Business Radio head confused?!?

While I decide whether to add an iPod interface and which to get, in the meantime I got an OEM Aux input cable kit. Spent this part Sunday afternoon putting it in. A bit of a hassle, since I wanted the jack up front in the console, next to the DSC button, but followed MarvelPhx DIY from http://my330i.com/mod26.php and eventually everything fit in place.

So, all the wiring stuff is done, plugged the radio back in and pushed the power button. Sure enough, the AUX option popped up and went thru the motions of adjusting the sensitivity. Sound is very good. However, there's a new quirk in the radio: when in radio mode, next to the RDS option you should have a PTY (program type) selector. After the installation, all I get are the letters TP, which I can select + or not. If I do, the *TP display blinks awhile and nothing else happens. No PTY to be seen anywhere anymore.

What the heck? What's TP? Where's my PTY??

Originally Posted by jcourcoul

While I decide whether to add an iPod interface and which to get, in the meantime I got an OEM Aux input cable kit. Spent this part Sunday afternoon putting it in. A bit of a hassle, since I wanted the jack up front in the console, next to the DSC button, but followed MarvelPhx DIY from http://my330i.com/mod26.php and eventually everything fit in place.

So, all the wiring stuff is done, plugged the radio back in and pushed the power button. Sure enough, the AUX option popped up and went thru the motions of adjusting the sensitivity. Sound is very good. However, there's a new quirk in the radio: when in radio mode, next to the RDS option you should have a PTY (program type) selector. After the installation, all I get are the letters TP, which I can select + or not. If I do, the *TP display blinks awhile and nothing else happens. No PTY to be seen anywhere anymore.

What the heck? What's TP? Where's my PTY??

Check to see what the AREA setting is set to in service mode.

TP is the Traffic information Program which automatically receives regional alerts on accidents, construction delays, etc. in some parts of the world, principally in Europe. (pretty neat, wish we had it here).
It sounds to me like the AREA may have gotten set to some other region. It is USA for here, not sure if that is what you want to use in Mexico or if there is something more specifically appropriate. Sounds like it may be set to EUR or JAP or something.

(The radio service mode is entered by holding down the "m" button for app 10 seconds. You can then scroll through the various settings by pushing the - , - buttons that + and - appear above. Value then adjusted with the < and > buttons.
Note: changing the AREA setting will erase station presets, so you will have to re-save them.

You'll also see a TP-V setting in the parameters, regardless of the AREA setting, which is a volume offset setting for the traffic alerts from the music volume level. Has no effect on regions that don't use TP. Other settings modify amount of automatic volume level with vehicle speed, etc.

as an example my settings are:

AREA USA
AF OFF
SN A0xxxxxx
SV 08-05 43
RI 00
GAL 3
DSP 0 V 15
TP- V 0

Hope that it is something simple like that that takes care of it for you.

Ah, ok! I'll try that out, thanks. Hopefully it won't ask for an activation code or something when in USA mode, cause if the unit had a code card, it wasn't in the docs the previous owner turned in.

It is an intriguing display prompt, since no mention of it is made in the Spanish Owner's Manual. Checked in the PDF manual Kris has in his server and there's no mention there neither.

Originally Posted by jcourcoul

Ah, ok! I'll try that out, thanks. Hopefully it won't ask for an activation code or something when in USA mode, cause if the unit had a code card, it wasn't in the docs the previous owner turned in.

It is an intriguing display prompt, since no mention of it is made in the Spanish Owner's Manual. Checked in the PDF manual Kris has in his server and there's no mention there neither.

Let me know if that ends up solving it for you.

No. The TP function is not referenced in the NA manual. Only place I've seen it is in the German Business CD manual, which goes into it in some detail. Other regional-specific thing that looks neat is the system built-in to the Business head where if you are travelling and your station signal gets weak, it will automatically locate and switch to a stronger station that is broadcasting the same programming. We never get to use the neat stuff.

OUTSTANDING!

Got my PTY back!! The radio head must have really gotten confooozzed. It had reverted to Europe area, but kept the American radio station spacing and my presets. So, we're back in the USA, as far as the radio is concerned, and after resetting the presets, all is cool once again. The head also offered Japan, Canada and OCE (?) as alternate regions.

Now, the service mode deserves more investigation. We know the area, software version, serial number, the speed sensitive volume and the TP-V (for those fortunate to have it). What do the AF, RI and DSP get us? This should go in the Wiki, like the "secret" OBD functions.

Thanks, Melquin.

Originally Posted by jcourcoul

OUTSTANDING!

Got my PTY back!! The radio head must have really gotten confooozzed. It had reverted to Europe area, but kept the American radio station spacing and my presets. So, we're back in the USA, as far as the radio is concerned, and after resetting the presets, all is cool once again. The head also offered Japan, Canada and OCE (?) as alternate regions.

Now, the service mode deserves more investigation. We know the area, software version, serial number, the speed sensitive volume and the TP-V (for those fortunate to have it). What do the AF, RI and DSP get us? This should go in the Wiki, like the "secret" OBD functions.

Thanks, Melquin.

Glad that took care of it.

AF is the Alternate Frequency feature which I alluded to in the previous post. In areas where it is used, it has four possible settings off, Auto, Autonopi, Man. Alternate stations which are broadcasting the same program are scanned and stored into memory. Apparently, the different selections apparently control whether the alternate station is automatically scanned and stored but not changed without user intervention; automatically scanned, stored and switched to automatically; or performed manually.

DSP, I believe, merely displays the headunit DSP version number preceded by either a 0 (which should be the case on all E46 as they did not utilize the DSP) or a 1 as communicated by the existence of the DSP amplifier on the I/K bus on models that have it.

Anectodatly I have been told that RI is the Revision Index, but I am not sure about this.

There also is a Field Strength and Quality meter feature of station reception and a Pixel test mode that can be cycled through.