heinzboehmer's 2002 Topaz 6MT Coupe

[YoitsTmac]

High res factory nav replacement would be so choice. If you get there, I may pick up the effort to pack the head unit internals behind the screen to avoid the full nav harness run to the trunk. That is, if the iDrive retrofit effort stalls.

Not stalled! Working with a PCB designer finalizing designs. I have otherwise been working on this all day because I want to get this out soon. For iDrive, my only holdup right now is my PCB designer messed up the original design and I had to hire another designer to make sure the first designer is staying...within the design scoped .

I'm software first, so all this hardware stuff I am doing really slowly to make sure everything is handled appropriately. Like I shared with you, I may even outsource the bezel. A little sad given how "close" I am, but I may not have what it takes to make a polished final design. Once the design is back, I'm making 5, quadruple checking and refining firmware, and then some test samples will be sent out.

Have you seen this effort? https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...onnected-drive

There is some iDrive screen out of a Mini that packages nicely in the dash with a custom bezel. I helped YoitsTmac print out a prototype of the bezel, but looks like I didn't take any pictures of it with the screen installed. Maybe he'll chime in with some.

Don't know if that screen will be easier or harder to interface with, but it might be nice to base the product around HW that was mass manufactured by BMW (and can be scavenged out of any junkyard), instead of something that could get EOL'd in the future.

Man, Ted and I haven't talked since before I started learning how to code! I knew Ted was working on a CarPlay headunit. I think back then, it was just growing into something beyond an idea. I'm excited to see where he goes because I'm a HUGE fan of Bluebus. If he executes at the same level of attention and care, I think he'll have the best headunit for E46 available.

My personal allures to iDrive are:
- the screen is top notch in brightness, low reflectivity, responsiveness to touch, viewing angles and resolutions.
- great UI for trips
- the "favorite button" row I feel is damn near the perfect auto UI for infotainment.
- mildly the "OEM+" feeling.

The MINI screen is insanely good. I actually began looking into trying to render my own UI on it myself, but it's WELL beyond my abilities. 10/10 much better off just piggybacking off BMWs HU by spoofing and translating some messages

[heinzboehmer]

Still can't trust it which is problematic on a large project, which is a much bigger problem than bosses want to believe.

100%. The amount of code I've looked at that is clearly written by these tools with zero review by an engineer is staggering.

Seems like a lot of the people (usually without engineering backgrounds) that are calling for mass adoption keep forgetting that the tools have no critical thinking skills.

Calculators help speed up arithmetic operations, but you still need someone who knows what they're doing to feed the correct numbers into them. Same story with the new gen tooling.

[oceansize]

Oh man, same. I've found some success using these technologies for what they're good for, which is processing large amounts of data. Distilling down docs, trying to make sense of convoluted code paths, that kinda thing.

Think more people should treat them as tools instead of full on engineering replacements.

Agree. Its ludicrous the amount of hype that is being generated. I code every single day. Its what I do all day every day and I attempt to heavily use AI. It is not a replacement. I use it for generating small code samples when I'm unfamiliar with a language, API, or framework. Its shines in helping me get started and being productive fast. Text summarization is also one of the large benefits. As of late, its gotten pretty good at updating a legacy code base with technical debt to a more modern version. Still can't trust it which is problematic on a large project, which is a much bigger problem than bosses want to believe.

[heinzboehmer]

1. I honestly need to do more work to dial in the microphone quality. Interestingly the G-series Mic (84108794736) is a plug and play replacement in terms of wiring, and it performs pretty well on calls while at speed (using a 7dB Mic Gain value). The only problem is it doesn't directly slot in place, so I need to design an adapter plate.

Any pics of the G series mic? More than happy to help out with the design/testing for this if you need extra hands. Also recently bought a 3D scanner if you need any scans of the part or chassis

2. Yes, I am working on this, but it would be for factory Nav cars. At this time, the hardware WAS done, but then Texas Instruments EOL'd a part of the BOM. I need to rework this part of the circuit and then lay out the PCB once and for all.

