[vase330]

I still have not hooked up everything (want to wire it right). Well Engine work was a breeze, and A-Pillar scarely because I don't want to have my airbag deploy by accident. I have to say if you get into an accident, the flying gauge accelerated by the airbag might be the one that cracks your skull and kills you. Anyhow, getting the tube to the vacuum line was easy. Everything went back on very easy. I am stuck about the stupid resistor things now. Oh boy, why didn't Rick just rig it all up and sell a complete solution? I have to say it looks much nicer in there than I thought it would very natural to the car. Props Rick. I had to cut a bit of material on the A-pillar side to achieve a perfect OEM look. Very nice. And eh, as stupid as I thought I was, I realized I needed to remove that square N gauge holder in the back toi make the fit perfectly round. Back to the car...!

[vase330]

Well guys hooked it up and works like a charm! Well I have to confess I gave up the dimmer function. Couldn't figure it out with what I have. I thought I need more parts (indication maybe I really don't know WTF I am doing) so I left it at well enough.

Rick, how long is the nylon tube meant to last, and is it going to crack over time due to heat in the engine bay? I notice the boots tube has a clothlike material on it, so is the rubber tube we used to hook up the T junction ok in the long run? How long can we expect these materials to last and do we need to change them at some point?

OT: I went to the local BMW dealer and they wouldn't install the damn gauge for me. The SA said they can't intall anything BMW does not sell. I told him its a harmless gauge and it it has instructions on how to hook up to cigarette lighter. So he says, "you have no idea how much electrical stuff could go wrong as a result of this, and we wouldn't want to be liable." Jeez, its a just a damn car, not a rocket. Anyway, I asked if a tech wants to do it after work and I will pay for the labour. No takers. Ooook, I drive to a few garages, and no one will touch it. One repair shop that does everything from transmissions to tune ups wouldn't do it either. The mechanic said to me he wont dink around on a 50K dollar car. Holly smokes!!! I said you know how this works, right I was told by another shop you guys work on Turbos too, "Yeah we do, but I aint chancing anything on a new bimmer. If anything happens ... no man, take it to the dealer." So,... I took the time and DIY-ed. Took about 2 bloody hours!! I am busy with other stuff so ofcourse I wanted to have someone do it especially I wanted the dimmer function. Oh well, Grrrrrrrrrrh.

[RiXst3r]

Originally Posted by Mike07335i

I did.. I didn't put in the resisters or whatever those things were. I see about the headlight thing. I will turn them on to see if I notice a difference.

The turning on the headlights makes scents.

Did you use the resistors to filter out the noise when you installed yours? If so where did you install them?

Mike

I installed them as close to the gauge as possible. Just make sure they are in the correct posistions... if you get it wrong, you could short it out.

-Rick

[RiXst3r]

Originally Posted by vase330

Rick, how long is the nylon tube meant to last, and is it going to crack over time due to heat in the engine bay? I notice the boots tube has a clothlike material on it, so is the rubber tube we used to hook up the T junction ok in the long run? How long can we expect these materials to last and do we need to change them at some point?

The tubing kit is made by newsouth performance, its pretty much the best you can get as far as quality goes. I paid 12 bucks for each tube kit, they better be good. I could have just bought a big roll of tubing and cut some for each person, but I wanted something that was specifically designed for this.

I would expect them to last as long as the other rubber tubes in the car.

Gauge is still running great.... I love it. I bought it in to service and they updated my shit.... so I wanted to make sure they didn't over write the dinan flash.......... and it's so easy to tell!!

[Mike07335i]

Originally Posted by vase330

Well guys hooked it up and works like a charm! Well I have to confess I gave up the dimmer function. Couldn't figure it out with what I have. I thought I need more parts (indication maybe I really don't know WTF I am doing) so I left it at well enough.

Rick, how long is the nylon tube meant to last, and is it going to crack over time due to heat in the engine bay? I notice the boots tube has a clothlike material on it, so is the rubber tube we used to hook up the T junction ok in the long run? How long can we expect these materials to last and do we need to change them at some point?

OT: I went to the local BMW dealer and they wouldn't install the damn gauge for me. The SA said they can't intall anything BMW does not sell. I told him its a harmless gauge and it it has instructions on how to hook up to cigarette lighter. So he says, "you have no idea how much electrical stuff could go wrong as a result of this, and we wouldn't want to be liable." Jeez, its a just a damn car, not a rocket. Anyway, I asked if a tech wants to do it after work and I will pay for the labour. No takers. Ooook, I drive to a few garages, and no one will touch it. One repair shop that does everything from transmissions to tune ups wouldn't do it either. The mechanic said to me he wont dink around on a 50K dollar car. Holly smokes!!! I said you know how this works, right I was told by another shop you guys work on Turbos too, "Yeah we do, but I aint chancing anything on a new bimmer. If anything happens ... no man, take it to the dealer." So,... I took the time and DIY-ed. Took about 2 bloody hours!! I am busy with other stuff so ofcourse I wanted to have someone do it especially I wanted the dimmer function. Oh well, Grrrrrrrrrrh.

