BMW Navigation Install

Ahh, so all you want is a 20 second delay (or forward speed delay) to resolve or as suggested, splice your PDC dash button into the reverse switch unit cables to allow you a manual control.

Delay would not work as if you're in traffic surely, as wouldn't it constantly be changing your SatNav display as you move forward then stop? And the manual button would be a bit of a faff when your factory system works anyway, so I personally wouldn't bother.

And I don't really get why internal storage is such a great thing with the price of SD cards these days. 32GB for £15-£20 and all the music and SatNav data you could ever need.
 
I can see this car in 20 years time, it's going to be a right Triggers Broom :D

Looks good, much nicer getting something that looks to fit in with the car its meant for rather than a silvery mess with loads of blue lights on it, which EVERY Sony device EVER made is like. It's a fact, it CANT be argued.
 
I believe you can may be able to remove the white lables by the volume button with nail varnish remover (at least on the e46 versions) might be worth investigating.

What's the glare like in the sun? I'm seriously considering one (e46), I'm just concerned the interface will be to 'klunky' and not OEM enough.
 
He could wire in an interior light relay with a 20 second delay function in the pdc trigger circuit. When the car is taken out of reverse & put into 1st to manoeuver forwards it'll presume it's still in reverse for that 20 seconds, so the pdc screen will still display on his headunit
 
He could wire in an interior light relay with a 20 second delay function in the pdc trigger circuit. When the car is taken out of reverse & put into 1st to manoeuver forwards it'll presume it's still in reverse for that 20 seconds, so the pdc screen will still display on his headunit

It's such a poor idea, have it respond to the PDC light is much better.

It's the same principle on the Idrve units with PDC.
 
Fits in well and is certainly much better than the actual BMW system (cheaper too :p).
 
The pdc has to be both activated & switched off somehow. If you don't want to use a separate & manually activated switch, I can't see any other way.

Well the easiest thing to do is just.. only use the screen based stuff for reversing? It really isn't an issue - when using front PDC I have the same PDC I've always had, no change. When using rear PDC I have the additional functionality of on-screen display.
 
What's the glare like in the sun? I'm seriously considering one (e46), I'm just concerned the interface will be to 'klunky' and not OEM enough.

In direct sunlight there is glare on the screen but it reduces your view rather than removes it. You can still see the screen. I might look into an antiglare coating or something.

As for the interface, for the simple swapping between Radio, Nav and iPod mode, the interface is absolutely fine. You only really need to use the interface when delving deeper which you dont need to often. But even when you do the menu system is visually attractive, you can see a picture of it in my first post. Where the interface lets itself down is in the settings menu where it looks less professional. But once it's set up how often do you go in there?

I always run in Nav mode so I see the interface as much as I did when I had iDrive, ie not much.

And remember, its a replacement/alternative for the E46/E39 OEM system. The interface on that wasn't going to win any design awards for asthetics and ease of use, it was a series of text based menus controlled entirely by fiddling with the knobs on the side!

It doesnt look as slick or nice as the latest generation of iDrive thats for sure. But then good luck getting that into an E39/E46 :p

Best thing to do is to have a go with one before you decide - or order one and send it back if its crap (You can get it powered up and working in a few minutes before you do the install, its a simple case of plugging the quadrablock int be back).

I guess part of the reason I am so happy with it is my expectations were about as low as you can get. I bought it expecting to send it back.
 
The pdc has to be both activated & switched off somehow. If you don't want to use a separate & manually activated switch, I can't see any other way.

There's already a PDC button with an indicator light on it when you activate the system. I believe it turns itself off when you exceed a certain speed or travel a certain distance or something, not when you disengage reverse. So that signal could be used to tell the unit when to be in PDC display mode rather than the reverse signal. Simples.
 
There's already a PDC button with an indicator light on it when you activate the system. I believe it turns itself off when you exceed a certain speed or travel a certain distance or something, not when you disengage reverse. So that signal could be used to tell the unit when to be in PDC display mode rather than the reverse signal. Simples.




I think that would be on idrive vehicles only, it would use the vehicle speed sensor to know when you've driven away so yeah, what you're saying is correct for more modern setups. I dunno if fox's car even has an input from the VSS via the canbus or something?. Or even if his new unit supports such a thing.

I'm presuming (perhaps wrongly!) from his description of how the current system works i.e. when reverse is engaged.
 
[TW]Fox;21421586 said:
The unit takes the information it needs to switch to pdc mode from the Ibus not from a switch so its not simples.

Ah I see - not simples for you or me, then, but certainly simples for the manufacturer with a software update assuming the PDC-on signal is on the Ibus too.

Do they actually do anything like software/firmware updates to iron out niggles, or do they just release a new product and you're stuck with the one you have?
 
I think that would be on idrive vehicles only, it would use the vehicle speed sensor to know when you've driven away so yeah, what you're saying is correct for more modern setups. I dunno if fox's car even has an input from the VSS via the canbus or something?. Or even if his new unit supports such a thing.

I'm presuming (perhaps wrongly!) from his description of how the current system works i.e. when reverse is engaged.

He is totally correct in his explanation of how the factory PDC works. Reverse engages it, driving over 15mph turns it off.

As putting the car into reverse will tell the bus the car is in reverse its this information the Nv unit uses to change mode and this is why it changes back when you change out of reverse.
 
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