2016 F80 base audio upgrade, the start

[ABall]

Originally Posted by m4shifter

Yea I strongly suspect it's a Waze issue. Unfortunately it is the best NAV app by far in London. I use it even for my routine 30 min route within central London simply because it knows where the cameras, traffic and road closures are, and the latter two literally vary day by day. I notice the cut-offs and lags seem to be more severe when I'm around London, likely because there are more incidents / alerts / recalcuations happening compared to highways.

When I drove to London on Sunday I used the BMW NAV, it got me to the destination in its quirky crap way but when I went back to pick up the wife it went bonkers, possible all the tall buildings but I had nowhere to pull over, didnt have a clue where i was, so I had to pick up my phone and "Hey Google" the route, worked a treat, I ordered the IMI-1000 when I got home!

[NealfromNZ]

Changed phone to IPhone 16 so been running iOS 18 CarPlay. At this stage CarPlay is a bit buggy with Spotify UI freezing. A few new backgrounds to use. Other than that still similar other than a new touch screen button for apps.

Been running Apple Music lossless of late, does mean audio on CarPlay is better in the treble range than using Spotify, but obviously still gets transcoded. For some reason phone won’t connect via usb c audio if I turn CarPlay off and run BMW apps. Hopefully can sort the usb connectivity.

[mrpingu]

Originally Posted by NealfromNZ

Running Lr4 on Mids and highs , but Woofer and Sub are Biquad on the Mobridge and then to can do custom Q filters as needed. Have represent curve as BW in the spreadsheet for 8 & Current 10 inch sub.

Here's the rational for the the target curve (JBL ) . Also trying to achieve underseat woofer impact.

What is the tool / site you used in the upper screenshot here?

[NealfromNZ]

Originally Posted by mrpingu

What is the tool / site you used in the upper screenshot here?

It was a spreadsheet developed and enhanced by a audio engineering graduate and an awesome installer and car dsp tuner called audiogal.

https://www.diymobileaudio.com/threa...0#post-6299050

[NealfromNZ]

You can use the spreadsheet to create house curves that can be imported into Rew . You can do a full 20hz -20khz export or individual speaker groups via the spreadsheet. Handy for dsp tuning sessions.

Rew link.
https://www.roomeqwizard.com

There are also sources for custom house curves such as audiofrog. The owner of audiofrog used to work at JBL / Harman so they have further tweaked the curve. It’s personal preference thing , but effectively these curves have a bass boost and a high end treble cut. As a note , in competition car audio systems target curves often have a flat frequency response in high frequency treble. It car create more “air” in the front stage, but can also be a but fatiguing for long listening periods.

But eitherway , tuning to a target curve helps getting left and right car audio response in sync so the sound stage will move around less at different frequencies.

[jp2001]

Originally Posted by NealfromNZ

Changed phone to IPhone 16 so been running iOS 18 CarPlay. At this stage CarPlay is a bit buggy with Spotify UI freezing. A few new backgrounds to use. Other than that still similar other than a new touch screen button for apps.

Been running Apple Music lossless of late, does mean audio on CarPlay is better in the treble range than using Spotify, but obviously still gets transcoded. For some reason phone won’t connect via usb c audio if I turn CarPlay off and run BMW apps. Hopefully can sort the usb connectivity.

Excited to get my JL W6 installed in my f80 w/ HK this week. I was chatting with you on the DIY site about the rattles. I will be spot treating all those spots.

I may try to play through a USB stick vs Tidal vs Spotify and see what sounds the best.

[NealfromNZ]

Originally Posted by jp2001

Excited to get my JL W6 installed in my f80 w/ HK this week. I was chatting with you on the DIY site about the rattles. I will be spot treating all those spots.

I may try to play through a USB stick vs Tidal vs Spotify and see what sounds the best.

Cool , thanks for stopping by. Checkout jcmivers audio build for the sounding deadening he did as well. He used a 3 layer product that would be more better and effective than what I did.

I used Dyamat 2mm which did work quite well and fittied nicely. But a layer of closed cell foam would be next level. My choices for product were also a bit limited in New Zealand. Otherwise might have gone to resonix products or what jcmiver used.


https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1879008

[NealfromNZ]

My M3 had no rear seat 12 volt charging / accessorie socket. I checked behind the rear console panel but no pre wiring.


