heinzboehmer's 2002 Topaz 6MT Coupe

[heinzboehmer]

Well, the brackets have survived 500 street miles and a track day. Think I'm gonna call that a tentative success. Time will tell how quickly these will fatigue, but I'm not too worried about them.

Here's what they look like now:




No cracks, no weird witness marks and all fasteners still torqued to spec. Off to paint!

I did notice one other thing though. Looks like the cabin air filter housing is dynamically contacting the PCV hose on top of the engine:



Fixed in CAD by adding a big fillet to the front, similar to how the BMW part is designed:



I was feeling too lazy to reprint/reassemble this part, so I tried heating up the one I have and making some clearance manually. That didn't work at all, so came up with a genius strategy: ignore!

I'll probably eventually reprint this, but the interference is minor and I'm not all that worried about it. I'll throw some tesa tape or similar on the part so that it doesn't cut through the PCV hose and it should be fine.

[heinzboehmer]

no C/C++ as I'm not in the embedded world or OS focused

Checks out, cause that's exactly where I'm in

Love it! I'd rather use my phone for nav than have an aftermarket stereo.

Fully agree!

[oceansize]

Love it! I'd rather use my phone for nav than have an aftermarket stereo.

I bought a cheap blue tooth receiver to plug into the auxiliary jack while I mull it over. At least I have my music now.

[George Hill]

If I do want to pull up a map, I just use my phone on a mount up on the dash. I printed this thing and really like where it puts the screen:]

Love it! I'd rather use my phone for nav than have an aftermarket stereo.

[oceansize]

Lol, that's exactly how I feel whenever I look at Java codebases. I'm used to C/C++ and Java scares me . Especially when I stumble on SomeClassThatIsActuallyAFactoryAndDoesOneVerySpeci ficThingButMustBeNamedGenericallyInCaseItEverIsExt endedInTheFuture_UnitTest3.

I'm all over the map these days: Typescript, JavaScript, Go, C#, Java (much less now), Rust, PL/SQL, T-SQL, XSL, SQL, and oddly enough, no C/C++ as I'm not in the embedded world or OS focused, however that is what I came up on and first coded in. Running IRIX on SGI boxes, I've been at this a minute lol. Its cool though, keeps me young cause you can't stop learning or ya die. Now, Claude is all over me now days and I can't get that bastard to shut up

[heinzboehmer]

I need to do this too. Do you have a link to the latest Bluebus firmware?

It's not part of the BlueBus release FW. If you want the feature, you need to clone my fork of the BlueBus repo and build the FW yourself. Then you can flash with Ted's util: https://github.com/tedsalmon/BlueBus...rmware-Upgrade

Also worth noting that I only added the functionality into the CD53 UI. You'd need to port the feature over to the nav UI to use on there, if that's what you have on your car.

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). I remember there was a pop3 email program written back in the day that was super clean and noted as such. I was like man, do you know what I would give to code to a long established spec and not user whims? lol.

Man, yeah that sounds like the dream. Biggest gripe for me is always vendor code. I've spent so much time trying to decipher what the engineer was intending to do when debugging a supposedly stable code drop that doesn't actually work.

Side note from the days of Java's garbage collection being a big thing, my favorite quote to this day: 'If Java had true garbage collection, most programs would delete themselves upon execution", just apply that to almost every app or sizeable codebase ever written.

Lol, that's exactly how I feel whenever I look at Java codebases. I'm used to C/C++ and Java scares me . Especially when I stumble on SomeClassThatIsActuallyAFactoryAndDoesOneVerySpeci ficThingButMustBeNamedGenericallyInCaseItEverIsExt endedInTheFuture_UnitTest3.

Anyways, I need to get a BlueBus, but I'm torn between that and putting in another touch screen for CarPlay.

I have a CarPlay piggyback unit in the E82 daily and can't say I miss it in the E46. BlueBus does everything I need it to do, except for navigation. I've driven a couple E46s with CarPlay retrofits and don't love the screen position, especially compared to the where the screen is on the E82. I find it super hard to quickly glance at the nav screen in the E46.

If I do want to pull up a map, I just use my phone on a mount up on the dash. I printed this thing and really like where it puts the screen:

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?

There seems to be a decent amount of development on the E46 CarPlay retrofit front. Couple (slightly) different approaches I've seen:

- https://github.com/AidFTech/MKA-Lite
- https://github.com/DrZedEau/RPI5_RGsB_HAT & https://github.com/DrZedEau/RGsB_Switcher_IBUS_BMW

[George Hill]

I've noticed his service, the best. ... That is where my struggle comes in.

