Hack the E46 stock radio

[bullfrogs_M3]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hack-Your-Car/

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this here yet. Thought I would drop it here to see what people thought


Want to unlock your car door with your phone? Re-map steering wheel buttons, or log performance data? The Car Kracker an open-source addon for your BMW 3-Series, 5-Series, 7-Series, X-Series or Mini that lets you;
Add an Aux-In or music jukebox
Remap steering wheel buttons
Remove the Nav warning screen
Display text like emails and SMS on your Sat Nav, radio, or dashboard
Access engine and performance data like air/fuel ratio, oil pressure/temp, and VANOS
Code retrofit parts like rain sensors, run-flat tires, theft alarms, and keys
Access the proprietary error logs to troubleshoot engine, transmission, or accessory problems.
You can also upgrade Engine / Transmission firmware, remove the speed limiter, reset warning lights, and change dealer settings. Here's a little demo of displaying a tweet on the radio;


Feautures
The Car Kracker is a microcontroller with a bit of hardware to talk to your car. It plugs into a connector in the trunk and has several default modes built-in;
Audio Jukebox Mode: Play music stored on an SD card
Advanced Diagnostics Mode: Remove the Nav warning screen, access error logs and read / modify ECU characteristics
Bus Sniffer: Display data traffic and send test packets
Audio Aux-In Mode: Enable Aux input to stereo headunits
A kit is available, or you can follow the schematic in the next step to make one from scratch. Everything is open source, so it be customized and the firmware can be updated via USB. A few ideas;
Traffic Camera Alerter
Automatic Audio sync
Auto Unlock: Unlock the doors when a specific Bluetooth device comes within range
Data logger + phone home: Automatically send car location and speed via SMS
Will it work with my car?
The Car Kracker works with the following cars;
BMW
3-Series, 1998 - 2007 (e46)
5-Series, 1995 - 2004 (e39)
7-Series, 1994 - 2001 (e38)
X3, 2004 - 2010 (e83)
X5, 1999 - 2006 (e53)
Z4, 2002 - 2008 (e85, e86)
Mini
One / Cooper / S, 2001 - 2006 (r50, r53)
Convertible, 2005-2008 (r52)
Land Rover
Range Rover, 1999 - 2003 (L30)
Will it break my car?
Unless you want to update the firmware on your Engine / Transmission, It's pretty much impossible - the data bus is designed so that errant / malfunctioning devices don't break anything. Changing preferences (like turning off the door gong) just updates the settings memory, the firmware doesn't change.

Credits
The Car Kracker builds on many people's work - Many thanks to Dr_Acula for respinning RS232, Jochen @ Navcoder, the BMWCoders forums, Rayman for audio playback, e46fanatics, and bimmerforums. Thanks Everybody!

Continue on and I'll show you how to make your own!

*Edit: I ordered one up today to play around with it, just to see what it does

[bullfrogs_M3]

More info here (assembly, programming, options, etc..)

http://www.gadgetgangster.com/news/54-new-projects/556

[wsmeyer]

Cool find!

Playing music off a micro SD card is very appealing to me. 32GB's are down around $25 and that would pretty much old all the music I would want. I just wonder how you organize it.

William.

[wsmeyer]

If I'm understanding this correctly:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hack-Your-Car/step11/Using-it-Advanced-Hacking/

You should be able to re-code your car so that when you push and hold the lock button on the remote, as soon as it starts rolling up the windows you can loop that signal for xx seconds so you can release the button as soon as they start rolling up. This would be AWESOME for convertibles as you wouldn't have to hold the button forever as it puts the top up and then the windows.

William.

[bullfrogs_M3]

I was also reading on that second link where you can program the buttons on the steering wheel (like the R/T button) to pop the trunk

[M3TA5IN]

Grrrrr! Never any love for my car!! Poopie I say

[Meric]

This is so cööl! How do I get one?

[Smilez]

:drool:

[johnrando]

Keep us posted, thinking I might like to try this.

[pfr]

I don't see a price ?? Did I miss it somewhere?

[wsmeyer]

I don't see a price ?? Did I miss it somewhere?

There is a link in the article to the kit:

http://www.gadgetgangster.com/find-a-project/56?projectnum=412

It's $39.95 - I ordered one.

William.

[pfr]

There is a link in the article to the kit:

http://www.gadgetgangster.com/find-a-project/56?projectnum=412

It's $39.95 - I ordered one.
William.

thanks - for that price I might too...

