Apple CarPlay/Android Auto Retrofit

[brettcp]

Originally Posted by derbo

This doesn't make sense to me. Leveraging Bluetooth from BMW would mean you require combox to work properly as Bluetooth audio isn't available on the early TCU/ULF models. That sounds rather disappointing.

I just went out to the car and started it up, played some music via spotify on carplay.. then disabled the factory BMW bluetooth audio (not the phone connection, just the bluetooth audio) and the carplay audio went mute. Earlier I asked Michael if I needed to leave the factory BMW telephone and audio bluetooth connections active and he said "yes, right", which is when things started working (without AUX involved). I'll mess around with it some more over the next couple days to see if I find anything otherwise.

On another note, when I make a phone call, my iPhone audio connection initially defaults to "Carplay", then within about 1-2 seconds automatically switches to the factory BMW bluetooth telephone connection (otherwise the factory mic doesn't work).

I ended up just re-installing my reverse camera emulator and set the carplay box to use the "factory" rear view camera. It does take a good 5-10 seconds or so for the carplay unit to boot up, and I figure when I get in my car I immediately throw it into reverse and wouldn't want to wait for the carplay unit to boot up to show me the reverse image. When I put it into reverse, it switches over to the factory reverse camera view, then once i put it in drive it automatically switches back to the carplay view.

Overall pretty good so far.. few kinks to work out. I did notice that occasionally when switching between the telephone bluetooth and music bluetooth that i'll lose sound (it will go mute), but any adjustment of the volume with the physical knob on the dash or steering wheel brings it back. Hopefully after a handful of people install these and report the initial bugs they release a firmware update.

The manual is basically useless, BTW..

Its my understanding that if you don't have a combox/6FL, that AUX input is wired directly into the back of the head unit in the quadlock harness.. this would explain why they ship it pre-wired to these pins - so that if you don't have a combox/6FL, you don't use the external aux cable (as they're pre-wiring it into the back of the head unit AUX input pins via their wiring harness).. but if you do have a combox/6FL, they're leveraging bluetooth. Does that make sense?

[Yom]

Originally Posted by brettcp

On another note, when I make a phone call, my iPhone audio connection initially defaults to "Carplay", then within about 1-2 seconds automatically switches to the factory BMW bluetooth telephone connection (otherwise the factory mic doesn't work).

Try to play with the call audio routing setting on your iPhone. The default one is automatic, butt you can change to BT.
Settings->General->Accessibility->Call Audio Routing->Bluetooth headset

Originally Posted by brettcp

Its my understanding that if you don't have a combox/6FL, that AUX input is wired directly into the back of the head unit in the quadlock harness.. this would explain why they ship it pre-wired to these pins - so that if you don't have a combox/6FL, you don't use the external aux cable (as they're pre-wiring it into the back of the head unit AUX input pins via their wiring harness).. but if you do have a combox/6FL, they're leveraging bluetooth. Does that make sense?

You can code your CIC headunit to use the head unit AUX instead of the combox's AUX. I've never tried, but I saw it in a coding forum
CIC: CDMM_AUX_HU = aktiv (it's nicht_aktiv, if you have combox)

[rob10k8]

Originally Posted by tdott

This is mainly a e9x m3 section. So you really should state that when sharing your experience because otherwise it's confusing.

You are correct. My apologies.

I was excited about the new unit and how much it was seems to be improved over the old unit. Also, I did not realize there was a difference between the CIC unit and the NBT unit.

There was no ill intent, just a little ignorance on my part.

Rob

[derbo]

Originally Posted by brettcp

Its my understanding that if you don't have a combox/6FL, that AUX input is wired directly into the back of the head unit in the quadlock harness.. this would explain why they ship it pre-wired to these pins - so that if you don't have a combox/6FL, you don't use the external aux cable (as they're pre-wiring it into the back of the head unit AUX input pins via their wiring harness).. but if you do have a combox/6FL, they're leveraging bluetooth. Does that make sense?

Interesting, I did not know COMBOX has it's on AUX.

Originally Posted by Yom

You can code your CIC headunit to use the head unit AUX instead of the combox's AUX. I've never tried, but I saw it in a coding forum
CIC: CDMM_AUX_HU = aktiv (it's nicht_aktiv, if you have combox)

This should definitely work.

