mObridge Bluetooth and iPOD integration kit

[shashankmittal]

I purchased a new 2008 X5 last year (without premium package and iPOD kit). Every time I looked at the telephone controls on the steering wheel or every time I received a phone call while driving, I craved for a Bluetooth kit in my car. I looked at several options in the market, from $20 bluetooth handfree to the costlier integration kits from Dension, etc. After some exhaustive research, I found the mObridge Bluetooth kit that integrates seamlessly with BMW's radio, iDrive and steering wheel controls for a factory-fitted effect. I am providing some details and pictures below, so that all you proud BMW owners can decide for yourself whether you should buy mObridge or any other brand.

Features
- Full hands-free phone capabilities. Dial and make calls from your car's display. Browse and make calls from your phonebook. Read and send SMS.
- Also supports iPod! mObridge Bluetooth includes an iPod cable for seamless integration of your iPod into your vehicle.
- Stream audio from your phone or Bluetooth mp3 player into your vehicle, all from your steering wheel controls.
- Fully software upgradeable over Bluetooth or memory card, to provide support for new phones, iPods, and vehicles.
- Using Parrot® technology, we are able to support a wide range of bluetooth phones.

Bluetooth Phone control
- Supports up to 5 paired phones
- Dial, Accept, Hangup, Answer calls
- Multi-Party call support (phone dependent)
- Phonebook browsing and dialing from phonebook
- Last dialed, received, missed calls lists
- SMS support. Browse and read your SMS messages (vehicle dependent)
- Notification of signal strength, network name, call duration to the radio display

Bluetooth Audio support
- Support for A2DP and AVRCP bluetooth profiles - Your bluetooth audio device appears as a special track in your CD changer menu.

iPod integration!
- Features the same level of iPod integration as mObridge iPod integration kit. USB-compliant charging supports current lineup of iPods, including iPhone 3G.

Auxiliary Audio input
- Features an auxiliary audio input to connect an additional audio device (mp3 player, satellite radio etc) to your vehicle
- High quality audio, with 24-bit digitizer

Although the mObridge website doesn't mention specifically that the kit can be installed in E70, I have not experienced any compatibility issues. Moreover, if you have an iPhone 3G like me, it can be easily connected to the iPOD cable and you can listen to music stored on your iPhone from your car's speakers. At the same time, if you receive a phone call, the music pauses and you can answer the phone call over Bluetooth. Once the call ends, the music resumes automatically. Pretty neat!

Some pictures

All the iPOD browsing folders show up under CD1

Browse through your music just like the way you do it on your iPOD/iPhone

Phonebook gets synchronized whenever a paired Bluetooth phone is in range. *Some dummy phone numbers shown above.


A call in progress. You can pair upto 5 Bluetooth phones. The cellphone signal strength is displayed at the bottom.


iPhone connected to the iPOD cable. This cable can be installed in the center console or where ever you like. The dual microphone is installed behind the rear view mirrow.

Pricing
The Bluetooth kit costs less than $900 (some dealers may charge more). Installation is about 2hrs labor and the Autologic coding should be 1hr labor. Compared to what BMW charges for the Bluetooth and iPOD kit, the mObridge kit is definitely a bargain.

Few things to remember
1. Before installing mObridge, the car needs to be retrofit coded for CD Changer (CDC) and Bluetooth. CDC retrofit is required only if you don't have a CD Changer installed in your car.
2. Find an Autologic shop that can do this for you. The easiest way to do this is find your area representative at www.autologic.us and ask them. BMW dealership will not be able to get this working. If you already have the mObridge kit installed, retrofitting cannot be done. You would need to remove mObridge from the MOST bus before retrofitting.
3. The Autologic shop would need an 'optical head' to be able to code the car and would also need the latest software+CIP updates installed (which typically they all have).
4. The Autologic programmer should use the iPOD->mObridge CIP instructions and not CDC instructions to retrofit. This allows retrofitting to be done without a physical CD Changer being present. The retrofit coding should not take more than 1hr.
5. Once the retrofit is successfully done, you should be able to see CD1-6 and Phone/Bluetooth options grayed out in iDrive (for BMW).
6. Install mObridge kit. The mObridge dealer can typically install in less than 2hrs.
7. If the kit starts working right away, you are all set. If it doesn't, let the car sleep for at least 70 minutes (all windows rolled up, doors locked, ignition off) and during this time dont even look at the car. I was told to do this by Autologic since apparently the MOST bus needs to recognize an alien device on the fiber optic network once it 'wakes' up after sleeping for 70 mins.
8. BMW iDrive will always show CD2-6 grayed out. All mObridge functions will appear under CD1 *only*.

Useful links:
Bluetooth Phone Compatibility Matrix
mObridge Bluetooth Manual
BMW General Installation Notes
BMW Application Reference for Bluetooth and iPod
Wiring MOST bypass switch