BMW E39 iDrive Project

[Xeniczone]

A little update: I got the LCD controller and I plugged it all in, but the screen just says white no video at all. I contacted the manufacturer and got a quick email back asking for some more information and asking to check all the connection which I already did. I'm excited to get this working.

An issue I see there is the air duct that runs right underneath there to the rear passengers.

Yeah, I forgot about that. I guess the position that I have is the best/only position for it.

Another place to put it would be in the ash try area. It would require removing the hazard button, ash try, and unlock button and placing a black insert there with the controller. The hazard button and unlock would have to be relocated.

bro what happen to your leather stick cover?

Something I made, and really need to remake using real leather not thin plastic.

[apocalypsegoat]

Here is another possible location. Though it is more comfortable to use for both the driver and passanger, I see two problems with it. One, it is not very aesthetically pleasing. Two, I really don't want to cut up my technical graphite trim.

You could always find a wrecked/ part out e39 and swap just that center console trim piece until you get everything sorted out and working! Then once you have everything test fitted and operational you could do the final install through the tech graphite trim. Just a thought

[Xeniczone]

You could always find a wrecked/ part out e39 and swap just that center console trim piece until you get everything sorted out and working! Then once you have everything test fitted and operational you could do the final install through the tech graphite trim. Just a thought

I actually want to do this now. I just wish that trim wasn't so expensive. I found an extra technical graphite center trim on ebay, the guy wants 150 for it and it is in bad condition. I may just email him and see if he will take 25 for it.

While hunting on ebay, I found this photo. I photo-chopped it into my third idea for the controller. I would relocate the lock and hazard lights buttons.


Overall I will do what I want since this is my car , but some opinions are nice to know. Any votes?
1. Storage location
2. Side of shifter
3. Ash tray

[DennisCooper]

Hi

That looks much better and it's a more 'likely' of a location had BMW made it themselves for the E39. If you look at the E60, it's controller is centrally mounted so you can see it directly - driver and passenger. Although with repeated use it becomes easier not to look at it whilst using, you must consider there would be those who still want to 'see' and 'look' at the controller!

Trim sets here in the UK are cheap! and the basic Vavona, in FULL sets fetch about £30-40 which is around $47-60 USD, I'd sort you a deal with one, but they're right hand drive of course!

I was at a big BMW show last weekend, and in an enthusiast members car I finally got to meet, AC Schnitzer used the ashtray location for the controller for the ultra rare active suspension setup on his M5



The Audi MMI controller is much smaller than the BMW one....

Cheers, Dennis!

[Xeniczone]

^ That's freakin' cool. I really want it now. My mom's 2012 VW Toureg has something like that. I've never played with it.

You are just full of so many good points. I'm actually now considering this position the most now. I hope I can either find a vinyl cover or some how recreate the technical graphite trim so I can do the center console like this.



I am going to attempt to recreate it with paint first. Spray a silver bottom coat. Spray some black on top of it then while wet take a brush through the black. Then clear coat on top of all that. I'm hoping that will work.

Just to keep you guys updated, I'm still having issues with the LCD screen working. All it does is show white. I will keep you guys up-to-date as this moves along.

[EltingSolutions]

Dear Xeniczone,

This is S.Elting speaking for the company Elting-Solutions.
We are intrested in your project and futher capebilities.
Please give us a private message or email as soon as possible if you read this.

We would like to have a talk with you.

Thanks in advance,

S.Elting
General Manager
Elting-Solutions
Email:elting5@xs4all.nl

[apocalypsegoat]

Yo whats up xeniczone, I remember reading earlier about you cutting up your dash to fit the screen. If you wanted on to experiment on, I just found a really good deal on one on ebay in case you were looking. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-E...ht_2964wt_1124

Could give you something to sketch on

[DennisCooper]

Ha!

I swear I'm in the wrong country! I have 2 spare black E39 dash tops in my E39 Spares shed!

I need to shift some bits!

Xeniczone - i'll drop you a PM over the next couple days...

Cheers, Dennis!

[Xeniczone]

Yo whats up xeniczone, I remember reading earlier about you cutting up your dash to fit the screen. If you wanted on to experiment on, I just found a really good deal on one on ebay in case you were looking. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-E...ht_2964wt_1124

Could give you something to sketch on

That is a really good price for one. Unfortunately, I'm not ready for the dash. I'm still trying to get the screen to work. I bought an LCD Controller from a company that makes controllers specially for these screens, and it doesn't work. I've contacted the company and several emails later I still haven't gotten anywhere.

