The alternative is to use the computer plug John talks about elsewhere in this thread. I haven't tried that so I can't advise on what to do but I'm sure John can.
The advantage to using the actual BMW plug is that it works with the stock clip (which one gets from the BMW car connector block). Once the plug is slid fully into the stock BMW KLT connector block, that blue plastic retaining clip slides in from the side and locks it in place. It makes for a neat and clean install and no hassles when re-attaching the connector block to the KLT stereo.
The plug I bought (with the car connector block) had a metal housing (ground/shielding) and angled its cable towards the outside of the cable. To remove it from the BMW car stereo connector block, simply remove the blue sliding pin (described above) and slide it out.
The plug I bought had four female pin sleeves which is the minimum number needed for this project if you're going to pull power and ground from somewhere else.
This schematic (
http://www.bmwlt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4610) shows pinouts which match those on my 2000 LT. For the DICE, one needs to have female pin sleeves in the plug so their positions match pins 1, 5, 9 and 10 on the back of the stereo. The car plug I bought had four pins but they weren't all in the right locations so I needed to gently take the plug apart and move the pin sleeves to the proper positions. It requires steady hands and patience to do this. First gently work the metal shield covers off the plug. Next remove the retaining clip that slides over the outside of the plug. Then, using fine needle-nose pliers move the pin sleeves into positions 1, 5, 9 and 10 (relative to the pins on the back of the stereo). For BMW consistency one might want to solder the following wire colors to the wires coming from the pin sleeves:
matching Pin 1 on the stereo: white wire (I-Bus connection) to pin sleeve
matching Pin 5 on the stereo: brown wire (audio - common ground) to pin sleeve
matching Pin 9 on the stereo: yellow wire (audio + right) to pin sleeve
matching Pin 10 on the stereo: black wire (audio + left) to pin sleeve
Reinstall the plug's retaining clip so that the pin sleeves are now locked in their new position. Now gently re-install the two-piece metal shield on the plug. If you want to draw ground from this plug shield you can connect a wire to the metal casing either by pressure fitting it (under the metal shield casing) or soldering. Just check to make sure the ground wire addition won't interfere with the plug seating fully back in the connector with the blue clip retaining it. Officially, the ground wire should be brown with a black tracer line.
I stripped the insulation off a section of the red wire that goes into the main stereo harness, soldered on a jumper wire and used this as the power source for the DICE unit. I ran this to a switch mounted in the plastic cover above the stereo (see pictures attached above) and then continued a red wire towards the DICE. The switch I chose has a red "on" indicator light and so I got the ground for this light from the ground wire that was bound for the Dice. Apparently the DICE can otherwise draw enough current, when the bike is sitting for a few days, to run down a battery.
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9. Slide the new plug fully into the connector block and then slide in the blue retaining clip to secure it.
10. Line the connector block up with the pins on the back of the stereo and carefully push down on the sliding clip to lock it back in place. The motion of the clip should automatically pull the block in over the pins (including the new CD changer plug).
11. At this point, if you're feeling brave, you can now cut the DICE harness about 10" from *the connector that goes into the DICE Silverline unit itself*. Buy a rubber grommet that is just large enough for this DICE harness bundle (it should be wrapped in cloth tape - see photos above) to pass through. Then drill a hole in the plastic cover above the stereo which is just large enough to mount this grommet in (see pictures above). Mount the grommet in the hole and then slide the DICE harness wire bundle through.
12. This arrangement allows for all of the wiring connections to be made behind the plastic cover making for a (hopefully) neat install. The connections are:
Dice harness grey wire to white wire from plug (I-Bus)
Dice harness blue wire(s) to brown or grey wire from plug (audio - )
Dice harness red wire to yellow wire from plug (right audio +)
Dice harness white wire to black wire from plug (left audio +)
Dice harness black wire to brown w/black tracer wire from plug (ground)
Dice harness yellow wire to red wire from new power switch (power +)
Trim wires to desired length, solder and insulate with heat shrink tubing.
13. Re-assembly, as they say, is the reverse of dis-assembly. re-assemble...
14. Opening the cover for the oddments case you should now see your new DICE/Ipod power switch and a single harness wrapped in cloth tape and ending in a plug for the DICE unit.
15. Install the plug in the DICE unit and also install the plug at the end of the IPOD cable.
16. Install the DICE Silverline controller on the floor of the oddments case using HD velcro.
17. Mount your IPod in the oddments case as desired. I happen to like the high capacity hard-drive Ipods so I built up layers of high density foam tape (sometimes sold for mounting pickup truck caps) to create a custom fitted sort of isolating cradle for my Ipod Classic (see picture above). It holds the Ipod (in its case) from below and on three sides. Then one more strip mounted on the bottom of the oddments case cover pushes down gently to hold the Ipod in place. The only contact the Ipod has with anything but high density foam is through the cable to the DICE unit. So far no problems even after some high rev. rides in the Smokies.
Cheers,
Sean