Looking at wiring diagrams the factory rear socket gets its power from the hidden under dash. Its feed via 1.5mm2 cable and goes back to terminal 30b meaning it has power when when the interior is occupied or door is open or engine running. Terminal 30b / Fuse 69 will power down if car is locked or left unlocked for somewhere between 8 -20 mins. This is handy as plugging in an accessory such as a phone charger won’t cause parasitic drain of the battery.

Rather than putting in a 12volt socket in the rear I put in a USB 2 / 3 PD charger. This gives up to 65 watts on USB C and up to 30 watts on USB B.


I wrapped some 1.5mm2 cable in Tesa tape and used a curtain wire to feed cable from rear aircon vent / console to front under dash 12 volt socket. Saved pulling console apart.

For the front socket I used a pick tool and removed the two 6.3mm blade sockets and replaced them with new ones. Just needs the locking type from TE / Tyco /Amp. I crimped the wires for the rear and the front accessories together and reinserted into the connector.

For the rear I drill a 30mm hole into the rear console trim. The charging socket needed its rear pins bent on 60 degree angle to fit when trim is place.

The charge socket has an on / off button and will remember last setting. When it’s on it has a voltage display or will show voltage and charging current when on. It’s quite handy as will also charge a laptop at 65 watts or phones to 20-30 watts.

[NealfromNZ]

USB C adapter retrofit part 2

Disconnected battery and tied rag on rear trunk latch so no chance of closing trunk and having issue with getting back in.

After relocating the aux / usb input I put a usb c adapter in its place. The goal was to have faster charging for iphone 16 that now has usb c as its adapter. The adapter required a usb connection from NBT, 12 volt power, a ground and an lighting circuit for its back lighting.

For the NBT USB input I took the connection from my iPhone snapin cradle. I changed the end connector from a blue housing to black housing to fit the usb c adaptor.



12 volt power is required for 15 watt charging which meant running a new wire to rear battery fuse box. The earth point is the earth comb behind the left rear booster. For lighting circuit I tapped into rear console bunker light circuit. I checked wiring diagrams and earth for bunker light uses chassis so no issues with running a parallel earth for the usb c adaptor.

The usb c adaptor uses standard MQS te/ amp crimp sockets in its connector so had some over from when doing door connectors.
For cable it uses 0.5mm2 . I used red/black wire for 12 ve+ and Brown wire for ground as these are same colours as USB hub wiring.
Lighting is LED so just needs 0.3m2 wire. I used some wire and socket from the spare door loom I brought for the speaker project wiring. Factory lighting colour is Violet / Red which is present in a door harness.


I made up two looms , one for a usb c adapter and also for a potential usb hub install later. These where run via factory path so from console , via front left seat loom path, down left had side of car next to loom .





Used rear earth Comb behind rear left seat bolster for two earth wires. I added a larger BMW comb from the F30/F80 parts list as my earth points were full. Note that the earth pins are a one way item so a sandwiched the old and new comb together.







Then followed factory route at back of trunk to fuse box. With fuse box I used fuse positions 124 & 129 respectively. 129 is for usb hub and 124 was spare so used that for usb c adapter. Fuses 124-129 are all used for Idrive components and run off terminal 30b which is powered when cabin is occupied. It will power off with the Idrive so no worries about parasitic draw from the usb c adapter.



I removed the lock tab from the fuse block connector. Crimped on two leaf connectors onto the wire and inserted them into the connector and pushed until the click lock into place





Tidied wiring run to fuse box, used a bit of Tesa tape to keep it looking factory.


Next was lighting circuit. The console bunker light connector is on the left hand side behind rear hvac console trim. Extracted positive socket from connector using a pin tool. Crimped two wires onto new connector and clicked it back into place. Tidied wiring ( no photo ) and put rear console back together.





Reconnected battery and tested. USB c backlight working correctly. Plugged iPhone 16 into usb c adapter and got power. iPhone also came up on idrive usb “Snapin “ entry. Turned off CarPlay and confirmed USB audio working correctly.




Iphone16 showing Dock as connected confirming USB being used.




So there you have it, G20 USB c adapter running of NBT6 with full functionality and 15 watt charging.

[NealfromNZ]

Parts used.

