changing stations in 328i?

Originally Posted by HugH

Thanks BJ for taking so much of your time to help the new owners here. Several hours from now, I will be picking-up our new 328i. I have printed several of your savvy answers. That will save us all a lot of time and frustration.

Hugh

Yeah, the guy knows his stuff, love him or hate him. Don't forget to review his post on properly using the Climate Control and the hot/cold scroll wheel. Best post ever.

Is there any way to clear out all 40 station presets? I searched the owner's manual PDF and found nothing.

Originally Posted by boltjaM3s

Just to clarify:

There is only 1 "station playlist" and it's called the Radio Presets screen. Once on that screen, you can add up to 40 stations mixed from all sources (AM, FM, SAT, HD) in any order you like. There are then three tricks you need to know:

1. Hover over the first station on the Radio Presets screen (red box around the first station on your list) and then press + hold one of the 1-8 buttons.

2. Using the iDrive controller, push the controller to the left (don't spin the dial, push the controller) so that the Radio Presets screen retracts and you're left on the Radio mode screen.

3. Hit the Nav button to bring up the map or whatever you like as your default screen display.

Once you have created your 40 favorites on the Presets screen, made a single 1-8 shortcut to the first station on that list, and 'tucked' away the Presets menu, you can tap that 1-8 shortcut button which will jump you to the first station on the list and then let you scroll through all 40 stations on your steering wheel and the head up display.

BJ

Does this only work if you are in "preset mode"? Let's say I go to AM and I am scrolling through AM stations. Now I hit my "5" button which I have programmed to a satellite station on my preset list. The way it is working for me is that I can now scroll through satellite channels, not my presets. Not sure if this makes sense but I guess my question is does my "5" button just take me to that channel or to that channel in my preset list.

Originally Posted by Hagen21

Does this only work if you are in "preset mode"? Let's say I go to AM and I am scrolling through AM stations. Now I hit my "5" button which I have programmed to a satellite station on my preset list. The way it is working for me is that I can now scroll through satellite channels, not my presets. Not sure if this makes sense but I guess my question is does my "5" button just take me to that channel or to that channel in my preset list.

The way iDrive sees it you are jumping from AM to Satellite.

Between the two moves, as you leave AM to go to Satellite you need to follow Step #2 and go to the Radio Menu, click on Presets, and 'retract' the Presets menu.

I know it's unintuitive, but it's how it works. To get your HUD to scroll through all 40 Presets, the last thing you need to do is retract the Presets menu. From there, it'll stick for years unless you go to a source like AM again.

BJ

Ok so all setting one of the buttons does is bring you to a specific point in the favorites. If you don't care where in the favorites you are then the radio button will basically do the same thing. DO I have that right?

Originally Posted by Hagen21

Ok so all setting one of the buttons does is bring you to a specific point in the favorites. If you don't care where in the favorites you are then the radio button will basically do the same thing. DO I have that right?

Yes and no. Think of it this way:

Wherever the 1-8 shortcut is set to tells iDrive what it is you're trying to view. And not just a station, but the source. So if a 1-8 shortcut is set up wrong, from two different sources instead of just from Presets, iDrive bounces you from Presets to AM and not back home again.

So if Button 3 is set to Preset > Sirius 20 on 20 iDrive thinks "this guy wants to view all of his Presets in one shot, ah, I'll let him do that on the HUD too".

And if Button 4 is set to Satellite > Sirius 20 on 20 iDrive thinks "this guy wants to view all of his Satellite stations in one shot, ah, I'll let him do that on the HUD too".

So as long as both the AM station and Satellite station shortcuts on your 1-8 buttons are originally memorized from the PRESETS menu, you can hit both buttons, back and forth, at will, and the HUD will always show the list of Presets in there.

But if you set your AM from the Presets and the Satellite station from the Satellite listing you are confusing iDrive into thinking that you're choosing between AM input and Satellite input instead of merely toggling two different stations on your Presets. So in your current setup, every time you tap your Satellite 1-8 key you are making iDrive think you are in Satellite mode, not Preset mode and it's doing two things:

1. Taking you out of Preset mode and throwing you into Satellite mode.

2. Ruining the 'retract Preset menu' trick which is the only way to get the Preset list to show up in the HUD to begin with.

If you must be able to toggle through every Satellite station on the HUD or on the LCD that's fine, just remember that your next move needs to be on the LCD to go to Presets, select one of the 40 stations, then tuck away the Presets listing on the LCD by the 'retract' method, and then go to the map or whatever and you're back with Presets in the LCD.

It is for this reason that I am judicious in choosing my 40 AM/FM/SAT stations in Presets so that 99% of the time I have no reason to ever navigate in the actual Radio menu on the LCD.

BJ

Originally Posted by CE750Jockey

Yeah, the guy knows his stuff, love him or hate him. Don't forget to review his post on properly using the Climate Control and the hot/cold scroll wheel. Best post ever.

Maybe boltja should consider creating a folder here with his best primer posts as stickies.