Atacama Yellow 35is build thread

[B21]

I’d like to give an initial report on the ID4Motion digital cluster now that I’ve driven the car for a few miles.

https://youtu.be/BfiaNa4uGf4?si=iEqaBIcWpi70Kgt9

https://youtu.be/YFth_72r2Cg?si=oiLuwHM3MAM1ULt2

I shot a couple of videos to illustrate it in the car working.

So to address the obvious point..the reflection you see in videos really doesn’t present itself as a driver..yes if you change your focus then you can see a reflection of yourself ..you could address this with a matt overlay they provide …I tried it and yes no reflections but the crispness and clarity of the display is diminished somewhat.

The graphics are truly fabulous, the animations are nice without being tacky..it just oozes class.

After some misunderstanding on my part about the menus I got the unit set up ..there are many configuration options.

I set up a modern take on the traditional E90 cluster for my normal day mode, a night version in a lovely blue for lights on and a more modern later M series style for sports mode. The day versions I didn’t like as much as the night version..you can see both in the videos.

You can only have one sports theme assigned at the moment…so pushing the sport button, left push on the DCT shift or sports+ all trigger the same theme..you can choose that the theme is selected only with either the shift DCT or pressing sport/sport+…I’ve done it with both..

So much pain on the journey..if it had been discussed I’m not sure how that would have influenced my views.

It appears that despite numerous complaints from others that in the E89 the cluster seems to play ok with most of the rest of the car the new Mr 12 Volt MMI box causes more issues with the CIC unit…

So yes, it’s lovely but not without issues..

[B21]

So after cataract surgery was able to return to the garage to address my sound related issues.

I had two issues with the sound set up..the first was the sound feel was somewhat bright and harsh, the second was the door speakers would cut out if the volume was cranked up to high.

Audiotec Fischer UK support were most helpful. Their techy pointed out a few issues remotely (I sent copies of the tune to him)..I (we) suspected that the very expensive AF door speakers were damaged.

I think I damaged them when driving my new speakers with the old BMW OE amp!

A set of more robust Audision BMW door speakers were fitted and then many, many hours with the PC based DSP tuning s/w were enjoyed..around 15+!

The basic technique is to correct the speakers for time by measuring with a tape measure the distance from each speaker to the centre of your forehead and entering those in the tables..you can see those in the pics.

The next is to use a sound sampling mic designed for such tasks to analyse each speaker or pair of speakers (generally pairs of speakers are analysed and corrected to avoid strange accoustic effects if they are markedly different).

This is done by playing a pink noise sample (pink noise being random noise adjusted for power by frequency, unlike white noise which is not frequency/power adjusted) through one or a pair of speakers and and allowinng the real time analysis s/w (RTA) to do its thing.

What you can see in the pics is the ideal response required from the 14 speakers and what was needed to provide the ideal response.

Its interesting to see for example how much the location of the same identical speaker in the centre and the middle rear perform completely differently due to reflections, mounting etc.

There's one further complexity, the 'perfect' response is different in a car from a house..the bass is tilted up and the treble supressed, in part due to the effects of road noise and resonance etc.

Its partly automatic and partly manual..and this is where the art of a DSP tuner would come in..I do plan to visit the AF techy for him to have a go at tuning it..but in the meantime, I've climbed a very very steep learning curve.

There are so many channels, and things to do, per channel and then in some cases in pairs its very very easy to press a button or drag a cursor and change somethinng without realising!

Certain anomalies in the response are caused by factors that can't simply be auto adjusted out..so in these cases, especially straange peaks in required frequency correction, its best to knock the correction at that frequency back..in contrast, holes in response can largely be ignored.

The net result is a beautiful rich, detailed sound withe excellent spatial imaging..the bass is full without being boom, the higher registers clear, and clean without being brash or bright!...Most satisfactory!

[B21]

Here's a screen shot of the time delays per speaker..enjoy!

[B21]

A few words about my ‘Director’..this is a small add on unit to an Audiotec Fischer DSP/amp..

Essentially it’s a direct control device of the DSP / amp that overrides / adds extra functionality that the factory head unit can’t or no longer can provide.

