Mr12Volt P2000 CIC - DIY Carplay/Android Auto w/M.O.S.T audio Install and Setup Tips

[Raphc]

Just a quick post to thank everyone here.
I purchased a MR12VOLT unit back in November and received it last week.
Reading this thread made the install super easy!
I have a E82 135i 6MT with the HK sound system, bluetooth, USB, Combox and Pro Nav. (609, 620, 644, 688, 6FL, 6VC)

I did not need to code for the unit to work and I have not noticed a difference in bass when comparing between native bluetooth, iPod through USB, and MR12Volt.
Although I must say that, as good as the HK sound system is, it needs some pretty drastic EQ settings to sound good anyway.
Only issue I'm having is that the PDC display doesn't come up when I reverse (or press the PDC button) unless I back out of Mr12V and press the PDC button again.

I have also ordered the GreenYi camera recommended here and will be tackling that next (looks to be a major pain with manual cars). Wish me luck.

Thansk again for all the great info in this thread!

[georgebmwM3]

Despite the bass issues, would anyone still say that mr12volt is a better solution than the Aux plug units such as Andream or carsarra?

[tdott]

Originally Posted by georgebmwM3

Despite the bass issues, would anyone still say that mr12volt is a better solution than the Aux plug units such as Andream or carsarra?

I have an Andream unit in my CCC EPS E90 and the 12volt unit in my CIC HiFi E92. My experience is yes, the 12volt unit has much better and clearer sound than the Andream unit even with the "lack of bass" which isn't that much when bass is turned up. The Andream sound doesn't sound clean or clear and the bass is muffled.

The UI much more responsive and less buggy.

[NA_E92]

Originally Posted by Raphc

Only issue I'm having is that the PDC display doesn't come up when I reverse (or press the PDC button) unless I back out of Mr12V and press the PDC button again.

I have the same scenario. In my case I wasn't planning on using a reverse camera so I didn't wire a reverse light signal. I suspect that omission might be involved, but that doesn't explain why pushing the button doesn't do anything but give me the standard proximity beeps. I haven't gotten around to contacting the manufacturer to figure out what's going on.

[goldenadam]

Originally Posted by NA_E92

I have the same scenario. In my case I wasn't planning on using a reverse camera so I didn't wire a reverse light signal. I suspect that omission might be involved, but that doesn't explain why pushing the button doesn't do anything but give me the standard proximity beeps. I haven't gotten around to contacting the manufacturer to figure out what's going on.

I'm pretty positive that manual transmission cars only work when the reverse state wire on the Mr12Volt box is connected to something like the reverse light positive from the taillight.

You then have to select Reverse State from the Car Setting > Camera Setting menu. There is also no support for a front camera with manual transmission cars as well.

This has been my experience and working extensively with M12 volt support.

[Raphc]

Good to know. Thanks for sharing. Will give it a go over the weekend. I'm guessing routing the wires all the way to the front is going to be tedious.

Side note, Ive been getting frequent Android Auto drop outs as well as MR12V going to a black screen lately. Seems to happen mostly when using Waze. Anyone else seeing this?

[Tony B]

Originally Posted by goldenadam

I'm pretty positive that manual transmission cars only work when the reverse state wire on the Mr12Volt box is connected to something like the reverse light positive from the taillight.

You then have to select Reverse State from the Car Setting > Camera Setting menu. There is also no support for a front camera with manual transmission cars as well.

This has been my experience and working extensively with M12 volt support.

This seems logical.

Is there an easy way of making the connection without any wiring butchery?

[priebe3]

Originally Posted by goldenadam

I'm pretty positive that manual transmission cars only work when the reverse state wire on the Mr12Volt box is connected to something like the reverse light positive from the taillight.

You then have to select Reverse State from the Car Setting > Camera Setting menu. There is also no support for a front camera with manual transmission cars as well.

This has been my experience and working extensively with M12 volt support.

Wanted to mention I was able to get a backup camera working with 6MT without having to tap into the taillight.

To get it working I set "Reverse condition" to "Parking Key". I also have "Reverse camera" set to "After loading Track" (not sure if that setting matters).
With this setup Mr12volt detects the car is in reverse and switches to the backup camera/parking sensor view automatically.

