heinzboehmer's 2002 Topaz 6MT Coupe

[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]

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?

[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

[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

[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]

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.

[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!

[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.

[Obioban]

Suspect it’s time you get new engine mounts.

[heinzboehmer]

Suspect it’s time you get new engine mounts.

They're a couple years (maybe 10k mi?) old.

I think I just didn't leave enough clearance. The stock part tucks up a lot up front, but I left more material on mine because the cutout for the braces makes it a bit floppier. The radius I added yesterday gives an extra 8 mm of clearance and should keep the part's stiffness pretty much unchanged.

[maupineda]

New mounts will make it worse, engine would raise a bit v worn / used ones. Fillet was the right choice for sure

[heinzboehmer]

Turns out the painter who's gonna paint these parts is on vacation until next week. No big deal, but the final beauty shots are slightly delayed.

The car has no front bracing installed at all right now and I'm kinda excited to drive it around like that for a bit, especially after becoming used to the stiffened chassis. Will report back on driving experience.

Coincidentally, I just got word that the mill is back up and running, so I'll get a chance to mill the last two slots before paint. After looking at everything yesterday, I really dont think the milling is at all necessary, but I've already done one side and the asymmetry is gonna bother me forever if I don't do the other.

[heinzboehmer]

This is cool:

The factory nav can display the distance to the next turn in the cluster, so I figured I could exploit this capability and display whatever I want (well, mostly) by sending IBus messages with my BlueBus. As per usual, Ted's codebase is awesome, so there's already a function to handle this.

Here's my horribly hacky proof of concept code that you see running in the video:



I still don't exactly understand why the number displayed in the cluster doesn't follow the number sent to it via IBus, but that's a question for later. It seems to be counting in base 16, but displaying in pseudo-base 10, super weird.

I tried with a uint16 as well, but the number in the cluster reset back to 0 once ike_i went above 255. I think I'll sweep through a uint64 just to see if there's any interesting behavior from the cluster with the higher numbers, but I doubt I'll find anything.

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.

A friend also suggested adding a "do not downshift" indicator, where some extra symbol is displayed next to the current gear whenever downshifting would result in an overrev. Seems like symbols are off the table, but I might be able to rapidly flash the displayed gear or something along those lines. We'll see.

[karter16]

I still don't exactly understand why the number displayed in the cluster doesn't follow the number sent to it via IBus, but that's a question for later. It seems to be counting in base 16, but displaying in pseudo-base 10, super weird.

Very cool, I'm very curious to hear what the answer is with regards to the base 10/16 thing - that's weird!

[rtrules]

That's a cool find.
I always wanted to retrofit a oil pressure gauge to my car, and I think the integration in the business CD would be perfect regarding placement to see it at a glance. Not sure if it makes sense with refresh rate though.