2000 BMW 328Ci (e46) - laptop install

**gork** · 08-14-2005, 01:04 AM

That all looks good; but you may have some trouble using BMW's antenna with your computer's FM tuner. Some have reported success with this; for me it doesn't give me any improvement. I just strung a normal FM dipole antenna across the top of the trunk and it works better than using BMW's OEM antenna. Still it's worth trying.

Those cat6 cables would be good if you wanted to hook up some serial devices or something, so I think you have the right idea with that. I actually bought serial extension cables; I don't know what I was thinking. I have a big bag of like 50 RJ45->DB9 hoods!

Instead of burning one of the wires in the cat6 cable for your shutdown controller, why don't you just run an extra pair of that 18-2AWG cable? or a single spare 20-24 guage wire? Since you're running the cables all anyway might as well not waste that spare cat6 so fast...

And yes the black wire on the SVEN4 needs to be connected to the GND in the radio wiring harness in the front, but it should be the same GND you can attach to anywhere in the car or by screwing to the chassis. See, the amp wiring in the E46 is balanced, so it's actually 3 wires per speaker: Signal +, Signal -, and GND (GND is shared between all 4 speakers) This is unlike unbalanced audio which will have only a signal and GND (but often the GND is isolated) Since this GND wire is a vital part of the audio path I would not recommend putting it through on a piece of cat5. The wire is not big enough for one and the potential for noise is greatly increased. I would put the entire SVEN4 up front. Run unbalanced audio from your computer up to the SVEN4 through your coax then connect the balanced audio out of the SVEN4 to the wiring harness in the front of the car.

**Hark** · 08-14-2005, 10:03 PM

Originally Posted by Magician

Hark, can you clarify where you placed the BMW harness? From your Visio diagram it's shown right by the HK amplifier; curious if you have found a way to hook it up to amp right there, instead of running separate 4ch audio cables all the way to the front. My constraint is, just like many others, to not make any permanent change to original wiring. I don't want to cut anything.

It would really help if you can list the wires that goes from back to front.

Thanks.

I didn't run the ignition wire back to the trunk, I looped it as described here.

The BMW harness is right by the HK amplifer, definitely didn't run any audio cables from front, since the only thing in the front is my Xenarc. The only cables I ran from front are Xenarc extension cable (VGA and USB), and a power cable (Xenarc is powered by shutdown controller in trunk). Everything you need is in the trunk.

**Hark** · 08-14-2005, 10:12 PM

Originally Posted by Jir1984

hey hark have you traced the acc line. just wonderin where to tap into with my shutdown controller..let me know when you have a chance

thanks

I'm pretty sure I took the acc line from the stalk of wires in the trunk, but it's been so long I can't remember for sure. The pics I took seem to indicate that it's the case (see above posts). I am positive that it's from the trunk somewhere, and not from behind the dash.

**gork** · 08-15-2005, 01:48 AM

Hark: The key difference between your install and most of the other E46's like mine is that that you started with a car that had NAV. In a car with navigation, the main car's wiring harness is completely different.

In a NAV car the radio harness (the one that the the adaptor I built that you linked to) plugs into the radio module in the trunk. In a car without nav, it plugs into the head unit at the front of the car. Sorry for the confusion; it's the same approach either way.

So anyway, the short story is that if you have a car with nav, an acc line on the radio wiring harness is suitable, and it's in the trunk. If you have a car without nav, the acc line on the radio harness is suitable and it's behind the dash

Hope that's clear as mud!

**Hark** · 08-15-2005, 08:24 AM

Thanks for clearing that up - sorry for misleading anyone

**Hark** · 08-18-2005, 11:49 AM

Has anyone able to control Centrafuse using the IBus adapter/steering wheel controls yet? I have it working for Frodoplayer, but for some reason I'm stuck on getting it to work with CF. I'm thinking I have the wrong application window defined in the Ibuscom.ini file - I assumed it would be "centrafuse" since that's what is listed in the task bar and in the task manager.

**JPuma** · 09-01-2005, 10:49 PM

dont use any active program and the commands will work with any prgram that in focus.

**MPossible** · 09-06-2005, 06:22 PM

hey hark AWESOME progress so far... i am gettin ready to do my install on my e46 as well... quick question.. in one of the 1st pages of posts you said something about having to cut the plastic piece that would interfere with the screen fitting into the double din... are you concerned about returning to stock and can you comment more on this.. i want to be able to also go back to stock and dont want to have to cut anything if possible... thanks

**srcstc** · 09-06-2005, 06:34 PM

Originally Posted by MPossible

hey hark AWESOME progress so far... i am gettin ready to do my install on my e46 as well... quick question.. in one of the 1st pages of posts you said something about having to cut the plastic piece that would interfere with the screen fitting into the double din... are you concerned about returning to stock and can you comment more on this.. i want to be able to also go back to stock and dont want to have to cut anything if possible... thanks

The piece he cut costs about $40 to replace.

-Rich

**MPossible** · 09-06-2005, 06:36 PM

thanks rich for the quick reply... do you happen to have a part number??? and how hard is it to replace that piece... almost there btw for the bezel order....