Looking at the OEM camera thread over on e90post, it seems like the car doesn't signal to turn on the backup camera with the 6MT unless you have rear parking sensors.
Not sure if that's the signal Mr12volt looks for but that could be something to look into if it isn't switching for you.

[soko]

I installed the P2000 Light about a week ago. It went to 2009 328xi with HK Logic 7 option. Like many others I needed to code the CDMM_CHANGER_3 to mp3_cdc.
I use it with my Pixel 6 pro phone, and mostly listen to Spotify. Audio quality in Spotify is set to very high, no equalizer. My first impressions were wow, excellent clarity, stereo separation and generally very good, crispy sound. Menu is very responsive. Previous\next track buttons on the steering wheel work, but these take maybe 2 sec to play the next or previous track. Voice command button doesn’t work, but the unit reacts very nicely to spoken commands using “OK Google”.
Now about the bass issue. I tried comparing the same songs played thru in-dash CD player and Spotify. I noticed that the volume was lower on AA, even though it’s set to max (30) in the settings. To match it with CD volume, AA needed two short presses on volume button. At first I didn’t notice that the bass is lacking on AA. Later it was a bit more apparent on some tunes.
Now, after a week, the lack of bass is more noticeable. I still need to listen to more variety of music. It sounds like mid and low bass is a bit soft. It’s missing the “meat” and (call it) maybe a definition a little. For me it isn’t bad enough to return it. I will keep the unit, but will watch for the updated version, as they promised in 6-12 months (now 4-10?) and hope for a deal for P2000 owners.

I also have the Carsara unit in the other car, connected thru quadlock. The car is stored now, and I can't do a real comparison between the two. Will need to wait until spring.

[dandandan]

Originally Posted by georgebmwM3

Despite the bass issues, would anyone still say that mr12volt is a better solution than the Aux plug units such as Andream or carsarra?

100% I also migrated from an Andream unit. Mr12Volt is top dog for now, even with slightly soft bass.

I'm finding a lot of inconsistency with my Green Yi backup camera though. Sometimes the image is split and sometimes poor quality. I still need to do the latest firmware update though.

[Raphc]

Originally Posted by priebe3

Wanted to mention I was able to get a backup camera working with 6MT without having to tap into the taillight.

To get it working I set "Reverse condition" to "Parking Key". I also have "Reverse camera" set to "After loading Track" (not sure if that setting matters).
With this setup Mr12volt detects the car is in reverse and switches to the backup camera/parking sensor view automatically.

Looking at the OEM camera thread over on e90post, it seems like the car doesn't signal to turn on the backup camera with the 6MT unless you have rear parking sensors.
Not sure if that's the signal Mr12volt looks for but that could be something to look into if it isn't switching for you.

Will try this out. How do you wire the camera? Sounds like it just needs power and no trigger wire with this set up

[danbav]

Hi all,

I Installed p2000 light in my UK spec E92 today. Pro nav and individual audio option. I compared the same track streamed via car usb, Bluetooth and mr12volt wireless CarPlay. All using Apple Music on my iPhone 13.

Output using mr12volt has considerably less punch and lacking low end bass. Subs not doing much at all. Even after eq adjustment the bass is not as clean as the other methods.

I have not tested the same using wired connection to mr12volt. I will do this tomorrow but I expect the result to be the same as over the wireless CarPlay.

I do have an ear for good sound quality and while this sound is good enough for everyday listening audiophiles would not be happy and are best using the car usb audio port or streaming from the internal hard drive. Hopefully this is only until the new version with DSP comes out from mr12volt.

I mainly listen to audiobooks these days so I am very happy with the system for the convenience of CarPlay and apart from the bass the sound quality is excellent. Interface is simple, quick and works surprisingly well with the idrive controller.

Quality of the kit is good and it’s well packaged. Arrived in under a week.

I had to code the changer mp3 option, I used bimmercode. My car came with cd changer prep and no actual cd changer.

Took 3.5 hours to install and code.

I do hope this helps anyone who is considering this as an option for their car.

[Raphc]

Originally Posted by priebe3

Wanted to mention I was able to get a backup camera working with 6MT without having to tap into the taillight.

To get it working I set "Reverse condition" to "Parking Key". I also have "Reverse camera" set to "After loading Track" (not sure if that setting matters).
With this setup Mr12volt detects the car is in reverse and switches to the backup camera/parking sensor view automatically.