Fusebox leaf connectors for fuse Area 124-129

2x 61131378906 Double leaf spring contact 0,5-1,0 MM²

Earth Comb connectors

2x Socket terminal 61131387142 0,75-1,0MM²

F30/F80 larger Earth Comb and Cover

1x BMW Insulation Housing, Fan Conn - 61138364551
1x BMW Comb Type Connector - 61138353739

USB C adaptor and Lighting connector socket pins

4x 61131393724 Socket terminal MQS 0,5-0,75MM²

Connectors , the secondhand USB C adapter came with connectors and USB and power connectors.


Wire , 0.5mm2 for Power and ground needed. 0.3mm2 for lighting wire.

[Onizukachan]

Doing a bit of catch up reading over last several pages… sorry if old hat Questions or comments.

So I gather that lightwave is mobridge, like how revenant was match/helix.

What time delay settings are you all running for warning tones, gong, etc? Mine cause massive distortion on the e91, luckily I set them to only play on drivers front speaker. I haven’t changed the delay setting yet.

I have done no eq, no ta, etc, just a basic channel assignments as I’m using mobridge PnP harness which seems to be slightly different than published info… and some very safe xovers and speaker level adjustments.

[ABall]

Originally Posted by Onizukachan

Doing a bit of catch up reading over last several pages… sorry if old hat Questions or comments.

So I gather that lightwave is mobridge, like how revenant was match/helix.

What time delay settings are you all running for warning tones, gong, etc? Mine cause massive distortion on the e91, luckily I set them to only play on drivers front speaker. I haven’t changed the delay setting yet.


I have done no eq, no ta, etc, just a basic channel assignments as I’m using mobridge PnP harness which seems to be slightly different than published info… and some very safe xovers and speaker level adjustments.

Until Neal replies, I don't think it will be time delay that's causing the distortion. Mine came with the parking and gongs way too loud but I also think a software update has made it 99.9 percent better. I dropped the tones down on the dash first then realised Binmertech had not loaded a basic tune so the parking beeps and gongs where silly loud. If Neal doesn't reply I will plug my laptop in on Saterday or Sunday, silly busy atm!

[NealfromNZ]

For those sinks I run nav / gongs / pdc at -10 db on the Mobridge. I think I’m running default audio delay. Handfree I think was -3db. I don’t get distortion or digital clipping on those sinks at those levels.

I’ll grab a screen shot tomorrow. Laptop was flat.

The digital gain structure has about +10db of headroom to allow for the HK EQ to still work from what Mobridge were saying to
me so you can tweak your audio sink up further to differentiate from the other sinks. Especially when the idrive EQ isn’t used .

[Onizukachan]

The newer software my computer downloaded has a mono delay feature just for the pdc nav gong etc sinks as well, I think I’m down at -8 or something to that effect. Seatbelt gong isn’t loud, it causes distortion /destructive interference in the left front channel it is assigned to.

See pic. Wondering if y’all have that too or just little ole me has it cause I started with no base tune/ map nor configuration.

Edit before post…

I see what I did, I’m positive 8 not negative 8. But phone was near inaudible at 0, along with gongs etc. on CIC. instead of level matching I’ll try jsut setting them all to 0db next time I’m in that car and have time to muck with it.

[NealfromNZ]

Here's how I have mine. With the delay setting I left mine at default.

I do recall one version earlier version of the firmware ( might have been 0.7 firmware stream ) where one of the skins bled into the audio for the speaker it was routed to.

If you haven't already update to 8.6 firmware which I did tested earlier this year. Has a good combo of new features and updates. Save a copy of your config. Perform the upgrade and do a another reset on the firmware tab . Then reload your rax file and good to go.

For bluetooth hands free do the usual check that mobile phone is turned during the call which caught me out a couple of times. Then in Idrive during the call you can change it's settings for speaker / microphone. Otherwise , if you have carplay /iphone use that for handsfree as uses a better codec.

Here's my gain structures for RHD car, this is for 8.6 / 8.8 firmware. This gives good handsfree calls and the car pdc / nav / voice / chimes aren't too loud.



Master gain structure



Drivers side



Passengers side

[mrpingu]

Originally Posted by NealfromNZ

Parts used.

Fusebox leaf connectors for fuse Area 124-129

2x 61131378906 Double leaf spring contact 0,5-1,0 MM²

Earth Comb connectors

2x Socket terminal 61131387142 0,75-1,0MM²

F30/F80 larger Earth Comb and Cover

1x BMW Insulation Housing, Fan Conn - 61138364551
1x BMW Comb Type Connector - 61138353739

USB C adaptor and Lighting connector socket pins

4x 61131393724 Socket terminal MQS 0,5-0,75MM²

Connectors , the secondhand USB C adapter came with connectors and USB and power connectors.


