Replacement of OEM Sat Nav with Garmin, retaining ‘pop-up’ functionality

[Mojito]

Liking that

Thank you. Your thread on how to retrofit Sat Nav was of huge help when I did the same thing

[markplant]

Great work

Thanks Mark. Your posts in that earlier thread were of huge help

Quite fancy having another go at putting a tablet in, just need a nav at the right money

[Mojito]

Update

I been using my Garmin Sat Nav conversion for a month now and pleased to say it continues to work perfectly with screen 'popping up and down' on ignition. I haven't been using Alexa, but very impressed with Garmin Voice Control, particularly for sat nav commands. Much to my surprise at 40mph with top down it actually recognises voice commands, no issue with mics 'hearing' despite the OEM sat nav casing. Plenty of features too, like warnings for change in speed limits, which can be handy. The included apps like weather and weather radar are gimmics really, but a bit of fun, but I do like the 'message' app which shows new texts, WhatsApp etc. In 'split screen' mode it displays music tracks too. Best of all it's a bright Sat Nav display you can see and use properly unlike the original... and it looks OEM

I set system up initially with audio connections through aux socket. I've now switched over to connection through a bluemusic adapter on CD wiring. Huge improvement in sound quality as expected, a must I think, especially as I have DSP. Wheel controls work fine for volume & track change. My bluemusic adapter is the 'audio only' version, so if you want 'hands free' phone you need a bluetooth adapter that does audio and phone. I rarely use phone in car, so not bothered. If you connect through aux, 'hands free' works through car sound system, but obviously degraded sound quality.

Still toying with buying the add-on reversing camera... because I can

[danmiddle2]

Great job and you should add it to the howto section.

It is good to hear you found the original post useful still. I would not have thought that when I first started mucking about with it! It's great to see how many people have contributed over the years since.

I've done something similar to the navigation screen in my DB9 as it's a similar popup style!

[Mojito]

Great job and you should add it to the howto section.

It is good to hear you found the original post useful still. I would not have thought that when I first started mucking about with it! It's great to see how many people have contributed over the years since.

I've done something similar to the navigation screen in my DB9 as it's a similar popup style!

Hi Dan,
Well you and a few others were the inspiration and that original thread is still a mine of useful information for anyone wanting to tinker with the OEM Sat Nav

[IRD]

I am in absolute awe. What a fantastic result! I think this is .another project that bigwinn should consider undertaking. It’s right up his street.

[Mojito]

I am in absolute awe. What a fantastic result! I think this is .another project that bigwinn should consider undertaking. It’s right up his street.

Thanks Ian, appreciated

[PaulHR]

Mojito,
Brilliant, thanks so much for putting this up. I will definitely be doing this.

[Mojito]

Mojito,
Brilliant, thanks so much for putting this up. I will definitely be doing this.

Thanks Paul. The lengthy posts make it look more complicated than it is. It's not, but let me know if you need any clarification

[PaulHR]

Will do and in case anybody's interested Currys are currently selling the Garmin for £169.

[Mojito]

Addition of Sat Nav Reversing Camera

Knew I wouldn’t be able to resist it… do I really need a reversing camera on my Z No of course not, but sometimes you've just got to do what you've got to do. A recent clear out of car spares and some other toys meant funds for the Z, so I purchased the matching BC50 Wireless Reversing camera to interface with the Garmin Sat Nav Screen.

The camera itself is tiny, just 25mm x 20mm x 14mm. I like my car to look OEM or at least for mods to be subtle and discrete and appear as if they might be OEM (if that makes sense), so the size of the camera and how it was mounted was important. I therefore opted for double sided adhesive tape, as used for number plate mounting, rather than the supplied mount to minimise size. Photos as always show the result better than I can describe.

Installation is pretty simple. It’s a wireless camera, just requires hard wiring to the Garmin Video Sender, which is wired into the reverse light power supply. No bumper removal needed

Firstly a dry run connecting the camera to a battery and pairing to the Sat Nav to make sure it would work mounted just above the number plate - fine. I then drilled a small hole vertically up through the bumper just to the right of the intended camera location and fed the camera feed cable through, using a grommet to seal. I found it useful to unclip the number plate lights to help with feeding cable down behind the bumper to where I could grab from underneath. Then the cable was simply run along to the nearside corner through a spare grommet BMW thoughtfully supplied, to connect with the Garmin video sender. I cable tied the camera feed cable to one of the bumper mounts to keep it clear of the exhaust and sealed the grommet from the inside.

