A few questions about the Stereo System

[DefenderGuy]

The Grenadier will play music from a USB thumb drive. It handles a variety of audio formats some including artwork.

More details in my manual. Download link in signature line below.

Cheers
Steve

Is configuring USB Music Playlists Possible?

I've successfully converted roughly 3000 songs on 300 albums to mp3 format and put them on a 32 gb USB stick configured in FAT32.

So far pretty good: The USB stick is read by the head unit and it allows me to select based on Artist, Album or Genre. If I pick an album, the album plays correctly in the right order for any of the 300 titles on the stick. If I pick genre and play all, the system plays the tracks in alphabetic order based on track title rather than alpha sorting on the albums (not so good).

What I really wanted was to be able to select previously defined playlists from the USB audio menu. I created several M3U playlists (the format that appears most commonly when creating user configured playlists) and put them in the root directory of my USB stick.

The vehicle appears to be unable to recognize the playlists I created.

Is there anyone out there who has found a way to create playlists using music on a USB stick? (Or for a way to sort music by album when playing within a specific genre?)

While I am fully able to listen to playlists on a synced bluetooth player, I would prefer to be able to create them for music on a USB stick.

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.

[For those interested in the software used in preparing the USB stick, working within Ubuntu Linux I formatted the stick with Gparted, I did a global recursive file conversion of all of my music (all non-DRM) to mp3 using SoundConverter and I used gtkpod and/or puddletag to create m3u playlists (which I then edited as necessary to conform to the directory paths to the USB stick).]

P.S. Much appreciation for Rok_Dr’s Exceedingly Unofficial Ineos Grenadier Owner’s Manual Supplement

 

[Samson]

So far pretty good: The USB stick is read by the head unit and it allows me to select based on Artist, Album or Genre. If I pick an album, the album plays correctly in the right order for any of the 300 titles on the stick. If I pick genre and play all, the system plays the tracks in alphabetic order based on track title rather than alpha sorting on the albums (not so good).

Hey bruv - just to confirm - your Grenadier allows you to see Artist/Album/Genre on a USB full of music? Because I can't get that at all. I have a USB stick with music, and the Grenadier just gives me a sideways listing of songs, alphabetically by song title. And it doesn't even get that right 101% of the time - there are some times where - for example I'm listening to songs that start with the letter "N" (which for example could be Never Surrender by Corey Hart or No Alibis by Eric Clapton) - and a stray L or M will pop up in the list, but then continue alphabetically. And it's a real pain in the neck, if you stick the drive in and you were listening to an S or T song, but it starts at A, you having to scroll through hundreds of songs until you get back to the letter you want . Your way sounds *much* easier (and like the Bronco used to do)
Thanks!

 

[LeeroyJ]

I'm just seeing this thread, so a bit late to the original comments on it. But there is a good thread about the system in the German section of the forum. You can go to translate.google.com and use the "websites" search option and to see it in English: https://www.theineosforum.com/threads/grenadier-plug-and-play-soundsystem.12417517/

This is the most I've seen in terms of actual specifications on the stereo. For example this highlight:

"The same applies to the radio unit. This is generally very linear, which is to be welcomed. But the power output is a disgrace. At a 4 ohm load (like the original speakers have), the radio produces a sensational 5.52 watts per channel at the front and 5.76 watts per channel at the rear. This corresponds to a total output of 22.56 watts."​

Or this:

"....The reason for all these decisions was certainly a cost decision. They took the cheapest possible LaVoce automitive speaker that was conceivable. Just as a small calculation example. A Hertz DCX100 that is very close to the rear speaker used in the Grenadier costs me, as a good Elettromedia customer, around 11.50 euros each. However, this includes the accessories included in the packaging and the sales packaging itself. I would speculate that the net price from Ineos for this speaker is around 6 euros each, based on the order quantity. The front speaker is around 10 euros. In other words, all the speakers together probably cost around 32 euros. So no one should be surprised that it doesn't work."​

 

[Rok_Dr]

Is configuring USB Music Playlists Possible?

I've successfully converted roughly 3000 songs on 300 albums to mp3 format and put them on a 32 gb USB stick configured in FAT32.

So far pretty good: The USB stick is read by the head unit and it allows me to select based on Artist, Album or Genre. If I pick an album, the album plays correctly in the right order for any of the 300 titles on the stick. If I pick genre and play all, the system plays the tracks in alphabetic order based on track title rather than alpha sorting on the albums (not so good).

