iDrive 6 + Keyless entry + BMW Connected Drive

[YoitsTmac]

Really new to production. Annoyed and thankful but apparently my order has been sitting waiting for a week because they sent me pictures and wanted me to confirm/approve the quality of the boards. Once I get these boards in, I'm going to take a large amount of PTO so I can harden this firmware and get a few copies out to people for testing. After this message, I am reaching out to my iDrive bezel designer to make sure all the pieces here keep moving. I'm really disappointed I potentially missed a window to get these a week sooner - lessoned learned.

[0-60motorsports]

Really new to production. Annoyed and thankful but apparently my order has been sitting waiting for a week because they sent me pictures and wanted me to confirm/approve the quality of the boards. Once I get these boards in, I'm going to take a large amount of PTO so I can harden this firmware and get a few copies out to people for testing. After this message, I am reaching out to my iDrive bezel designer to make sure all the pieces here keep moving. I'm really disappointed I potentially missed a window to get these a week sooner - lessoned learned.

Still a great update! Thanks.

[YoitsTmac]

Sorry for lame updates but as this thread shows, this is months in the making. I don't really talk much about this project outside of this thread, so even the small updates are worth sharing in my eyes. the update?

dev boards ship! Really risking it for the biscuit-ing as I ordered 10. Sooo I really hope all my homework, dilligence and the professional designer I hired all pay off and work as intended so I can give out some samples for people to try out.

[Bry5on]

iDrive controller scan, if it's useful for anyone else: https://s.digital3dcloud.com/space/f...7-3634112ca3cd

[YoitsTmac]

So to me, this is terrible news. To most, this is just a small setback. I have looked at it a lot of different ways and it seems that for the screen area, a fold out sunglasses holder. The original idea was to immitate the factory headunit: an outer bezel that serves as the core frame, and an internal actuation that flips the screen out but with the addition of revealing a sunglasses holder. I assumed it would work because I knew the screen was wide enough to accomodate the glasses. However, that delta between the dashboard opening and my donor screen is too minimal to make it happen.

You need your outer bezel/shell to be thick enough to hold shape as it's structual, and then you need enough room between that outer shell and the edge of the screen so that an internal bezel can be attached TO the screen. That's easy enough if you have the space. Unfortunately, I only have 3mm of space on each side. It's just not sufficient. There are other "solutions" to wiggle out of this situation, but there's generally other consequences. For example, I thought about having the entire fascia swivel out, buttons and all. But if I did that, not only do I need a strong motor to move that to ensure it can overcome the torque of the dashboard fit, but you risk interfering with the dash unless it pulls completely out, and then the entire enclosure suddenly gets very complicated and even risks alignment drift (at least, when someone like me designs it). Then I thought about swiveling from the center but eventually, some part of the integral area has to be thinned and it's just too thin with margins too tight of any reason.

Obviously, this doesn't mean the project is impossible, but it does mean I will still scream at how such a "full sized" car has nowhere for my sunglasses. And just to bbe clear, if I controlled the entire product IE I made the screen and all, the solution would be to make the screen slightly smaller, and there would be no issue at all. The good news in all of this is that it'll be easier than ever now that the design will have less pieces: outer bezel, screen bracket, buttons and a rotary knob.

Couple photos to show how tight that clearance is.

[Obioban]

Sunglass case fits perfect in the door pocket, and then the lenses have a nice soft surface to not get scratched by

[Bry5on]

Sunglass case fits perfect in the door pocket, and then the lenses have a nice soft surface to not get scratched by

You, clearly, do not live in the Bay Area. That’s an invitation for a shattered window.

… glad I left, that’s where I keep my sunglasses

[D-O]

You, clearly, do not live in the Bay Area. That’s an invitation for a shattered window.

… glad I left, that’s where I keep my sunglasses

Miami was like that in the 80's and 90's. It may still be that way. It was best to leave it unlocked and leave nothing behind.

[Obioban]

You, clearly, do not live in the Bay Area. That’s an invitation for a shattered window.

… glad I left, that’s where I keep my sunglasses

Ha, true. I’ve never once worried about my car being broken into.

….nor do I desire to ever live in a place where that’s a concern. High trust society/first world living ftw.

[YoitsTmac]

Hey team!

Alright, at least I have some promising updates. Of course, nothing has come frictionless and that pattern seems it will be continuing. So I officially got my prototypes in. Man, I have to say, it is so cool to go from idea to holding something in your hand.

They arrived one day and then the cables to connect to it came from a different supplier the next day. So I get the cables and just lots of small issues: I got 10-pin connectors and the prototype has 12. And the pins don’t fit the connector. Sigh. I clearly lack the ripples in my brain to comprehend how to read those pinout data sheets. Thankfully, I also believe I don’t need to once I get some core sizes picked out.

So then the right cables come in and I wire all the CAN bus’s and KBUS. I pull out my bench power supply andddd current protection is tripped. Now, if you were foolish, you’d say “maybe this just needs a surge of initial power to get going” and you keep turning the brr dial until hear a pop. Of course, I am not that fool…

So once I realized this wasn’t working, did what felt like a dozen continuity tests, checking for shorts and to make sure the power flow from input to MCU were all as intended. After about 2-3 hours on a work night, I decided to call it and reach out to my PCB designer. He responded immediately apologizing that a single diode was the wrong orientation. Soooo me and my heat gun tonight are going to remove or rotate these to try and get something to boot.

I have a ton of pending pre-written firmware tests I want to run to validate all the functionality and the libraries I’ve made to be the basis of all functionality.



I feel all these updates have been really boring as there’s no real proof-of-concept. I appreciate everyone following along. This is nearly as fast as I can do it without bending over on shipping and expedition costs. I’m also learning along the way as I’ve needed other people and resources I’ve never used before to get this far. Prior to this project, I didn’t care for PCB design or CAD or really knew much of anything about either. I’ve learned about supply chain optimizations and resource availability at a global level. It’s equally a mind opener as it has felt road blocking.

I feel confident in saying that once my high-temp tape comes in and I get these booted, developement will be moving very quickly as software hurdles are always self-solvable. I can’t wait to show some remote-control demos.

Lastly, it has been exceedingly difficult to get a designer on-board and to follow through. I have been letting people present their own price so I’m not sure what else I could be doing. As of two days ago, I had someone building me a proposal. So hopefully that comes through and I can get a PCB for those designed as well. Next update should be especially exciting. Thanks everyone

[Bry5on]

Very excellent update, nice work man! Welcome to the world of hardware manufacturing

[0-60motorsports]

I seriously cannot wait for this.

YoitsTmac Do you have a recommended list of parts that people would need to buy?

[YoitsTmac]

I seriously cannot wait for this.

YoitsTmac Do you have a recommended list of parts that people would need to buy?

So some of this will be easily replicable, some will not. Let's get a full working prototype going to ensure everything is solidified, and then go from there. I promise I will make sure that nearly anyone will be able to have iDrive 6 who wants to.

edit: Tape needed to protect the board while I heat it up came last night. I played games with some friends. Tonight I have a date, tomorrow I have a car show and then another date. Sunday meeting up with a friend in the morning and cleaning some new wheels into the afternoon. This project will hit a brief pause over the next 4 days or so.