The Garmin Sender was mounted with the supplied adhesive pad just under the rear light cluster.
Plenty of room here to hide the excess cable under the carpet.

Two connections only to the Rear Light Cluster cable. I soldered them, rather than use the supplied Garmin quick connectors.

Blue/Yellow, pin 2 - Positive Reverse Light
Brown, pin 5 - Ground

In use camera connection is automatic, just a very short delay when you select reverse gear and the rear view appears on the screen. Excellent bright, stable display, with great resolution. Required a little setting up in my local car park to adjust the lines on the display to show position of the sides of car in relation to the display. Worth noting here, that because I didn’t use the supplied mount which would allow vertical angling of the camera, the red horizontal line representing the rear of the car, is out by about a foot. i.e. there is still a foot of clear space behind the car. In practice not an issue and something I could correct, but I’m very happy as it is.

Well pleased, works a treat… a bit like the one in my VW van

A couple more observations on day to day use of the Garmin Drivesmart to follow on next post

[Mojito]

Alexa

I bought the version of the Garmin 66 with built in Alexa, thinking that in practise I wouldn’t really use it. Much to my surprise it works really well (other than for telling jokes ) and there is a real advantage to having this version….

I usually stream music off my phone and everything works seamlessly. Yesterday however I was listening to the radio through the head unit and realised that there were no verbal directions from the Sat Nav Not a real issue as the screen displays directions, but puzzling. Obvious when you think about it… the head unit needs to be switched to aux input or in my case CD for bluetooth connection to play Sat Nav announcements through the car speakers Now you can change where each different source is played on the Garmin, but the inbuilt Garmin speaker volume is too faint in practice… because it’s mounted in the OEM Sat Nav casing It would be fairly easy to add an external speaker/small amp to the aux output just for Sat Nav announcements, but there is a far simpler and neater solution… listen to the radio through Alexa That way you never actually have to switch inputs on the head unit. The Garmin also mutes music for sat nav announcements and phone calls.

Hands Free phone connection

I decided that to finish this project and give a true updated and integrated Sat Nav/phone/sound system, I needed to upgrade my Bluemusic Adapter connected to the CD Changer wiring to the version with a mic that allows handsfree calls. It arrived from Germany a few days ago and now swopped over. The supplied microphone lead is too short, but to be fair Bluemusic advise that an extension may be required. Installing the microphone is simple. I’ve mounted mine on the steering wheel binnacle with supplied self adhesive pad where the OEM one would go. Cable runs down behind steering wheel, tucked up under edge of centre console to rear of car and then fed up to the rear centre console storage. Used a stiff bit of wire to feed through to Bluemusic adapter mounted in the boot behind the old Sat Nav DVD. Totally hidden cable.

Works really well. Incoming calls flash up on the Sat Nav screen and phone rings through the car sound system. You can ‘pickup’ the call by pressing next or last track buttons on multi function steering wheel or head unit. Music auto mutes. You can make calls using Garmin voice commands or through the app on screen. The Garmin also stored my iPhone contact list automatically which is handy.

Having said this would finish the project, I have to admit there is one final thing to do My van has a tiny Garmin Mini 2 wireless Dashcam which I really like. A while back I ran a USB power cable from below the Z glovebox, up inside the ‘A’ pillar trim to under the central light housing .... all ready to connect to a Mini 2. What’s more there is a spare switched USB power outlet under the dash on the Garmin Drivesmart power supply waiting for it.....

[Z4Mariner]

Hi Mojito -

I'm making progress on 'cloning' your Garmin Drivesmart 66 install. Waiting for my Business CD headunit to arrive, and noodling how I will work through a couple of different scenarios. I hope you don't mind a few more questions:

1) To paraphrase back what I think I understand: Are you now listening to radio entirely via Alexa ? Once I get the basics of my install finished in February, I will probably PM you for more detail on exactly how you are configured and the logic behind it.

