2003 BMW M3 Custom Dash / Overhead Console

**gork** · 03-15-2004, 02:39 AM

nl4jy: Yeah it's a slot-load. It's a tight fit up there where it is, but you have plenty of room to get the discs in and out.

Strahleman:

That is a good looking install. I have a favor to ask you -- Is it possible for you to take a better picture of how you mounted the case in the trunk? Mine is not secured at all and I'm trying to figure out the best way to mount it. This is not a good thing in an M3!

1) It is easy! The amplifier does not actually turn on and off via I-Bus messages (in the e46 at least.. cars with DSP may have to power the amps on with I-Bus) -- It powers on and off via a remote 12V feed like any aftermarket amp. The power wire is the 'antenna' wire on the radio wiring harness. I just wired the 12V 'antenna/amp turn on' to the 12V ignition wire, so the amp is on whenever the car is on. I will wire it to a switch at some point so I don't have to power it during things like racing events. Next, you need something to convert the unbalanced audio from the computer to the balanced audio that the H/K amp needs. I used a Peripheral Electronics VEN4.

I will try to write a good guide on this in the next few days as a lot of people have asked me about this, and there is not much information on the net about it.

2) In my E46, the OBC display is in the instrument cluster (IKE), so I don't have to worry about that. I don't think BMW ever sold cars with the radio you have in the US, so I'm not familiar with it.. You might try unplugging your radio and seeing if maybe the OBC works on the instrumetn cluster with the radio disconnected...

You cannot access temp/fuel/engine information via I-bus. You can get engine information via OBD-II, though, which is maybe what you want. There is an OBD-II forum on this board that discusses that. I have not yet plugged into OBD-II in my car.

**JuBu** · 03-15-2004, 05:43 PM

gork,

Do you know if there is any way we can get OBC/Check Control readings to output onto an external monitor?.

Originally Posted by gork

nl4jy: Yeah it's a slot-load. It's a tight fit up there where it is, but you have plenty of room to get the discs in and out.

Strahleman:

That is a good looking install. I have a favor to ask you -- Is it possible for you to take a better picture of how you mounted the case in the trunk? Mine is not secured at all and I'm trying to figure out the best way to mount it. This is not a good thing in an M3!

1) It is easy! The amplifier does not actually turn on and off via I-Bus messages (in the e46 at least.. cars with DSP may have to power the amps on with I-Bus) -- It powers on and off via a remote 12V feed like any aftermarket amp. The power wire is the 'antenna' wire on the radio wiring harness. I just wired the 12V 'antenna/amp turn on' to the 12V ignition wire, so the amp is on whenever the car is on. I will wire it to a switch at some point so I don't have to power it during things like racing events. Next, you need something to convert the unbalanced audio from the computer to the balanced audio that the H/K amp needs. I used a Peripheral Electronics VEN4.

I will try to write a good guide on this in the next few days as a lot of people have asked me about this, and there is not much information on the net about it.

2) In my E46, the OBC display is in the instrument cluster (IKE), so I don't have to worry about that. I don't think BMW ever sold cars with the radio you have in the US, so I'm not familiar with it.. You might try unplugging your radio and seeing if maybe the OBC works on the instrumetn cluster with the radio disconnected...

You cannot access temp/fuel/engine information via I-bus. You can get engine information via OBD-II, though, which is maybe what you want. There is an OBD-II forum on this board that discusses that. I have not yet plugged into OBD-II in my car.

**gork** · 03-15-2004, 07:35 PM

The only thing the OBC emits in the E46 is the time, which it sends to the radio for display when the radio is powered off. In the E36, the OBC was actually an optional component, so I doubt you can get anything out of it over IBus at all..

You might ask the guys on the HackTheIbus yahoo group. They know more about it that I do.. The only thing I do with I-Bus is read my sterring wheel buttons.

**belmontboy** · 03-19-2004, 04:04 PM

bondo = body filler or P46

**gork** · 03-19-2004, 04:11 PM

I have not heard of p46.. what is it?

My LCD bezel is formed from solid body filler. I used body filler reinforced with fiberglass for the bulk of it and used lightweight body filler to finish it out because it is a lot softer and easier to work with. It ended up weighing about 2 lbs in the end

Oh well, it's sturdy!

**jonee** · 03-23-2004, 02:05 AM

Great work!

I visited the hacktheibus forum but I didn't get any wiser, and it's a nightmare to find the info you need out there.
So here my question: Could you use the OBD plug to connect the carpc to the I-Bus and do the stuff you did? I know it wouldn't look good to have a cable running in front of the dash, between the carpc and the OBD plug, but I just want to know if it's the same connector.

**gork** · 03-23-2004, 02:10 AM

To be honest, I do not know if the I-Bus is available onthe OBD plug. There's a good chance it is, but it's also likely that it's not.. It's available on the factory radio harness, in the trunk on the CD changer harness, and in the center console under the cupholders if your car is "pre wired" for the BMW phone...

It's not too hard to find the I-Bus wire if you have an oscilloscope. It will be constant 12V and when there is activity you will see some 'bursts' down to 0V. If you want to be sure you've got I-Bus, try putting the key into and out of the ignition a few times. There is an I-Bus message generated when you put something into the key slot on the steering column and when you take it out...

**96infmsM3** · 03-26-2004, 09:29 PM

Any word on a possible write up for your installation? I'd be really interested since I have an E36 and some of the same stuff might apply to me. I especially want to know more about that firewire-ide bridge that you used. If you could direct me to a place where I could pick that up that would be awesome.
Thanks
Kyle

**gork** · 03-26-2004, 10:54 PM

The plan has always been to do a write-up "when it's finished" -- this has been somewhat long in the coming but now that it's warmer out in the garage, I'm working on it again and I'm making fast progress...

Currently My checklist to finish (at leat to have the items I initially wanted when I started the project) is looking like this:

Clean up and secure the components in the trunk so I can actually autocross without my case and stuff flying around - DONE (and wait till you see it!)
Switch to Lilliput Screen - DONE
OBD-II Interface - Installed - Haven't written software yet
Reverse Camera (automaticlly switch when the car is in reverse) - All hardware acquired; not yet installed.
Switch to Linux-compatible hardware - Done
Move to Linux - Installed. Working on software
LinuxBIOS - Mostly working; still having trouble with PIRQ routing, VGA BIOS, and SDRAM detection-- this will be a few weeks probably. Power on to userland times are currently around 3.5s in my setup, but I have a lot of room left to improve that

My goals are to have a system that not only looks great but functions even better than it looks. My main reasons for moving to Linux are: 1) I can actually program in Linux and 2) I should be able to achieve a boot time of <5s from turning the key.

I started a media player app in VB (if you dig around in these forums really deep you can probably find the screenshots), but it got clunky really really fast. I personally believe Windows to be a dead end on the car-pc front (for me anyway). My XMPC-CAR app will soon be released under the BSD license so that MediaEngine, MediaCar, et. al. will be able to freely incorporate it. It is a tedium of VB!

Anyway, I have lots of stuff going on the car front right now, so stay tuned

**shakes** · 03-27-2004, 11:08 PM

what do you plan to do for GPS in linux? As i understand it there are no vector based GPS products for linux ... they all just use JPG sections of the maps??