[johnrando]

Awesome William. Something else for me to check out on your car!

[llll1l1ll]

I'm going to keep my eye on this thread. I wanna see what happens when someone uses it.

[wsmeyer]

I got mine in the mail today:

5415

It took me about 20 minutes to put it together. The only tricky part is soldiering in the micro SD card slot and even that isn't that hard.

Then I spent a good hour and a half fiddling with it connected to the car with no success until I remembered I'm using the BMW iPod Interface that disconnects the CD changer wires in the trunk.

Now I'm trying to un-install the iPod Interface and I can't find that stupid tool I bought 6 years ago to get the wires out of the connector.

William.

[johnrando]

Hope you find it. Keep us posted on progress!

[wsmeyer]

Hope you find it. Keep us posted on progress!

Thanks, I'm getting close to cutting the wires and soldiering them. It's the older interface that doesn't charge the 4/4S anyway.

[az3579]

Thanks, I'm getting close to cutting the wires and soldiering them. It's the older interface that doesn't charge the 4/4S anyway.

FYI, any iPod interface that's older that doesn't charge your newer device, will charge with this:
http://www.amazon.com/Scosche-passPORT-Charging-Adapter-iPhone/dp/B001HN6CVA

[llll1l1ll]

Wow that all looks really confusing.

[Whitexi]

Ermagerd!!

Wier diagerms!!

[BimmerWill]

Very interesting....I might get one if it would work on my car...kinda like the idea of it but would have to think about whether it was really necessary. Reprogramming steeringwheel buttons would be a nice touch though.

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[wsmeyer]

Very interesting....I might get one if it would work on my car...kinda like the idea of it but would have to think about whether it was really necessary. Reprogramming steeringwheel buttons would be a nice touch though.


I don't know if there is a definitive definition for the term re-mapping but to me it means that you are changing the function of something. As in their example, you would re-map the R/T button from the Radio/Telephone function to the OpenTrunk function. That IS NOT what the Car Kracker does. The Car Kracker sits on the K-Bus line and listens for commands, you write little routines that when it hears a specific command, it transmits other commands onto the K-Bus. The example they show for the R/T button looks like this:

IF kbus.codecompare(@RTButton)
- kbus.sendcode(@TrunkOpen)


When the Car Kracker hears the RTButton command, it transmits the TrunkOpen command. What's important to understand is that it DOES NOT SUPRESS THE ORIGINAL COMMAND. This means that you R/T button does two things; change the Radio/Telephone mode AND pop the trunk open.

William

[bullfrogs_M3]

I don't know if there is a definitive definition for the term re-mapping but to me it means that you are changing the function of something. As in their example, you would re-map the R/T button from the Radio/Telephone function to the OpenTrunk function. That IS NOT what the Car Kracker does. The Car Kracker sits on the K-Bus line and listens for commands, you write little routines that when it hears a specific command, it transmits other commands onto the K-Bus. The example they show for the R/T button looks like this:

IF kbus.codecompare(@RTButton)
- kbus.sendcode(@TrunkOpen)


When the Car Kracker hears the RTButton command, it transmits the TrunkOpen command. What's important to understand is that it DOES NOT SUPRESS THE ORIGINAL COMMAND. This means that you R/T button does two things; change the Radio/Telephone mode AND pop the trunk open.

William

Thanks for all the info William, keep us updated on your work. I have mine in but just haven't gotten around to putting it together or working on it yet.

[Hornung418]

Ermagerd!!

Wier diagerms!!
Haha!! This had me rolling!

[SureShot434]

So I take that this will do absolutely no good to me since I don't have my phone connected to my E46 in any way....?

[bullfrogs_M3]

So I take that this will do absolutely no good to me since I don't have my phone connected to my E46 in any way....?

Not sure what you mean, since this doesn't have anything to do with your/a phone

[aurelius]

Along these lines, do any of you with Nav know how to get rid of that initial warning screen?

When I first got the ZHP, I downloaded and burned software to CD that I then loaded into the Nav computer and did some sort of firmware hack/update.

But now I don't remember specifically why I did it or what it changed, other than putting a customized image on the Nav "welcome" screen. It was supposed to have ditched the warning screen but it did not. Maybe my map DVD is too old?

[johnrando]

I know you can, I haven't done it. I know there are tons of tips on xoutpost. com.

[ryankokesh]

Get someone that can do coding turn it off for you... I know you can do it with ncs expert.


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