Hehehe... Glad it all went well. In reality you have to take a lot of parts off the car and if the shop breaks anything they gotta pay, and those interior pieces are not cheap. Can't blame them. I am surprised none of the techs wanted to make some extra cash. oh well...

Mine is done as well with the dimmer, which works, but without any of the resistors and other stuff which for the life of me I can't figure out. Seems straight forward but can't wrap my head around it. hehe.. The dimmer works great as the gauge has two setting which you can adjust, one for dimmed and one for normal which is awesome. I dpn't know if the resistors and other things are critical as mine works fine and doesn't flicker (there may be a tiny flicker that you have to really look hard to notice in the indicators as the numbers don't flicker at all)

I may try and go back into the gauge and hook up the resistors, as this wont require any more diassambly. just need some dedicated time to play with it.

Rick, any chance for posting some pics of your connection at the gauge?

Thanks
Mike

[RiXst3r]

Originally Posted by Mike07335i

Rick, any chance for posting some pics of your connection at the gauge?

Thanks
Mike

Sure, I'll lay it out and take a photo.

-Rick

[RiXst3r]

Originally Posted by RiXst3r

Sure, I'll lay it out and take a photo.

-Rick

Here ya go, just whipped this up.

These are the wires at the back of the gauge. I would suggest soldering these components in place. (your components may look slightly different as well)

Use the heat shrink tube supplied to cover them up neatly, you can solder it in a way that you leave enough room for the quick disconnects.

-Rick

[Mike07335i]

So the 1uf and 10k both bridge the ground and the dimmer wire, and the 33k goes in line with the dimmer wire. Wow.. so clear and simple now. ehhehe

Gonna do this tonight

Mike

[ohsnap]

Originally Posted by RiXst3r

tracking info lied... just got the dreaded "delivery rescheduled" crap in the tracking info on the gauges... looks like they come in tomorrow. I guess thats why it says "estimated delivery date"



So far, we have shipped almost 90 pod kits since april!!!

hi rix,

how many more out of this gb are left to ship for the digitals? did they come in today? i presume most were already shipped and im at the tail end of the orders. hope to have this by next thu for my track day. thanks

[RiXst3r]

Originally Posted by ohsnap

hi rix,

how many more out of this gb are left to ship for the digitals? did they come in today? i presume most were already shipped and im at the tail end of the orders. hope to have this by next thu for my track day. thanks

only 7 more from the gb to ship i think

[longodj]

what's the status on the mechanical gauges?

[RiXst3r]

Originally Posted by longodj

what's the status on the mechanical gauges?

fedex tracking info is saying tomorrow will be the day they show up here

[M4TW]

Originally Posted by RiXst3r

fedex tracking info is saying tomorrow will be the day they show up here

[vase330]

I tapped the dimmer line in. (Without the resistor and capacitor). It flickers like crazy when I turn on the lights and have the gauge brightness set to 1(lowest) when lights are on. I set it to max and no flicker at all. I set it to 6, no flicker but 6 is as bright as 9. So if you are having a problem with it. skip the green wire or just set it to max brightness, Cover it up with Opaque paper to dim it straight up ghetto-style if you have to. Who cares, I think its a little distracting. BTW nice job Rick it look so OEM! Just make it simpler next time. I know I know It doesn't help much. I had an issue with the gauge not working based on how I put it in.

[longodj]

[RiXst3r]

All digital gauge orders have shipped!!!!!!!!! Notifications sent!

-Rick

[RiXst3r]

BTW... 4 people from the group buy never paid, so I have some extra kits... I will leave the group buy purchase link active until they are filled.

http://www.rixeffects.com/groupbuy.htm

[nospleeny]

I received mine on Thursday! yay! I opened the box today and it was good looking! Didn't have time to really looking around! Tomorrow!

[RiXst3r]

All orders have been shipped!

I have 5 digital kits left over, PM me if anyone wants one!

-Rick

[nospleeny]

People should jump on that! I love the quality of the rubber. It's really nice and it so flexible! The top part looks just like the top of the dash!

Thanks for the wicked product. I'll probably have it installed in a week or 2 when I get a day off work. Thanks!!! My tentative date for install is Sunday July 6.

[scottp999]

Still very happy Rick. It's a quality kit, and the piece of mind actually knowing what the car's boost is reading is un-beatable. Makes me wonder why BMW just didn't put a gauge in the car to begin with.