Karter16's Silbergrau E46 M3 Journal

[Bry5on]

I had a further look into this this evening. Building out the boot animation is easy - here is one attached for 1280x480 screen res: [ATTACH]n263171[/ATTACH]

I installed ADB and enabled developer tools on the Xtrons unit. Unfortunately it seems that the unit doesn't have an option to use wireless debugging. USB is indeed an option, however I don't have any USB headers installed at present, so any further work on this will need to wait until a future point in time.

If anyone else wants to give it a go you're welcome to use the attached file. If you do then let me know how you get on!

You’re the man, thanks.

Also that’s rad that you’ve got your own inventory tool! Now I’m curious how you got a file that contains your car’s full bill of materials..

[karter16]

Another little side project I've been working on is this:



As time goes on my collection of spare/new parts continues to increase to the point that it's challenging to keep track in a spreadsheet of what I've purchased/fitted/quantities remaining, etc. I also want to be able to more easily plan out future projects and map that back to parts I have/need to get.

To this end I've setup an inventree instance and loaded into it the complete list of part numbers for my specific VIN. Now that I've got this base setup I can go through my parts shelves, load in the quantities etc. and then I have an easy view of what I've got without having to dig through boxes. When I fit parts I can decrease the stock on hand, etc. I can also make use of some of inventree's other features to build BOMs for projects, track what parts I need to order, etc.

Is this overkill? absolutely, 100%. But it will make things a bit easier for me, plus it's cool to have a complete list of part numbers for reference.

[karter16]

Jumping back to this but taking it to 10/10.

There’s a boot animation that happens after the splash screen that says “powered by android” and it also appears to be customizable. It seems like the boot animation is fundamentally just PNG files zipped up. Did you consider also replacing the boot animation so it stays consistent with the stock boot up?

background on compiling a custom boot animation: https://emteria.com/blog/custom-boot...id?hs_amp=true

I’ll note that you made the right call with the Xtrons. It’s leaps and bounds ahead of the Avin unit that crapped out on me after two years. I should have switched earlier.

I had a further look into this this evening. Building out the boot animation is easy - here is one attached for 1280x480 screen res: bootanimation.zip
I installed ADB and enabled developer tools on the Xtrons unit. Unfortunately it seems that the unit doesn't have an option to use wireless debugging. USB is indeed an option, however I don't have any USB headers installed at present, so any further work on this will need to wait until a future point in time.

If anyone else wants to give it a go you're welcome to use the attached file. If you do then let me know how you get on!

[karter16]

Checked today and in fact there doesn't appear to be an option to turn off the boot animation. So I still have no idea why I don't see the animation under normal conditions. I confirmed this morning (driving car for first time in several days) that when I turn on/start the car the unit screen turns on, immediately showing the custom boot screen (BMW logo) from there as soon as the logo stops being displayed I'm straight into the home screen of the head unit...

[karter16]

Actually - thinking about this further - I think there's an option to turn off the boot animation that appears after the splash screen (it just shows the splash screen for longer instead) which would explain why I don't see it. Let me double check tomorrow when I'm in the car.

[karter16]

Jumping back to this but taking it to 10/10.

There’s a boot animation that happens after the splash screen that says “powered by android” and it also appears to be customizable. It seems like the boot animation is fundamentally just PNG files zipped up. Did you consider also replacing the boot animation so it stays consistent with the stock boot up?

background on compiling a custom boot animation: https://emteria.com/blog/custom-boot...id?hs_amp=true

I’ll note that you made the right call with the Xtrons. It’s leaps and bounds ahead of the Avin unit that crapped out on me after two years. I should have switched earlier.

Yeah interesting - several people have mentioned the boot animation. I'm not sure why but I don't see it on my unit under normal operation. The only time I ever see it is if I've disconnected the battery and the unit is doing a cold boot, or if I intentionally restart the unit (which I haven't had to do since first setting it up). Under these scenarios the boot animation shows BEFORE the splash screen, I don't see anything appear after the splash screen, it goes straight to the Home Screen/interface. Because of this I haven't made it a priority to look into further, but given a few people have mentioned this I'll give it a go when I get a chance!