[brettcp]

Originally Posted by derbo

Interesting, I did not know COMBOX has it's on AUX.



This should definitely work.

I just coded CDMM_AUX_HU = aktiv but still get no audio through the wired AUX via the back of the CIC head unit. Perhaps there are other parameters that need to be coded along with this?

As of now, when I have both the BMW factory bluetooth phone *and* BMW factory bluetooth audio enabled, both music and phone calls (via carplay using the OEM mic) are working. If I leave BMW factory bluetooth phone enabled, but disable BMW factory bluetooth audio, calls via carplay work, but I get no music out of the carplay unit (the carplay unit switches its audio source over to the BMW factory bluetooth audio source automatically). If I don't have the BMW factory bluetooth audio enabled, the carplay unit switches to AUX automatically.

Also, I can't seem to figure out how to get siri to use the OEM mic.. it was working for a little while last night, but I can't seem to figure out how to get it working again. Will have to work with Michael some more.

[akkando]

Originally Posted by brettcp

Update:

Got the wireless audio working (without using AUX), and got the OEM mic working. They're leveraging the factory BMW bluetooth telephone and bluetooth audio connection (I had disabled it, thinking that the carplay unit would handle these).. so you need to leave the factory BMW bluetooth telephone and bluetooth audio enabled to avoid having to use the AUX input. This now works well. Their system detects when you enter carplay mode and attempts to switch the factory BMW audio source over to the BMW bluetooth phone audio connection (instead of AUX). This works fairly well but if switching back and forth repeatedly, it will occasionally "miss" the switch and have to try again. I'd imagine they'll smooth this out with an update at some point, no big deal for now as I'll be in carplay land 99% of the time anyway.

The reverse camera still isn't working. Michael pulled in another tech and we sent photos back and forth, and I do have it wired up properly. It worked great with my previous emulator, but the goal is to eliminate the emulator and just use the carplay's built in reverse camera feed. It does detect I'm putting the car in reverse, and does switch +12v to the camera power wire on the carplay box, but we don't get any video. Their tech is going to see if they can find a car to test and said they will try to fix it in a firmware update. We'll see. I guess I could go back to the emulator - there is an option in the carplay box to use the "factory" camera which would work if I had to do so.

The next/previous buttons on the steering wheel and the dash both work, and the voice command button on the steering wheel brings up Siri.

The system menu looks different than what others have posted in this thread.. and there's no mention of "Limcet" at all.. This one comes up as "GPlink".

I've only been using it in testing this afternoon so far, but will be driving around over the next couple days to give it some more time.

Sounds like you have to use AUX in then unless you have a bluetooth combox?

[derbo]

Originally Posted by akkando

Sounds like you have to use AUX in then unless you have a bluetooth combox?

I hope not. I want to buy this to replace my aux in unit.. lol

[tapout2taxes]

I finally installed mine, the old version and I love it! My main issue was that I took on a new job in July with a miserable commute so I wanted to be able to see Waze on the screen. The audio is not terrible but I do not use it for music, just Waze and podcasts, all music is through OEM for me. Most of the time I actually am only using the radio with Waze on the screen and no audio. I guess if I could get waze audio and OEM radio at the same time it would be great. I have used one of my bluetooth speakers that has an aux in and that seemed like an OK fix for my issue.

Again, my concern wasnt playing my music from the carplay, just getting waze to show on the screen, so for me this is awesome.

[brettcp]

Originally Posted by akkando

Sounds like you have to use AUX in then unless you have a bluetooth combox?

I believe that if you don't have a bluetooth combox, it will use the hard-wired AUX that's wired into the back of your CIC.. not the 3.5mm AUX input in your armrest etc.. so there really aren't any "external" AUX cables to route. I could be wrong but I don't see how else it would work.

The way they're doing this is interesting - it seems they're just giving us the visual side of carplay, but leveraging the BMW bluetooth connections for both telephone and audio... if I hold menu to go back to the factory BMW screen, I can see the bluetooth audio playing with the track name, controls, etc just as I've been using it for years.. then go back to the carplay unit and you have the nice layout, cover art, etc. This is fine with me as there's no downgrade in audio quality. I've always found the factory BMW bluetooth audio quality to be fine for music.