I'm still trying to decide if I want the LCD screen on top of the air vents, or to replace the air vents. Having two dashes would really be helpful in deciding.

As far as the center console goes though. I think I'm going to have to give up my Technical graphite trim if I'm going to install the iDrive controller behind the shifter. I found some "brush graphite" vinyl from 3M that I really like and I'm going to use that instead.

Ha!

I swear I'm in the wrong country! I have 2 spare black E39 dash tops in my E39 Spares shed!

I need to shift some bits!

Xeniczone - i'll drop you a PM over the next couple days...

Cheers, Dennis!

Wouldn't it be a mirror of mine though?

[DennisCooper]

Hi Xenic,

Yes, you are correct, in the haste of that message, my intention was to mean about moving/selling E39 bits that aren't handed! it kinda came out wrong !

I will drop you a PM soon ! just about to go walk the dog !

cheers, Dennis!

[apocalypsegoat]

My vote would be to somehow replace the air vents, seems to me like it would be too obstructive to have the screen above those... then again youre talking to the kid who puts his nav suction cup in the middle of the windshield...

[Spirit Force]

Any progress on this? This is so cool project .

[Xeniczone]

My vote would be to somehow replace the air vents, seems to me like it would be too obstructive to have the screen above those... then again youre talking to the kid who puts his nav suction cup in the middle of the windshield...

I agree with cutting the vents out. I'm going to go ahead and try it.

Any progress on this? This is so cool project .

Thanks! I do have some progress, but nothing really interesting. The last month or so I've been dealing with a LCD controller problem. Here is what happened.

I bought an LCD controller for the original 8.8in LCD screen out of an E65. When I turned the LCD controller on the screen would only show white. I contacted the manufacturer and they side that the LCD controller could be faulty and I should return it for a replacement. I did so. About a week later I had a new controller and still the LCD screen would only show white. I contacted that manufacturer again. This time they said they tested the controller before sending it and told me my LCD was bad. O well, I will just buy a new LCD screen. The LCD screen I bought was out of a wrecked E65 that only had 10k miles on it! Basically the screen is brand new. The new screen came in and I hooked it up. STILL a white screen!

Up to today, I still working with the manufacturer to get this working. I kind of regret trying to use the OEM 8.8in 8:3 screen now. I wish I just stuck with the standard 7" 16:9, but I'm already about $600 dollars into this screen so I might as well get it to work.

[Spirit Force]

Sorry to hear about the LCD problems. How much would this kind of project cost if one were to follow your foot steps? Gladly I got too much basic maintenance to do on my bimmer to even consider doing this.

[Xeniczone]

Sorry to hear about the LCD problems. How much would this kind of project cost if one were to follow your foot steps? Gladly I got too much basic maintenance to do on my bimmer to even consider doing this.

I can't really say how much it would cost to do because the design keeps changing as I go. One day I can do something for a certain price and another I find something cheaper. Or I find one way to do something and it doesn't work so I have to find another way to do something. The price fluxes a lot.


UPDATE:



Here is what has been holding me over for the last few months. I've been trying to get this LCD screen (the OEM 8.8in) to work. I bought two OEM 8.8in screens and a LCD controller that claimed to work with them. The best I could do it get it to show a white screen and nothing else. I contacted the manufacturer multiple times for help and they just said I did everything correct and their should be nothing wrong.

I've given up on using the OEM screen. I'm going to go back to my original idea of using a 10" 16:9 and using a cover to make it look like a 8.8 8:3 LCD screen.



Today, I'm going to install the CIC iDrive controller in the center console. Thanks to a few suggestions on the forums to where to install it.

The first thing I had to do was sell off my technical graphite trim and buy some wood trim. I did this because I didn't want to cut up some technical graphite trim due to its rarity. The first step was to remove the trim from the plastic.



I cut out the location where the hazard lights and unlock button were. I'm going to relocate these buttons. This weakened the structure of the center console. I will have to strengthen it later.



I cut the divider between the buttons and the ash try on the trim. Then I test fitted the controller.



On the trim I stretch some duct tape over the hole. I did this so I can fill it in with fiber glass.