Re the Xtrons - I have to say I'm pretty happy with it so far - I've been meaning to write up a bit of a more detailed review of my experience but need to get some time to get some decent photos to go along with the writeup - will try to get that done soon.

[Bry5on]

Nice one - I've very happy with it so far - better than I was expecting for sure.

FWIW he's a copy of the splash screen sized to fit that unit.

Jumping back to this but taking it to 10/10.

There’s a boot animation that happens after the splash screen that says “powered by android” and it also appears to be customizable. It seems like the boot animation is fundamentally just PNG files zipped up. Did you consider also replacing the boot animation so it stays consistent with the stock boot up?

background on compiling a custom boot animation: https://emteria.com/blog/custom-boot...id?hs_amp=true

I’ll note that you made the right call with the Xtrons. It’s leaps and bounds ahead of the Avin unit that crapped out on me after two years. I should have switched earlier.

[karter16]

Read through all of it, amazing work! and I hope everyone is in good health.

Thanks I really appreciate that - we've had a few months of relative calm on the health front which is fantastic and I'm enjoying every moment of it!


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[karter16]

Awesome build. Just picked up a silver grey! Cant wait to start a build thread soon

Thank you! Silver grey is a great colour (if I say so myself!) looking forward to following your build!


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[bavarian3]

Read through all of it, amazing work! and I hope everyone is in good health.

[M3_mann]

Awesome build. Just picked up a silver grey! Cant wait to start a build thread soon

[karter16]

At last I got the final version of the top amp bracket sorted and Dad printed it and dropped it off yesterday. I fitted it today - all looking good!



Next up is to clean up the bay properly and then bundle up the un-needed wiring on the loom and secure it.

I also took the opportunity to re-familiarise myself with exactly how the structural foam has been done on the rear RACP mounts on my car as I start preparing for the installation of the 6 point brace when it arrives later in the year. I also checked the welds in the trunk to ensure that they're all still good - keep an eye on this just in case.

[0-60motorsports]

One of the things that's been on my list for quite some time now is sorting out the topside reinforcement of the RACP. My car had the rear mounts reinforced with the BMW epoxy foam process in 2011 before I owned it, and the underside reinforced with epoxied plates in 2017. Since then I've put very few km on the car but deciding on the right approach for topside reinforcement has been on my mind since then. Part of the reason it's taken me so long to sort is because of all my family/kids dramas, but the other reason is that I've really been struggling to decide on the best solution in my circumstances.

I'll probably get some flak for this but I'm not really keen on weld-in solutions in general. In most welding situations I don't see how it's possible to control corrosion prevention well enough given the application, and then add in welding to thin sheet metal that has been through 20 years of stress cycles and it just doesn't appeal to me. Another reason is that welding around the rear mounts, in my case, is complicated by the presence of the foam epoxy reinforcement. Lastly is the permanence of the change - I've seen several comments from people who bought the early version of the CMP bar, etc. who say they wished that they could use the newer, less visible, option. Likewise there's no certainty there won't be better options available in another 5 years.

In the work that I do on the car I want to keep it as close as possible to original, so that if I realise at some point in the future that I have bad taste in modifications I can restore to stock. That goes, as far as possible, for things like RACP reinforcement as well.

To this end I've ordered a variant version of the Yurkan Cages YC46W6. This is a welded single piece brace that ties both the front and rear RACP mounts to the rear shock mounts.




This design allows for the rear seats and fold-down functionality to be maintained without interference. I don't need the fold-down feature anyway, but I certainly want to keep the rear seat unaffected (although again it's only to look nice, I only ever have a single passenger in the car, so I essentially use it as a two seater anyway.

The variant I've ordered includes an additional bar directly between the two rear shock mounts. Probably overkill, but for the small amount of extra weight I'd prefer to have a direct link between the two to help stiffen things up as much as possible.