Wire , 0.5mm2 for Power and ground needed. 0.3mm2 for lighting wire.

Do you know which part number the USB-cable is? Planning to Retrofit active USB-C But unsure which cable/connector to buy. Already have ordered the USB-C brick.

[NealfromNZ]

Originally Posted by mrpingu

Do you know which part number the USB-cable is? Planning to Retrofit active USB-C But unsure which cable/connector to buy. Already have the USB-C brick.

It depends on which input / output you’re going to use on either usb 1 or usb 2 on the idrive or if you’re going to use the usb hub.

This advertiser offered custom hsd cables where you can mix and match ends to suit.

BEVOTOP For BMW Cable for USB Glovebox HSD F20 F30 F18 F56 G38 NBT EVO USB Connecting Line LVDS HSD Cable Wiring Harness
https://a.aliexpress.com/_ms7qo

What do you currently have.Do you have a phone cradle prep ( blue end ) , or later wireless charger ?( 2 port hub under gearbox tunnel trim )


Edit, looks like you have a white HSD plug. Just take the connector off ( remove lock tab ) and put on black connector for USB c adapter.

Fakra HSD LVDS 4 Pin Connector Gray Code G Female Jack Crimp for Dacar 535 4 Core Coaxial Cable
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mN2TawR

[mrpingu]

Originally Posted by NealfromNZ

It depends on which input / output you’re going to use on either usb 1 or usb 2 on the idrive or if you’re going to use the usb hub.

This advertiser offered custom hsd cables where you can mix and match ends to suit.

BEVOTOP For BMW Cable for USB Glovebox HSD F20 F30 F18 F56 G38 NBT EVO USB Connecting Line LVDS HSD Cable Wiring Harness
https://a.aliexpress.com/_ms7qo

What do you currently have.Do you have a phone cradle prep ( blue end ) , or later wireless charger ?( 2 port hub under gearbox tunnel trim )


Edit, looks like you have a white HSD plug. Just take the connector off ( remove lock tab ) and put on black connector for USB c adapter.

Fakra HSD LVDS 4 Pin Connector Gray Code G Female Jack Crimp for Dacar 535 4 Core Coaxial Cable
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mN2TawR

Thanks for the answer
Thinking to use the blue port that’s not used on the HU (Entrynav2), not planning to use USB-hub and I do not have (prep) for phone cradle.

Still waiting on the active USB-C -block/brick to arrive is this black?

The white one goes now to old USB-A.

[NealfromNZ]

Originally Posted by mrpingu

Thanks for the answer
Thinking to use the blue port that’s not used on the HU (Entrynav2), not planning to use USB-hub and I do not have (prep) for phone cradle.

Still waiting on the active USB-C -block/brick to arrive is this black?

The white one goes now to old USB-A.

Is blue port usb on naventry ? I thought blue was normally for GPS antenna on BMW systems?

[mrpingu]

Originally Posted by NealfromNZ

Is blue port usb on naventry ? I thought blue was normally for GPS antenna on BMW systems?

Aa far as I know, which is only in theory and not from practical experience yet…
Both A42*11B and A42*12B is USB.

[jp2001]

Originally Posted by NealfromNZ

Is blue port usb on naventry ? I thought blue was normally for GPS antenna on BMW systems?

Separate question for you.. is there any way to fix the bass rolloff with the HK system? I added a sub with an Audison DSP amp, kept eveything else stock, and it sounds good but bass definitely quiets down at higher volumes.

[NealfromNZ]

Originally Posted by jp2001

Separate question for you.. is there any way to fix the bass rolloff with the HK system? I added a sub with an Audison DSP amp, kept eveything else stock, and it sounds good but bass definitely quiets down at higher volumes.

If you haven’t already you’ll need to level match ( spl ) the sub and the hk underseat. Easiest way is to back of sub gain until the two blend. Also remember that the trunk sub will get to 115db plus and the hk pair will do 100 -105 ish flat out.

Better way is to tune the system to a target curve. REW app and a microphone good way to go ( or audison if it’s dsp tuning software will do this )