I did, however, recently come upon some screens that could be used to replace the really crappy 16:9 TFT, so maybeeeeeeeeee I could start selling 16:9 retrofit kits with upgraded screens, Carplay / AA, Bluetooth, etc.

Have you seen this effort? https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...onnected-drive

There is some iDrive screen out of a Mini that packages nicely in the dash with a custom bezel. I helped YoitsTmac print out a prototype of the bezel, but looks like I didn't take any pictures of it with the screen installed. Maybe he'll chime in with some.

Don't know if that screen will be easier or harder to interface with, but it might be nice to base the product around HW that was mass manufactured by BMW (and can be scavenged out of any junkyard), instead of something that could get EOL'd in the future.

My boss at my day job is all over us to embrace the slop and I can't bring myself to use it for anything other than debugging or writing one-time-use scripts that I know I will never need to debug. Yuck.

Oh man, same. I've found some success using these technologies for what they're good for, which is processing large amounts of data. Distilling down docs, trying to make sense of convoluted code paths, that kinda thing.

Think more people should treat them as tools instead of full on engineering replacements.

Do you have access to the Gauge.S source code? Sorek and I spoke about forwarding Gauge.S values to the BlueBus by emulating factory diagnostics. Essentially, the Gauge.S would send a D-Bus packet to a module on the I-Bus (such as Japanese Nav; 0xBB) and that packet would contain data for the BlueBus to be able to display to the user.

I don't have access, no I've tried asking for it, but have gotten nowhere.

My plan is similar. I'm pretty sure I can use it to send arbitrary D Bus frames, so emulating the diagnostics is doable in theory.

Functionality isn't super well documented, but there's some mention of the extended D Bus stuff here: https://github.com/handmade0octopus/...ig#fundatajson

I've managed to get brake pressure data from the MK60 like this:

{
  "funData": [
    {
      "name": "Kline req 2",
      "frequency": 2, // every 0.5 seconds
      "values8": ["0xB8", "0x29", "0xF1", "0x02", "0x21", "0x06", "0x45"], // MK60
      "expr": [
        "obtainKline('Kline req 2', 0x11)" // KWP protocol
      ]
    }
  ]
}

It seems like the approach could be extended to just spit out data on the bus. We'll see.

[Bry5on]

High res factory nav replacement would be so choice. If you get there, I may pick up the effort to pack the head unit internals behind the screen to avoid the full nav harness run to the trunk. That is, if the iDrive retrofit effort stalls.

[George Hill]

That project is so stalled right now. I think I am going to take a couple days off work and just strip it to a bare shell so I can finally get the ball rolling. Your CF roof is sitting in my basement still

I feel that, such is life sometimes.

1. I honestly need to do more work to dial in the microphone quality. Interestingly the G-series Mic (84108794736) is a plug and play replacement in terms of wiring, and it performs pretty well on calls while at speed (using a 7dB Mic Gain value). The only problem is it doesn't directly slot in place, so I need to design an adapter plate.

I'll track one of these down and try it out.

2. Yes, I am working on this, but it would be for factory Nav cars. At this time, the hardware WAS done, but then Texas Instruments EOL'd a part of the BOM. I need to rework this part of the circuit and then lay out the PCB once and for all.

I did, however, recently come upon some screens that could be used to replace the really crappy 16:9 TFT, so maybeeeeeeeeee I could start selling 16:9 retrofit kits with upgraded screens, Carplay / AA, Bluetooth, etc.

I'm game!

[t3ddftw]

Feature works great and t3ddftw's codebase is a breath of fresh air compared to some of the stuff I get to interact with on a day to day basis. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the BlueBus is by far the most polished product I've ever installed on my car. Love it.

Thanks for the kind words, Heinz! Software is my background, so that has helped with the code quality, haha. I really do need to sit down and break out a lot of these huge files (handler(s) / ibus.c) into their own files, though, because they are absolutely unwieldy,

One man, maybe two man, show. As you well know the less people that touch a codebase the better, and more consistent, its going to be (well in most cases).

One Man, but I have had contributions to the code! I am a bit of an ass about it as I will accept the code, but then refactor it until it follows the same paradigms as the rest of the code base before merging it in.

