BlueBus: A fully integrated A2DP Bluetooth solution

[t3ddftw]

Perhaps I should consider selling my brand new bluebus 🤔

Just kidding of course, looking forward to installing it once the car comes out of storage as I don't care about the money.

Did I sell you one of the hand-made units? Those are so much work to assemble, lol.

Hope you enjoy it!

-Ted

[r4dr]

I had my BlueBus sitting on my desk for the better part of 2 years, and I finally installed it a couple weeks ago. Thanks to Ted for helping me with some questions, and the Bluetooth quality is really, really good. I don't think the speakers in my M3 are that great, just that factory Bluetooth setups seem to lose a lot of depth in comparison. Loving my BlueBus.

[Der_Spanier]

Seems they got a deal!



😩🔫

At least two of them were sold auction and not buy it now…

I've not been afraid of having my E46 broken into for a long time. These cars just aren't attractive to thieves anymore. Seeing the BlueBus second-hand market however I'll think twice now before parking in dodgy areas 😂

I love that someone sold theirs for $675 and still had to charge extra for shipping... God forbid they miss out on a couple dollars profit.

[jet_dogg]

Did I sell you one of the hand-made units? Those are so much work to assemble, lol.

Hope you enjoy it!

-Ted

I got mine in October so I'm not sure. If it is then I can extort more money!!!

The unit is worth more to me than the money it can fetch, anyway. I used to burn cds to play in-dash 🤠

[Rekpoint]

Picked up 2 bluebuses second-hand for great prices. One for myself one for a friend of mine.
Excited to pull the E46 m3 out here in the next couple of weeks and get them installed!

[campful]

Been eyeing one of these for ages... but could never force myself to pull the trigger since my fm transmitter gets the job done. A customer/friend of the shop I work at has a e39 M5 who has a nice aftermarket head unit installed. In the trunk, I found a bluebus module that he clearly wasn't using anymore. I asked how much he wanted for it and he just gave it to me for FREE. I'm ecstatic! Plan on upgrading the firmware and installing over the weekend. Will share back with pictures since my E46 M3 still has the original 4:3 NAV screen. Haven't seen any photos of it on that style of head unit.

[t3ddftw]

I've not been afraid of having my E46 broken into for a long time.

Haha, no one knows what it is, thankfully!

I got mine in October so I'm not sure. If it is then I can extort more money!!!

The unit is worth more to me than the money it can fetch, anyway. I used to burn cds to play in-dash 🤠

Ah, you got one from the last production run

Picked up 2 bluebuses second-hand for great prices. One for myself one for a friend of mine.
Excited to pull the E46 m3 out here in the next couple of weeks and get them installed!

That's awesome! I'm glad they are not all being sold at crazy prices.

Been eyeing one of these for ages... but could never force myself to pull the trigger since my fm transmitter gets the job done. A customer/friend of the shop I work at has a e39 M5 who has a nice aftermarket head unit installed. In the trunk, I found a bluebus module that he clearly wasn't using anymore. I asked how much he wanted for it and he just gave it to me for FREE. I'm ecstatic! Plan on upgrading the firmware and installing over the weekend. Will share back with pictures since my E46 M3 still has the original 4:3 NAV screen. Haven't seen any photos of it on that style of head unit.

That is AWESOME! I'm glad someone will be making use of it

Definitely recommend you upgrade to the 16:9 with a MKIV Navi though -- they're just way better.

[dutchhome]

I believe we have tested the BlueBus on every nav screen at this point. Between a few of us we have quite a collection of head units. Doesn’t surprise me that they haven’t all been posted online though.

[t3ddftw]

I believe we have tested the BlueBus on every nav screen at this point. Between a few of us we have quite a collection of head units. Doesn’t surprise me that they haven’t all been posted online though.

Yeah, it definitely works on the whole slew of them -- even the Video Module "only" setups offered places where they couldn't use Navigation due to lack of maps (Hong Kong, South Korea, etc).

It just works best on the MKIV because it has a much faster SoC .