Looking at the OEM camera thread over on e90post, it seems like the car doesn't signal to turn on the backup camera with the 6MT unless you have rear parking sensors.
Not sure if that's the signal Mr12volt looks for but that could be something to look into if it isn't switching for you.

Ok tried it out and it works works great for 6MT cars with pdc and no camera. I would add that if you leave the "Reverse Camera" option to "OE Camera" you will get the standard BMW pdc screen when engaging reverse. When using "After track loading" you get the MR12Volt screen which is made for a camera so its mostly black so recommend sticking to OE Camera setting.

[TheWoj]

Originally Posted by dandandan

100% I also migrated from an Andream unit. Mr12Volt is top dog for now, even with slightly soft bass.

I'm finding a lot of inconsistency with my Green Yi backup camera though. Sometimes the image is split and sometimes poor quality. I still need to do the latest firmware update though.

I get the same thing with the rear camera - sometimes the image is split. I'm not sure whether it's a Mr12Volt issue or a camera issue though. Looks like the Mr12Volt is trying to display it as two side cameras!

I can always fix it by using the parking sensor button on the centre console to exit the 'parking display' and then return to it again....but still annoying when it happens.

One other bug I've come across is sometimes the steering wheel buttons for changing tracks stop responding (but the buttons on the front of the CIC unit still work).

Again I've found an annoying work around to this! I have to press the iDrive menu button to get back to the BMW interface. Then go to the media inputs and switch away from the Mr12Volt 'CD' source to something else (eg internal media or USB), then switch back to Mr12Volt again. The steering wheel track buttons now start working again in the Mr12Volt interface.

It's annoying when it happens but not the end of the world - I guess the perils of third party software development!



One other thing that is actually more annoying is that, more often than not, my GPS location for navigation freezes - this is with Android Auto and Carplay (I've tried both), across all the navigation apps (Google maps, Waze, Apple maps). I'd have been tempted to blame my phone or one of the apps if it was just one thing....but as it occurs with multiple devices across multiple apps then the common factor is Mr12Volt! I haven't found a fix for this one either...

Has anyone else experienced similar issues?

[Raphc]

Originally Posted by TheWoj

One other thing that is actually more annoying is that, more often than not, my GPS location for navigation freezes - this is with Android Auto and Carplay (I've tried both), across all the navigation apps (Google maps, Waze, Apple maps). I'd have been tempted to blame my phone or one of the apps if it was just one thing....but as it occurs with multiple devices across multiple apps then the common factor is Mr12Volt! I haven't found a fix for this one either...

Has anyone else experienced similar issues?

I have the same GPS issue but only if I place my phone in the ashtray.
As soon as I lift my phone towards the windshield it retains its GPS fix. Line of sight issue I guess.

[georgebmwM3]

Originally Posted by Raphc

I have the same GPS issue but only if I place my phone in the ashtray.
As soon as I lift my phone towards the windshield it retains its GPS fix. Line of sight issue I guess.

Originally Posted by TheWoj

I get the same thing with the rear camera - sometimes the image is split. I'm not sure whether it's a Mr12Volt issue or a camera issue though. Looks like the Mr12Volt is trying to display it as two side cameras!

I can always fix it by using the parking sensor button on the centre console to exit the 'parking display' and then return to it again....but still annoying when it happens.

One other bug I've come across is sometimes the steering wheel buttons for changing tracks stop responding (but the buttons on the front of the CIC unit still work).

Again I've found an annoying work around to this! I have to press the iDrive menu button to get back to the BMW interface. Then go to the media inputs and switch away from the Mr12Volt 'CD' source to something else (eg internal media or USB), then switch back to Mr12Volt again. The steering wheel track buttons now start working again in the Mr12Volt interface.

It's annoying when it happens but not the end of the world - I guess the perils of third party software development!



One other thing that is actually more annoying is that, more often than not, my GPS location for navigation freezes - this is with Android Auto and Carplay (I've tried both), across all the navigation apps (Google maps, Waze, Apple maps). I'd have been tempted to blame my phone or one of the apps if it was just one thing....but as it occurs with multiple devices across multiple apps then the common factor is Mr12Volt! I haven't found a fix for this one either...

Has anyone else experienced similar issues?

