New bluetooth option for e46 coming soon

Thanks for putting a video together for how to install in the e46!

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Originally Posted by YoitsTmac

I did a video with an overview of BlueBus, install guide on E46, how-to-use guide and overall thoughts if anyone wants the DIY or needs a little extra persuasion to pick one up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH-cwfXe8cI

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Thanks so much, this is great! :)

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Originally Posted by Collegestudentwithazhp

I notice the buzzing happens when I press the talk button on my steering wheel to enable Siri and the phone. I’ve pressed mode and sometimes it goes away when I switch back to bluebus

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Can you possibly take a video recording of the noise and send it to support@bluebus.dev so I can figure out its origin?

Thanks!
-Ted

Quote:

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Originally Posted by YoitsTmac

I did a video with an overview of BlueBus, install guide on E46, how-to-use guide and overall thoughts if anyone wants the DIY or needs a little extra persuasion to pick one up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH-cwfXe8cI

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Great video. Wish I would’ve seen this before my install. I got stuck with that big plug having to be turned around too. I had to pester Ted!

My only minor disagreement might be on the value part. I think it was a total bargain for what it does: bringing modern tech to a 20 year old platform, and i love the sound quality jump over my old Bluetooth dongle to AUX. It integrates so seamlessly (menus on my nav, etc) and functions reliably so far (get in car, turn on, its connected. Turn off car, it turns off right away. Etc) I dont think theres a reason to spend more. Already been pushing it to other E46 owners I know.

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Originally Posted by NorCalZman

Great video. Wish I would’ve seen this before my install. I got stuck with that big plug having to be turned around too. I had to pester Ted!

My only minor disagreement might be on the value part. I think it was a total bargain for what it does: bringing modern tech to a 20 year old platform, and i love the sound quality jump over my old Bluetooth dongle to AUX. It integrates so seamlessly (menus on my nav, etc) and functions reliably so far (get in car, turn on, its connected. Turn off car, it turns off right away. Etc) I dont think theres a reason to spend more. Already been pushing it to other E46 owners I know.

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Hah, so glad it wasn't just me stuck with that middle plug, I felt really stupid how long it took me to figure out.

As for value, here's the thing. I more or less agree with you. To be completely honest, I'm in three massive group chats with BMW owners in the SoCal area (if you're in it, you probably know me - I'm very active). When I got my unit installed, I shared my excitement with two of these groups. There was initial excitement, followed by asking where to buy and price. When I mentioned price, I got a lot of push back from the group. That's when people told me in two of the groups that for the money, most said they'd rather get a headhunt.

And that's fine, that's what I tried to illustrate in my video. I felt what I said in my video should illustrate the viewpoint of those who I talked about it with, rather than just my own viewpoint. The person who finds this a good value, isn't entirely in the market for a budget headunit or CarPlay, they want the interior to look completely factory, regardless of the sacrifices that makes. That's why I have BlueBus: audio insanely clear, it pairs easily, and gives me steering wheel controls. That's all BlueBus needed to get my money. I know one other person in my life who has BlueBus, and that is also all they wanted out of BlueBus. Of course there's additional value in having metadata displayed and the door unlocking and triple blink.

I personally love BlueBus. I think Ted knows that too with my discussions with him. I think BlueBus is way better than any headunit under $500. I can't wait to see where BlueBus goes from here too, I think there's a ton of possibilities.

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Originally Posted by YoitsTmac

To be completely honest, I'm in three massive group chats with BMW owners in the SoCal area (if you're in it, you probably know me - I'm very active). When I got my unit installed, I shared my excitement with two of these groups. There was initial excitement, followed by asking where to buy and price. When I mentioned price, I got a lot of push back from the group. That's when people told me in two of the groups that for the money, most said they'd rather get a headhunt.