In my case with the 677 factory audio system I lost the ability to balance the front and rear speakers as my audio feed from the head unit was a TOS link optical that can only carry two channels of audio information, ironically the lesser 676 amp or the basic head unit if wired with normal analogue wire connections would retain that function…

Also on the 677 the DSP equaliser was lost as no 677 amp none of its functions..obviously the Match 10 DSP is vastly better..but not accessible through the idrive.

I bought because I could ..I never used it on my Match 7 upgrade to the 676 system in my previous 20i MSport…but I figured it would come in useful.

So for me it does several cool things…the first is that I can load up to 10 completely different audio set ups in real time, so I can have roof up and roof down versions..obviously with the roof up internal acoustics are very different to roof down.

Next cause this DSP gives you some very sophisticated options in terms of enhancing base performance I can have a number of different permutations of bass enhancement by changing audio set ups.

It provides much more capable optional tone controls if you are so minded.

It provides rear speaker attenuation for that front / rear fade if you so wish, maybe useful to alter balance roof up /down dynamically?

It provides input switching control..at the moment it’s redundant as I only use a digital input…but going forward I’ll use either to allow high quality Bluetooth to be directly streamed from a phone , or to use it to select / override audio from my yet to arrive new Android head unit / screen.

You can adjust the sub woofers volume response independently of the volume and each source can be individually adjusted.

The net result is that with all these changes I’ve effectively made the idrive redundant / obsoleted…but it’s always good to have a back up (to your backup)..

The Director display is configurable with different fonts, orientation, colours so I’m using a fetching yellow in Tahoma font !

£250 is a lot for a little box, but this was never about cost effective engineering..

Well happy with how it’s turned out!

[B21]

I’ve looked at these alternative screens to the normal idrive display..there are two key versions..some are Linux based and the majority Android based.

The Linux ones offer little extra functionality but improve the quality of the display.

The Android units are self contained fully functional units.

My arguments against them were:

Ruins the charm of the flip up screen

Very poor audio quality

I can do most things with CIC and a MMI box doing CarPlay.

However…

Now I’ve recovered the dash the little idrive unit looks a bit out of place /tired..I could maybe get it recovered to match..

The new ID4Motion screen and graphics makes the idrive look dull and a bit chunky…it looked great with the standard cluster ..a bit steam punk ish..!

The sound issue really was my big issue….all the units only (on E89s) output sound via Android on board sound via 3.5mm plug to the BMW aux in socket..with its own acoustic limitations..having spent £3k getting pretty close to audio perfection and unacceptable compromise..

I thought I had solved this as being Android based I could get it to Bluetooth out to an optional Audiotec Fischer Match Bluetooth HD card that could be added to my Match 10 DSP/amp…

Sadly it turns out that the Bluetooth out chip set is missing on these designs..you can Bluetooth in so you can play your phone into the head unit but not send Bluetooth audio out.

So I cancelled my order.

However..a bit more research showed that all Android units after V8 support USB sound out.

Reading the very sad bunnies on the F30 forums who had gone to extraordinary lengths to play with these units it transpired that several folks had plugged a DAC into one of the head units USB socket and got high quality audio to come out ..into the DAC and then via a 3.5mm plug into the BMW sound system via aux.

This still has the crappy BMW aux issue…but..in my case I have my beloved and expensive Match 10 DSP/amp.

I’m not using the ‘normal’ analogue inputs as my car is a 677 with the digital fibre optic MOST bus so my audio is routed via a MOST adapter to the TOS optical input in the amp.

The voltage levels from the DAC..I had an AudioQuest DragonFly Black lying around ..were maybe not perfect..some people feeding it into the BMW aux complained about noise..but I thought since I can adjust input gain maybe I can get it to work.

Then I realised that the harness pre-made for the 677 amp was going to need some re-pinning ..

However the AF products all support one or in some cases two additional interface cards.

They do a high quality aux card at the spot on voltage levels..so getting closer.

Then the epiphany…the AF guys do a USB card as well..this talks to an android device as a pseudo speaker..and voila..

We can go pure digital direct from the Android display unit to the DSP / amp..all at ridiculously good data rates and bit depths.

So I’ve reordered the unit..will get at a Match MEC USB interface card and a long (4m) usb cable ..it should work!

There are dozens of Chinese suppliers and UK shops offering them..there are probably about 10 real manufacturers which all look similar but when you start to dig then differences appear.

These guys have offered good technical support, product quality seems good, they make their own version..

What could possibly go wrong?