What I really wanted was to be able to select previously defined playlists from the USB audio menu. I created several M3U playlists (the format that appears most commonly when creating user configured playlists) and put them in the root directory of my USB stick.

The vehicle appears to be unable to recognize the playlists I created.

Is there anyone out there who has found a way to create playlists using music on a USB stick? (Or for a way to sort music by album when playing within a specific genre?)

While I am fully able to listen to playlists on a synced bluetooth player, I would prefer to be able to create them for music on a USB stick.

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.

[For those interested in the software used in preparing the USB stick, working within Ubuntu Linux I formatted the stick with Gparted, I did a global recursive file conversion of all of my music (all non-DRM) to mp3 using SoundConverter and I used gtkpod and/or puddletag to create m3u playlists (which I then edited as necessary to conform to the directory paths to the USB stick).]

P.S. Much appreciation for Rok_Dr’s Exceedingly Unofficial Ineos Grenadier Owner’s Manual Supplement

Looking at the USB menu structure I suspect you are out of luck with play lists. The only thing I could suggest is see in the browse folder menu option whether the play list file is recognised and trying to select it (if you haven't already done so).

Hey bruv - just to confirm - your Grenadier allows you to see Artist/Album/Genre on a USB full of music? Because I can't get that at all. I have a USB stick with music, and the Grenadier just gives me a sideways listing of songs, alphabetically by song title. And it doesn't even get that right 101% of the time - there are some times where - for example I'm listening to songs that start with the letter "N" (which for example could be Never Surrender by Corey Hart or No Alibis by Eric Clapton) - and a stray L or M will pop up in the list, but then continue alphabetically. And it's a real pain in the neck, if you stick the drive in and you were listening to an S or T song, but it starts at A, you having to scroll through hundreds of songs until you get back to the letter you want . Your way sounds *much* easier (and like the Bronco used to do)
Thanks!

In the best Ineos tradition selecting artist/album/genre is buried deep in the menu structure.

Basically in the USB audio menu you have to tap in the USB 3 line menu at the top right of the screen, then in the options menu tap the USB input source (eg USB A), tap again and you should come to menu list which has sort options for Artist, Album and Genre. If you have a lot of files it may take a while for the system to load the information.

Cheers
Steve

 

[DefenderGuy]

Hey bruv - just to confirm - your Grenadier allows you to see Artist/Album/Genre on a USB full of music? Because I can't get that at all. I have a USB stick with music, and the Grenadier just gives me a sideways listing of songs, alphabetically by song title. And it doesn't even get that right 101% of the time - there are some times where - for example I'm listening to songs that start with the letter "N" (which for example could be Never Surrender by Corey Hart or No Alibis by Eric Clapton) - and a stray L or M will pop up in the list, but then continue alphabetically. And it's a real pain in the neck, if you stick the drive in and you were listening to an S or T song, but it starts at A, you having to scroll through hundreds of songs until you get back to the letter you want . Your way sounds *much* easier (and like the Bronco used to do)
Thanks!

To answer your question, YES I can see Artist/Album/Genre on a USB full of music. BUT as Steve (Rok_Dr) observed on this thread:

"In the best Ineos tradition selecting artist/album/genre is buried deep in the menu structure."

See his post immediately above for more details.

The songs on my USB stick are sorted by track title all of which start with original track number. So if I have a genre with 20 titles and I tell it to play all the titles in the genre, I get the 20 first tracks of 20 albums first since there's no submenuing allowing you to selected album within genre. To select an album I have to touch screen roll through up to 300 alpha-sorted titles (and the mouse / spin wheel seems to choke up so I have to use the screen: lousy when you're driving).

FWIW, I also tried using a USB connected Classic iPod synced to a non-DRM mp3 only playlist (using a current version of iTunes). The result was a lot of seemingly random four digit codes rather than song titles on the vehicle's USB playlist. So the USB stick is way better and way easier, at least in my experience thus far. And, if I want to listen to albums and I don't mind scrolling down through all the album titles works fine. But don't expect the car to keep playing the rest of the album you were listening to if you stop the vehicle and then restart it.

​

 

[ADVAW8S]

Hey guys found this on YouTube. Adjusting your sound system

View: https://youtu.be/wwqeWjYvpdU?si=nEMaOvXIzmxeVLm-

 

[ItalianAmerican]

So is anyone else not ok with the number of "steps" or gradient of the volume control??? For me 14 steps is simply too few and I think it should be at least doubled, like in every other car on the market today. I mean 0 to 1 in volume is such a huge jump its not even funny. This should honestly be a simple software update on their side.