With this solution all I need to do is cut the top cosmetic layer of sheet metal above each of the 4 RACP mounts and bolt all the way through from the subframe to the brace. While this does require some cutting of the body, it is about as minimal as I'm going to be able to achieve while still providing for topside reinforcement. Yurkan do make a version of this brace with separate brackets for the rear shock mounts that the brace then bolts to, but given I need to cut the interior carpet, etc. either way, I decided to opt for the welded one piece option for additional stiffness. My plan with the carpets, etc. is to pick up a spare set from a wrecker to cut up and I'll put my current set unmolested on the shelf.


Once this is installed I'll be able to finally stop thinking about the RACP, and should also have the added bonus of a bit of extra stiffness in the rear.

I placed the order today and expected manufacturing time is about 20 days, so with shipping, getting lost at the East Tamaki depot, etc. I expect I'll receive this around the middle of the year.

I also ordered a replacement steering giubo recently - looking forward to getting that installed and hopefully getting rid of the slight play in the steering.

Looking forward to install pics.

[karter16]

One of the things that's been on my list for quite some time now is sorting out the topside reinforcement of the RACP. My car had the rear mounts reinforced with the BMW epoxy foam process in 2011 before I owned it, and the underside reinforced with epoxied plates in 2017. Since then I've put very few km on the car but deciding on the right approach for topside reinforcement has been on my mind since then. Part of the reason it's taken me so long to sort is because of all my family/kids dramas, but the other reason is that I've really been struggling to decide on the best solution in my circumstances.

I'll probably get some flak for this but I'm not really keen on weld-in solutions in general. In most welding situations I don't see how it's possible to control corrosion prevention well enough given the application, and then add in welding to thin sheet metal that has been through 20 years of stress cycles and it just doesn't appeal to me. Another reason is that welding around the rear mounts, in my case, is complicated by the presence of the foam epoxy reinforcement. Lastly is the permanence of the change - I've seen several comments from people who bought the early version of the CMP bar, etc. who say they wished that they could use the newer, less visible, option. Likewise there's no certainty there won't be better options available in another 5 years.

In the work that I do on the car I want to keep it as close as possible to original, so that if I realise at some point in the future that I have bad taste in modifications I can restore to stock. That goes, as far as possible, for things like RACP reinforcement as well.

To this end I've ordered a variant version of the Yurkan Cages YC46W6. This is a welded single piece brace that ties both the front and rear RACP mounts to the rear shock mounts.




This design allows for the rear seats and fold-down functionality to be maintained without interference. I don't need the fold-down feature anyway, but I certainly want to keep the rear seat unaffected (although again it's only to look nice, I only ever have a single passenger in the car, so I essentially use it as a two seater anyway.

The variant I've ordered includes an additional bar directly between the two rear shock mounts. Probably overkill, but for the small amount of extra weight I'd prefer to have a direct link between the two to help stiffen things up as much as possible.


With this solution all I need to do is cut the top cosmetic layer of sheet metal above each of the 4 RACP mounts and bolt all the way through from the subframe to the brace. While this does require some cutting of the body, it is about as minimal as I'm going to be able to achieve while still providing for topside reinforcement. Yurkan do make a version of this brace with separate brackets for the rear shock mounts that the brace then bolts to, but given I need to cut the interior carpet, etc. either way, I decided to opt for the welded one piece option for additional stiffness. My plan with the carpets, etc. is to pick up a spare set from a wrecker to cut up and I'll put my current set unmolested on the shelf.


Once this is installed I'll be able to finally stop thinking about the RACP, and should also have the added bonus of a bit of extra stiffness in the rear.

I placed the order today and expected manufacturing time is about 20 days, so with shipping, getting lost at the East Tamaki depot, etc. I expect I'll receive this around the middle of the year.

I also ordered a replacement steering giubo recently - looking forward to getting that installed and hopefully getting rid of the slight play in the steering.

[karter16]

Looking forward to your review on the headunit. Did you consider the "automotive grade" version? - https://xtrons.com/bmw-rover-mg-andr...b-rom-pe8246bl

As an aside, I was talking to Xtrons support about something else and asked them about this at the same time.

Their answer was basically that the PE8246BL was unique at the time that it came out in that it had “automotive grade” hardware in it. The IX series which followed has the same “automotive grade” hardware but the advertising point had dropped off by then apparently.


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