The only outstanding issue for me at this point is I can't figure out how to get siri to use the OEM mic. When I initiate siri through the voice button on the steering wheel, both siri comes on, *and* the BMW factory system listens for commands simultaneously (but since siri isn't on the OEM mic, only the BMW system is hearing me). There are 8 different "Audio type" settings (just labeled settings 1 through 8, with zero description of what they do).. also 8 "Car type" settings and 8 "Display type" settings - nothing of which have any descriptions. Michael said to leave them alone when I was working with him yesterday.

Overall I'm happy with it so far. Here are some photos.

[coniman]

For the people with the latest unit, are you having auto start of CarPlay when starting the car?

[brettcp]

Michael asked me if Airplay mirroring works - and it does, works just fine.. but no audio.. he then brought another tech into the conversation who said I have to switch the BMW factory audio source to AUX (which is the opposite of what Michael told me).. I'm trying to explain to them that without running the 3.5mm cable into my armrest AUX port, I'm not going to get AUX audio, but there is a language barrier here.. I see their intention is to route AUX audio directly through the back of the CIC (as thats how the wiring came on the unit by default), but that's not going to happen with a 2012 with 6FL / Combox. They said they only need to use the 3.5mm cable for "certain 7 series CIC cars" but I'm beginning to think this applies to any car with 6FL / Combox.

I'm thinking their intention is to use the rear CIC aux for all of their audio at this point.. there is such a tough language barrier that troubleshooting is a bit difficult.

I really don't care about Airplay mirroring, and the unit works great using bluetooth for both telephone and music/audio, but if I have to run that aux cable up the center console and into the armrest, then so be it.


Update 12/21 - I wired up AUX just to run some tests. As of today here's where its at:


Using BMW factory bluetooth for phone and audio (without any AUX involved):

The good:
- Carplay audio sounds great, spotify works great, everything is very responsive and I'm happy with the music functionality. Track controls work from both the steering wheel and the dash.
- Carplay phone calls work great (they automatically switch the audio source from "Carplay" to the BMW factory telephone connection when you make a call via carplay - you can watch it switch on your phone when carplay makes the call). All is good here.

The bad / still being worked out:
- Siri does not listen via the OEM mic. Still trying to figure this out. It DOES listen through the OEM mic if I trigger Siri via the iPhone itself (hold down the side button), so it seems they just need to get their carplay unit to listen via the factory mic when Siri is triggered via the car buttons.
- Holding the center iDrive button down triggers Siri, but pressing the voice control button on the steering wheel triggers both BMW's voice control system AND siri via carplay simultaneously. This obviously needs to be fixed to not trigger BMW's system.
- Airplay mirroring works for video, but no audio.
- Sometimes when switching from a phone call back to music, I have to give the BMW mute/volume knob two clicks to bring the audio back.


Using AUX (with factory bluetooth disabled):

The good:
- Airplay works for both video and audio.

The bad / still being worked out:
- Carplay music sounds OK, not great.. sounds much better via the BMW factory bluetooth audio connection. Perhaps this can be improved with their built in carplay EQ, I haven't adjusted anything there yet to test.
- Phone call's don't use the OEM mic, can't be heard
- Siri does not listen via the OEM mic, can't be heard
- Track controls work from the steering wheel, but not the dash.

They have been good with trying to work through the issues, but the language barrier is tough.. they're also only around during my evening time (west coast USA) so its a bit tough time-wise to work with them.

Hopefully they can work these things out.

[brettcp]

Siri now works via the OEM mic (via bluetooth).. this is looking good so far, only a couple minor issues to iron out before its what I'd consider an ideal solution. Was in my car a good 1.5 hours today and took multiple calls, used waze, spotify a lot etc and had a good overall experience. There was one instance where it didn't auto switch over to the factory mic for a phone call and I had to switch it over manually.. I'm reporting every little issue to Michael in hopes it helps them develop a firmware update to resolve this minor stuff.

[brettcp]

Originally Posted by coniman

For the people with the latest unit, are you having auto start of CarPlay when starting the car?

Yes, it auto starts carplay.

