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      10-14-2018, 07:33 PM   #1
Freiheit
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Can someone explain the whole COMBOX, Apps, CIC, thing?

I'm pretty well versed with the mechanical side of these cars, but I have no idea what the M3 in-car-entertainment is capable of. Yes, I did RTFM and its no help at all, nor is the sales literature I was able to find online last year.

I was talking with another member earlier and trying to figure out the difference between a couple of cars I was looking at. Its long distance so I can't have the cars at hand to know whats going on. Both were equipped with my desired Individual Audio.

One car shows:

S609A Navigation system Professional
S615A Expanded BMW Online Information
S616A BMW Online
S620A Voice control
S639A Preparation f mobile phone cpl USACDN
S693A Preparation BMW satellite radio
S697A AreaCode 1 for DVD
S6AAA BMW TeleServices
S6ABA Control for Teleservices
S6FLA USBAudio interface
S6UHA Traffic Information
S6VCA Control for Combox


The second car shows:

S609A Navigation system Professional
S615A Expanded BMW Online Information
S616A BMW Online
S620A Voice control
S639A Preparation f mobile phone cpl USACDN
S655A Satellite tuner
S697A AreaCode 1 for DVD
S6AAA BMW TeleServices
S6ABA Control for Teleservices
S6FLA USBAudio interface
S6NFA Music interface for Smartphone
S6NRA Apps
S6UHA Traffic Information
S6VCA Control for Combox


What is the difference between "Preparation BMW Satellite Radio" in the first car and "Satellite Tuner" in the second? Does it mean that the first car is merely wired for Sirius, and the second one actually has a Sirius tuner? Also, what are the "Apps", and are they necessary? If the first car lacks "Music Interface for Smartphone", does that mean I wouldn't be able to control a smartphone from the radio, I'd have to have the thing in my hand and use the phone controls?
I see lots of talk in this section about the Combox, CIC, CCC, and related stuff. What does any of that mean?

What would a "maxed-out" E92 M3 ICE build look like on a VIN decode?

If I happen upon a sweet deal for a car that lacks Sirius and whatever, how hard is it to add that stuff to a car with the Individual Audio system?

On a side note:
It sucks that BMW has a build code for this stuff, which has nothing to do with the option codes, which has little to do with the names of the various options in the sales materials.

Last edited by Freiheit; 10-18-2018 at 08:16 PM..
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      10-14-2018, 10:18 PM   #2
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      10-18-2018, 08:15 PM   #3
Freiheit
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Anyone?
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      10-18-2018, 10:12 PM   #4
Rainer M
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Freiheit View Post
Anyone?
The first one doesn't have a satellite radio.
At some point all cars have satellite radio build into the navigation but is only turned turned on if ordered and paid. In this case there should be a possibility to have it turned on either by bmw or third party.

The second one does have the satellite radio activated Just need to call Sirius and they will turn it on after payment.

More important would be to know if the car has the newer combox with the g3 network modem.
My car has the old one year 2011.75 and I don't have anymore connection to bmw. No SOS call works or the more precise traffic messages for the navigation. I only get the free messages for traffic over the radio.

The apps was nice to have when it worked. Now they have a new app that is missing web radio. For me useless now. Your mileage may vary.

The newer combox can be retro fitted by the dealer for a pretty penny.
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      10-19-2018, 06:26 AM   #5
Freiheit
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rainer M View Post
More important would be to know if the car has the newer combox with the g3 network modem.
My car has the old one year 2011.75 and I don't have anymore connection to bmw. No SOS call works or the more precise traffic messages for the navigation. I only get the free messages for traffic over the radio.
How would I find out which Combox is in any car?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rainer M View Post
The apps was nice to have when it worked. Now they have a new app that is missing web radio. For me useless now. Your mileage may vary.
I keep seeing references to "apps" but none of the posts I've read say what they are.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rainer M View Post
The newer combox can be retro fitted by the dealer for a pretty penny.
I think I've seen a thread here about installing and activating it without the dealer. I'd do it, if I knew it was going to give me anything worthwhile. I can make some inferences based on your statement but I still have no idea what the thing does.
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      10-19-2018, 09:49 AM   #6
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It is my understanding that the new combox was only available to those with an active subscription when the 2G system was shut down. Not sure if the third party retrofit is available. When I asked Bimmerretrofit one system had a new combox, the other did not.
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      10-29-2018, 11:05 PM   #7
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My car is an early build 9/09 2010 and has "S693A Preparation BMW satellite radio" From my research my build date marks the first date of built in HD radio which means that I don't need to purchase a separate satellite "tuner" as there is one built in to the radio ready to be coded. I already subscribe to Sirius/XM in my other car (going to transfer the subscription over) but in order for my M3 to be enabled to run Sirius/XM is for the car to be coded with an FSC code which either BMW or aftermarket coder (BPM Sport or bimmer-tech) would purchase on their own before they can code your car for ~$249 to $300 depending on who you go with.