I also forgot to mention: I am opening up pre-orders on April 4th with a ship date in late June / early July. The exciting part is that through the redesign I am able to offer it for $199 USD now, instead of $235.

Thanks!
-Ted

[Interlagos]

Yeah, it definitely works on the whole slew of them -- even the Video Module "only" setups offered places where they couldn't use Navigation due to lack of maps (Hong Kong, South Korea, etc).

It just works best on the MKIV because it has a much faster SoC .

I also forgot to mention: I am opening up pre-orders on April 4th with a ship date in late June / early July. The exciting part is that through the redesign I am able to offer it for $199 USD now, instead of $235.

Thanks!
-Ted

Great news — thanks, Ted! Looking forward to signing up for the pre-order.

[rdenis]

Hi Ted or anyone else - from the firmware 1.18 description re: CD53 on https://www.bluebus.dev/software:

• Add additional settings [Comfort Unlock, Telephone volume offset, Lower Volume on Reverse]
  .
• Emulate MFL to allow automatic volume scaling for calls for CD53 vehicles (to prevent calls from being too quiet)

Specifically,

1. Do the above solve the issue where a call comes in and we need to crank the radio knob volume to hear the caller and when the call ends get blasted by the radio volume being too high?
   .
2. How/what does the "telephone volume offset" work, i.e. what are the settings/ranges/etc. for this that can be changed?

This is for a non-nav Z4 with CD53 business radio.

Thanks in advance.

[Rekpoint]

Just pre-ordered 2 more.
One for another friend. One for my father.
4 Total. Thanks for making an awesome product!

[Interlagos]

Pre-order submitted — looking forward to finally getting one of these this summer.

Thanks, Ted!

[t3ddftw]

Hi Ted or anyone else - from the firmware 1.18 description re: CD53 on https://www.bluebus.dev/software:

• Add additional settings [Comfort Unlock, Telephone volume offset, Lower Volume on Reverse]
  .
• Emulate MFL to allow automatic volume scaling for calls for CD53 vehicles (to prevent calls from being too quiet)

Specifically,

1. Do the above solve the issue where a call comes in and we need to crank the radio knob volume to hear the caller and when the call ends get blasted by the radio volume being too high?
   .
2. How/what does the "telephone volume offset" work, i.e. what are the settings/ranges/etc. for this that can be changed?

This is for a non-nav Z4 with CD53 business radio.

Thanks in advance.

1. That is what the aim was, but I couldn't test it as I don't own a non-Nav car anymore (I retrofit Nav into my E46 Touring).
2. Each offset step is one tap of the volume up button on the steering wheel. Does that make sense?

Just pre-ordered 2 more.
One for another friend. One for my father.
4 Total. Thanks for making an awesome product!

Thanks for your support!

Pre-order submitted — looking forward to finally getting one of these this summer.

Thanks, Ted!

Thanks for your support as well!

-Ted

[rdenis]

1. That is what the aim was, but I couldn't test it as I don't own a non-Nav car anymore (I retrofit Nav into my E46 Touring).
2. Each offset step is one tap of the volume up button on the steering wheel. Does that make sense?



Thanks for your support!



Thanks for your support as well!

-Ted

Ok great, that explains it and it works pretty well with one little bug noted below. For other non nav users with CD53, the volume offset range is from 0 - 15 where 15 cranks the volume to max. I found a setting of 10 to my liking in my z4. So basically what happens now is call comes in, music is interrupted, call volume is turned up to 10 out of 15 and when call ends, the volume for music/radio reverts back to pre call level.

The one small bug I found is after the call end, the radio head unit volume knob no longer changes the volume of my music up or down - it remains "inactive" until I push the volume knob (power off/power on head unit). That will then reset the knob operation and I can control the volume of the music as normal. I didn't have a chance to test whether this bug is present in other situations other than specifically describe here - e.g. I didn't try adjusting the in call volume with the knob and the offset at 10 or any other offset level. I didn't try with different sources of music other than my phone connected via BlueBus - I plan to test with other sources via the mode selection button on the head unit.

One other note - on my non-nav Z4 with no PDC sensors, the cut volume on reverse gear also works!