Dab Module / It Pays To D

[Mick G]

Got my DAB module fitted and it rocks!!!!

Setting it up is a bit of a head-mash really. My journeys take me from one transmitter to another so the tuning gets a bit complicated. The manual for it is pants! I seems to presume you understand the inner workings of the DAB standard, with "components" and "duplexes" and that kind of guff. The BBC channels are rock solid but some others would seem to need a retune between Nottingham and Sheffield (e.g. XFM & Galaxy).

That said, I love it. The BBC channels and local radio are rock solid, and it's 6Music I got it for.

Not cheap at just over 400 notes but I need to take my hat off to Ron Brooks Mansfield who's quote came in 65 quid cheaper than the most expensive of the 5 Mr Ts I approached in the area and 30 quid cheaper than the next cheapest. I'll be using them again.

Later,

Mick

[reece]

Is this the one that Toyota does or is a different one? Any pictures? So it doesn’t have to be ordered when you buy a new car?

[nickp8]

Should have done a search on here. Toyota main dealer on eBay does it for £260.

[Mick G]

Should have done a search on here. Toyota main dealer on ebay does it for £260.

Nick, I did have look at the eBay seller because you'd mentioned them when I was looking to do it a month or so ago. To tell the truth, rightly or wrongly, I don't trust eBay for a highish ticket item like this. Things were running though my mind like what if it wasn't the right model for my car, I'd then be stuck with 260 quids worth of plastic. I'm generally not at home to accept deliveries so may need to take time off work to pick it up from the depot, that kind of thing.

I'd looked at the fitting instructions you'd posted and decided it wasn't something I was going to do myself so on top of that £260 you'd still need an hour or so of a mechanic's time.

Yes you're right I could have saved about £70 if i'd gone down that route, but to me the convenience of rocking up to the garage at a time that suited me and them sorting it in an hour or so was worth that.

Thanks a lot for the heads up on the eBay seller and the fitting instructions as they at least gave me a choice.

Later,

Mick

[Mick G]

Reece,

"Is this the one that Toyota does or is a different one?"

... Yes, it's the same one that you'd get if you ordered it when spec-ing up your new car.

"Any pictures?"

... There's not a lot to see really. It's a module that's plugged into the back of the existing Toyota stereo, it's not like the double-din satnav units you may have seen, the look of the existing stereo doesn't change. The only difference is that pressing the existing AM/DAB button actually gives you DAB rather than just AM. The only thing to see is the DAB aerial, it uses an internal flat one that is stuck to the inside top-left of the windscreen. The cabling is all hidden away in the pillar. I'll try and grab a photo tonight for completeness.

"So it doesn’t have to be ordered when you buy a new car?"

... no, not at all but it's obviously not cheap and if you were ordering it up at time of buying you might be able to get a bit of a haggle going. I kind of wish I had done that now but I was presuming I could get it hundrends of pounds cheaper by going another route.

Later,

Mick

[nickp8]

Ah it was your post I posted the link on. I assumed you fitted it youself, but if having it fitted by main dealer you had no choice but to get it from them. Anyway glad you got it sorted and your happy with it.

[Mick G]

Ah it was your post I posted the link on. I assumed you fitted it youself, but if having it fitted by main dealer you had no choice but to get it from them. Anyway glad you got it sorted and your happy with it.

No, the instructions you'd posted seemed suggest I'd need a power drill and some kind of shank to do the fitting. At that point I thought I'd get it fitted by a grown-up. :)

Thanks for the advice,

Mick

[Mick G]

Any pictures?

These pictures aren't great as they're from my phone. You can see the DAB aerial at the top-left of the windscreen. As I said, that's all you can see. The console remains totally unchanged.

I forgot to say it's got a rewind feature to rewind about 30 minutes of the selected channel even if your listening to FM or CD. So you could be listening to a CD, swap to the radio and if it's halfway through a song you like, just rewind it and listen to the whole lot. Or maybe you miss an important bit of a traffic announcement, my ears always ubik up when they mention the road I'm on but by that point I've already missed the junction numbers. I've not used this feature in real life yet, and maybe never will, but it does work and sounds cool :)

Later,

Mick