Mitsubishi Multi-Communication Systen

[Don]

For short - The Nav Package that comes on the SE Premium version

Since our second iMiEV has this, I'm wondering what we can actually use it for? I've read the manual that comes with it and it doesn't seem all that useful to me. Other than the back up camera (which we love) what else is everyone doing with it?

The GPS/Nav function doesn't seem terribly important on a car we never go farther than 35 miles from home in . . . . plus, the car is a 2012, so the unit certainly needs to be updated, but at $199 for the official Mitsubishi update CD, I doubt we'll ever do the update

The Bluetooth - Does anyone use this with their cell phone? As a rule, neither of us ever answers the phone while driving. We usually hand the phone to the passenger if there is one and if not, well, we're going less than 35 miles, so we'll get back to whoever called later

We use a USB stick with about 400 songs on it in our other iMiEV, so what will we do with the hard drive? What else can it do besides store music?

Anyway, we didn't have a 'MMCS' thread where everyone could share ideas/experiences, so I thought it was high time (now that we have such a car) to explore what we can do with this $2500 addition to the car

Don

 

[JoeS]

We use a USB stick with about 400 songs on it in our other iMiEV, so what will we do with the hard drive? What else can it do besides store music?

Don, having acquired this "Premium" package with my used i-MiEV, I tend to agree with you that its primary attraction is the backup camera. I'm dumbfounded that Mitsubishi marketing convinced somebody to re-introduce this thing in the 2016 i-MiEV (MUCH better to have upgraded the charger to 6.6kW). Anyway, many of the features listed in the MMCS manual are not implemented in this i-MiEV version. About all I've done is loaded a few of my favorite CDs into it, as my little Garmin GPS seems to be much more user-friendly, with a very prominent distance-to-destination numeric which is soooo nice to bounce off RR.

Question: in what format do you have your USB stick? Mine is not recognized by the MMCS, and I've tried both Mac and FAT32-formatted sticks. Presumably MP3 files?

 

[Don]

Well, you got me out of my recliner! - The race was in a rain delay anyway ;-)

I hadn't even tried our USB stick in the 'new' car, so I ran out and gave it a try - Works just fine. Because it has 400 songs on it, it read 'Reading.....' for about 15 seconds when I switched to it, but it comes up and plays fine. The screen shows all the info for the song playing and the next 5 upcoming songs

No special format - Just put the stick in your (Windows) computer and transfer your songs! ;-) With a Mac, not sure what you do :lol:

I agree - Gimme an L3 port and a 6.6Kw charger and they can keep the rest of the 'Nav System' . . . . I'd even give up the back up camera, which is the best part of the whole thing, IMO. I suspect Mitsu bought 100,000 of these nav systems and they aren't selling that well in any of their cars, so maybe the iMiEV's got stuck with them :roll:

Don

 

[braineo]

I love the Bluetooth connection to my phone. I use it everyday to hear my audible books and since that includes a daily wall street journal at no additional cost, it makes my commute in Atlanta passable. Pandora with no ads is better than any radio. Mitsubishi MMC is better than my Leaf useless navigation console.

 

[jray3]

I use the Bluetooth phone connection every day for talking on the phone. The pick up and hang up buttons are quite useful. If you have more than one linked phone in the family it will only talk to the phone that gets in the car first unless you turn off Bluetooth on one or the other phone. The main glitch I have is that anytime my phone is plugged into the USB port and I make or receive a call, a particular song plays over the conversation which the caller does not hear but those in the car do hear. Time to delete that song and see what happens!

 

[Don]

Yes, the Bluetooth phone set-up is pretty cool! I like the way it imported my entire phonebook from my phone into the car's MMCS - Only took 15 or 20 seconds. I can see where this will get lots of use. Outgoing and incoming phone calls without ever taking your phone out of your pocket!

Now, has anyone figured out how to make the Navi intro screen go away . . . . permanently? Clicking on that sucker every time you start the car is a pain in the butt!

Don

 

[DaveMiller]

I too have the Multi-Communications System. This is not a popular option because of the cost, however I find the back up camera a very good safty featue and bought it for this reason. I do have a question about the audio settings. I am not convinced that the "Speed Compensated Volume & EQ" setting does anything. Whether it is on or off, I have to adjust the volume louder when rolling. I have had this feature in other brand cars (My F150) and it worked well. I wonder if I have a hardware problem, or if this feature is just not implmented in the I-Miev. Does "Speed Compensated Volume" work for anyone?

Dave
Black 2012

 

[PV1]

I think I noticed it work on my ES base radio, but only at highway speeds. But then again, I'm rarely on the highway. While at speed, have a passenger turn this setting off and see if the volume drops.