2) Are you still connecting Bluemusic music and voice through CD changer wiring ? My LCI coupe does not have a CD changer, not sure whether I can add Bluemusic under the dash without an added wiring sub-harness / connector. I will research, unless someone with knowledge chimes in. I have a friend with a Zed and an F10 5-Series - he's a huge Grom fan, so I may explore that as well.

3) Is there an all-on-screen or voice command to power off the Garmin? I store my car Winters, and I will need complete power-off for the Garmin to avoid draining its internal battery. Garmin's "auto power-off" when external power switches off only puts the Drivesmart 66 in Standby, screen dark, but not fully off. The paper-clip hole addresses that, but I may want a captive button? Garmin prioritized shorter re-boot time over zero battery drain. I wish they had designed in a toggled choice to make it fully auto power-off when external power is removed.

Thanks for the update on the backup camera - that's definitely on my list !

[Mojito]

Hi Z4Mariner,

This project is clearly keeping you amused

1) To paraphrase back what I think I understand: Are you now listening to radio entirely via Alexa ? Once I get the basics of my install finished in February, I will probably PM you for more detail on exactly how you are configured and the logic behind it.

If I'm just jumping in the Z for a short local trip I might just listen to the radio through the head unit. If it's a longer trip though I tend to listen to radio through Alexa or more likely stream music from iphone. This way I get the full integrated system with sound source muting for Nav and Alexa commands. I just like playing with it, happy to share my settings when you you're up and running.

2) Are you still connecting Bluemusic music and voice through CD changer wiring ? My LCI coupe does not have a CD changer, not sure whether I can add Bluemusic under the dash without an added wiring sub-harness / connector. I will research, unless someone with knowledge chimes in. I have a friend with a Zed and an F10 5-Series - he's a huge Grom fan, so I may explore that as well.

Yes I connect through Bluemusic for music and voice, bluetooth unit plugged into CD changer wiring in boot. Someone on here will know for sure, but your LCI Coupe might be pre wired for CD changer. I don't know though as mine's a European spec pre-facelift roadster. There are loads of threads on the forum though on retrofitting bluetooth, so I reckon a search will sort it. I have used Grom previously and it's excellent kit.

3) Is there an all-on-screen or voice command to power off the Garmin? I store my car Winters, and I will need complete power-off for the Garmin to avoid draining its internal battery. Garmin's "auto power-off" when external power switches off only puts the Drivesmart 66 in Standby, screen dark, but not fully off. The paper-clip hole addresses that, but I may want a captive button? Garmin prioritized shorter re-boot time over zero battery drain. I wish they had designed in a toggled choice to make it fully auto power-off when external power is removed.

You've clearly been digging into the Garmin 66 manual

I checked this out before I bought the Garmin 66 and accepted at face value what Garmin say about switching off - "When the device is connected to an ignition-switched power outlet, it turns off automatically when you turn off the vehicle." You are absolutely correct though, in that the screen switches off, but the unit goes into sleep mode on ignition power off. I guess the idea is for fast power up and satellite aquisition on next journey. It bothered me at first, but in practice it's not a problem and I accept this is how they have designed it to work. If I use the Z again within a couple of days I get very fast power up. If I haven't used it for a week, then the internal battery in the Garmin has discharged and it just powers up on ignition on. It just takes a bit longer - but it's still very quick and always ready to go before I'm ready to drive off. This would undoubtably happen for most people using Garmin Drivesmarts. I will never use the Garmin just on internal battery and if I end up shortening it's battery life not an issue in this installation. You could probably open the Garmin up and disconnect/remove battery or if you wanted to for Winter layup, turn it off completely using the paper-clip hole. In the 9 months since I've completed this conversion I have never turned the Garmin off on the power button and absolutely no issues. Important though to power the Garmin from an ignition switched supply

The camera is

[Mojito]

Hi Z4Mariner,

Following on from 'powering off' post above, a mate has just sent me an extract from a Garmin 66 review, which might just be helpful...

"Garmin 66 power. Turn off automatically" (hidden menu option from Diagnostics Page > Turn Off Automatically) should prevent the annoying problem of the unit doing that "it's off but not really off" sleep state thing, draining the battery to nothing. This was an issue with the previous generation where it was required to hold the power button, wait for the true "Turn off the device?" prompt, and then it was off. This appears to have been fixed in the 66."

I will have a play when I get time