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This is a sentiment I get pretty often, but as you mentioned, most of these folks are not part of my target audience. I honestly wanted to keep the unit at $199 USD, but the only way I could make the numbers make sense for a distributorship through ECS Tuning was to raise the price to $235, otherwise I would have been paying them to sell the BlueBus :D.

I am thinking of including the telephone adapter in the price going forward, at least for orders placed directly through me.

The thing that stinks about small batch manufacturing is that the CPU is incredibly high, so I can't compete with Chinese BT "dongles".

Anyways, I digress :)

Thanks!
-Ted

:like

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Originally Posted by YoitsTmac

Hah, so glad it wasn't just me stuck with that middle plug, I felt really stupid how long it took me to figure out.

As for value, here's the thing. I more or less agree with you. To be completely honest, I'm in three massive group chats with BMW owners in the SoCal area (if you're in it, you probably know me - I'm very active). When I got my unit installed, I shared my excitement with two of these groups. There was initial excitement, followed by asking where to buy and price. When I mentioned price, I got a lot of push back from the group. That's when people told me in two of the groups that for the money, most said they'd rather get a headhunt.

And that's fine, that's what I tried to illustrate in my video. I felt what I said in my video should illustrate the viewpoint of those who I talked about it with, rather than just my own viewpoint. The person who finds this a good value, isn't entirely in the market for a budget headunit or CarPlay, they want the interior to look completely factory, regardless of the sacrifices that makes. That's why I have BlueBus: audio insanely clear, it pairs easily, and gives me steering wheel controls. That's all BlueBus needed to get my money. I know one other person in my life who has BlueBus, and that is also all they wanted out of BlueBus. Of course there's additional value in having metadata displayed and the door unlocking and triple blink.

I personally love BlueBus. I think Ted knows that too with my discussions with him. I think BlueBus is way better than any headunit under $500. I can't wait to see where BlueBus goes from here too, I think there's a ton of possibilities.

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Second that...….

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Originally Posted by t3ddftw

The thing that stinks about small batch manufacturing is that the CPU is incredibly high, so I can't compete with Chinese BT "dongles".

Anyways, I digress :)

Thanks!
-Ted

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Which is what I was using before this. I had a 25 dollar dongle which (went to my AUX jack) from amazon that served me (mostly) well for years before your lil magic box arrived. I personally did not realize how much better the SQ could get over BT from better quality parts. I think when we are explaining the product to people, we need to stress just how much better the SQ can be over these dongles (and pretty amazed my 15 year old speakers could sound that good too). Ill be sure to mention it, if not show them if I am able.

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Originally Posted by NorCalZman

Which is what I was using before this. I had a 25 dollar dongle which (went to my AUX jack) from amazon that served me (mostly) well for years before your lil magic box arrived. I personally did not realize how much better the SQ could get over BT from better quality parts. I think when we are explaining the product to people, we need to stress just how much better the SQ can be over these dongles (and pretty amazed my 15 year old speakers could sound that good too). Ill be sure to mention it, if not show them if I am able.

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I will say that I have gotten a lot of business from the fact that most of these cars did not come with AUX capabilities :D.

But yeah, quality was the top priority of the BlueBus rather than cost engineering, since this is something I wanted for myself. I've definitely started using audio quality as a talking point when people balk at the price. :)

-Ted

Ted - any way we can have metadata off by default? Due to the well engineered interior, I depend on the radio for the time. I get in my car and hit "2" and then "-" on the far left and I'm good to go, but now that my HVAC issues are solved, I'm hoping there's something I'm missing with metadata default?

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Originally Posted by YoitsTmac

Ted - any way we can have metadata off by default? Due to the well engineered interior, I depend on the radio for the time. I get in my car and hit "2" and then "-" on the far left and I'm good to go, but now that my HVAC issues are solved, I'm hoping there's something I'm missing with metadata default?

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I honestly never though people wouldn't want to see metadata, so I never considered this. I can, relatively easily, add an "off" option.

There are code changes in the works right now to improve existing features, though most of them don't touch the CD53 UI :(

-Ted