[dozaiya]

how are you guys contacting michael? he doesn't reply me on aliexpress

[tdott]

Originally Posted by brettcp

Siri now works via the OEM mic (via bluetooth).. this is looking good so far, only a couple minor issues to iron out before its what I'd consider an ideal solution. Was in my car a good 1.5 hours today and took multiple calls, used waze, spotify a lot etc and had a good overall experience. There was one instance where it didn't auto switch over to the factory mic for a phone call and I had to switch it over manually.. I'm reporting every little issue to Michael in hopes it helps them develop a firmware update to resolve this minor stuff.

Just to confirm, you are using wireless carplay correct?

[brettcp]

Originally Posted by tdott

Just to confirm, you are using wireless carplay correct?

Correct, wireless only. I am not using AUX at all (not the AUX hard-wired to the back of the CIC unit, and not the 3.5mm AUX in the armrest).

Unless somebody wants me to run any specific tests with AUX, I have no reason to use it at this point. I did run the AUX cable, but am just leaving it unplugged as I have no use for it.

[tdott]

Originally Posted by brettcp

Correct, wireless only.
Unless somebody wants me to run any specific tests

If you have access to an android phone to test wireless android auto I would be grateful, but understand that you may not have access to a phone to test with.

[washere]

I have been following this forever and getting close to pulling the trigger (2013 E93 with 6NR)...
So it sounds like the new "wireless" seems to work on the brand new KREMERSINO unit with 6NR with the following exceptions:

* Airplay no sound (video works)
NOW FIXED * Voice command on steering wheel starts both internal voice and Siri (i drive controller starts just carplay)
* Occasional switching issues between phone and carplay (hopefully just a software glitch)

I'm not opposed to using the Aux except for the sound quality. I am still wondering if I could wire this whole thing into the combox's digital connection (i.e. replacing the USB in the armrest either the USB side (digital) or the Aux (analog) side (which would get rid of the resistors/Caps that are hurning sound quality.)

[brettcp]

Originally Posted by washere

* Voice command on steering wheel starts both internal voice and Siri (i drive controller starts just carplay)

This no longer seems to be an issue. Once I got siri working with the OEM mic, now only the carplay unit listens when I press the voice command button on the steering wheel - the BMW internal system doesn't seem to listen anymore, only carplay.

[washere]

Would you now suggest buying this at this point?

I'm thinking it might be time to pull the trigger now. I could care less about the airplay stuff I think, but I suspect they will eventually fix that anyway...
The "switching" thing may just be inherent, but I think you said jiggling the i-drive controller a bit seems to "resolve" it.

[brettcp]

Originally Posted by washere

Would you now suggest buying this at this point?

I'm thinking it might be time to pull the trigger now. I could care less about the airplay stuff I think, but I suspect they will eventually fix that anyway...
The "switching" thing may just be inherent, but I think you said jiggling the i-drive controller a bit seems to "resolve" it.

I think it's worth it at this point.. Some of the initial issues were due to a language barrier, and the CIC instructions are a mash up of NBT and CIC specific steps - the manual is basically useless. The only remaining issues I seem to have are these three minor issues:

- After ending a telephone call, sometimes the music audio does not go back to being active (even though the counter on the music track is moving as expected). I have to click the volume/mute button on the dash twice to get it to come back, and it always does.

- I've had a couple instances where when I receive a phone call, it doesn't automatically switch to the factory BMW mic - I have to change the bluetooth audio source on my iPhone over to the BMW factory connection for it to work.

- Airplay mirroring *audio* only works via AUX. Michael said I shouldn't need AUX for this, but his tech he brought into the conversation said I did, so I'm not sure this will be resolved. I personally don't care about this as I have zero need for Airplay mirroring, but some people may care.

All 3 have been reported and they said they are looking into these issues. I suspect the first two issues may be able to be addressed via a software update.

After you get it all hooked up, enable WiFi, enable Bluetooth, and enable Personal Hotspot on your iPhone.. then just use the carplay's "Add device" feature to pair via Bluetooth, wait about 15 seconds (the initial pairing takes longer). It basically just uses bluetooth to setup the wifi connection, then drops its bluetooth connection and keeps the wifi connection to the carplay unit active. It now connects and carplay is active within 5-7 seconds or so after I get into the car.

[brettcp]

Originally Posted by tdott

If you have access to an android phone to test wireless android auto I would be grateful, but understand that you may not have access to a phone to test with.

I don't have an android phone to test, sorry.