And he's a true enthusiast who is building a full conversion M3 touring. 😎

That project is so stalled right now. I think I am going to take a couple days off work and just strip it to a bare shell so I can finally get the ball rolling. Your CF roof is sitting in my basement still

Totally fair. The BlueBus has (2) limitations IMO, and neither of those are Ted's fault.

1. The factory mic is just not great, so phone calls just aren't as good as aftermarket systems (even with aftermarket mics in the factory location).
2. CarPlay/Android Auto, if you need/want that feature you have no option but to look at something else, but I thought I recalled seeing him post that he is working on a CP option?

1. I honestly need to do more work to dial in the microphone quality. Interestingly the G-series Mic (84108794736) is a plug and play replacement in terms of wiring, and it performs pretty well on calls while at speed (using a 7dB Mic Gain value). The only problem is it doesn't directly slot in place, so I need to design an adapter plate.

2. Yes, I am working on this, but it would be for factory Nav cars. At this time, the hardware WAS done, but then Texas Instruments EOL'd a part of the BOM. I need to rework this part of the circuit and then lay out the PCB once and for all.

I did, however, recently come upon some screens that could be used to replace the really crappy 16:9 TFT, so maybeeeeeeeeee I could start selling 16:9 retrofit kits with upgraded screens, Carplay / AA, Bluetooth, etc.

Now, Claude is all over me now days and I can't get that bastard to shut up

My boss at my day job is all over us to embrace the slop and I can't bring myself to use it for anything other than debugging or writing one-time-use scripts that I know I will never need to debug. Yuck.
I have toyed around with the idea (which was suggested to me by someone else) of having Claude write unit tests for the BlueBus firmware.. Certainly some tests will be better than none.

T
Anyway, the real question is what to do with this newfound capability. I'm thinking that displaying the current gear might be a good starting point. My Gauge.S already calculates that, so just need to figure out how to get the info from it to the BlueBus and should be good to go.

Do you have access to the Gauge.S source code? Sorek and I spoke about forwarding Gauge.S values to the BlueBus by emulating factory diagnostics. Essentially, the Gauge.S would send a D-Bus packet to a module on the I-Bus (such as Japanese Nav; 0xBB) and that packet would contain data for the BlueBus to be able to display to the user. I haven't had the time to make this materialize though

Thanks!
-Ted

[heinzboehmer]

My apologies - I somehow managed to completely miss this and thought it was just the files shared in the Google Drive.

Oh, the link was a very recent silent addition

Was always intending on sharing, but didn't want to do so before landing on a final design. Figured it would be easy for people to make copies of it and end up referencing an out of date file.

[karter16]

CAD is linked in the doc if you're curious and want to poke around with the design.

My apologies - I somehow managed to completely miss this and thought it was just the files shared in the Google Drive.

[heinzboehmer]

Need you to upload the files for the 3D printed brackets first 😉

Haha seriously though, really trying to wrap up a few things before I embark on this. Can't wait though!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Right, ha.

I'll do that this weekend.

CAD is linked in the doc if you're curious and want to poke around with the design.

[karter16]

Dooo it

Need you to upload the files for the 3D printed brackets first 😉

Haha seriously though, really trying to wrap up a few things before I embark on this. Can't wait though!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[heinzboehmer]

You're both making me want to quit finishing my current projects and jump straight to this one haha.

Dooo it

[karter16]

It’s wild how much the chassis feel changes. Not having the front bracing makes the car feel like it’s on way softer springs to me. Probably the easiest way I can think of communicating the change. It’s ’pleasant’ to tool around in the stock car but ‘fun’ to tool around in the stiffened car.

Crazy isn't it?

That's a good comparison. No bracing almost makes the car feel more "relaxed".

You're both making me want to quit finishing my current projects and jump straight to this one haha.

[heinzboehmer]

Crazy isn't it?

That's a good comparison. No bracing almost makes the car feel more "relaxed".

[Bry5on]

It’s wild how much the chassis feel changes. Not having the front bracing makes the car feel like it’s on way softer springs to me. Probably the easiest way I can think of communicating the change. It’s ’pleasant’ to tool around in the stock car but ‘fun’ to tool around in the stiffened car.