CAN-BUS monitoring

**martijnh** · 05-26-2009, 08:38 AM

Hi,

I've bought the CAN2USB product, which supposedly would be able to monitor the CAN bus and output USB. However, owning an BMW E90 CLI (2009), I can't get the interface to work at all. All that happens when trying to read information is the car saying 'go to dealer' (icon)

Does anyone have any experience with the E90 CAN bus, monitoring, or any other information, like what message means what?

Thanks!

--Martijn.

**Crinos** · 05-26-2009, 08:48 AM

Hia martijnh, and welcome to the forum

Oh... BTW: Nice car

I got your predecessor... E46 Touring

You do not want to connect to the CAN-BUS in BMWs... You want to connect to the IBUS wich is a BMW only bus. You could get an IBUS USB device from Reslers. http://www.reslers.de/

Via the IBUS you can controll pretty much everything in the car... Do a search here on the forums on "IBUS", and you'll se

**martijnh** · 05-26-2009, 08:53 AM

Hi Crinos,

Thanks for the quick reply! Are you quite sure the E90 still has an IBUS? I thought it was replaced with the CAN BUS?

**Crinos** · 05-26-2009, 09:31 AM

All BMW from mid 1999 have both CAN and I busses.
The CAN-BUS is used mainly by the engine, transmittion, ECU(s) and to some part.. the AC units, wich allso talk to the IBUS.

The CAN-BUS can be used togeather with CarSoft 6.5 or newer to read of error messages, resett those messages, and read/configure settings of the car... For instance, KEY FOB settings, and miscallenous settings like default volume on CD-player and Radio unit. Metric og general units and such.

The IBUS is the thing that let all components in the car talk togeather. Like lights, power windows, cd-changer, radio/head unit, and actually everything that is electrical and can be manipulated in your car

PS: Getting CarSoft to work with USB reader is a pain in the....... <- fill inn apropiate uncomfortable place!

**martijnh** · 05-26-2009, 11:23 AM

I'm sorry to say I'm still not convinced my BMW has an IBUS; even my Parrot carkit steering wheel control unit is called Multican and uses CAN-HI/CAN-LO to filter out steering wheel commands? (which is essentially what I want my CarPC to be able to do as well)

P.S.: I don't mean to be ungrateful for you help, just sure of the facts ;-)

Is there any documentation on this topic you know of? I have almost all E90 documentation (PDF) (of which I'm not sure they all still apply to the 2009 model) and regarding buses, there's no mention of I-BUS, only:

Group Bus System Data Rate Structure
Main D-Bus (Diagnostic Bus) 10.5/115 Kbit/s Linear, Single-Wire
Main K-CAN (Body Bus) 100 Kbit/s Linear, Two-Wire
Main PT-CAN (Powertrain-CAN) 500 Kbit/s Linear, Two-Wire
Main F-CAN (Chassis CAN) 500 Kbit/s Linear, Two-Wire
Main MOST 22.5 Mbit/s Ring, Fiber Optic
Sub K-Bus (Body Bus) 9.6 Kbit/s Linear, Single-Wire
Sub K-Bus (Protocol Body Bus) 9.6 Kbit/s Linear, Single-Wire
Sub LIN-Bus (Local Interconnect Network Bus) 9.6/19.2 Kbit/s Linear, Single-Wire
Sub BSD (Bit Serial Data Interface) 9.6 Kbit/s Linear, Single-Wire

**Crinos** · 05-26-2009, 01:19 PM

You are right, and I'm truly sorry for miss guiding you, or anyone else for that matters.

http://ibus.stuge.se/IBus_Compatible_Cars

Car models without IBus
BMW 1-series E81
BMW 3-series E21, E30, E36, E90 Last 2 production years of E36 had ibus-controlled CD changers.
BMW 5-series E12, E28, E34, E60 E60 ver. USA had ibus-controlled seat ocupation sensor, Last 2 production years of E34 had ibus-controlled CD changers.
BMW 6-series E63/E64
BMW 7-series E23, E32, E65/E66
BMW X5 E70
BMW X6 E71
BMW Senior Six E3
Retrieved from "http://ibus.stuge.se/IBus_Compatible_Cars"

**martijnh** · 05-26-2009, 01:38 PM

No problem, I appreciate the effort to help me out :-) I found a product (car2pc) which seems to provide the functionality I need (steeringwheel control from my CarPC through USB). I contacted the owner and they state the E90 2009 compatible product will be available in june 2009.. TBC

**Crinos** · 05-26-2009, 02:23 PM

I feel so unbelivable ashamed... hehe...
Hope it works out for you soon. Allwas fun to see others dedicated to BMW

I where in the planing of my own CarPC layout... but now I have been caught up in learning myself C# and in doing so, I'm currently building the sound/media engine for my own frontend using FMOD

**teo** · 06-11-2009, 06:58 PM

So I intend on getting a bmw E65 2004 or 2005

I want to primarily use it for diagnosing the thing to find out the problems. And then to play around with it.

If there is no iBus on it, it will have a OBD-II interface right? How can I talk to the car? Or is there some other bmw propiretary bus?

Oh and this is my first post, i have been reading around for a few hours and there really is a lot of information circulating around here. Very glad to have found this site.

Teoman

**Saab9-5** · 06-13-2009, 02:29 PM

Regardless of whether it has iBus or CANBus, any car sold in the US after 1996 (and Europe after 2001) has an OBD-II interface. OBD-II is primarily for diagnostics. But you can't access everything on a car's internal network through the OBD-II interface so that's why there are other interfaces (CAN, iBus, GMLAN, MOST, etc.).