BUT there is a much cheaper and easier option. What I did was purchase a Tunai Firefly for $35 and just stream Satellite radio to my car through my phone via Bluetooth. Downloaded the Sirius/XM app and now enjoy Satellite radio in my car and not only that, no more freeway underpass/tunnel cut out's since it uses my phones data. For you restricted data users like me no worries, the data drain for streaming audio is minimal.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&th=1
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      10-29-2018, 11:22 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jv92red View Post
For you restricted data users like me no worries, the data drain for streaming audio is minimal.
I wouldn't say that. I had a 3GB plan, shared with my wife. One day I got a message that I was down to 20 percent data left. I figured "better shut that down right now", so I turned off all my cellular data use, figuring I'd just deal with it for the couple of days until my account recycled.

Ten minutes later I got another message telling me that the data plan for the month was exceeded. I found out later it wasn't me, it was the wife. She had turned Pandora on at work, and forgot to switch over to her office WiFi.

I've upgraded my data plan to 4GB, and I still come close to using that up every month (more like 3 weeks) just texting friends and browsing sale ads on various forums. I have no idea how people stream daily without burning up their plans.
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      10-30-2018, 08:26 PM   #9
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Good point, everyone's use is different.

For me, I'm on a 4GB data plan and share that with my wife and two kids, all of who use this data as well but know to use wifi whenever possible. We still make it under the 4GB threshold 'most' months. But when we do miss it, it's not my fault and here's why:

Regarding the Sirius/XM app, I have the streaming quality set on "Normal" not "high" or "Maximum". While these settings don't show kbps rates, I have clocked an hour of listening use at 23 MB for this setting. 5 days a week to work and back home I listen while I'm in the car. My daily commute (round trip) is anywhere from an hour at the shortest to hour 20 min at the longest per day (SoCal traffic sucks). Calculated out for a month that's ~613 MB of use per month not counting any weekend listening. Throw in about a half hour more per week of additional listening and I'm still under 700 MB of use, that's a conservative calculation.
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      10-31-2018, 07:31 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jv92red View Post

BUT there is a much cheaper and easier option. What I did was purchase a Tunai Firefly for $35 and just stream Satellite radio to my car through my phone via Bluetooth.

Wasn't your car equipped with Bluetooth from the factory?
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      10-31-2018, 10:29 AM   #11
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Bluetooth for phone calls, yes. Streaming audio from my phone, no. Streaming audio over Bluetooth is a Combox thing I believe. 2010's and older years did not have this.
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      10-31-2018, 10:41 AM   #12
Freiheit
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Mine is a Feb 2011 build, I have both phone calls and streaming.

See, this gets back to my original question which related to interpreting the build sheet. I have no idea what services are in my car or what it should be able to be coded for by looking at the list. Is there any online resource you're aware of that can explain all the services that were optional?
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      10-31-2018, 12:28 PM   #13
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The key difference with the Satellite radio is that for a car to come ready for you to just subscribe to the Satellite radio service (you'll know it's ready by seeing the ESN number), the car manufacturer would have already submitted the VIN number to Sirius/XM in order to get a unique FSC code assigned to your VIN. This licensing cost/step is what BMW decided to skip on the cars with the "S693A Prep BMW SAT Radio".

I'm probably not doing a good job explaining this. Do a search on BMW FSC code and it will make more sense.

For the other vin codes you need more info about, just do a forum search on them and dig in. That's what I did for Satellite radio and it saved me the $250
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      12-22-2018, 02:48 PM   #14
Freiheit
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Update: I paid $200 and got Sirius enabled. It works just fine, and sounds better than any of my other Sirius-equipped vehicles. In fact, it has exposed just how compressed Sirius sounds in those other cars.

The EPS Audio is a pretty good sounding system. I could use some more "punch" but its still good.
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