 

[ADVAW8S]

So is anyone else not ok with the number of "steps" or gradient of the volume control??? For me 14 steps is simply too few and I think it should be at least doubled, like in every other car on the market today. I mean 0 to 1 in volume is such a huge jump its not even funny. This should honestly be a simple software update on their side.

Have you messed around with the volume at speed in settings? I think I have it at 2 and my start up volume at 2. What I have noticed is when I want background music, I am at 3. When I want to listen it's at 4 or 5 When I want it cranking 6.

 

[Zenadier]

@DefenderGuy
Is your USB stick folder organized? In other words, do you have a bunch of folders with MP3 files in the (artist?) folders, OR is the file structure flat with all MP3s at the root level?
You've described some playback behavior here that seems better than what I get with my folder organized data stick. I've been digitizing from vinyl, but omitting the genre tag. May have to rethink that. Thanks.

 

[RY-Journeyman]

OK Thanks everybody - I suspected as much ... I spent a while searching in the manual, and then sat down and just played with Infotainment System for some time and couldn't find anything - there really isn't all that many settings of anything to play with (and I'm sure Sir Grenadier wanted it that way) - just different ... my daily driver is a Jeep, and I guess the family car has been Jeep in my family like Sir Grenadier always had a Land Rover - and it's pretty basic really, but I've had it for a long time so I'm familiar. The Bronco actually had quite a bit to display/change/use - that was actually one of the things they set out to do ... it's my understanding they watched the mostly-disappointing roleout of the Jeep pickup truck and said, "We're NOT doing that - we want *everyone* to want one, and love it, from old-school Bronco owners to everyone else from kids, housewives, Soccer Moms, Doctors/Lawyers/Cooks-Bakers-Candlestick Makers to the Off-road Enthusiasts" - and IMHO they did it pretty well, got used to that system and I'm still trying to get used to this system.

And the reason I asked - I Googled it and saw that one place said it produces a surprisingly low Turbo PSI , like less than 5psi, ... so that sounds like, when they Detuned this thing, they apparently really Detuned it. I'm not exactly one of the Fast & Furious-types of dudes who are on YouTube with 700+HP Supras that they have put through surgery to be Rocketships etc. - but driving it does make me wonder what it's capable of. (And it certainly feels great - you can *feel* the BMW engine / German engineering / "Good Stuff" right through the pedal & steering wheel. IMHO of course.)

Thanks again everyone.

I have the same engine on my bMW X6. That does top speed 155mph, and 0-60 in under 6 seconds. As you now know, the Ineos version is detuned quite a lot. If using a performance chip it can be re-tuned back to pretty much the same as the X6 - but my Ineos doesn’t have the suspension and other fancy stuff that keeps you from dying so I haven’t gone that far. A mild tune up is perfectly fine.

 

[DefenderGuy]

Is your USB stick folder organized? In other words, do you have a bunch of folders with MP3 files in the (artist?) folders, OR is the file structure flat with all MP3s at the root level?

The USB stick was copied in tact from the Music folder on one of my Linux machines (or, in another case that worked, from the Music folder on an old MacAir). In all cases all the files were in mp3 format. The actual file structure, most of which was originally created on iTunes, retains the legacy quirks of multiple directories that don't correlate with specific albums or composers (that is to say they retain the musical file structures used by iTunes). Moving everything over to Linux Rhythmbox a dozen or more years ago didn't involve any changes to this pre-existing file structure.

Let me provide some additional background since it's been a long time since I last posted on this subject.

Several months ago I switched my primary flip phone (yes, I am that much of a dinosaur) from a Nokia to Kyocera. Because the Kyocera provides much better bluetooth integration than the Nokia for my phone functions, I've been using the microSSD on the Kyocera to play music via bluetooth (even though the Kyocera, unlike the USB stick, doesn't support menuing integration on the head unit for music playback: I have to select what I want to play on the phone itself once bluetooth is enabled). In addition, the Kyocera doesn't recognize the pre-existing playlists from my Rhythmbox (Linux) or iTunes (MacOS) mp3 file structure downloads, but it is substantially easier to create them from scratch on the Kyocera than it was on the the Nokia. Which is to say I had to go out and look at the truck and insert the USB stick to write what follows since it had been several months since I last used a USB stick for music.