After fiber glassing I removed the duct tape. This left the surface rather ruff. To smooth it out I decided to use some body filler.



I grabbed the wrong tube and didn't realize that I was using RTV Silicone Gasket. Talk about fail. I didn't realize it until I got done and looked at the tube. I had to scrub it all off and try again.



This time I used the correct body filler.



After letting it dry, I sanded it smooth.



I gave the whole thing a quick coat of primer to show off any defects in the body filler, sanding, and plastic surface. It showed a few places where the body filler had no dried yet or had air bubble trapped. I had to reapply body filler in a few places.



Here is the trim with some more body filler applied and the top piece of the controller to show you where it goes.

Well, that is all I got done today. I'm going to start paying more attention to my key project once I get the ignition in.

[Brandon540m]

damn this seems like a ton of effort when there is the dynavin option out there haha.. how much have you sunk into parts?

I'd be curious to see how the 8.8 screen looks when you hold it up in the stock lcd location

[540Indy]

damn this seems like a ton of effort when there is the dynavin option out there haha.. how much have you sunk into parts?

I'd be curious to see how the 8.8 screen looks when you hold it up in the stock lcd location

I see your point but the wow factor will be crazy when he finishes up.

[Xeniczone]

damn this seems like a ton of effort when there is the dynavin option out there haha.. how much have you sunk into parts?

I despise the dyanvin units. A $50 WinCE computer packed into a fancy case for $800...

iDrive Controller: $200
LCD screens: ~$120 each (I bought two so $240)
Random Electric Parts: ~$80-100

I think that pretty much covers all of what I bought. Almost everything else, such as the fiberglass, body filler, etc; were already laying around the house.

I'd be curious to see how the 8.8 screen looks when you hold it up in the stock lcd location

I will hold the unit up to the air vents and get a picture. It looks pretty good.

I see your point but the wow factor will be crazy when he finishes up.

Exactly!

[shanecarmaster1]

Came across this while wandering away from the e38 section. Subscribed!

[JaimeZX]

Not sure if you covered this, but for US terrain, you can download DTED (Digital Terrain Elevation Data). If you get SRTM1f (Shuttle RADAR Topography Mission 1, void-filled) that'll be the best you can do, but it'll be dozens of GB for the whole US.

SRTM exists for the whole world, but is only public-domain for CONUS.

[2001BMW525i]

I'm very interested in this....

Would be a class add to the E39!!!!!!!!

Thanks for doing this.

[Xeniczone]

I'm very interested in this....

Would be a class add to the E39!!!!!!!!

Thanks for doing this.

Yeah, no problem. I'm going to put a lot more effort into my e9x key project when I get my room cleaned a little and open up a work space. This will be on hold for a while.

Not sure if you covered this, but for US terrain, you can download DTED (Digital Terrain Elevation Data). If you get SRTM1f (Shuttle RADAR Topography Mission 1, void-filled) that'll be the best you can do, but it'll be dozens of GB for the whole US.

SRTM exists for the whole world, but is only public-domain for CONUS.

Thanks for this. I'm border line on using a of the shelf gps or making my own. I would like to make my own because no GPS has the features that I really want, but I really wouldn't know where to start. GPS's are pretty complicated.
-------------------------------
Quick Update:

After a bit of sanding and body filler and finally got a very smooth finish.



I started to mount the iDrive controller.



I thinking of either wrapping the trim in suede or making fiber glass molds of all the trim pieces and making real carbon fiber trim. I haven't decided. Since I haven't shown anyone what my redone interior is looking like I really can't ask for your opinions.

[parkerbomar]

Suede looks great in the e39
and would look perfect with your headliner.



My bass knob modification, which also shows suedes big flaw... dust and lint and dirt of all kinds stick to it. so keep a lint roller handy if you do head this route.

[jamfool]

Suede looks great in the e39
and would look perfect with your headliner.



My bass knob modification, which also shows suedes big flaw... dust and lint and dirt of all kinds stick to it. so keep a lint roller handy if you do head this route.

Sorry but that is hurting my eyes.
It could be a winner I suppose if it was installed properly with steamer etc, but here, looks like it was awfully glued to the trim.

[parkerbomar]

Sorry that was a failed section.
I am in the process of redoing it,

What process would you suggest.