It’s probably a winter project to get it fully workimg..may be able to Jerry rig it to act just an idrive display sooner.

https://hifimaxnavi.com/products/12-3-u ... -2009-2015

https://youtu.be/Sk6xMdryXHc?si=0Ga2zT-g1-bRyofm

https://www.audiotec-fischer.de/en/matc ... s/up-10dsp

https://www.audiotec-fischer.de/en/matc ... -interface

[B21]

Started getting a misfire when pushing hard on cyl 1..

Put fresh NGKs one stage colder and Eldor aka BMW B58 coils to fit my Nexsys B58 coil conversion ignition system.

Plugs gapped at 22 thou to avoid spark being blown up with the extra boost.

FWIW my tuner reckons the OE Bosch crab claw plugs are the best,

Strange Cyl 1 spark plug is always tight to get out ..others not so..

20 nm always feels bloody tight in the cylinder head.

Bit of oil near cylinder 2,3 plugs..hoping it’s mis directed oil from the filler..cleaned it up.

The mounting bolts for the aluminium adapter plate that holds the coils was loose on both its screws…bit of loctite on those.

Old plugs looked ok..will see if misfire is cured..

15k-20k miles maybe too much for the plugs/coils..?

[1536Z4]

15k-20k miles maybe too much for the plugs/coils..?

There shouldn`t be a problem at that mileage especially with the coils. Is there any chance you have may cross threaded the plug in cylinder one and that is why it feels tighter apart from that cylinder one may be running hotter due to manifold airflow ? I use NGK plugs and have never had a problem but wonder why you have replaced again with NGK rather than what your tuner recommended ?

[B21]

15k-20k miles maybe too much for the plugs/coils..?

There shouldn`t be a problem at that mileage especially with the coils. Is there any chance you have may cross threaded the plug in cylinder one and that is why it feels tighter apart from that cylinder one may be running hotter due to manifold airflow ? I use NGK plugs and have never had a problem but wonder why you have replaced again with NGK rather than what your tuner recommended ?

Cylinder 1 has only just decided to play up…cylinder 6 was the weak one when pushing the tune to the limit..could have been cross threaded in an earlier life..

Manifold distribution may be a factor..although with direct injection not so sure…

My tuner informed me of his preference after I bought the plugs..so will try them next time.

Maybe it was the plugs…but when you’re messing around at this level it was just easier to do both..

High boost tunes eat plugs n coils very rapidly on N54s..

[john-e89]

15k-20k miles maybe too much for the plugs/coils..?

Just musing, but manifold distribution caught my eye…especially when you say 6 and 1 are being naughty, but when you look at the manifolds they both look pretty much perfect in their distribution of gases. As you say you’re at a high level of tune with stock manifolds on bigger turbo’s, so although I can’t initially think of what your problem is I’d be interested to know how/if you sort it, so keep us informed please.

There shouldn`t be a problem at that mileage especially with the coils. Is there any chance you have may cross threaded the plug in cylinder one and that is why it feels tighter apart from that cylinder one may be running hotter due to manifold airflow ? I use NGK plugs and have never had a problem but wonder why you have replaced again with NGK rather than what your tuner recommended ?

Cylinder 1 has only just decided to play up…cylinder 6 was the weak one when pushing the tune to the limit..could have been cross threaded in an earlier life..

Manifold distribution may be a factor..although with direct injection not so sure…

My tuner informed me of his preference after I bought the plugs..so will try them next time.

Maybe it was the plugs…but when you’re messing around at this level it was just easier to do both..

High boost tunes eat plugs n coils very rapidly on N54s..

[john-e89]

I have no idea how that post got so messed up with the others….

[1536Z4]

My tuner informed me of his preference after I bought the plugs..so will try them next time.

That would be a good reason

High boost tunes eat plugs n coils very rapidly on N54s..

Ok didn`t know that

[B21]

My tuner informed me of his preference after I bought the plugs..so will try them next time.

That would be a good reason

High boost tunes eat plugs n coils very rapidly on N54s..

Ok didn`t know that

Yes I asked my tuner about plug gaps then it went downhill!

N54s well known for munching through plugs n coils for reasons I can't articulate..first port of call on a misfire..before the injectors..fault code reader just shows 'misfire' when its plugs n coils without differeniation..hence blanket approach to replacing both on a tuned motor..

No harm in asking!