Here are (I think) the relevant details for my USB stick. First, to repeat what I said above: The USB stick was copied in tact from the Music folder on one of my Linux machines (or, in another case that worked, from the Music folder on an old MacAir). In all cases all the files were in mp3 format. Screenshots 1 through 4 show examples of the USB music menu on the head unit screen when the USB is plugged in and selected. The fifth screenshot shows a couple of playlists I created and the sixth (and final) screenshot of the head unit display shows the manual playlist numbers I assigned to the sequential tracks on several different albums in order to create one of these playlists by establishing a unique genre. (I believe I did this since my last posting on the subject of playlists.) I created my USB playlists by taking copies of the desired songs and assigning a copy of each to a new and unique genre with new unique playlist numbers. It is worth noting that to make this work, I ended up with two copies of each of the songs on a playlist (the albums on the playlist are still playable as standalone albums): a copy from the original Rhythmbox (iTunes) Music file folder and a separate copy just for the playlist I created as a unique genre (e.g., Christmas Playlist and Classical Playlist shown in screenshot 5). I created these playlist track numbers (e.g., 1001, 1002, etc.) using third party open source software on one of my Linux computers (based on my notes, the program I used was puddletag); I think there are Apple compatible programs to combine albums and renumber tracks in the same way. The very final image shows part of the top level of the USB file structure when the USB stick is plugged into one of my computers.

I hope this is helpful.

 

[Zenadier]

@DefenderGuy
Very helpful; thank you.

My own dinosaur credentials include a reasonable vinyl collection. I am not an over-the-top audiophile, but I do enjoy a quality listening experience, including digital. Despite having cellular phones since the beginning, I've never listened to music through them. The Grenadier was the first car this dinosaur owned that had a USB port. Goal was to listen to my vinyl in the Grenadier via MP3s on a data stick. Method is phono level through an audio interface to Audacity software to MP3s. I can build the data stick structure any way I want.

My primary car data stick is folder organized by artist. MP3s carry artist, album title and enumerated song title; I did not write genre in the metadata. I've got 165 albums so far on a single stick. Playback is navigable, but quirky since day one. Turn off the car and who knows what will play when you start up again.

Playlists are not part of my process, but it is very interesting what you've done. All those photos look great; yep my head unit USB audio playback path menus are the same, more or less. Reading about your data stick prompted my question to see if I could reduce the Grenadier quirks. I <may> flatten it all out (remove folders) and see what breaks. Thanks again.

 

[DefenderGuy]

Playlists are not part of my process, but it is very interesting what you've done. All those photos look great; yep my head unit USB audio playback path menus are the same, more or less. Reading about your data stick prompted my question to see if I could reduce the Grenadier quirks. I <may> flatten it all out (remove folders) and see what breaks. Thanks again.

My sense (and it's only my sense) is that if you want to have the necessary metadata on your MP3 files to sort by album, track, genre and artist, you need to run the files through a program like iTunes (which works with non-DRM files like MP3's and runs on either Mac or Windows). I know when I first started out 20 plus years ago, I converted some vinyl to MP3 (or equivalent) and loaded them onto iTunes; this included scanning album artwork and setting up all the track information (i.e., track number and track title). My sense is that if you don't go through a process like this, you're going to have trouble organizing your collection so that the albums are identifiable on the USB stick (and if you have thousands or even hundreds of tracks, sorting through the whole lot while driving isn't going to be a good solution).

The downside is it takes time to set up music files in an iTunes (or similar) format. The upside is once it's done the music is in a format that can be easily moved about (e.g., from iTunes to Rhythmbox to a USB stick for car play). You might want to try installing iTunes on your preferred platform (i.e., Mac or Windows) and importing and organizing the MP3's you have already created (presumably on a track by track basis but possibly on an album by album basis, the latter being less than perfect since there's no easy way to "move the needle" forward within a particular track during playback).

My greater problem with the USB music interface is that I haven't found a way to navigate the music options without touching the screen, something I find dangerously distracting unless I am in park - part of the reason I consider playlists important unless I simply choose an album and set the interface to repeat the album. The "mouse" knob in the center console simply isn't sufficient in my experience to control the USB music menu while driving. And then there's the annoying habit that if the USB is plugged in, it starts semi-randomly whenever I start the truck up.