[hl0m4n]

yesterday around 4.30 am i was doing research on yahoo of a possible development of a guage in the i drive. i found something didn't save it on favorites and can't find it anymore.

anyway from what i can remember before going to bed is this.

there is a chip of some sort like the size of turbo tuner that installs behind the navigation screen in the wiring area. it will connect to wires and ecu or whatever it was and then installation is done.

to access the menu it would be secret. you have to hold down the i drive knob and press like volume up or something, completely customizable. it has boost guage, a/f guage, and speedo, rpm. pretty sick. i will try to find it again but if no luck only time will show the final result.

would be sick!!!

[e.n335]

Originally Posted by hl0m4n

yesterday around 4.30 am i was doing research on yahoo of a possible development of a guage in the i drive. i found something didn't save it on favorites and can't find it anymore.

anyway from what i can remember before going to bed is this.

there is a chip of some sort like the size of turbo tuner that installs behind the navigation screen in the wiring area. it will connect to wires and ecu or whatever it was and then installation is done.

to access the menu it would be secret. you have to hold down the i drive knob and press like volume up or something, completely customizable. it has boost guage, a/f guage, and speedo, rpm. pretty sick. i will try to find it again but if no luck only time will show the final result.

would be sick!!!

Would be nice but this will not show accurate numbers when you have a piggyback ECU. That's why I'll use a dedicated datalogger with sensors. After wintertime 2007/2008 you might see the gauges in the i-drive display as well , watch TV/DVD or work with the PROcede reader software.

[CASHBY]

would be, but never heard of it.

[zenmaster]

I've never heard of any non OEM add-ons that could interface with the iDrive controls (knobs, buttons) or iDrive software (menu display). It could work just like that TV hack though.

[e.n335]

Originally Posted by zenmaster

I've never heard of any non OEM add-ons that could interface with the iDrive controls (knobs, buttons) or iDrive software (menu display). It could work just like that TV hack though.

There are companies who do integrate like that. The problem with the gauges will be that they are inaccurate in some configurations ( e.g. with piggybacks ).

I think that you might want to log data in most cases and only sometimes you will have the need to see gauges in realtime. You can do this with a laptop. If you want a permanent install, the i-drive display will be ideal to be the computer monitor ( 640 x 240 ). Here a TV hack should be acceptable. You anyway need a remote control for the TV/DVD functions.

[zenmaster]

Originally Posted by eugen.niederreiter

There are companies who do integrate like that.

Which company?

[hl0m4n]

now if you can hook up sensors to the module and have real time analysis on the i drive that would be amazing..

[BMWPower06]

^^^ werd

[sambonator]

Why is IDrive so slow?

[techlogik]

Shiv, how about a solution for us on this? Many would pay hundreds for an addon solution to work with the piggy back if you could get gauges on the iDrive...that would be ultimate coolness.

[e.n335]

Originally Posted by techlogik

Shiv, how about a solution for us on this? Many would pay hundreds for an addon solution to work with the piggy back if you could get gauges on the iDrive...that would be ultimate coolness.

You have the first e46 M3 with i-drive ?

[hl0m4n]

i drive slow get the update man. v26 or v25.02.02

on my previous m3 i had the stealth v1 on navy and that itself was a very cool feature. if that came for the i drive also would be sick...

[zenmaster]

Originally Posted by sambonator

Why is IDrive so slow?

Offtopic, but BMW was convinced by Siemens VDO to go with a high-level language like Java to make adding features "seamless" and less of a PITA to integrate into the system. So this framework (called Top Level Architecture (TLA)) provides a way for BMW to churn out new features/functions faster (less debugging), but at the huge expense of the execution speed of these features.

Today, Java is still a dog. However, if BMW wanted to, they could optimize any slow parts like the +10 second navigation route calculations, or the MP3 directory list generation, or the slow radio tuning. They could probably make any of these at least twice as responsive, and possibly up to ten times faster, just by optimizing code and/or bypassing Java altogether.

As far as new features go, even though Seimens VDO was "partnering with a variety of third-party developers", it turned out that ultimately Navteq was the only company besides BMW/Siemens that had been allowed to make and sell software for the iDrive. So in that respect, the iDrive is closed down, and a lot like a cell phone or a set-top box with BMW/Seimens VDO being the service provider

Even if a company bought the TLA SDK, effectively, the only way to get the software integrated would be through some partnership with BMW, one that was perceived by BMW to be a significant benefit ($$). The only way such software could be installed is through the dealer via progman update. This is why I do not believe that there are companies (besides Navteq) that integrate with the iDrive.

One could bypass the iDrive software and controls and temporarily take over its LCD, however.