I notice that with Waze ever since the program updated. I don't have the issue when I use Apple Maps.

[netcsk]

For anyone having odd camera quality issues, I'd recommend disconnecting the ground from the camera, which was mentioned a page or two back. Not sure it will fix the split screen issues as that sounds more software related.

It makes no sense, but I was having quality issues and times where it wouldn't come up and it was fixed completely by disconnecting the ground. It must get the ground from the RCA in the absence of a dedicated ground.

[dandandan]

Originally Posted by netcsk

For anyone having odd camera quality issues, I'd recommend disconnecting the ground from the camera, which was mentioned a page or two back. Not sure it will fix the split screen issues as that sounds more software related.

It makes no sense, but I was having quality issues and times where it wouldn't come up and it was fixed completely by disconnecting the ground. It must get the ground from the RCA in the absence of a dedicated ground.

Yah I reported the no ground needed (DCT) for the cam originally. This seems like more of a software glitch. I just go back and forth between drive and reverse with my foot on the brake to fix it.

For the gps, I noticed only as of the last software update that I've had one or two instances of the location not working. A lot of these are actually CarPlay/iPhone bugs as I've connected to other cars and had the same issue. Waze finally allows me to speak directions while music is plying so that's been fixed.

At some point when I have time, I'll run the firmware update but it's a big job trying to remove my glovebox to update and re-arrange my original placement of the box.

1 series owners beware, there is little to no room with the given video cable length to place the box behind the glovebox. Mines currently just floating above the blower ducting flap and I'm sure it's in the way of something back there. I got a longer LVDS cable from AliExpress to re-locate it where my Andream box was under the passenger vent.

[Sedicivalvole]

Hello all,

An update - I got round to having my unit installed last week.

It went in with no issues into an e92 M3, no coding required.

Coding was required to disable the BMW Voice Command so that the steering wheel button brings up Siri and the two systems don't fight.

We installed the microphone in the OEM location and moved the OEM Microphone over to the passenger side. We found the the included microphone to be very poor. So replaced it with a high quality one, soldered that in place and it works fantastically. Totally crisp and clear.

Changed the boot screen to BMW and I will be fixing the Mr12volt logo within CarPlay shortly and its full OEM install.

One area that is an issue though is the bass. As others have reported I can hear the missing bass. Its not a deal breaker but I would like it resolved. No amount of trickery gets round it bass it missing unfortunately. On some songs its noticeable less so on others.

To sum up - fantastic unit, so smooth and responsive. Definitely recommend and worth doing. However if you have good ears or high a quality setup, OEM HK / Logic 7 or Ind Audio you will notice.

Fingers crossed they get this sorted and organise a discount - I will then be upgrading to the new model

Thanks to all on this thread - the install information was very very helpful

Best

[drwankel]

Originally Posted by Sedicivalvole

Hello all,

An update - I got round to having my unit installed last week.

It went in with no issues into an e92 M3, no coding required.

Coding was required to disable the BMW Voice Command so that the steering wheel button brings up Siri and the two systems don't fight.

We installed the microphone in the OEM location and moved the OEM Microphone over to the passenger side. We found the the included microphone to be very poor. So replaced it with a high quality one, soldered that in place and it works fantastically. Totally crisp and clear.

Changed the boot screen to BMW and I will be fixing the Mr12volt logo within CarPlay shortly and its full OEM install.

One area that is an issue though is the bass. As others have reported I can hear the missing bass. Its not a deal breaker but I would like it resolved. No amount of trickery gets round it bass it missing unfortunately. On some songs its noticeable less so on others.

To sum up - fantastic unit, so smooth and responsive. Definitely recommend and worth doing. However if you have good ears or high a quality setup, OEM HK / Logic 7 or Ind Audio you will notice.

Fingers crossed they get this sorted and organise a discount - I will then be upgrading to the new model

Thanks to all on this thread - the install information was very very helpful

Best

Curious- what microphone did you use?

[Sedicivalvole]

It was one my auto fitters had - it was approximately twice the depth of the original Mr12Volt once you had removed the plastic casing. I can enquire what it was if you would like?

[Sedicivalvole]

I was just about the flash the software to put the BMW icon on CarPlay, however I noted the warnings on installing later versions.

My version is below and I cannot find a way of confirming what the version on their site is, does anyone know?