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?

[oceansize]

Fixed that for you.

Teds great. A custom product is one thing, but customer service after the fact is second to none. I generally don't install aftermarket radios in cars but I broke my rule recently and remembered why I don't. But not with the BB, its just so good I keep them in stock.

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

I've noticed his service, the best. The absolute best and I would have no qualms purchasing. However, I've been super happy with the Sony kit I put in the convertible from Enfig. The installation is super easy with their harnesses and then I put in Bav sound speakers since the convertible's were 20 years old.

I do enjoy how clean looking the coupe's head unit is (non nav), plus it is absolutely mint. That is where my struggle comes in.

[George Hill]

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..

One man show.

Fixed that for you.

Teds great. A custom product is one thing, but customer service after the fact is second to none. I generally don't install aftermarket radios in cars but I broke my rule recently and remembered why I don't. But not with the BB, its just so good I keep them in stock.

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

[oceansize]

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.
.

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). I remember there was a pop3 email program written back in the day that was super clean and noted as such. I was like man, do you know what I would give to code to a long established spec and not user whims? lol.

Anyways, I need to get a BlueBus, but I'm torn between that and putting in another touch screen for CarPlay.


Side note from the days of Java's garbage collection being a big thing, my favorite quote to this day: 'If Java had true garbage collection, most programs would delete themselves upon execution", just apply that to almost every app or sizeable codebase ever written.

[0-60motorsports]

Also, quick and easy project today.

Not sure if this is a quirk specific to my car, but when the passenger mirror auto dip is enabled, the mirror never really comes back to where I set it. Seems to overshoot by a little bit. If I issue the recall memory command, it goes back to where it was before. Weird, but I've just lived with it since pressing a couple buttons after coming out of reverse isn't all that hard.

However, I realized that this is something I could automate with my BlueBus, so I did: https://github.com/tedsalmon/BlueBus...40e7d4364b630b

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.

I don't plan on creating a PR for this feature, since it's very narrowly scoped. When it's turned on, the mirrors will go back to the memory you configure every single time you go out of reverse. Works fine for me since I'm the only one that ever drives the car and I know how to quickly turn the feature off, but it would need some work for broader consumption.

Anyway, happy with this extra bit of automation.

I need to do this too. Do you have a link to the latest Bluebus firmware?

[heinzboehmer]

Weird, mine definitely returns to the correct position every time.

Early car quirk, maybe?

I've seen mentions of this behavior here and there, but it definitely doesn't seem like a widespread issue for this platform.

[Bry5on]

Weird, mine definitely returns to the correct position every time.

[heinzboehmer]

Also, quick and easy project today.

Not sure if this is a quirk specific to my car, but when the passenger mirror auto dip is enabled, the mirror never really comes back to where I set it. Seems to overshoot by a little bit. If I issue the recall memory command, it goes back to where it was before. Weird, but I've just lived with it since pressing a couple buttons after coming out of reverse isn't all that hard.

However, I realized that this is something I could automate with my BlueBus, so I did: https://github.com/tedsalmon/BlueBus...40e7d4364b630b

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.

I don't plan on creating a PR for this feature, since it's very narrowly scoped. When it's turned on, the mirrors will go back to the memory you configure every single time you go out of reverse. Works fine for me since I'm the only one that ever drives the car and I know how to quickly turn the feature off, but it would need some work for broader consumption.

Anyway, happy with this extra bit of automation.

[heinzboehmer]

The H2C is multi-nozzle as well, but if you're not doing the multicolor, I don't really see a need, I'd save the money and go with the H2D. I think they're both pretty good printers, but the H2D/C has a significantly higher max nozzle temperature (350C vs 290C), which allows more engineering filament options and has a bigger print bed. The Bmabu also has a bunch of nice-to-haves, such as live filament flow calibration, and the AMS system (you can have 8 of them connected at once), which allows 25 colors at once (but will make a lot of poop, if you're into that sort of thing). The Bambu has better build quality, looks more "professional", and is less expensive.

Yep, this is exactly what draws me to the H2D.

The Prusa, however, with INDX, is faster at tool changes, far easier to repair, and fully hackable and open source. I don't think you can go wrong with either; they're both good printers.

Aaand then this is why I look at Prusa.

I'm usually more drawn to the open source stuff, but my current Bambu printer has been flawless, so kinda torn. We'll see.