 

[BenBrown]

Following the navigation screen has saved me on more than one occasion as I'm traveling off of the Google map suggested routes. Using the service roads I've avoided getting run over by ice cars doing 20 miles faster than the speed limit on the interstates.

 

[PV1]

Using the service roads I've avoided getting run over by ice cars doing 20 miles faster than the speed limit on the interstates.

:lol: Ain't that the truth.

I tried speed control volume on my radio yesterday at 60 MPH. There was no difference in volume among the several levels and off. I don't believe the i-MiEV supports this feature. The radio probably needs connected to the CANbus.

 

[Don]

I wouldn't expect the speed/sound feature to work on any ES - The upgraded radio in my non-premium SE doesn't have this feature, so it would really surprise me if the standard radio in the ES did. I think it's only advertised as being a part of the MMCS which is used in many other Mitsu vehicles. The iMiEV version of MMCS doesn't support many of the features which work on the UCE vehicles that came equipped with MMCS though

As far as audio volume is concerned, I've grown accustomed to the Up/Down buttons on the steering wheel - Much easier than taking your eyes off the road to search for the knob on our other car

Don

 

[JoeS]

Question: in what format do you have your USB stick? Mine is not recognized by the MMCS, and I've tried both Mac and FAT32-formatted sticks. Presumably MP3 files?

Well, you got me out of my recliner! - The race was in a rain delay anyway ;-) I hadn't even tried our USB stick in the 'new' car, so I ran out and gave it a try - Works just fine. Because it has 400 songs on it, it read 'Reading.....' for about 15 seconds when I switched to it, but it comes up and plays fine. The screen shows all the info for the song playing and the next 5 upcoming songs
No special format - Just put the stick in your (Windows) computer and transfer your songs! ;-)

Hi Don, the FAT32 is a PC (not Mac) format, and it didn't work for me. So, the two questions still are:

1. In what format is your USB stick?
2. In what format are your music files?

Maybe plug the stick into your PC to get the answers? Thanks.

 

[PV1]

Scroll through the sound settings and SCV is there, but with no CAN or other signal wiring, it simply doesn't operate. I've heard that both the stock radio unit and MMCS are used in multiple vehicles, so something like the Outlander would probably have this capability.

On my flash drive, I'm almost certain it's FAT32, and I use .MP3 files almost exclusively, although I have the room for .WAV if I wanted lossless files. .WMA is hit or miss, and .M4A/.M4P don't play at all.

I use an older version of Creative Wavestudio to convert my files, but I also found Audacity (for Linux, maybe others) will convert formats.

 

[Don]

Joe,

It's FAT32 formatted. I 'rip' the CD to a folder on my laptop, pick the songs I want on the USB stick and transfer them there. I also buy individual songs from Amazon for 99 cents to $1.19 and add those to the mix. I don't use any folders at all on the USB stick, though you can - The radio easily navigates from folder to folder, so if you want to categorize your music, it's easy to do

On the MMCS radio, you select the USB input and the screen shows the song playing at the top and the next 5 or 6 songs in the line under that. On the SE radio, each song title shops up on the screen. On the MMCS radio, the song title, the album title and the artist all show up at the top of the screen as the song plays. Any given song is also easy to find as you can page ahead through the list to find and play any song you like at any time, something we couldn't do on the SE radio

We currently have about 450 songs loaded just on the root directory of the stick, with room for about that many more. I think you *can* load hundreds or thousands of songs from your USB stick directly onto the hard drive of the MMCS also - I haven't had the time to play around with that . . . . too busy trying to get the boat ready for our October trip

Don

 

[kiev]

So nobody has opened the dash yet to figure out what processor and OS is in that thang?

i would think with BT you could link to the OBDII and use the screen to display canIon data...

 

[wmcbrine]

Rant: Why do car manufacturers act like their maps are made of gold? Two hundred freaking dollars just to update them?! Toyota was the same way. And this, even though they have to know that anyone can get better maps from Google, for free. It's more convenient (in theory) to have them on the built-in nav than on a separate phone/tablet... but not that much more.

 

[kiev]

to answer my own question, it appears to be a Hitachi microprocessor running Neutrino RTOS which boots off of a flash rom chip. The only hacks i found was a way to re-write some files on the HDD in order to play DVDs while driving, and the password to get access to the HDD.

The 3.5mm "AUX" port visible when the screen door is open is a dongle port for doing the map updates--it is not an audio or video port. There is 5V on three of the barrels and might damage or destroy an audio device.